Glossary

People

Axelrod, Pavel (1850-1928) – One of the founders of the Russian Emancipation of Labour group. After the Second Congress of the RSDLP he became a leading Menshevik.

Bauer, Otto (1881-1938) – The most prominent leader of the Austrian Social-Democratic Party. Prior to the First World War, Bauer was the secretary of the parliamentary faction of the SDAPÖ. He was the author of a number of books on the national and colonial questions. During the war, Bauer held a centrist position. In 1919 he became Minister of Foreign Affairs in the coalition government set up after the overthrow of the Habsburgs. Together with Friedrich Adler and others, Bauer participated both in creating the Two-and-a-half International and in fusing it with the Second International in 1923. He was a major theoretician of ‘Austro-Marxism.’

Chkheidze, Nikolai (1864-1926) – Georgian Menshevik. President of the EC of the Soviet of Petrograd until September 1917.

Chkhenkeli, Akaki (1874-1959) – Georgian Menshevik.

Cunow, Heinrich (1862-1936) – Member of the SPD and a social-chauvinist who argued that backward nations should be denied the right to self-determination in the face of more advanced, ‘progressive’ imperialist nations.

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

Dontsov, Dmytro (1883-1973) – Ukrainian nationalist. Started his political activity as a member of the Ukrainian Social-Democratic Worker’s Party (USDRP). Became a fascist in the inter-war period.

Dragomanov, Mykhailo (1841-1895) – Ukrainian historian, ethnographer and publicist.

Fotieva, Lydia (1881-1945) – One of Lenin’s personal secretaries.

Gvozdev, Kuzma (1859-1932) – Menshevik, on the Petrograd Soviet EC from February. Minister of Labour in the third Provisional Government.

Haecker, Emil (1875-1934) – Polish historian, member of the Social-Democratic Party of Galicia and Silesia, and Editor-in-Chief of Naprzód.

Hanecki, Yakov (born Jakub Fürstenberg) (1879-1937) – Polish Marxist, member of the SDKPiL and close collaborator with Lenin.

Hankiewicz, Mikolaj (1869-1931) – Ukrainian Social-Democrat and founder of the Ukrainian Social-Democratic Party.

Hindenburg, Paul von (1847-1934) – Prominent General who spent nearly fifty years in the Imperial German Army. He served in the Franco-Prussian war, was present at the crushing of the Paris Commune, and came out of retirement to lead the army during the First World War, becoming the Chief of the General Staff in 1916. He would later go on to be the last President of Germany, until his death and Hitler’s rise to power in 1933.

Kamenev, Lev (1883-1936) – Joined the Bolshevik faction in 1903, elected to the CC in 1907. After the February Revolution, Kamenev sided with Zinoviev and Stalin and pursued a policy of conciliation with the Provisional Government. In October, Kamenev and Zinoviev went to the public press and disclosed the plans for an insurrection, for which Lenin called for their immediate expulsion. Executed in 1936 during the Great Purges.

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 (1881-1970) – Lawyer and nominal member of the SRs. After the February Revolution, he became the outstanding representative of petty-bourgeois conciliationism, first as Minister of Justice, then as War Minister. Kerensky then headed the Provisional Government from July-October 1917, at which point he fled the country.

Kokoshkin, Fyodor (1841-1895) – A founding member of the Cadets.

Kolyubakin, Aleksandr (1868-1915) – A Cadet and Member of the Third Duma.

Kosovsky, Vladimir (born Levinson, Nokhem Mendel) (1867-1941) – A leading Bundist.

Lafargue, Paul (1842–1911) – French Marxist and Marx’s son-in-law.

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

Liber, Mikhail (born Goldman) (1880-1937) – A leader of the Bund and a leading Menshevik.

Longuet, Jean (1876-1938) – French lawyer and socialist who in the First World War held a pacifist position but invariably voted for war credits.

Lopatin, German (1845-1918) – An early Russian Marxist and friend of Marx and Engels. Member of the General Council of the First International.

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 the Spartacus group. In prison for most of the war, she was murdered during the Spartacist Uprising in January 1919.

Martov, Yuri (Julius) (1873-1913) – A leading Menshevik, on its Left wing. He advocated against Mensheviks joining the Provisional Government. He strongly criticised Mensheviks such as Irakli Tsereteli and Fyodor Dan who, as members of the Russian government, supported the war effort.

