Cathy Porter studied Russian and Czech literature at London's School of Slavonic and East European Studies and Cambridge University, and has published over 20 books on Russia, including most recently, Alexandra Kollontai. Writings From the Struggle, as well as translations of the plays of Maxim Gorky and the diaries of Sofia Tolstoy.

"She burst across the revolutionary sky like a blazing meteor, dazzling all in her path," Trotsky wrote. For the poet Boris Pasternak, she was Lara, the heroine of his novel Doctor Zhivago.

Commissar, revolutionary fighter, espionage agent, journalist, Larisa Reisner (1895-1926) was a model for the 'new woman' of the Russian Revolution, and one of its most popular and brilliant writers, whose works were published in mass editions and read by millions. In this sweeping biography, Cathy Porter sets her life against the backdrop of the world-shaking events of 1917. Drawing on material recently released from the Soviet archives, Porter tells Reisner's story through the memories of those close to her, her own voluminous writings, and her six books-published for the first time together with this biography.

List of Figures
Timeline

Introduction

1 Childhood and Exile

2 Student Life

3 Poets and War

4 In Petrograd

5 Red Kronstadt

6 Bolshevik Russia

7 ‘Unforgettable 1918’

8 Svyazhsk

9 Reds and Whites

10 From Moscow to the Caspian

11 Rabfaks and Commissars

12 Afghanistan

13 The New Culture

14 Berlin and Hamburg

15 Across Workers’ Russia

16 Seifullina and Alyosha

17 Germany and China

18 ‘How Extraordinary to Be Alive’

19 Afterlife

Appendix: Figures
Bibliography
Index