Glossary

Names

Adler, Victor (1852-1918) – Austrian politician, a leader of the labour movement and founder of the Social Democratic Workers’ Party (SDAP).

Aladin, Aleksei (1873-1927) – Founder and leader of the Trudoviks, a breakaway of the Socialist-Revolutionary Party. He was elected to the First Duma in 1906.

Alekseyev, Mikhail Vasilyevich (1857-1918) – Imperial Russian Army general during the First World War and the Russian Civil War.

Alexinsky, Grigory Alexeyevich (1879-1967) – Early member of the Bolsheviks in Moscow. He was a Social-Democratic member of the Second Duma of 1907. He became an ‘Otzovist’ after the 1905 Revolution and social-chauvinist in the war. During the revolution Alexinsky joined Plekhanov’s Yedinstvo Group. After July, he became a counter-revolutionary and an author of forgeries against Lenin in his role as a German agent.

Axelrod, Pavel Borisovich (1850-1928) – A leading Menshevik.

Badayev, Alexei (1883-1951) – One of the five Bolshevik deputies in the Duma exiled to Siberia.

Bakunin, Mikhail (1814-76) – Russian anarchist and the leader of the split from the forces of Marxism in First International.

Bauer, Otto (1881-1938) – Leader of the so-called ‘Austro-Marxists’, he played a leading role in the Social Democratic Party of Austria.

Bebel, August (1840-1913) – Leading figure of the social democratic movement in Germany. He served as chairman of the Social Democratic Party of Germany from 1892 until his death.

Bernstein, Eduard (1850-1932) – German Social-Democrat who tried to revise Marx’s revolutionary theory on the lines of bourgeois liberalism. Bernsteinism, the opportunist trend in German and International Social-Democracy, hostile to Marxism, derives its name from his ideas. Among his supporters in Russia were the legal Marxists, the Economists, the Bund, and the Mensheviks.

Bismarck, Otto Eduard Leopold von (1815-1898) – Chancellor of the German Empire from its foundation in 1871 until 1890.

Bissolati, Leonida (1857-1920) – Italian socialist and member of parliament. He took a social-chauvinist position to the war.

Blanc, Alexandre (1874-1924) – French socialist and pacifist who attended the Kienthal Conference.

Bonomi, Ivanoe (1873-1951) – Italian socialist who held reformist views, and was a social-chauvinist in the war.

Borgbjerg, Frederik (1866-1936) – Danish social-democrat.

Bourderon, Albert (1858-1930) – French syndicalist who adopted a pacifist position in the war.

Branting, Hjalmar (1860 - 1925) – Reformist leader of the Swedish Social Democratic Party.

Briand, Aristide (1862-1932) – French Prime Minister from 1909-11 and in 1913, and also Minister of Justice during the war.

Brizon, Pierre (1878-1923) – French Socialist deputy, initially accepting the ‘social truce’, then taking a pacifist position. He attended the Kienthal Conference, where he opposed the proposal to form the Third International.

Brouckère, Louis de (1870-1951) – Belgian socialist and academic who joined the army during the First World War as a social patriot.

Burtsev, Vladimir Lyovich (1862-1942) – Active in the revolutionary student movement from the early 1880s, Burtsev was arrested and exiled to Siberia in 1885. He escaped in 1888 and went into exile, publishing anti-tsarist magazines, growing close to the SRs during the 1905 Revolution. After the outbreak of the war, Burtsev began his tirades against the Bolsheviks, accusing Lenin of being a German agent. Arrested by Trotsky, Burtsev was released and left Soviet Russia in 1918, where he became a leader of White counter-revolutionaries in exile.

Chelnokov, Mikhail (1863-1936) – One of the leading figures in the Cadets.

Chernov, Victor (1873-1952) – Socialist-Revolutionary who became a minister in Kerensky’s Provisional Government.

Chernyshevsky, Nikolay (1828-1889) – Russian author and the leading theoretician of the Narodniks.

Chkheidze, Nikolai Semyonovich (1864-1926) – Georgian Menshevik who was a member of the Third and Fourth Dumas. He was the first Chairman of the Petrograd Soviet in 1917. He became Chairman of the Central Committee of All-Russian Soviets, as well as Chairman of the Constituent Assembly of Georgia in 1918.

Chkhenkeli, Akaki (1874-1959) – Leading Menshevik from Georgia who was elected to the Fourth Duma.

David, Eduard (1863-1930) – Reichstag member for the SPD after 1903, leading the social-chauvinist majority.

Debs, Eugene Victor (1855-1926) – American socialist, political activist, trade unionist and one of the founding members of the Industrial Workers of the World.

Dobrolyubov, Nikolay (1836-1861) – Radical Russian literary critic and poet.

Gorky, Maxim (1868-1936) – Russian novelist, Bolshevik supporter and financial backer during the struggle against tsarism.

Grimm, Robert (1881-1958) – Leader of the Swiss Social-Democratic Party. In 1909-18 he was secretary of the party and editor-in-chief of the newspaper Berner Tagwacht. He was elected as a Member of Parliament from 1911. Grimm was in attendance at the Zimmerwald and Kienthal conferences. He was Chairman of the International Socialist Commission.

Guchkov, Alexander Ivanovich (1862-1936) – Moscow landowner and industrialist. He was the founder and leader of the ‘Octobrists’, a tendency formed in 1905. Guchkov was President of the Third Duma, and then Minister of War and Navy in the Provisional Government from March – May 1917. He resigned on 31 May 1917.

Guesde, Jules (1845-1922) – French socialist who was included in the national unity government of René Viviani during the war as a Minister without Portfolio until 1916.

