With the emergence of the Arab Spring, Occupy Wall Street in the US, and Europe’s indignados, today’s prevailing political movements seem to reject both Western capitalism and the traditional bureaucratic left power structures of the former Soviet Union.

In the midst of this forging of an alternative approach to popular social justice movements, the work of a little known Russian writer is re-surfacing. Victor Serge, best known for his literary novels, was also a leader in post revolution Russia, and a prolific writer, historian, and activist.

Jailed several times for standing up to power, and for questioning corruption, and in particular, Stalin’s betrayal of Bolshevism, Serge spent his life in destitution and struggled to publish his works.

His definitive biography, published first in 2001 and just out in its second edition, has been written by KPFK programmer, Suzi Weissman, host of Beneath the Surface. Weissman is also a professor of Politics at Saint Mary’s College of California.

In July 2013, Uprising host Sonali Kolhatkar had an in-depth conversation with Suzi about Victor Serge. Watch a video of their conversation here:

Bipasha Shom recorded this interview.