The Revolutionary, His Wife, the Party, and the Sympathizer: The Role of Family Members and Party Supporters in the Release of Revolutionary Prisoners.

The article presents information about an incident in the life of the early 20th-century Russian revolutionary Grigori Zinoviev, also known as Ovsei-Gershon Aronovich Radomysl'skii. It focuses on his arrest in St. Petersburg, Russia in March 1908, and release two months later. The successful petitions of his wife, Lilina, to the Russian authorities for his release are described. A general depiction of the role which such family petitions played in the treatment of political prisoners is offered, and the importance of such social structures in the success of the Russian revolution is analyzed.