Aleksandr Vasil'evič Dolgušin

Alexander Vasilievich Dolgushin (Russian: Александр Васильевич Долгушин) (June 1848 – 30 June 1885) was a Russian Empire populist and political prisoner.

Early life Dolgushin was born in a small town in the Tobolsk district of Siberia. His father was a judge and member of the minor nobility.

Revolutionary career In 1866, Dolgushin moved to St. Petersburg, supposedly to study, but has main purpose was political activities. He led a group of 13 students from Siberia, who began as a 'commune' - a cultural club offering mutual help and a library - and evolved into a political organization advocating Siberian independence. A portrait of Nikolay Chernyshevsky, whom they regarded as an honorary Siberian because he was in exile there, hung at their meetings.

In 1869, Sergey Nechayev made contact with the group during a short visit to St. Petersburg, and recruited one of its members, Pyotr Toporkov, to his conspiratorial Russian Revolutionary Society. In January 1870, Dolgushin and other members of the group were arrested, but after a year and a half in prison, they were acquitted in August 1871 for lack of evidence. For that, he was sentenced to a further ten years hard labour. While in Kara, he helped fellow revolutionary Ippolit Myshkin to escape, for which he was transferred to the Peter and Paul Fortress. In 1884, he was moved to Shlisselburg, where he died of tuberculosis.