Haase, Hugo (1863-1919) – SPD member of the Reichstag in 1897 and co-chair of the SPD from 1911-16. Haase opposed voting for the war credits in 1914, but voted for them to observe the discipline of the parliamentary group in the SPD. He later voted against the war credits in 1916. Haase was later the co-chair of the Independent Social-Democratic Party (USPD) in 1917.

Henderson, Arthur (1863-1935) – Right-wing Labour MP and a member of the National Executive of the party until his death. In 1914 he supported Britain’s part in the war and army recruitment. He was later a Minister in Lloyd George’s wartime cabinet.

Hervé, Gustav (1871-1944) – French socialist, initially taking a pacifist position before becoming an ultra-nationalist.

Hindenburg, Paul von (1847-1934) – German field marshal who led the Imperial German Army during the First World War.

Hoffmann, Carl (1869-1927) – German military strategist. At the end of 1917, he negotiated with Russia to sign the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk.

Höglund, Zeth (1884-1956) – Leading Swedish socialist, and a leading member of the Zimmerwald Left.

Huysmans, Jean Joseph Camille (1871-1968) – Belgian socialist.

Hyndman, Henry (1842-1921) – Leading member of the British Socialist Party.

Jaurès, Jean (1859-1914) – French socialist and pacifist who represented the reformist wing of the French section of the Second International, the SFIO. He took an anti-war position, which lead to his assassination in July 1914.

Joffre, Joseph (1852-1931) – Commander-in-Chief of French forces on the Western Front from until the end of 1916.

Zhordania, Noe (1868-1953) – Menshevik, who took a social-chauvinist position in the war.

Jouhaux, Léon (1879-1954) – Leader of the French General Confederation of Labour.

Junius – Pseudonym used by Rosa Luxemburg for her 1915 pamphlet ‘The Crisis of German Social Democracy’, known as the Junius Pamphlet.

Kaledin, Alexel Maximovich (1861-1918) – Tsarist General.

Kautsky, Karl (1854-1938) – One of the leading theoreticians of the Social Democratic Party of Germany and the Second International. By the outbreak of the First World War, he had abandoned revolutionary Marxism and took up an indecisive position between revolutionary opposition to the war and patriotic support for the German bourgeoisie. As such, he became the theoretician of this ‘centrism’ in the socialist movement, and a bitter opponent of the Russian Revolution.

Kerensky, Alexander Fyodorovich (1881-1970) – Lawyer and a member of the Social-Revolutionary party. He was elected as a deputy to the Fourth Duma in 1912. After the February Revolution of 1917 which overthrew the Tsar, he became the outstanding representative of petty-bourgeois conciliationism: first as Minister of Justice, then as War Minister. Kerensky headed the Provisional Government from July to October 1917, at which point he fled the country.

Khvostov, Alexei (1872-1918) – Leader of the Russian Assembly and member of the Black Hundreds.

Kievsky – Pseudonym of Georgy Pyatakov.

Kitchener, Herbert (1850-1916) – British Army Field Marshal.

Kluck, Alexander von (1846-1934) – German general during the First World War.

Kolb, Wilhelm (1870-1918) – SPD Reichstag member and opportunist.

Kol, Henri van (1852-1925) – Dutch politician, engineer, and part owner of a coffee plantation in the East Indies. Having been introduced to Marxism at university, he sought out socialist ideas which were pro-colonialism. He fought for the Communards during the Paris Commune, before joining the First International in 1876. He later co-founded the Dutch Social Democratic Workers Party, before being elected to parliament.

Konovalov, Aleksandr (1875-1949) – Cadet and one of Russia’s biggest textile manufacturers.

Kornilov, Lavr Georgevich (1870-1918) – Siberian Cossack and Commander on the South Western Front in 1917. He replaced Brussilov as Commander-in-Chief under the Provisional Government in July 1917. Kornilov was arrested on 14 September after an attempted counter-revolutionary uprising on 7-12 September which was repelled by the workers, headed by the Bolsheviks. He later escaped and led the White Volunteer Army.

Krichevsky, Boris (1866-1919) – Russian socialist, editor of Rabocheye Dyelo.

Kropotkin, Pyotr (1842-1921) – Leading Russian anarchist, who sided with England and France in the war.

Larin, Yuri Aleksandrovich (1882 – 1932) – Born in Simferopol as Mikhail Aleksandrovich Lurie. Joined the RSDLP in 1900. He was arrested in 1903 for his revolutionary activity and sentenced to exile in the Russian Far East, before escaping in 1904. Larin wrote ‘A Broad Labour Party and a Labour Congress’ in 1906, which Lenin replied to in depth. He joined the Bolsheviks in 1917.

Ledebour, Georg (1850-1947) – Reichstag deputy for the SPD, having been on the left before the war. After its outbreak he took up a centrist position. Lebedour was hostile to the Bolsheviks and the Spartacists.

Legien, Carl (1861-1920) – SPD Reichstag member 1893-98 and 1903-20. Leader of the right wing of the SPD and a virulent social-chauvinist.

Lensch, Paul (1873-1926) – SPD Reichstag member elected in 1912. He took social-chauvinist positions which he dubbed “war socialism”.

Liebknecht, Karl (1871-1919) – Founder of the German Communist Party (KPD). In 1914, together with Luxemburg, Mehring and Zetkin, he publicly opposed the Social Democratic Party’s support for the war. He co-organised the Spartacus League from 1915 and was expelled from the SPD parliamentary group the following year. Liebknecht was imprisoned for anti-war agitation. On the day of his trial, 50,000 munitions workers downed tools, as demonstrations and strikes spread across the country. He was murdered during the Spartacist Uprising in January 1919

Liebknecht, Wilhelm (1826-1900) – One of the principal founders of the German SPD and the father of Karl Liebknecht.

