A social democrat of the early twentieth century facing the moral choice (using the example of the Mirtov brothers')

The article shows the fate of Simbirsk Social Democrats Mirtov brothers, who made a moral choice after the defeat of the revolution (1905-1907). The article narrates how the revolutionaries became secret agents of the gendarmerie. Three fates are great examples of different types of conformism, cultivated in the tsarist empire and in post-revolutionary Russia. The analyzed sources can serve as new evidence of the trials that a person undergoes under authoritarian political regimes.