This is not the first time I have read this short book and that’s probably because it is proving to be so useful to me in my understanding of how the tsarist police (the Okhrana) penetrated the Bolshevik and other revolutionary parties in the years before 1917.

Roman Malinovsky, who is little remembered today, was Lenin’s favourite proletarian, described as the “Russian Bebel” (even though he was Polish).

He rose to the very top of the Bolshevik party — leader of its faction in the 4th State Duma, member of its Russian Committee and of the party’s Central Committee as well. Lenin defended him nearly to the end, but following his return to Russia in 1918, he was tried, found guilty of being a police spy, and shot. He was not the only Okhrana agent near the top of the Bolshevik party, but not all were exposed.