Evgenii Alekseevich Preobrazhenskii has been one of the most important yet least known figures
on the Bolshevik Olympus: a prominent party functionary, economist, journalist, and writer, a
talented organizer of scholarly research, and educator. For political reasons, however, his activities
have long been virtually ignored in Soviet writing. References to him in Soviet histories of
the Communist party or economic histories have been one-sided and sketchy.
Preobrazhenskii was born on 15 February 1886 (old style) in Bolkhov in Ore guberniia. His father, Aleksei Aleksandrovich Preobrazhenskii, was an Orthodox priest and Bible teacher at the Bolkhov Parochial School. Evgenii Alekseevich studied at his father's private school and completed two years at the Bolkhov City School.