Litvinov, Maxim (1876-1951) – Founding member of the Bolshevik faction at the Second Congress of the RSDLP.

Lloyd George, David (1863-1945) – Welsh Member of Parliament for the Liberal Party from 1890-1945. He was Chancellor of the Exchequer from 1908-1915, Minister of Munitions from 1915-1916, Secretary of State for War in 1916 and Prime Minister from 1916-1922. Lloyd-George was a co-author of the Treaty of Versailles and an active anti-Soviet interventionist.

Lunacharsky, Anatolii Vasilevich (1875-1933) – Joined the Social Democratic movement in 1890s, becoming a Bolshevik after the split with the Mensheviks. Lunacharsky carried out journalistic work in the Party press. He split with Lenin in 1908, but after the February Revolution returned to Russia and rejoined the Bolsheviks as a member of the Mezhraiontsy (Inter-District Organisation).

Luxemburg, Rosa (1871-1919) – Joined the SPD in Germany in 1898 and was on the bureau of the Second International from 1903. Luxemburg was the leader of the Left wing against the revisionist Right and, after 1910, against the Kautskyist group. She was a leading revolutionary opponent of the war and a founder of Spartacus group. In prison for most of the war, she was murdered during the Spartacist Uprising in January 1919.

Lvov, Prince Georgy Yevgenyevich (1861-1925) – Cadet and first Prime Minister of the Russian Republic from March to July 1917.

MacDonald, James Ramsay (1886-1938) – Scottish Labour politician and member of ILP who adopted a pacifist position during the First World War.

Mackensen, Anton August (1899-1945) – German field marshal during the war.

Maclean, John (1879-1923) – Scottish schoolteacher and revolutionary socialist. He was arrested for his opposition to the First World War. In 1918, he was arrested for sedition. Maclean formed the Scottish Workers Republican Party.

Maklakov, Vasily Alekseyevich (1869-1970) – Moscow landowner, leading lawyer and right-wing Cadet. He was a member of the Second, Third and Fourth Dumas.

Martov, Yuri Osipovich (Julius) (1873-1913) – The ideological leader of the Mensheviks and a close friend of Lenin.

Martynov, Alexandr (1865-1935) – Leading Menshevik.

Maslov, Petr (1867-1946) – Menshevik liquidationist and a social-chauvinist in the war.

Merrheim, Alphonse (1871-1923) – French syndicalist who took a left-wing position in the war; Zimmerwald delegate.

Meyer, Ernst (1887-1930) – SPD member who took a left-wing position in the war, delegate to the Zimmerwald and Kienthal conferences.

Millerand, Alexandre (1859-1943) – French socialist who joined the bourgeois government of Waldeck-Rousseau. Lends his name to the opportunist tactic Millerandism (or ‘ministerial socialism’, or else Ministerialism), referring to socialists’ participation in reactionary bourgeois governments.

Milyukov, Pavel Nikolayevich (1859-1943) – Leader of the Cadet Party, ideologue of the imperialist bourgeoisie and deputy to the Third and Fourth Dumas. In 1917, he became Foreign Minister in the first cabinet of the bourgeois Provisional Government.

Monatte, Pierre (1881-1960) – Entered politics as an anarchist, founding the revolutionary syndicalist publication La Vie Ouvrière, and editing l’Humanité. He was the French delegate to the Zimmerwald Conference.

Morgari, Oddino (1865-1944) – Italian socialist, involved in the preparations for the Zimmerwald Conference.

Muranov, Matvei (1873-1959) – One of the five Bolshevik deputies in the Duma to be exiled to Siberia.

Mussolini, Benito (1883-1945) – Mussolini was initially a prominent socialist, and an editor of the Italian Socialist Party’s (PSI) Central Organ, Avanti!. He began to express an increasingly confused position after 1912, and took a social-chauvinist position soon after the start of the war. For this, he was expelled by the PSI. He began his own paper, campaigning for the war and ‘revolutionary nationalism’. He went on to enlist in the army, before being wounded in action, returning to Italy and founding the Fascist movement in 1919.

Tsar Nicholas II, Nikolai Romanov (1868-1918) – Last Emperor of Russia, King of Poland and Grand Duke of Finland, ruling from 1 November 1894 until his abdication on 15 March 1917.

Pannekoek, Anton (1873-1960) – Dutch Socialist and astronomer. Formed a Marxist party in the Netherlands. He was active in the German Social Democratic Party while living in Germany 1906-14 where he contributed to Die Neue Zeit. In 1914 he took a firm internationalist position and was an early advocate of the need for a new International. After the founding of the Communist International he became an ultra-left advocate of ‘council communism’.

Petrovsky, Grigory (1878-1958) – One of the five Bolshevik deputies in the Duma exiled to Siberia.

Plekhanov, George Valentinovich (1856-1918) – The founder of Russian Marxism. He was an émigré from 1883 until the February Revolution in Russia. During this time he edited Iskra and Zarya. He broke with the Bolsheviks, becoming an opponent of the October Revolution.

Potresov, Alexander Nikolayevich (Starover) (1869-1934) – Aligned with the Marxists in the 1890s, Potresov took part in founding Iskra and Zarya. After the Second Congress of the RSDLP he became a leader of the Mensheviks.

Pressemane, Adrien (1879-1929) – Member of the French Workers’ Party; pacifist and centrist in the war.

