Kanun revoliutsii, neperiodicheskoe obozrenie voprosov teorii i taktiki [The eve of revolution, a non-periodical review on questions of theory and tactics], no. 1 (all published) by [Socialist-Revolutionary Party]; L. Nadezhdin (pseud. of Evgenii O. Zelenskii, 1877-1905, editor - 1901

Geneva: Izdanie Revoliutsionno-Sotsialisticheskoi Gruppy, 1901. Small octavo (15.6 × 11 cm). Original printed blue wrappers; 132 pp. Wrapers lightly worn and with a few tiny chips; overall very good. First and only issue of an early publication by Russian Socialist Revolutionaries. This pamphlet addresses revolutionary tactics and theory, presents reports from St. Petersburg and the provinces, and often severely critiques the journal "Iskra". Contrary to the table of contents, it contains one long text, without subdivisions and titles. It was published by the "Svoboda" [Freedom] Group, a self-described 'revolutionary-socialist' organisation that was later decried by Lenin as one of "a host of small and rootless groups." Svoboda was founded in 1901 by Evgenii Zelenskii (1877-1905), the editor of the present work, and disbanded in 1903. Like so many revolutionary pamphlets published in the very late nineteenth and early twentieth century by revolutionaries living abroad, in Paris, Geneva, or Zurich, this publication was printed on thin paper. The small format was to help smuggle it across the borders of the Russian Empire, in order to aid the work of fomenting dissent against the Tsarist regime. This title is no. 133 in the Souvarine and Bernshtein catalog (Dekker & Nordemann BV, 1980): "Devoted to problems of theoretical as well as tactical importance." Scarce in the trade.