Serge lived one of the most interesting lives that an intellectual of the twentieth century could live: stateless, participating in every radical movement of his time, from anarchists to Bolsheviks, he participated in the anarchist syndicalist movement in Spain, fought against Hitler, and was one of the first to criticize Stalin in the USSR. Susan Sontag considered him a hero and many agree with her.
In 1933, Victor Serge, who had actively participated in the October Revolution, was arrested by Stalin's police, interrogated, and held in isolation for over eighty days. He was then exiled for two years to a small town in the Urals. These experiences prompted him to write his novel "Midnight in the Century," with central characters being revolutionaries living in the shadow of Stalin's betrayal.
Among the displaced in the (fictional) city of Chorne, who remain faithful to an ideal betrayed by bureaucracy, are Professor Mikhail Ivanovich, the veteran Bolshevik Ryzhik, the stoic and noble Barbara, and Rodion, a young worker with concerns, who tries to understand the world and history. Against all odds, young Rodion will attempt to escape captivity by crossing the inhospitable steppe and battling the elements of the wild nature. Facing the dark winter night of the soul, Rodion rediscovers the only and most radical form of resistance, hope.