Purishkevich, Vladimir (1870-1920) – Extreme reactionary and Russian monarchist Duma member who organised the Black Hundreds in the 1905 Revolution. He took part in the assassination of Rasputin in 1916.

Radek, Karl (1885-1939) – Joined the revolutionary movement in Austrian Poland before 1905, where he became a leader of the left wing of the Polish and German workers’ movements. Radek was an internationalist during the war, a collaborator of Lenin and a supporter of the Zimmerwald Left. He joined the Bolsheviks in 1917 and was elected a member of the Bolshevik Central Committee from 1917-24.

Raffin-Dugens, Jean (1861-1946) – French socialist who took a pacifist position in the war.

Rakovsky, Christian Georgievich (1873-1941) – Prominent in the social-democratic movement in Bulgaria, Switzerland, Germany, France and Romania from 1885. He was one of the Zimmerwald Left and took an internationalist stand in the First World War, for which he was imprisoned.

Renaudel, Pierre (1871-1935) – Leading French right-wing social-democrat; editor of l’Humanité.

Renner, Karl (1870-1950) – Austrian social-democrat.

Riazanov, David (1870-1938) – Russian socialist who shared the internationalist views of the Bolsheviks on the question of the war but disagreed with them on organisational matters, seeking unity with revolutionary elements in the Menshevik camp.

Ribot, Alexandre (1842-1923) – Minister of Finance in the French wartime government.

Rodzyanko, Mikhail Vladimirovich (1859-1924) – Russian reactionary politician. He was a major landowner and one of the leaders of the Octobrist party. Rodzyanko served as the chairman for the Third and Fourth Dumas. In 1917, he supported the Kornilov coup.

Roland-Holst, Henriette (1869-1952) – Dutch poet and writer who joined the Dutch socialist movement in 1897. She belonged to the left wing of the Social Democratic Workers Party (SDAP). She then joined left-wing SDP in 1916 and was a member of the Zimmerwald Left during the war.

Rubanovich, Ilya (1859-1920) – Russian Socialist-Revolutionary and social-chauvinist.

Rühle, Otto (1874-1943) – SPD member in the Reichstag who took an internationalist position in the war, and a member of the Internationale group.

Samoilov, Fedor Nikitich (1882-1952) – One of the five Bolshevik deputies in the Duma exiled to Siberia.

Savinkov, Boris Viktorovich (1879-1925) – A leader of the Russian Socialist-Revolutionary Party. A minister in the Provisional Government he led armed actions against the Soviet government during the civil war.

Scheidemann, Philipp (1865-1939) – SPD Minister of the Weimar Republic, who alongside Ebert and Noske led the charge in destroying the gains of the November Revolution. He joined the SPD in 1883, was a member of the SPD executive from 1911 and a social chauvinist during the war.

Savinkov, Boris (1879-1925) – French social-democrat and minister in the wartime governments.

Semkovsky, Semen (1882-1937) – Ukrainian Menshevik.

Shagov, Nikolay R (1882-1918) – One of the five Bolshevik deputies in the Duma exiled to Siberia.

Skobelev, Matvey Ivanovich (1885-1937) – Social-democrat from 1903, siding with the Mensheviks. Elected to the Fourth Duma in 1912. Minister of Labour in the Provisional Government from May to September 1917. In June 1917 he was elected deputy chairman of the All-Russian Soviet Executive Committee.

Sonnino, Sidney Constantino (1847-1922) – Italian minister of Foreign Affairs during the war.

Souvarine, Boris (1895-1984) – Joined the French Section of the Workers’ International (SFIO) in 1916. A founding member of the French Communist Party.

Spiridonova, Maria Alexandrovna (1884-1941) – Joined the SRs in 1906. She was arrested after assassinating a security official. Freed from prison in 1917 after the February Revolution, she joined the Left SRs after October and sided with Lenin and the Bolsheviks.

Steklov, Yuri Mikhailovich (1873- 1941) – Joined the RSDLP in 1893. He sided with the Bolsheviks after the Second Congress of the RSDLP (1903). Wrote for Sotsial-Demokrat, Zvezda and Pravda from 1907-14. Editor of Izvestia after the October Revolution.

Stolypin, Pyotr Arkadyevich (1862-1911) – One of the largest feudal landowners and Russian Minister of the Interior, later Prime Minister in the period of counter-revolutionary terror after the 1905 Revolution. He initiated agrarian reforms of private land ownership to the rich peasants. Stolypin was assassinated in 1911.

Ströbel, Heinrich (1869-1944) – SPD member; Editor-in-chief of Vorwärts during the war, and member of the Internationale group.

Struve, Peter Berngardovich (1870-1944) – Russian political economist, philosopher, historian and editor. He started his career as a Marxist, later became a liberal and after the Bolshevik Revolution joined the White movement.

Südekum, Albert (1871-1944) – SPD Reichstag member and social-chauvinist.

Tereshchenko, Mykhailo Ivanovych (1886-1956) – Cadet who was a major Ukrainian landowner, proprietor of several sugar factories, and financier. Minister of Foreign Affairs in the reconstructed Provisional Government following Milyukov’s resignation.

Thalheimer, August (1884-1948) – SPD member and Chief Editor in Göppingen in 1909. He was a member of the Internationale group and was active in the Spartacus League during the war. Thalheimer was conscripted during 1916-18, and played an important role in the 1918 November Revolution in Stuttgart.

