"Economist" spokesman who opposed Iskra's programme and organisation at the Second Congress
Russian social democrat, born Vladimir Makhnovets. Arrested and exiled for Narodnik propaganda in the 1890s, he escaped to Geneva in 1898 and became an editor of Rabocheye Delo, organ of the Union of Russian Social Democrats Abroad. At the Second Congress in 1903 he and Martynov represented "Economism" against the Iskra group, and afterwards he stood on the right of the Mensheviks. He was a member of the St Petersburg Soviet in 1905.
Also known as: Vladimir Petrovich Makhnovets
Activities and affiliations
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1898–1903
Russian Social Democratic Labour Party (RSDLP)Main
Ideology and propaganda -
1903–
Ideology and propaganda
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1905
St. Petersburg Soviet of Workers' Deputies (1905)
Social movements and organizing
Career Timeline
- 1897.03.21Arrested and held in the Peter and Paul Fortress.
- 1898.09Escaped from exile to Geneva.
- 1903.07Attended the Second Congress for the Union Abroad.
- 1905Member of the St Petersburg Soviet.
- 1906Opposed armed uprising at the Fourth Congress.
An "Economist" at the Second Congress
The son of a doctor, Akimov finished the Voronezh technical school and studied at the St Petersburg Technological Institute and the university law faculty. In the early 1890s he carried on Narodnik propaganda in Voronezh, and in St Petersburg he helped form the "New Narodovoltsy" group. Arrested in March 1897 and held in solitary confinement in the Peter and Paul Fortress, he was exiled to Yeniseisk province in April 1898 and escaped to Geneva that September.
In Geneva he joined the Union of Russian Social Democrats Abroad and became an editor of its organ Rabocheye Delo, defending "Economism" against first the Emancipation of Labour group and then Plekhanov's and Lenin's Iskra. The name index to Lenin's Collected Works describes him as a prominent representative of "Economism" and "one of the most extreme opportunists".
At the Second Congress in 1903 he was, with Martynov, an anti-Iskra delegate of the Union Abroad. When the congress refused to recognise the Union as a constituent organisation, the two walked out. His faction then joined Martov's Mensheviks, and he stood on the Menshevik right. During the 1905 revolution he championed an "All-Russian organisation of the working class" in which social democracy would be only one current among several, and at the Fourth Congress in 1906 he opposed armed uprising and urged support for the Kadets in the Duma elections.