The grandiose unfolding of radical consciousness in pre-revolutionary Russia has long been scorned by historians as a myth, an invention of Soviet propagandists. Yet letters, diaries, articles, and memoirs from the period all routinely evoke the evolution of radical consciousness as a real and lived experience. Heralds of Revolution is the first work to take this myth seriously and to tell its history.

The Russian radical's "story of consciousness" often began with a provincial student's journey to the university in search of enlightenment and culminated in his or her conversion to revolutionary activity. Morrissey follows the student along the way, into a world of secret study circles and spy hunts, mass meetings and academic strikes, all of which eventually became monuments of radical lore and collective memory.

After 1905, the Russian student movement lost some its coherence. Its myth was challenged by everyday realities and unexpected developments, such as the rise of right-wing extremism in the universities, new educational opportunities for women, and an epidemic of suicide. Both liberals and radicals attacked a new generation of students, now no longer heralds of revolution.

Drawing on a wide range of interdisciplinary sources from Russian archives and libraries, including proclamations, medical treatises, songs, police reports, and suicide letters, Morrissey throws new light on the dynamics of political and cultural change in late Imperial Russia and poses provocative questions about the pre-revolutionary antecedents of the founding myths of the Soviet Union.

This work will appeal to historians of Russia and the Soviet Union, as well as specialists in Slavic culture and literature.