Ivan Ilich Petrunkevich

Born 1843 on the estate of Pliske, in Borzna District, Chernigov Province (present-day Chernigov Oblast); died June 14, 1928, in Prague. Russian political figure and landowner.

Petrunkevich graduated from the law faculty of the University of St. Petersburg in 1866. In the late 1870’s he joined the zemstvo movement in Chernigov Province, later participating in the same movement in Tver’ Province; he was often administratively exiled for his activities. He was the organizer and chairman of the Union of Liberation in 1904. A founder of the Constitutional Democratic Party, he served as chairman of the Central Committee from 1909 to 1915 and also as editor of the newspaper Rech’. From 1904 to 1906 he attended city and zemstvo congresses, aligning himself with the left wing. A deputy to the First State Duma, he was imprisoned for signing the Vyborg Appeal.

After the October Revolution of 1917, Petrunkevich hid in Gaspra in the Crimea. He emigrated in 1919 and engaged in literary activity. He is the author of From the Notes of a Social Activist (1934), which portrayed the despotic rule of high tsarist officials.