General Council member who began the Russian translation of Capital and tried to revive the People's Will
Born to an aristocratic family in Nizhny Novgorod in 1845, he studied physics and mathematics at St Petersburg University. Drawn into the narodnik movement, he was exiled to Stavropol in 1868, where he read Marx and became one of the first Russian revolutionaries strongly influenced by Marxism. In 1870 he helped Lavrov escape, fled to Western Europe and joined the General Council of the International; in London he began translating the first volume of Capital, later completed by Danielson. Arrested while trying to free Chernyshevsky, he escaped in 1873 and sided with Marx against Bakunin. Escaping again in 1883, he worked in Paris to revive the People's Will and became its de facto leader, but was arrested in 1884 and sentenced to life in the Shlisselburg Fortress. Freed in 1905, he opposed the October Revolution. He died of cancer in Petrograd in 1918.
Also known as: German Alexandrovich Lopatin
Activities and affiliations
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1870–
International Workingmen's Association (First International)
Social movements and organizing -
1883–1884
Narodnaya VolyaMain
Political and party leadership
Career Timeline
- 1868Exiled to Stavropol
- 1870Member of the General Council of the International; began translating Capital, volume 1
- 1883–1884Member of the Administrative Committee of the People's Will
- 1887Sentenced to life at the Trial of the 21; imprisoned in the Shlisselburg Fortress