Historians generally recognise E.A. Preobrazhensky as the most famous Soviet economist of the 1920s. The documents in this volume, many newly discovered and almost all translated into English for the first time, reveal a Preobrazhensky previously unknown, whose interests ranged far beyond economics to include not only party debates and issues affecting the lives of workers and peasants, but also philosophy, world events and Russian history, culture and politics. Including moments of triumph and tragedy, they tell an intimate story of political awakening.