Camus, reader of Boris Savinkov

Boris Savinkov’s second novel What Never Happened, which Camus must have read during the summer of 1946, is no less important than his Memories of a Terrorist. Raising the question of the legitimacy of murder committed in the name of justice, this novel encouraged Camus to take position against revolutionary intellectuals of his time, and also to create a mythical character – a Kaliayev detached from his model and embodying “the purest image of revolt”.