A very fresh example of this uncommon émigré edition that comprises selected articles by the famous Russian historian exploring the personality of Alexander I, his epoch and associates.

Sergey Melgunov (1879 – 1956) was a Russian historian, publicist and politician known for his opposition to the Soviet government and his numerous works on the Russian Revolution of 1917 and the Russian Civil War.

In the pre-Revolutionary years, Melgunov established a publishing house Zadruga where he published over 500 books and a journal Golos minuvshego ("The Voice of the Past"). After the Bolshevik October Revolution, he became an active opponent of Lenin's government and joined the anti-Soviet Union of Revival of Russia, which advocated an armed overthrow of the Bolshevik regime. He was arrested and sentenced to death in 1919, then reprieved, with the sentence commuted to imprisonment. Released in 1921, Melgunov eventually settled in Paris, where he continued his historical research and edited several émigré journals.

The edition includes thirteen articles written within a period of 10 - 15 years before the revolution and covers the reign of Alexander I, analysis of personalities of the tsar, Rostopchin and Barclay de Tolly, the Great Patriotic War, and Russian society in the post-war years.

Large octavo (25.7 x 20 cm). [2], title, [4], 341, adv. [2] pp., owner's inscription to title. Contemporary blue sheep over cloth boards, gilt spine, small chip to lower board, corners slightly bumped.