1850–1919
○ Natural causes
The great unifier of the Russian revolutionary movement, from the Chaikovtsy to the Left SRs
'I have complete discord with Lenin... I no longer believe in Lenin' — in 1919, on the eve of exile, breaking with the Bolsheviks after half a century of shared struggle.
Mark Natanson was a pivotal organizer who built the institutional backbone of the Russian revolutionary movement across half a century: co-founding the Circle of Tchaikovsky, Land and Liberty, and the People's Rights Party, and serving on the Central Committee of the Socialist Revolutionary Party. Known as the 'Ivan Kalita of the revolution' for his talent in unifying dispersed circles, he stood with Lenin as an internationalist at the Zimmerwald and Kienthal conferences during the First World War. In 1917 he led the formation of the Left SRs and later the Party of Revolutionary Communism, backing the Bolsheviks through the October Revolution, but grew disillusioned as the regime turned toward one-party dictatorship, leaving the words 'I no longer believe in Lenin' before fleeing into exile.
Activities and affiliations
Career Timeline
- 1871Co-founder, Circle of Tchaikovsky
- 1876Organized Kazan Square demonstration with Plekhanov; co-founder, Land and Liberty
- 1893Founder, People's Rights Party (Народное право)
- 1906Elected to Central Committee, Socialist Revolutionary Party
- 1915–1916Participated in Zimmerwald and Kienthal conferences
- 1917Leader of Left SRs; member of VTsIK Presidium
- 1918Co-founder, Party of Revolutionary Communism
Related historical events
- 1914–1918First World WarInternationalist anti-war socialistDuring the First World War, he took an internationalist position at the Zimmerwald and Kienthal conferences.
- 1917.10–1918.01The October RevolutionLeft SR leader who backed the BolsheviksHe backed the Bolsheviks through the October Revolution.
- 1917.12–1918.11Brest-Litovsk and Germany’s eastern occupationLeft SR leader of the peace-supporting wingWhile the Left SR leadership quit the government in protest against the treaty, Natanson sided with Lenin for the Brest peace and, staying loyal after the July 1918 rising, moved to the Party of Revolutionary Communism.
From the Chaikovtsy to Land and Liberty: the making of an organizer (1869–1877)
In the late 1860s Natanson emerged in the student movement at the St. Petersburg Medical-Surgical Academy. Against Nechaev's radicalism, which held that any means served revolutionary ends, he helped co-found the Circle of Tchaikovsky (1871), which preached moral self-perfection and enlightnment. That circle went on to supply the human backbone of Russian revolutionary movement for decades. Natanson himself was arrested three times in 1869–71 and held in the Peter and Paul Fortress, and in 1872 was exiled to Arkhangelsk province; there he converted to Orthodoxy the same year in order to marry the populist Olga Shleisner, who had followed him into exile.
From 1875 he returned to St. Petersburg and devoted himself to uniting the country's revolutionary circles. He personally toured the cities of central and southern Russia calling for consolidation, and stood in the leadership of the 6 December 1876 Kazan Square demonstration (organized with Plekhanov). At the end of 1878 the northern revolutionary-populist group became Land and Liberty. Trust in his organizing talent was dramatic: the populist Dmitry Lizogub placed his entire fortune of 200,000 rubles at Natanson's unrestricted disposal, and revolutionary circles nicknamed him after Ivan Kalita, 'the gatherer of the Russian land.' Arrested again in June 1877, Natanson was held in the Peter and Paul Fortress and then exiled to Siberia from 1879, closing the first phase of his activity.