The spread of Marxism in Russia played a big role in the history of our state in the 20th century. It was on this ideology that the Bolshevik Party was founded, which after the October Revolution came to power. In this article, we will tell you how this movement was born in our country, what were the first Marxist organizations and their representatives.
Backstory
The spread of Marxism in Russia, in fact, was provoked by a split in the populist organization "Land and Freedom". This is a revolutionary secret society that has existed on the territory of our country since 1861. Chernyshevsky and Herzen were his first inspirations.
The organization was counting on a peasant uprising, which was planned to be staged together with the Polish revolutionaries. However, the authorities arrested the leaders of the movement, the Poles began the uprising ahead of schedule, and the liberal public refused to support them, believing inthe progressiveness of the reforms that have begun in the country. Hopes for a peasant revolt did not come true. As a result, in 1864, Land and Freedom self-liquidated.
The organization was restored in 1876, but already as a populist organization. She was guided by the slogans that came from among the peasants, and in her program she proclaimed the principles of collectivism and anarchism. Initially, the organization created rural settlements, agitated the peasants, calling it "going to the people." However, these methods have failed. Then the populists concentrated their main efforts on political terror.
There was a split between the leaders of "Land and Freedom". One of the activists, Georgy Plekhanov, headed the Black Redistribution group, and in 1880 he was forced to emigrate. Abroad, he got acquainted with the works of Marx, popular at that time, becoming an active propagandist of his teachings, one of the first representatives of Russian Marxism.
First Workers Organization
The very first organization of workers was created in Odessa by populist Yevgeny Osipovich Zaslavsky in 1876. It was called the "South Russian Union of Workers".
Odessa at that time was a dynamically developing industrial and commercial Russian city. Before the appearance of the new organization, a circle of People's Will was already operating here.
Zaslavsky wrote the charter based on the ideas of Karl Marx. Therefore, the "South Russian Union of Workers" can be called the first Marxist organization in Russia. An important part of the leaders of the movement considered the struggle for political freedoms,building socialism. This distinguished it from other populist groups that were oriented towards anarchist ideas and utopian projects of socialism. At the same time, the charter did not have a clear idea of how the struggle of the proletariat should be conducted.
In the beginning of 1876, the "South Russian Union of Workers" was defeated after the betrayal of one of its members. In Odessa, the first political process in the Russian Empire was organized, the participants of which were revolutionary workers. Three leaders of the movement went to hard labor. The rest are sent to exile and prison.
Revolutionaries in St. Petersburg
In Russia, Marxist ideas fell on fertile ground. At that time, there were many organizations in the country that were dissatisfied with the state of affairs in the country.
One of them is the Northern Union of Russian Workers. In 1878 it became one of the first political organizations in Russia. It was created in St. Petersburg, where by that time many capitalist industrial enterprises had opened. This contributed to the growth of the proletarian population. In addition, there was a port in the city through which revolutionary literature arrived.
The organizers of the "Northern Union of Russian Workers" were Gorodnichiy, Smirnov, Volkov and Savelyev. In the districts of St. Petersburg, departments were organized, headed by the workers themselves. In February 1880, even its own printing house was put into operation, in which they planned to print the newspaper "Working Dawn". Inwhile the first issue was being made up, the police raided it with a search.
Departments were also opened in Moscow and Helsinki, but the Northern Union of Russian Workers did not turn into an all-Russian organization. In 1880, he was defeated by the authorities. Its members, who managed to escape arrest, joined the People's Will.
Marxism comes from abroad
In 1883, Plekhanov, together with like-minded people, created the Marxist organization "Emancipation of Labor" in Geneva. Its tasks were to spread the theories of the German philosopher on the territory of Russia, to wage an ideological struggle against populism. The stake was placed on the proletariat, which at that time was beginning to actively form in the country. It was his Marxists who considered the basis of the revolutionary class.
With the development of capitalism, the labor movement grew and the final disappointment in populist ideas. In the 1880s, the first social democratic groups based on Marxist positions appeared. Vladimir Ulyanov (Lenin) started his activity in one of them in Kazan. This is the future ideological inspirer and leader of the Bolsheviks, known throughout the world.