Martynov, Alexandr (1865-1935) – Right-wing Menshevik before 1917. Strong advocate of the two stage theory. Joined the Communist Party in 1923, and became an opponent of the Left Opposition. Chief architect of the Stalinist theories used to justify subordinating the workers to the ‘progressive’ bourgeoisie, including the concept of the “bloc of four classes”.

Mazzini, Giuseppe (1805-1872) – Italian nationalist and republican who played a leading role in the bourgeois revolutionary movement.

Mdivani, Polikarp (1877-1937) – Leading Georgian Bolshevik, leading the opposition to Stalin’s centralising policies during the ‘Georgian Affair’ in 1922. Executed during the Great Purges.

Mehring, Franz (1846-1919) – Franz Mehring was a German communist, historian and art critic who was a veteran of the SPD and later the KPD. He was in correspondence with Engels and edited various papers including Die Neue Zeit. He played a leading role alongside Rosa Luxemburg and Karl Liebknecht in founding the Spartacus League.

Mogilyansky, Mikhail (1873-1942) – A leading Cadet, on its CC from 1907-1917. He was a lawyer and journalist who wrote for Rech.

Nekrasov, Nikolai (1879-1940) – A founder and leader of the Cadets. Transportation Minister in the first and Vice-president and Minister of Finance in the second Provisional Government. Supported Kornilov’s revolt.

Ordzhonikidze, Sergo (born Orjonikidze, Grigol Konstantines dze) (1886-1937) – Georgian Bolshevik who joined the RSDLP and Bolsheviks in 1903. Close collaborator with Stalin. Appointed Commissar for the Ukraine, helped establish Soviet power in Ukraine. Played an active role as the leading Bolshevik in the Caucasus. Was appointed President of the Central Control Commission, responsible for expelling the Left Opposition from the party. Allegedly committed suicide during the purges.

Parvus, Alexander (born Gelfand, Israel) (Helphand) (1867-1924) – A Russian-German Social-Democrat, member of the SPD. During the Russian Revolution of 1905, he was active on the left wing of the Russian movement. He then fled to Germany where he settled. His credentials as a revolutionary were tainted by numerous scandals and business ventures that made him a wealthy war profiteer and his allegiances questionable.

Plekhanov, Georgi (1856-1918) – The founder of Russian Marxism and a leading member of the RSDLP. After joining the Menshevik faction in 1903, he became extremely hostile to Lenin and the Bolsheviks. He took a defencist, social-chauvinist position in the war. He initially opposed the February Revolution on the grounds that it disorganised the war effort, before supporting the Provisional Government.

Proudhon, Pierre-Joseph (1809-1865) – French petty-bourgeois anarchist.

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.

Pyatakov, Georgy (pseudonym Kievsky) (1890-1937) – Ukrainian revolutionary and member of the Bolsheviks. chairman of the provisional Ukrainian workers and peasants’ government formed at Kursk in November 1918, but was replaced by Christian Rakovsky, a Bolshevik, in the Kharkov-based Ukrainian Soviet government. Executed in 1937 during the Great Purges.

Renaudel, Pierre (1871-1935) – Leading French right-wing social-democrat; leader of the Socialist Party of France and editor of l’Humanité.

Renner, Karl (1870-1950) – Austrian social-democrat. Right-wing leader of Austrian SDP; Austrian chancellor 1918-20.

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

Ruge, Arnold (1802-1880) – German philosopher and associated with the Young Hegelians alongside Marx, Engels, Ludwig Feuerbach and others.

Rykov, Alexei (1881-1938) – Joined the RSDLP at the age of eighteen in 1899 and the Bolsheviks in 1903. He was Commissar of the Interior and later Chairman of the CPC after Lenin’s death. He was executed in 1938 in the purges.

Scheidemann, Philipp (1865-1939) – Leader of the extreme right-wing section of the German SPD.

Sokolnikov, Grigorii (1888-1939) – Bolshevik who joined in 1905. He was a leading figure in Moscow in 1917 and a member of the CC. Commissar for Finance. Executed in 1939 in the purges.

Stirner, Max (1806-1856) – German anarchist philosopher, close to the Young Hegelians.