Thiers, Adolphe (1797-1877) – French politician, journalist, and revisionist historian. First president of the Third Republic (1871-73). Thiers was noted for his brutality in crushing all popular rebellions against the monarchy, particularly at Duchesse de Berry in 1832 and of the Republicans in 1834. He later assisted Louis Napoleon Bonaparte in 1848 to attain the throne, and became a deputy under his government in the Second Empire. In May 1871, Thiers sent French soldiers, with the support of the Germans, into Paris to brutally destroy the Paris Commune.

Thomas, Albert (1878-1932) – Joined the French Socialist Party in 1902 and became leader of its right wing. A deputy in parliament from 1910, he supported the French war effort and became the Minister for Munitions from 1916-17.

Tolstoy, Leo (1828-1910) – Russian author who developed a religious doctrine based on Christian anarchism and pacifism.

Treves, Claudio (1869-1933) – Founding member of the Italian Socialist Party in 1892 and a colleague of Turati. He was editor of Avanti! in 1910-12 and a parliamentary deputy 1906-26. In 1917, Treves became a supporter of Italy’s national defence through to the end of the war.

Troelstra, Pieter (1860-1930) – Leader of the Dutch Socialist Party from 1894-1924. He made an unsuccessful bid for power during a mass workers’ uprising in November 1918.

Trotsky, Leon (Lev Davidovich Bronstein) (1879-1940) – Ukrainian-born revolutionary who joined the socialist movement in 1897. Growing close to Lenin in his youth, he ended up supporting the Mensheviks at the RSDLP Congress in 1903, upset at Lenin’s sharp approach. He vacillated amongst the various groups during the period of reaction after 1905, but consistently took an internationalist position. Edited the daily internationalist paper Nashe Slovo in Paris during the war. A supporter of the Zimmerwald Left. Trotsky in 1917 recognised the impossibility of unity with the left-wing of the Mensheviks and formally joined the Bolsheviks, where he was very quickly elected to the Central Committee. Together with Lenin, he was one of the main leaders of the Russian revolution and went on to organise the Red Army.

Tsereteli, Irakli (1881-1959) – Menshevik who became a minister in Kerensky’s Provisional Government.

Turati, Filippo (1857-1932) – One of the founders and leaders of the Italian Socialist Party. As the party started radicalising to the left in 1912, he emerged as the leading figure of the reformist minority, advocating a collaboration with the liberals and opposing the idea of proletarian revolution.

Vaillant-Couturier, Paul (1892-1937) – Lawyer who joined the French Socialist Party as a soldier in 1916. He was jailed for anti-war articles in 1918. Editor for l’Humanité and later editor-in-chief.

Vandervelde, Émile (1866-1938) – Leader of the Belgian Workers’ Party and chairman of the Brussels office of the Second International from 1900-14. Member of Belgian Council of Ministers 1916-21.

Volodarsky, V (1891-1918) – Joined the Bund in 1905, before joining the Mensheviks. Exiled in 1911, he lived in Archangel and then Philadelphia. Volodarsky returned to Russia in May 1917 and joined the Mezhraiontsy. This group joined the Bolsheviks in July and he quickly became one of the best agitators in the party, focusing his work around the Putilov Ironworks. He was assassinated by a member of the SRs in June 1918.

Webb, Sidney (1859-1947) and Beatrice (1858-1943) – Founders of the Fabian Society and the major British exponents of reformism.

Kaiser Willhelm II, Friedrich Albert (1859-1941) – Emperor of Germany 1888-1918. He fled to the Netherlands following the November 1918 revolution.

Wurm, Emanuel (1857-1930) – SPD Reichstag member and editor of Die Neue Zeit alongside Kaustky.

Zasulich, Vera (1851-1919) – Russian socialist who joined the Narodniks as a young student. She was a member of the editorial board of Iskra alongside Lenin and Plekhanov. After the split in the Russian Social-Democratic Party she soon went over to the Mensheviks. During the war she was a social chauvinist and later held a hostile attitude to the Soviet Government.

Zetkin, Clara (1857-1933) – Joined the German socialist movement in 1878 and was a co-founder of Second International in 1889. A leader of its Marxist wing and close associate of Rosa Luxemburg in the SPD left wing she organised the internationalist conference of socialist women in 1915 before joining the German Communist Party (KPD) in 1919.

Zinoviev, Grigorii Evseyevich (1883-1936) – Founding member of the Bolshevik Party, Lenin’s closest collaborator in exile before and during the war.

Groups, periodicals and other terms

Appeal to Reason – Newspaper published by the American socialists, founded in Girard, Kansas, in 1895. It had no official connections with the Socialist Party of America, but it propagated socialist ideas and enjoyed wide popularity among the workers. The paper took up an internationalist position in the First World War.

Avanti! – Central Organ of the Socialist Party of Italy.

Basel Conference – The Basel Congress of the Second International was held on 24-25 November 1912. It was the extraordinary congress called in connection with the Balkan War and the imminent European war. The Congress adopted a manifesto emphasising the imperialist nature of the approaching world war, and called on the socialists of all countries to wage a vigorous struggle against war.

Berner Tagwacht (Berne Reveille) – Organ of the Social-Democratic Party of Switzerland, published in Berne from 1893.

Bernsteinism – An opportunist trend in German and International Social-Democracy hostile to Marxism. It emerged in Germany at the end of the nineteenth century, and got its name from Eduard Bernstein, a German Social-Democrat, who tried to revise Marx’s revolutionary theory on the lines of bourgeois liberalism. Among his supporters in Russia were the legal Marxists, the Economists, the Bund and the Mensheviks.

Birzheviye Vedomosti (Stock-Exchange Recorder) – Daily published in St. Petersburg from 1880. Its abbreviated name Birzhevka’ became a generic term for the unscrupulous and venal bourgeois press.

