Lev Tikhomirov

Lev Alexandrovich Tikhomirov (Russian: Лев Александрович Тихомиров; 1852, Gelendzhik – 1923, Sergiyev Posad), originally a Russian revolutionary and one of the members of the Executive Committee of the Narodnaya Volya, following his disenchantment with violent revolution became one of the leading conservative thinkers in Russia. He authored several books on monarchism, Orthodoxy, and Russian political philosophy.

Lev Tikhomirov was born in Gelendzhik on January 19, 1852, to a military doctor and his wife, a graduate of the Institute for the Education of Noble Maidens. Despite receiving a conservative education, he came under the influence of radical ideas and became involved in the Narodniki movement. In 1873, Tikhomirov was arrested in connection with the Trial of the 193 and sentenced to a four-year term in St Petersburg's Sts Peter and Paul Fortress.

By 1878, Tikhomirov became one of the leaders of the Land and Liberty organization. In August 1879, when Land and Liberty split into two factions as the result of a dispute over organizational tactics, he joined its most radical of the two successors, the People's Will.

In 1882, following the assassination of Emperor Alexander II, Tikhomirov emigrated to Switzerland and then to France. In France, however, he began to reconsider his views writing in 1886:

From henceforth our only hope is Russia and the Russian people. We have nothing to gain from the revolutionaries ... In light of this, I have begun to reconsider my life. I must now build it in such a way so as to serve Russia according to the dictates of my conscience, independent of all parties.

In 1888, Tikhomirov publicly repented of his revolutionary activities, publishing his book Why I am No Longer a Revolutionary. The same year he petitioned to be allowed to return to Russia, a petition granted by Alexander III.

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