But far from a 'pet' of the Communist regime, Gorky, the "stormy petrel of the revolution," also condemned the revolution early on as a "cruel experiment" with the Russian people "doomed to failure."
-- Valentina Kolesnikova, "Maxim Gorky: Hostage of the Revolution", Russian Life, June 1, 1996
Of the unpredictable and constantly angry Paracelsus, for example, the stormy petrel who convulsed the staid medical establishment of the sixteenth century by demanding radical reforms in clinical thinking, he wrote: "This first great revolt against the slavish authority of the schools had little immediate effect, largely on account of the personal vagaries of the reformer--but it made men think."
-- Sherwin B. Nuland, "The Saint", New Republic, December 13, 1999
Lenin, the stormy petrel of the Social Democratic party, was facing more serious opposition than ever.
-- Michael Pearson, "Lenin's lieutenant", Guardian, September 29, 2001
. . .restless and indomitable, scouring like a stormy petrel the angry ocean of debate.
-- Lytton Strachey, Eminent Victorians