Bolsheviks – The revolutionary faction in the RSDLP. The word Bolshevik means ‘majority’ in Russian, a reference to the fact that the Bolsheviks made up a majority at the 1903 Congress. They defended the class independence of the working class in relation to bourgeois parties, implacable firmness in questions of theory, as well as tactical and organisational flexibility.

Brentanoism – A bourgeois reformist theory which “recognised the ‘school of capitalism’, but rejected the school of the revolutionary class struggle”, as Lenin explained. Lujo Brentano, a German bourgeois economist and advocate of so-called ‘State Socialism’, tried to prove that it was possible to achieve social equality within the capitalist system by means of reforms and the conciliation of the interests of the capitalists and the workers. Under the cloak of Marxist phraseology, Brentano and his followers tried to subordinate the working-class movement to the interests of the bourgeoisie.

British Socialist Party (BSP) – Formed in 1911, the British Socialist Party conducted Marxist propaganda and agitation and was described by Lenin as “not opportunist,” and as “really independent of the Liberals.” Its small membership and isolation from the masses lent the party a somewhat sectarian character.

Bund – The General Union of Jewish Workers in Lithuania, Poland and Russia, or the Bund, was a secular Jewish socialist party formed in Tsarist Russia aiming to organise Jewish workers. It affiliated to the RSDLP from 1898-1903 and sided with the Mensheviks from 1906.

Cadets – A bourgeois liberal party in tsarist Russia, founded 1905. They advocated for constitutional monarchy, opposed the October Revolution and supported the Whites in the Civil War.

CGT – See General Confederation of Labour.

Copenhagen Congress – The Copenhagen Congress of the Second International was held between 28 August and 3 September 1910, the RSDLP being represented by Lenin, Plekhanov, Lunacharsky and others. The Congress’ resolution ‘The Struggle Against Militarism and War’ confirmed the Stuttgart Congress’ resolution on ‘Militarism and International Conflicts’, which included amendments by Lenin and Rosa Luxemburg calling on the socialists of all countries to use the crisis the war would bring to overthrow their own bourgeoisie.

Die Neue Zeit (New Times) – Theoretical organ of the German Social-Democratic Party (SPD), published in Stuttgart from 1883 to 1923.

De Tribune – Organ of the Left wing of the Social-Democratic Labour Party of Holland.

Duma – During the reign of Nicholas II the State Duma was the name given to the national parliament, which only had an advisory role. There were also local dumas, the equivalent of local councils.

Economists, Economism – A tendency that theoretically limited the aspirations of the working class to an economic struggle for higher wages and better working conditions, asserting that further political struggle was the business of the liberal bourgeoisie. They denied the vanguard role of a party with the working class, considering that the party should merely observe the spontaneous process of the movement and register events. Lenin thoroughly tackles this tendency in his classic text What is to be Done?

Fabians – Members of the Fabian Society, a British reformist organisation founded in 1884.

French Socialist Party – Founded in 1905 by the merger of the Socialist Party of France led by Guesde and the French Socialist Party led by Jaurès. Dominated by reformists, the party adopted a chauvinist position from the very start of the imperialist war. Its leaders openly supported the war and justified participation in the bourgeois government.

General Confederation of Labour (Confédération Générale du Travail) (CGT) (French) – Founded in 1895, strongly influenced by anarcho-syndicalists and reformists. Its leaders recognised only economic struggle, opposed the proletarian party’s leadership of the trade union movement, sided with the imperialist bourgeoisie in the First World War and advocated class collaboration and ‘defence of the fatherland’.

Gleichheit, Die (Equality) – A Social-Democratic fortnightly journal, organ of the German women’s movement (it later became the organ of the international women’s movement), published in Stuttgart from 1890 to 1925 and edited by Clara Zetkin from 1892 to 1917.

Grütlianer – A newspaper published for Swiss émigrés.

Independent Labour Party (ILP) – Formed in 1893 under such leaders as Keir Hardie and Ramsay MacDonald. At the beginning of the imperialist world war (1914-18) the Independent Labour Party issued a manifesto against the war on 13 August 1914, but later, at the London Conference of Entente Socialists in February 1915, its representatives supported the social-chauvinist resolution adopted by that conference. From that time onward the ILP leaders, under cover of pacifist phrases, continued their social-chauvinist position.

International Socialist Bureau (ISB) – The executive body of the Second International, established by decision of the Paris Congress of 1900. Lenin was the RSDLP representative on the ISB from 1905 until June 1914, after which Litvinov represented the RSDLP, on Lenin’s proposal. When the First World War broke out, the ISB became a pliable tool in the hands of the social-chauvinists.

Internationale, Die (The International) – The Internationale group, who produced the organ Die Internationale, was an internationalist sub-group within the German SPD, formed by Karl Liebknecht, Rosa Luxemburg, Franz Mehring, Clara Zetkin and others at the beginning of the First World War. Soon after, the group denounced the SPD, and formed the Spartacus League (the Spartacists).

Internationale Korrespondenz – A weekly newspaper run by German social-chauvinists which dealt with problems of international politics and the working-class movement. Published in Berlin from 1914 to 1917.

Iskra (The Spark) – The first all-Russian illegal Marxist newspaper, founded by Lenin in 1900. It played a decisive part in the establishment of the revolutionary Marxist party of the working class. Soon after the Second Congress of the RSDLP, the Mensheviks, helped by Plekhanov, gained control of Iskra from issue No. 52 onwards.

