The story of both a man and an era, Midpassage is an engrossing account of Alexander Herzen's role in the revolution of 1848 and his complex ideological and personal interactions with such European radicals as Marx, Proudhon, and Mazzini. Russia's modern revolutionary movement really began with Herzen (1812-1870), often called the first revolutionary exile. As a youth, he had committed himself to the ideals of the Decembrists and to the liberation of Russia from tsarist oppression. In 1847, after two periods of internal exile, he left his native land forever. Midpassage is both about Herzen's physical flight from East to West and the intellectual search, which culminated in a balance between the two, that characterized his maturity. - Jacket flap.