Союз освобождения
V. A. Miakotin was born in Gatchina, Saint Petersburg Governorate. Miakotin was educated at the Kronstadt gymnasium and the University of Saint Petersburg, where he studied history and philology. He subsequently became a professor of history at Saint Petersburg University. He also lectured at the Aleksandrovsky Lyceum and the Alexander Military Law Academy. During his student days, he was greatly influenced by "narodnik" writers like N.K. Mikhailovsky, and by French romantic historians. These influences he combined with detailed statistical information gathered by the zemstvo movement. In the 1890s Miakotin was associated with the 'Legal Populist' movement and contributed to the liberal journal "Russkoe Bogatstvo" ("Russian Wealth"), becoming a member of its editorial board in 1904. He collaborated closely with A.V. Peshekhonov and N.F. Annensky. Together with them and with former Marxists like P.B. Struve and S.N. Prokopovich, and liberal nationalists like P.N. Miliukov, Miakotin founded the 'Union of Liberation' in 1904, from which the Constitutional-Democratic Party emerged.