Izvestia (News) – A daily of the Petrograd Soviet of Workers’ and Soldiers’ Deputies which first appeared on 28 February (13 March), 1917. The newspaper was controlled by the Mensheviks and Socialist-Revolutionaries for many months, and it often attacked the Bolshevik Party. From 27 October (9 November), 1917, after the Second All-Russia Congress of Soviets, Izvestia became the official organ of the Soviet Government.

Izvestia Vserossiiskogo Soveta Krestyanskikh Deputatov (News of the All-Russia Soviet of Peasants’ Deputies) – A daily newspaper, the official organ of the All-Russia Soviet of Peasants’ Deputies, published in Petrograd from May to December 1917. It expressed the views of the Right wing of the Socialist-Revolutionary Party.

Jugend-Internationale – Organ of the International League of Socialist Youth Organisations.

Kienthal Conference – Held between 24-30 April 1916, this conference was an international meeting of socialists against the war, continuing on the process of clarification and organisation from the Zimmerwald Conference.

l’Humanité – Daily French socialist newspaper founded in 1904 by Jean Jaurès. It was controlled by the socialist right wing during the First World War and followed a chauvinist policy.

La Bataille (The Battle) – Organ of the French anarcho-syndicalists who also adopted a social-chauvinist position in the First World War.

Labour Leader – A weekly newspaper founded in 1891. Organ of the ILP from 1893.

Leipziger Volkszeitung (The Leipzig People’s Paper) – Organ of the Left wing of the German Social-Democratic Party. Published daily from 1894 to 1933. Franz Mehring and Rosa Luxemburg were members of its editorial board. From 1917 to 1922 the Leipziger Volkszeitung was the organ of the USPD. In 1922 it became the organ of the Right-wing Social-Democrats.

Liquidationists, liquidators – A set of tendencies within the RSDLP after the 1905 Revolution, where the question of the combining of legal and illegal work came under contention. The Liquidators were split between the ‘lefts’, who fetishised illegal work, and the ‘right’, chiefly the Mensheviks, who insisted on solely using legal methods of struggle. These tendencies expressed the mood of impatience caused by the period of reaction. Lenin for some considerable time waged a ruthless struggle against both of these tendencies.

The London Conference of Socialists of the ‘allied countries’ of the Triple Entente – A conference that met on 14 February 1915. Its delegates represented the social-chauvinists and the pacifist groups of the Socialist parties of Britain, France, Belgium, as well as the Russian Mensheviks and Socialist-Revolutionaries.

Luch (The Ray) – The daily newspaper of the liquidator-Mensheviks, published legally in St. Petersburg from September 1912 to July 1913. As Lenin pointed out, it was maintained “by funds provided by rich friends among the bourgeoisie”.

Mensheviks – The opposition faction in the Russian Social-Democratic Labour Party (RSDLP). The word Menshevik means ‘minority’ in Russian. They pursued a policy of class collaboration with the bourgeoisie.

Millerandism (or ‘ministerial socialism’, or else Ministerialism) – The opportunist tactic of socialists’ participation in reactionary bourgeois governments, named after the French Socialist Millerand who joined the bourgeois French government of Waldeck-Rousseau in 1899.

Mysl, Rabochaya (Worker’s Thought) – Organ of the Economist tendency, published from 1897-1902.

Narodniks – A revolutionary movement active in the 1860s and ’70s, led by students and the intelligentsia. Believing the peasantry was the revolutionary class that would overthrow the monarchy, they regarded the village commune as the embryo of socialism. This tactic eventually proved to be a dead end, which provoked the movement to enter into crisis. Out of this movement emerged the Narodnaya Volya (People’s Will) group, which advocated the methods of individual terror. However, Lenin recognised the revolutionary dedication of the early Narodniks and it was out of this movement and through the struggles against it that the early Russian Marxists were formed.

Nasha Zarya (Our Dawn) – Legal monthly paper of the Menshevik liquidators.

Nashe Slovo (Our Word) – A Russian language socialist internationalist paper published daily in Paris from January 1915 to September 1916, after the military authorities banned Golos. One of the main editors of the paper was Trotsky, who attended the Zimmerwald conference as its representative. Other editors were Martov (who broke with it in 1915), Manuilsky, Lozovski, Uritski, Chicherin and Antonov-Ovseyenko. The Bulgarian Christian Rakovsky helped finance the paper.

Neues Leben (New Life) – Monthly journal of the Swiss Social-Democratic Party, published in Berne from January 1915 to December 1917. It expressed the views of the Zimmerwald Right and early in 1917 took up a social-chauvinist position.

Novosti – Daily Socialist-Revolutionary Party newspaper published in Paris from August 1914 to May 1915.

Octobrists – The League of October Seventeenth was a counter-revolutionary party of the big merchants, industrialists and big landowners who ran their estates on capitalist lines.

Organising Committee (OC) – The Mensheviks’ governing centre, formed at the August conference of Menshevik liquidators and all anti-Party groups and trends in 1912.

Otzovists – A tendency which demanded the recall of the Social-Democratic deputies from the Third Duma (1906-12) and the cessation of activities in legal organisations such as the trade unions, the cooperatives, etc.

Pravda – Legal Bolshevik daily published in St. Petersburg, founded in April 1912. Pravda was a popular working-class newspaper, published with money collected by the workers themselves. Lenin directed Pravda from exile abroad, writing for the paper almost daily. He gave instructions to the editorial board, and rallied the Party’s best literary forces around the newspaper.

Preussische Jahrbücher (Prussian Yearbook) – A conservative monthly of the German capitalists and landowners published in Berlin from 1858 to 1935.

