Menshevik Bundist intellectual who drafted the core of Order No. 1 among the soldiers
At the soldiers’ section meeting on March 1, 1917, he used the alias “Maksim” while formulating the core provisions of Order No. 1.
A Jewish social-democrat who joined the Bund in the 1890s, led the Riga general strike of 1905, and attended the 1907 London party congress as a Bund delegate. Returning from emigration in 1917 as a Menshevik 'defencist,' he formulated the core points of Order No. 1 at the March 1 soldiers' section meeting under the alias 'Maksim'; elected to the Constituent Assembly, he was arrested the following year and exiled to Arkhangelsk.
Career timeline
1890sJoined the Bund (General Jewish Labour Bund)
1899Delegate to the 3rd Bund Congress
1905Led the Riga general strike
1907Bund delegate to the 5th RSDLP Congress in London
1917.03Formulated core points of Order No. 1 at the Petrograd Soviet soldiers' section meeting
1917Editorial contributor to the Menshevik-defencist newspaper Den'
A Menshevik who defended the revolution against its Bolshevik direction
After the June 1917 crisis, he called for firm measures against the Bolsheviks in the name of defending the revolution.
Born Mikhail Goldman, Mikhail Liber was a revolutionary who rose through the Bund, the Jewish workers’ movement, to become a leading Menshevik. At the 1903 RSDLP Congress he defended the Bund’s organisational autonomy, while in 1917 he tried to combine revolutionary democracy with a policy of revolutionary defensism. In the Petrograd Soviet and the All-Russian Central Executive Committee he supported coalition with the Provisional Government, and after the June 10 demonstration crisis he became a leading advocate of firm measures against the Bolsheviks. His opposition to the October uprising and to negotiations with the Bolsheviks was followed by repeated arrests and exile; executed in 1937, he was rehabilitated posthumously.
Career timeline
1896Joined the Lithuanian Social Democratic Party
1897–1902Founding-generation Bund activist; joined its Central Committee in 1902
1903Bund delegate to the Second Congress of the RSDLP
1905Executive Committee member of the St Petersburg Soviet