Narodnaya Volya theorist of terror who became a scientist during 25 years in prison
At a sanatorium in the mid-1930s, when asked "Are there any Party members here?", the old man replied: "I am a Party member. Member of the 'Narodnaya Volya' Party."
Nikolai Morozov was a member of the Narodnaya Volya Executive Committee and a leading theorist of revolutionary terrorism in Russia. In his 1880 pamphlet The Terrorist Struggle, written in Geneva, he argued that small independent terrorist groups could bring down the autocracy, a position his comrades considered radical but which left a lasting mark on the terrorist strategy of the Socialist Revolutionary Party. After 25 years of imprisonment in the Peter and Paul and Shlisselburg fortresses, he emerged from amnesty in 1905 a transformed figure, devoting himself to the popularization of science, pioneering Russian aviation, and becoming an honorary member of the USSR Academy of Sciences in 1932.
Career Timeline
- 1874Joined the Circle of Tchaikovsky, participated in the 'Going to the People' movement
- 1878Co-editor of Land and Liberty newspaper
- 1879Executive Committee member, Narodnaya Volya
- 1880Published The Terrorist Struggle in Geneva; met Karl Marx in London
- 1882–1905Imprisoned in Peter and Paul Fortress and Shlisselburg; studied natural sciences in prison
- 1907–1917Professor at Lesgaft Institute; member of Russian Physicochemical and Astronomical Societies
- 1918–1946Director, Lesgaft Institute of Natural Sciences
- 1932Honorary Member, USSR Academy of Sciences
Related historical events
Historical Revisionism and the Forerunner of the 'New Chronology'
During his quarter-century of imprisonment, Morozov had access to the Bible and theological literature, which sparked a deep skepticism toward established historical chronology. In 1907 he published "The Revelation in Storm and Thunder," arguing that the visions of the Book of Revelation described actual astronomical phenomena observable on September 30, 395 CE, and that its author was John Chrysostom. He followed this with "Prophets" (1914) and the seven-volume magnum opus "Christ" (1924–1932), in which he reinterpreted biblical events astronomically and developed the theory that the existing chronology of ancient history was a medieval fabrication. He contended that records of ancient civilizations were in fact duplicated accounts of medieval events, and that the era called 'antiquity' had never existed.
These claims drew fierce criticism from historians, philosophers, and astronomers upon publication. Nikolai Nikolsky, Abram Ranovich, and Nikolai Idelson dismissed Morozov's methodology as amateurish fantasy, and the American astronomer Nicholas Bobrovnikoff, after reviewing an English summary, classified it as pseudoscience. Nevertheless, Soviet authorities deemed his anti-Christian conclusions useful for atheist propaganda and permitted the publication of all seven volumes of "Christ."
Morozov's chronological revisionism was largely forgotten after his death until the 1970s, when Moscow State University mathematician Mikhail Postnikov rediscovered it. Postnikov's student Anatoly Fomenko inherited and vastly expanded Morozov's framework into the sprawling pseudohistorical system known as the 'New Chronology.' Morozov's method of astronomical redating was adopted wholesale by Fomenko, whose theories have reportedly found sympathy among a significant segment of the Russian public. Professional historians characterize Morozov's work as the archetype of a 'nihilistic view of history': a case of revolutionary radicalism transposed into the domain of scholarship.