Nikolai Alexandrovich Morozov (Russian: Никола́й Алекса́ндрович Моро́зов; 7 July 1854, Borok – 30 July 1946) was a Russian revolutionary who spent about 25 years in prison for revolutionary activities against the Tsarist government. He was also an academic, publishing works in various fields of science and history, and a pioneer of aviation in Russia. At age 88, he briefly served in the Red Army as a sniper during World War II, becoming the oldest known combatant of the war. Early life and revolutionary activities The son of a wealthy landowner and a serf woman who was bonded to his estate, Morozov was born in the village of Borok in the Governorate of Yaroslavl. He was initially educated at home before he started studying at the Second Moscow Gymnasium in 1869. He disliked the curriculum, especially Latin and divine law. He founded an informal self-education circle in natural science. He also attended lectures at Moscow University disguised in a student's uniform. He was expelled from school for distributing a science journal that had not been approved by the censorship division. Showing an early interest in politics, he was on a police watchlist as a student. He joined the Circle of Tchaikovsky and was active in distributing propaganda among peasants in the Moscow, Voronezh, and Kursk governorates before police persecution forced him to return to Moscow. He moved to St. Petersburg before departing for Geneva in 1874. In 1875, he returned to Russia and was arrested at the border but released after his father paid his bail. He again devoted himself to revolutionary activities, distributing propaganda among the peasants of Saratov governorate. In 1878, having returned to St. Petersburg, Morozov was a member of Zemlya i volya or Land and Liberty group where he co-edited their mouthpiece, Land and Liberty, (with Sergei Kravchinsky). When the group faced an internal crisis over tactics, it split into two groups in August 1879. Morozov rejected the continued use of propaganda to bring about social change and, instead, advocated for use of direct action. He joined the more radical of the two factions, Narodnaya Volya, or People's Will, eventually becoming one of its leaders. In 1880, Olga Lyubatovich and Morozov left Narodnaya Volya and went to live in Geneva and London, where he was introduced to Karl Marx. While in exile, Morozov wrote The Terrorist Struggle, a pamphlet that explained his views on how to achieve