Proletarsky Golos (Proletarian Voice) – Organ of the St. Petersburg Committee of the RSDLP, published underground from February 1915 to December 1916. Four issues appeared. Its first issue published the manifesto of the Central Committee of the RSDLP, entitled ‘The War and Russian Social-Democracy’.

Provisional Government – The Russian government established after the February Revolution of 1917, which lasted until the October Revolution of 1917.

Rabochy (The Worker) – The Central Organ of the Bolshevik Party published daily from 25 August (7 September) to 2 (15) September 1917 instead of Pravda, which was closed down by the Provisional Government.

Rech (Speech) – Central Organ of the Cadet Party. Published from 1906 until it was shut down by the Petrograd Soviet on 8 November 1917.

Russian Social-Democratic Labour Party (RSDLP) – The Russian Marxist party formed in 1898 in Minsk. It united the various isolated revolutionary groups in Russia into a single, unified party based on the principles of Marxism. At its Second Congress, the party was divided into the Bolshevik and Menshevik factions. Until 1917, the Bolshevik Party went under the name, Russian Social-Democratic Labour Party (Bolsheviks), abbreviated as RSDLP(B).

Russkaya Volya (Russian Freedom) – A daily paper funded by the big banks in Moscow. It was printed from December 1916 until shortly after the November Revolution.

Shiroki (Broad) Socialists – An opportunist trend within the Bulgarian Social-Democratic Party.

Second International (or Socialist International) – Founded in 1889 as the successor to the First International that had been founded by Marx and Engels in 1864. In 1914, almost all national sections of the International supported ‘their own’ imperialist governments in the First World War, and the International collapsed.

Social-Democracy – All the revolutionary Marxists were called Social Democrats before the outbreak of the First World War in 1914. The name Social-Democracy was sullied by the fact the majority of the old leaders supported the war. It was in 1919, with the creation of the Communist Third International that the genuine Marxists began to call themselves Communists.

Social-Democratic Labour Group (Germany) – An organisation of German Centrists founded in March 1916 by Reichstag members who had broken with the Social-Democratic Reichstag group. It had the support of the majority of the Berlin organisation and became the backbone of the Independent Social-Democratic Party of Germany (USPD), founded in April 1917. The new party sought to justify avowed social-chauvinists and advocated preservation of unity with them.

Socialist-Revolutionary Party (SRs) – A petty-bourgeois party founded in Russia in late 1901 and early 1902 as a result of the amalgamation of various Narodnik groups and circles. Their views were an eclectic hodgepodge of Narodnik and revisionist ideas.

Sotsial-Demokrat – Central organ of the RSDLP, published as an underground newspaper from February 1908 to January 1917. It featured more than eighty articles and other items by Lenin, who became its editor in December 1911.

Sovremenny Mir (The Contemporary World) – A literary, scientific and political monthly published in St. Petersburg from 1906 to 1918. The Mensheviks, including Plekhanov, were frequent contributors. Bolsheviks also contributed to the magazine during the period of the bloc with Plekhanov’s group of pro-Party Mensheviks. During the war, it became the organ of the social-chauvinists.

Sozialistische Monatshefte (Socialist Monthly) – Chief organ of the German Social-Democratic opportunists and an organ of international opportunism. During the First World War it took a social-chauvinist stand.

Tesnyaki (‘Narrow’) – The revolutionary tendency of the Social-Democratic Labour Party of Bulgaria, formed in 1903 after a breakaway from the Social-Democratic Party. Dimitr Blagoyev, founder and leader of the Tesnyaki, was succeeded by his followers Georgi Dimitrov and Vasil Kolarov. During 1914-18, the Tesnyaki opposed the imperialist war. In 1919 it affiliated to the Communist International and formed the Communist Party of Bulgaria.

Tribunists – Left group in the Social-Democratic Labour Party of Holland which in 1907 published the newspaper De Tribune. In 1909, the Tribunists were expelled from the Social-Democratic Labour Party of Holland and organised an independent party (the Social-Democratic Party of Holland). The Tribunists were not a consistently revolutionary party, but they represented the Left wing of the working-class movement of Holland. In 1918 the Tribunists formed the Communist Party of Holland.

Trudoviks – A revolutionary group of peasants and intellectuals supporting a revolutionary agrarian program for the peasantry, to fully integrate them into a capitalist Russia. Most Trudoviks took a social-chauvinist position to the war.

Ultimatumists – A variant of Otzovism.

Volksrecht (People’s Right) – Daily organ of the Swiss Social-Democratic Party founded in Zürich.

Vorwärts (Forwards) – Central Organ of the German Social-Democratic Party, published daily in Berlin from 1891 to 1933. Engels wrote for Vorwärts. In Russia, it backed the Economists and then, after the split in the Party, the Mensheviks. During the First World War, Vorwärts took a social-chauvinist stand, its later articles were against the October Revolution.

Yedinstvo – A small group of extreme right Menshevik defencists. It was organised in March 1917, headed by Plekhanov and others. The Yedinstvo group denied the possibility of a victorious socialist revolution in Russia and supported the Provisional Government. It stood for the war being carried on to ‘complete victory’ and often hounded the Bolsheviks for their internationalist stand.

Zimmerwald Conference – The first conference of internationalist socialists, held in Zimmerwald, Switzerland, on 5-8 September 1915. A struggle flared up at the conference between the Kautskyite centrist majority and the revolutionary internationalists headed by Lenin. At the conference, Lenin organised the internationalists into the Zimmerwald Left group.

Zimmerwald Left – Formed by Lenin at the first socialist conference of internationalists at Zimmerwald, Switzerland, in early September 1915. It was, Lenin said, the first step in the development of the internationalist movement against the war. The group also included a number of inconsistent internationalists.