Lecture by Boris Belenkin “Return to Execution, or The Lost Life of Gavriil Myasnikov (1889–1945)”

A figure in Russian‑Soviet history whom we’ll speak about is absolutely exceptional — even pathological. He spent a third of his conscious life in prisons and in exile (Tsarist, Soviet, Iranian, Turkish, and others). The whole time he was fleeing someone, hiding from someone, fighting someone… From the loud crime he committed — organizing the murder of Grand Duke Mikhail Romanov — to his martyr‑like death at the Lubyanka took 27 years. We will try to understand how in one not‑highly educated self‑taught person could coexist: adventurism, fidelity to deeply suffered ideas, posing, asceticism, Hlestakov‑like behavior, hard work, fear of intellectuals and authority, courage… — all in vivid, pronounced forms and manifestations!
And, of course, many questions arise:
Who is before us — a character from history or the hero of a work of fiction?
Can — and should — such a person evoke sympathy, empathy, and/or understanding?
Is he a warped mirror of his era, or did the era reflect itself in his life as in a distorted mirror?