Venedikt Miakotin

Venedikt Aleksandrovich Miakotin (1867–1937) was a Russian historian and narodnik politician.

V. A. Miakotin was born in Gatchina, Saint Petersburg Governorate, and educated at the Kronstadt gymnasium and the University of Saint Petersburg, where he studied history and philology. He subsequently became a professor of history at Saint Petersburg University. He also lectured at the Aleksandrovsky Lyceum and the Alexander Military Law Academy. During his student days, he was greatly influenced by narodnik writers like N.K. Mikhailovsky, and by French romantic historians. These influences he combined with detailed statistical information gathered by the zemstvo movement. In the 1890s Miakotin was associated with the 'Legal Populist' movement and contributed to the liberal journal Russkoe Bogatstvo (Russian Wealth), becoming a member of its editorial board in 1904. He collaborated closely with A.V. Peshekhonov and N.F. Annensky. Together with them and with former Marxists like P.B. Struve and S.N. Prokopovich, and liberal nationalists like P.N. Miliukov, Miakotin founded the 'Union of Liberation' in 1904, from which the Constitutional-Democratic Party emerged.

However, Miakotin, like other 'Legal Populists', also maintained contact with illegal circles and with the Socialist-Revolutionaries. He was involved in the liberal 'banquet campaign' of 1904 (modelled on the French oppositional banquets organised on the eve of the 1848 revolution) and was arrested several times. In 1905 he tried to mediate between striking workers and the authorities, but was unable to prevent the 'Bloody Sunday' massacre, which triggered the Revolution of 1905. During the Revolution, Miakotin helped organise the radical 'Union of Writers' and participated in the 'Union of Unions'. He also briefly joined the Socialist-Revolutionary Party but rejected its adoption of terrorism and the influence of Marxism on its leading theoreticians (V.M. Chernov, N.S. Rusanov et al.) In 1906, Miakotin belonged to the narodnik group which broke with the PSR and founded the Popular Socialist Party (NSP). He was elected to the First Duma in 1906 and collaborated closely with the Trudovik (Labour) group around A.F. Kerensky. He also helped edit the NSP's journal Narodnoe Slovo (The People’s Word).

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