Lenin Organization
It was Vladimir Ulyanov who in 1985 created the "Union of Struggle for the Emancipation of the Working Class" in St. Petersburg. In his activities, he tried to move from the theoretical ideas of Marxism to direct agitation among the workers.
The organization led the strike and revolutionary movement incountry, engaged in the distribution of illegal literature. Lenin managed to establish interaction between the workers of several St. Petersburg enterprises at once.
Already in December, more than 50 active participants were arrested on a denunciation, including Lenin himself. The leader of the movement, while in prison, kept in touch with his comrades-in-arms who remained at large, actively wrote leaflets (he made small containers of bread, and used milk as ink). When the guards searched his cell, he simply ate all the dirt.
In 1896 mass strikes were organized. About 30,000 people took part in the largest strike at that time. In August, several dozen more members of the Union of Struggle for the Liberation of the Working Class were detained. In total, more than 250 people were arrested. The organization was defeated, actually ceased its activities.
Plekhanov's role
This man was perhaps the main ideologist of Marxism in Russia in the 19th century. The secret society "Black Redistribution" organized by him was originally located in St. Petersburg. They even managed to print the first issue of the revolutionary newspaper of the same name, which outlined the main ideas. However, the entire issue was confiscated by the gendarmes right at the printing house. Subsequent issues were printed already abroad.
In March 1878, the authorities dispersed the strike in St. Petersburg. Many leaders of the Narodnaya Volya were arrested. However, Georgy Valentinovich Plekhanov managed to avoid this fate. Two years later he left for Switzerland.
After the group"Emancipation of Labor", to the emergence of which he was directly related, Georgy Valentinovich creates the "Union of Russian Social Democrats Abroad". He takes part in the publication of the Iskra newspaper.
Creating a party
Since 1898, social democratic groups began to play a key role in the spread of Marxism in Russia. They appear in Moscow, St. Petersburg, Yekaterinoslav, Kyiv.
Their joint meeting in Minsk becomes decisive, at which an important decision is made on the creation of the Russian Social Democratic Labor Party. However, the charter and program were developed somewhat later. Soon, almost all the congress delegates were arrested.
In 1900, the Iskra newspaper was created. This edition was aimed at workers. It published agitation and propaganda materials, including information about the struggle of workers for their rights. It played a decisive role in the formation of the party and the spread of Marxism in Russia.
Second Congress of the RSDLP
Since most of the participants in the first congress of the RSDLP were arrested, and without having time to really decide anything, it is the second one that becomes constituent.
Georgy Valentinovich Plekhanov is directly involved in its organization and preparation. It takes place in 1903 in Brussels. Many then remembered his speech, in which he allowed the restriction of democratic principles for the sake of the success of the revolution. After the congress, for a short time, Plekhanov collaborated with Lenin, joining theBolsheviks. But as a result, he disagreed with him in his views and became one of the leaders of the Mensheviks.
Return to Russia
Plekhanov returned to Russia after the February Revolution, having spent 37 years in forced exile. However, he was not admitted to the Executive Committee of the Petrograd Soviet. He had to be content with the publication of the newspaper "Unity", in which he published articles on the most important political events of that time.
Plekhanov opposed Lenin's "April Theses" and supported the Provisional Government.
The Russian ideologue of Marxism reacted negatively to the October Revolution. He was convinced that the country was not ready for socialist changes. Moreover, he assured that the seizure of power by one party or one class would lead to sad consequences. Plekhanov was the author of a letter to the Petrograd workers, in which he warned that the Russian proletariat, having seized political power in its own hands, would provoke a Civil War. At the same time, he convinced that the Bolsheviks were at the helm for a short time, so he did not think about serious resistance to them.
Already in the fall of 1917, his condition deteriorated sharply. On November 2, he was hospitalized. On January 28, 1918, Plekhanov left Petrograd for a Finnish sanatorium. On May 30, he died of a heart embolism due to tuberculosis.