Struve, Peter (1870-1944) – Russian political economist, philosopher, historian and editor. He started his career as a Marxist, and exponent of ‘legal Marxism’. He later became a liberal and leader of the Cadets. After the October Revolution he joined the White movement.

Prince Trubetskoy, Yevgeny (1863-1920) – Russian nobleman, lawyer and Cadet.

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.

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.

Kaiser Wilhelm II (1859-1941) – The last German Emperor and King of Prussia, from 1888 until his abdication in 1918 after the November Revolution.

Yurkevich, Lev (1883-1919) – A founding member of the Ukrainian Social-Democratic Workers Party (USDRP), a reformist, nationalist party in the Second International.

Zhordania, Noe (1868-1953) – Georgian Menshevik who took a social-chauvinist position in the war. He was an opponent of the October Revolution. He was elected chairman of the Tiflis Soviet in 1917, President of the Georgian Menshevik government in 1918-21, before being exiled in France from 1921.

Zinoviev, Grigory (1883-1936) – Joined the Bolshevik faction in 1903, elected to the CC in 1907. Lenin’s closest collaborator in exile before and during the First World War. After the February Revolution, Zinoviev sided with Kamenev and Stalin and pursued a policy of conciliation with the Provisional Government. Zinoviev and Kamenev went to the public press and disclosed the plans for an insurrection in October, for which Lenin called for their immediate expulsion. Executed in 1936 during the Great Purges.

Groups, periodicals and other terms

Arbeiterstimme (Worker’s Voice) – Central organ of the Bund from 1897 to 1905.

Basmachi – A movement of Islamic rebels who rose up against conscription into the tsarist army during the First World War. The movement later flared up again in 1918 against Soviet rule.

Beilis case – In 1913 the tsar’s government staged a trial of Menahem Beilis, a Jewish man falsely accused of the ritual murder of a Christian boy. The murder was actually committed by the Black Hundreds. The government’s aim was to stir up antisemitism and take advantage of anti-Jewish pogroms to divert the people’s attention from the revolutionary movement growing throughout the country. The trial aroused public indignation. In a number of towns, workers held protest demonstrations. Beilis was eventually acquitted.

Bernsteinism – Eduard Bernstein was a 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, derived its name from his ideas.

Birzhevka (abb.), Birzhevyie Vedomosti (Stock-Exchange Recorder) – A bourgeois daily published in St. Petersburg from 1880. Its abbreviated name, ‘Birzhevka’ became a generic term for the unscrupulous and venal bourgeois press.

Black-Hundred, Black Hundreds (Union of the Russian People) – Ultra-reactionary terrorist bands, loyal to the tsar, responsible for state-sanctioned pogroms against Jews and social-democrats.

Bulletin of the International Socialist Committee – The Bulletin of the International Socialist Committee in Berne was published by the executive of the Zimmerwald organisation, an organisation of socialists who took a revolutionary, anti-imperialist and anti-war stance after the majority of the Second International lent its support to their own nation’s bourgeoisie in the First World War. It was, Lenin said, the first step in the development of the internationalist movement against the war.

Bund – See General Jewish Workers’ Union of Lithuania, Poland and Russia.

Cadets – Abbreviated name for the Constitutional-Democratic Party, 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

Chartism – A mass revolutionary movement in Britain in the 1840s.

Der Čechoslavische Sozialdemokrat (The Czechoslovak Social-Democrat) – The German-language paper of the Czech social-democrats.

Die Glocke (The Bell) – A magazine published by Parvus. Lensch was an editor. The magazine put forward a social-chauvinist position, arguing that socialists should support the German war effort.

Dyen (Day) – A daily newspaper of a liberal-bourgeois trend, published in St. Petersburg from 1912. Among its contributors were Menshevik liquidators, who took over complete control of the paper after February 1917.

Dzvin (The Bell) – A Ukrainian language nationalist journal with a Menshevik trend, published in Kiev from January 1913 to the middle of 1914.

Economism – An opportunist trend in Russian Social-Democracy at the turn of the century. The Economists limited the tasks of the working-class movement to the economic struggle for higher wages, better working conditions etc., maintaining that the political struggle should be left to the liberal bourgeoisie.

Fabian Society – A British reformist organisation founded in 1884.

Fenianism – Referring to the revolutionary movement for Irish independence.

