What Every Radical Should Know About State Repression

a guide for activists
Victor Serge

‘Serge is one of the most compelling of twentieth-century ethical and literary heroes.’

Susan Sontag

‘Victor Serge is one of the unsung heroes of a corrupt century.’

Adam Hochschild, author of King Leopold’s Ghost

This classic manual on repression by revolutionary activist Victor Serge offers fascinating anecdotes about the tactics of police provocateurs and an analysis of the documents of the tsarist secret police in the aftermath of the Russian Revolution.

With a new introduction by Howard Zinn collaborator and Noam Chomsky’s literary agent, Anthony Arnove.

As we approach the 100th anniversary of Victor Serge’s classic 1926 exposé of political repression, the spectre of fear as a tool of political repression is chillingly familiar to us in a world increasingly threatened by totalitarianism. Serge’s exposé of the surveillance methods used by the tsarist police reads like a spy thriller. An irrepressible rebel, Serge wrote this manual for political activists, describing the structures of state repression and how to dodge them — including how to avoid being followed, what to do if arrested, and tips on securing correspondence. He also explains how such repression is ultimately ineffective.

‘Repression can really only live off fear. But is fear enough to remove need, thirst for justice, intelligence, reason, idealism … ? Relying on intimidation, the reactionaries forget that they will cause more indignation, more hatred, more thirst for martyrdom, than real fear. They only intimidate the weak; they exasperate the best forces and temper the resolution of the strongest.’ — Victor Serge

‘Serge is one of the most compelling of twentieth-century ethical and literary heroes.’

Susan Sontag

Details

Format:Paperback

Size: 210mm × 135mm

Extent:160pp

ISBN (13):9781761381065

RRP:$32.99

Pub date:3 Apr 2024

Rights Held: ANZ

High-res cover:Download Image

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Victor Serge

Victor Serge was born to Russian émigré parents in Belgium in 1890. He became active at an early age in revolutionary activities, for which he was imprisoned for five years in France. On his release he returned to revolutionary Russia, where he threw himself into the defence of the fledgling government. After Lenin’s death he became increasingly alienated from Stalin’s clique and was expelled from the Soviet Union in 1936 for speaking out against the purges. He wrote numerous novels, poems, memoirs, and political essays, and died in exile in Mexico in 1947.

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We publish books that matter — narrative and literary nonfiction on important topics, and the best of local, international, and translated fiction.

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