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ishing them to the status of nonpersons, since
they could not officially work as writers.
Zoshchenko lived in obscurity until his death in
Leningrad. After Stalin's death in 1953, his works
appeared in print again, and he regained some of
the great popularity among later Soviet readers
that he had formerly enjoyed.
of the czarist police, the Okhrana. Specializing in
political intelligence, he sponsored innovations
that helped the police grapple with the challenge
of a growing revolutionary movement: photo-
graphic files, registration of suspects, mobile
squads to track down suspects quickly. By 1896,
at the age of only 32, he was appointed chief of
the Moscow Okhrana, a reward for an until-
then brilliant career. Zubatov's idea of police
socialism was to create docile trade unions that,
by advancing workers' agendas, would dilute
their enthusiasm for more extreme revolution-
ary organizations. In 1901, Zubatov sponsored
the foundation of the Society of Mutual Help of
Workers in Mechanical Production, the first legal
trade union in Russia. Under police protection
this society flourished, and the experiment was
later imitated in Minsk, ODESSA , and, most
famously, St. Petersburg under the leadership of
Father Georgii GAPON . Zubatov was able to con-
trol the movement in Moscow, but elsewhere
the police trade unions were infiltrated by Social
Democrats and became unruly. His initial success
sparked bureaucratic jealousies, and Zubatov
was transferred to St. Petersburg, where he got
caught in the feud between the minister of
finance Sergei WITTE and the minister of the inte-
rior Viacheslav von Plehve, and was dismissed by
the latter in 1903. Exiled to Vladimir, Zubatov
turned to writing about his career, a long account
of which was published posthumously in the
journal Byloe ( Past ) in 1917. On hearing of the
abdication of NICHOLAS II , he committed suicide.
Zubatov, Sergei Vasilievich
(1864-1917)
police official
Zubatov is best known to later generations as an
innovative police official who was the force
behind the unusual failed experiment known as
“police socialism.” Zubatov was born in Moscow,
where his father was an apartment manager.
Zubatov's early education was typical for a
future member of the intelligentsia; he read pro-
gressive literature and soaked in the ideas of the
revolutionary movement. A talented speaker, he
soon formed his own study circle, which soon
led to broader contacts with the revolutionary
world. Perhaps pressured by his father, he briefly
suspended his revolutionary contacts and
worked at various jobs, including managing a
bookstore. Around 1882, he renewed his activi-
ties, distributing banned literature and partici-
pating in revolutionary circles. The reasons
behind his conversion from a budding revolu-
tionary to a police agent remain unclear, but in
1883 he began cooperating with the police and
in 1886 formally enlisted in the Moscow branch
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