Gazeta Robotnicza (Worker’s Gazette) – The illegal paper of the Warsaw Committee of the Social-Democratic Party of Poland and Lithuania.

General Jewish Workers’ Union of Lithuania, Poland and Russia (The Bund) – A secular Jewish socialist party initially formed in the Russian Empire and active between 1897 and 1920. Opposed Zionism. Sided with the Menshevik faction of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party. The majority faction of the Russian Bund was dissolved in 1921 and incorporated into the Communist Party.

Hohenzollern – The House of Hohenzollern was the royal dynasty which ruled Germany. It was overthrown in the November Revolution of 1918 where Kaiser Wilhelm II was forced to abdicate.

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.

JSLP (Jewish Socialist Labour Party) – A petty-bourgeois nationalist organisation, founded in 1906.

Junkers – Members of the landed nobility in Prussia and subsequently Germany.

Kievskaya Mysl (Kiev Thought) – A Russian paper aligned with the intelligentsia.

La Petite République (The Little Republic) – Organ of the French reformist socialists.

Libre Belgique (Free Belgium) – An illegal journal of the Belgian Labour Party, Brussels (1915-18).

Liquidators, liquidationists – 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. Lenin for some considerable time waged a ruthless struggle against both of these tendencies.

Mazeppists – Moniker for Ukrainian nationalists, named after Ivan Stepanovych Mazepa, who attempted to separate Ukraine from Russia through a treaty with Sweden, but was defeated by Tsar Peter I at the Battle of Poltava.

Mensheviks – Originated as the opposition faction in the RSDLP. They pursued a policy of class collaboration with the bourgeoisie. Their leading body was the Organising Committee (OC).

Naprzód (Forward) – central organ of the Social-Democratic Party of Galicia and Silesia, published in Kraków beginning with 1892. The newspaper, which was a vehicle of petty-bourgeois nationalist ideas, was described by Lenin as “a very bad, and not at all Marxist organ”.

Narodnik – Members of the Narodnaya Volya, a revolutionary movement active in the 1860s and 70s, led by students and the intelligentsia, who believed the peasantry was the revolutionary class that would overthrow the monarchy. They regarded the village commune as the embryo of socialism.

Narodowa Demokracja (National Democracy) – A reactionary, chauvinist party of the Polish bourgeoisie, founded in 1897.

Nash Golos (Our Voice) – A Menshevik social-chauvinist newspaper.

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

Nashe Dyelo (Our Cause) – A journal of the Mensheviks, which succeeded Nasha Zarya.

Nashe Slovo (Our Cause) – An Internationalist daily paper published in Paris from January 1915 to September 1916. Trotsky was the main editor and attended the Zimmerwald Conference as a representative of Nashe Slovo. The paper was banned by the French authorities on 15 September 1916 and Trotsky was ordered to leave France.

Nauchnaya Mysl (Scientific Thought) – Journal of a Menshevik trend.

Die Neue Rheinische Zeitung (The New Rhenish Gazette) – Paper of Marx and Engels, appeared in Cologne from 1 June 1848 until 19 May 1849. Marx and Engels were managers of this newspaper, Marx being editor-in-chief. As Lenin put it, the newspaper was “the best, the unsurpassed organ of the revolutionary proletariat”. It educated the masses, roused them to fight the counter-revolution, and made its influence felt throughout Germany. Because of its resolute and irreconcilable position and its militant internationalism, the Neue Rheinische Zeitung was from the first months of its existence persecuted by the feudal-monarchist and liberal-bourgeois press, and also by the government. Marx’s deportation by the Prussian Government and the repressive measures against its other editors led to the paper ceasing publication, with its famous last ‘red issue’ on 19 May 1849.

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

Novaya Rabochaya Gazeta (New Workers’ Paper) – A legal daily paper of the Menshevik liquidators.

Novoye Vremya (New Times) – A daily newspaper, published in St. Petersburg from 1868. In 1905 it became an organ of the Black Hundreds. Lenin called it a model of a corrupted newspaper.

Octobrists (The League of October Seventeenth) – Party of the big merchants, industrialists and big landowners who ran their estates on capitalist lines. Their name derives from their support for the tsar’s ‘October Manifesto’ in 1905.

