Faces of the Russian Revolution

George Kennan, the uncle of American ambassador George F. Kennan, was--like his nephew--an expert on the history of Russia. Kennan's private collection of artifacts of Russian history is maintained by the Prints and Manuscripts Division of the Library of Congress. The collection is stored in five separate cardboard boxes, and among the artifacts are scores of photographs of Russian revolutionaries. Most of the men and women portrayed in the photos were part of the struggle that commenced in the early 1870s and culminated with the assassination of Tsar Alexander II on April 3, 1881. I photographed the pictures during the summer of 1973. Four are reproduced here simply for their visual impact.