Rebel Russia: Dissent and Protest from the Tsars to Navalny

Navalny. Lenin. Pugachev. The Russian rebel - in his epic battle against the Leviathan of the Russian state - has enthralled readers and writers for decades. The rebel's story is almost always a sad one that ends in exile, imprisonment, or martyrdom, leaving but a seed for the future reform of the Leviathan which he or she had taken on.

Why do revolts - from the Decembrist uprising to the Snow Revolution that brought Alexei Navalny to the forefront of contemporary Russian politics - seem to...