Peredonov, Peredonovism – A character from Fyodor Sologub’s novel, The Petty Demon. A sadistic, hateful and nihilistic schoolteacher, his name became symbolic of this mentality. Lenin describes Peredonov as “a type of teacher-spy and dull lout”.

Political Bureau (abbreviated Politbureau or Politburo) – A body elected for the first time in October 1917 by the Central Committee of the party in order to give it day to day political leadership.

Posledniye Izvestia (Latest News) – A periodical bulletin issued by the Foreign Committee of the Bund from 1901 to 1906.

Pravda (Truth)– Main organ of the Bolsheviks.

Prosveshcheniye (Enlightenment) – A legal Bolshevik monthly journal.

Przedświt (Daybreak) – The magazine of the Polish Socialist Party.

Przegląd Socjaldemokratyczny (Social-Democratic Review) – The monthly journal of the Social-Democratic Party of the Kingdom of Poland and Lithuania (SDKPiL).

Polish Socialist Party (PSP) – A petty-bourgeois nationalist party, founded in 1892.

Rabochaya Mysl (Workers’ Thought) – A newspaper published by a group of Economists in Russia from October 1897 to December 1902.

Rech (Speech) – A daily newspaper and the central organ of the Cadet Party. It was published in St. Petersburg from February 1906.

Revolutsionnaya Rossiya (Revolutionary Russia) – A paper of the SRs.

Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic (RSFSR) – The state created after the October Revolution in Russia, which in 1922 became the largest republic in the USSR.

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, before forming separate parties in 1912. Until 1918, the Bolsheviks went under the name Russian Social-Democratic Labour Party (Bolsheviks), abbreviated as RSDLP(B).

Russkaya Molva (Russian Tidings) – A bourgeois daily paper that was the organ of the Progressists, founded in 1912.

Russkaya Mysl (Russian Thought) – A monthly magazine published by Struve, which while not formally affiliated, argued along the lines of the Cadets.

Russkoye Bogatstvo (Russian Wealth) – A monthly magazine of the liberal Narodniks.

Russkoye Slovo (Russian Word) – A daily newspaper, published in Moscow from 1895 to 1918. The paper defended the interests of the Russian bourgeoisie from a liberal platform.

Shlyakhi (Paths) – The organ of the Ukrainian Students’ Union, a nationalistic organisation, published in Lvov from April 1913 to March 1914.

Social-Democratic Party of Galicia and Silesia – A Social-Democratic Party that formed originally as a section of the Austrian Social-Democratic Party, later splitting away in 1907. Its work covered the region spanning the border between modern Poland and Ukraine.

Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) – Considered the leading party in the Second International, with over 1 million members in 1914. The near-unanimous vote for war credits amongst its members in the Reichstag at the opening of the First World War signified the death of the International.

Sotsial-Demokrat (The Social-Democrat) – An illegal paper published from 1908 to January 1917. The paper was run by Lenin and was the central organ of the RSDLP as a whole.

Spartacus League (Spartacists, Internationale Group) – The Internationale group, who produced the organ Die Internationale, was formed by the German Left social-democrats 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. They carried out propaganda among the masses against the imperialist war, exposing the aggressive policy of German imperialism and the treachery of the leaders of Social-Democracy. In 1917 they became affiliated to the centrist Independent Social-Democratic Party of Germany, preserving their organisational independence.

State 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.

Stirnerism – Referring to the individualist anarchism of Max Stirner, which emphasises self-interest and individual freedom, rejecting all forms of external authority and abstract ideals.

The New York Daily Tribune – An American newspaper published from 1841 to 1924. Until the 1850s it was the organ of the Left wing of the American Whigs, and thereafter the organ of the Republican Party. Karl Marx contributed to the paper from August 1851 to March 1862, and at his request Friedrich Engels wrote numerous articles for it.

The People’s Commissariat of the Workers’ and Peasants’ Inspection (Rabkrin, WPI) – A body set up in 1920 to scrutinise and maintain the effectiveness of the Soviet state and administration.

Der Vorbote (The Herald) – A German-language paper published in the Netherlands by Anton Pannekoek, a Dutch socialist, astronomer and member of the German SPD.

Vorwärts (Forwards) – The central organ of the German Social-Democratic Party, published daily in Berlin from 1891 to 1933.

Zarya (Dawn) – A Marxist scientific and political journal published in Stuttgart in 1901-02 by the editors of Iskra.