Viktor Mikhailovich Chernov (7 December 1873-15 April 1952) was a founder of the Russian Socialist Revolutionary Party and one of its chief theoreticians; in 1917, he served as Minister of Agriculture under Alexander Kerensky's government.
Biography[]
Viktor Mikhailovich Chernov was born on 7 December 1873 in Novouzensk, Russian Empire, and he attended a school in Saratov. Chernov was involved with radical student organizations, and he was arrested for socialist activities in 1894. He was exiled to Siberia after attempting to unite the Narodniks with other socialist groups, but he would head to Zurich, Switzerland in 1899. Chernov was one of the founders of the Socialist Revolutionary Party in 1901, and he was elected to the second State Duma as the leader of the SRs. In 1917, he became Minister of Agriculture under President Alexander Kerensky's provisional government, and he also served as Chairman of the Constituent Assembly. He led the SRs in Samara before fleeing to Europe and then the United States during the Russian Civil War, dying in New York City at the age of 78 in 1952.