When Future becomes Past: Mikhail Pervukhin and early Russian counterfactual narratives
Journal: Anuari de Filologia Llengües i Literatures Modernes
Year: 2025

Mikhail Pervukhin’s Pugachev the Victor (1924) is an early example of Russian alternate history, building on the narrative strategies first explored in his earlier novel The Second Life of Napoleon (1917). This article examines the historical, cultural, and literary circumstances that led Pervukhin to experiment with counterfactual narratives, focusing on his treatment of the Pugachev Rebellion and its comparison with the highly complex events of the 1917 Bolshevik Revolution. Drawing on Tolstoy