Rurikid prince, founder of anarcho-communism, geographer of Mutual Aid: escaped the Peter and Paul Fortress
When Kerensky offered him any cabinet post in 1917, Kropotkin replied he considered 'the trade of a bootblack more honest and useful' — Emma Goldman.
A Rurikid prince and geographer who founded anarcho-communism. Escaped a tsarist prison and spent 41 years in European exile writing The Conquest of Bread and Mutual Aid. After returning in 1917, openly criticized the Bolshevik Red Terror.
Career timeline
1857–1862Graduated top of the Page Corps — served as Emperor's personal Kammer-page
1862–1867Cossack officer and explorer in East Siberia — discovered Patom and Vitim plateaus, gold medal of Russian Geographical Society
1867–1874Studied at St. Petersburg University; Physical Geography Secretary at Russian Geographical Society — glacial theory, predicted Franz Josef Land
1872–1874Joined Jura Federation, became anarchist — worker agitation with Chaikovsky Circle, led 'Going to the People'
1874–1876Arrested — completed glacial research in Peter and Paul Fortress, escaped from Nikolaevsky Military Hospital
1876–1917Exile in Western Europe — founded Le Révolté, 3-year imprisonment after Lyon Trial, wrote The Conquest of Bread, Mutual Aid, Memoirs of a Revolutionist
1917–1921Returned to Russia — refused Kerensky's cabinet, criticized Bolshevik Red Terror, died of pneumonia in Dmitrov while writing Ethics
One of the six who built Iskra: the Menshevik theorist who parted with Lenin
Witnessing the October Revolution, Potresov called it "the murder of democracy" and the Bolshevik regime that followed "the socialism of fools."
One of the six original editors of Iskra (1900) and a founding figure of the RSDLP. At the 1903 party congress he sided with Martov and became a leading Menshevik theorist, arguing for a mass party against Lenin's vanguard model. During WWI he led the defensist wing of Menshevism; he rejected the October Revolution and was briefly imprisoned by the Cheka in 1919. He left the USSR in 1925 and continued writing against the Soviet regime from Berlin and Paris until his death.
Career timeline
1892–1896Active in Struve's and Martov's SD circles; contacts with Emancipation of Labour group
1896Co-founds the Petersburg League of Struggle for the Emancipation of the Working Class
1897–1899Arrested and exiled to Vyatka province
1900–1903One of six founding editors of Iskra; joins Menshevik leadership after the II Congress
1905–1907Returns to Russia; edits Menshevik papers Nachalo and Nevsky Golos
1910–1914Edits the Liquidator journal Nasha Zarya; co-edits the 4-volume The Social Movement in Russia
1914–1917Leads the Menshevik defensists; publishes Nashe Delo
1925–1934Exiled in Berlin and Paris; publishes Notes of a Social Democrat and the book In the Grip of Illusions
Menshevism's theoretical pillar who stood for democratic socialism against Lenin
In 1943, the lifelong anti-Bolshevik Menshevik leader Dan wrote in The Origins of Bolshevism that Bolshevism had been chosen by history to be 'the carrier of socialism, the key idea of our epoch.'
Fyodor Dan was a revolutionary, physician, and a founding leader and chief theorist of the Menshevik faction of the RSDLP. At the 1903 Second Congress he sided with Martov against Lenin; after the February Revolution he became the leading ideologist of 'revolutionary defencism' and served on the Executive Committee of the Petrograd Soviet and the Presidium of the Central Executive Committee. Exiled in 1922, he headed the Menshevik Foreign Delegation from Martov's death in 1923 until 1940, upholding democratic socialism against both Bolshevik authoritarianism and Western social-democratic accommodation. In The Origins of Bolshevism (1943) he recognized Bolshevism as the historical carrier of socialism while arguing for political liberalization in the Soviet Union.
Career timeline
1894–1896Active in St. Petersburg Union of Struggle for the Emancipation of the Working Class; arrested and exiled to Vyatka
1901–1903Emigrated to Berlin, joined Iskra assistance group; at RSDLP 2nd Congress sided with Martov, co-founded Menshevik faction
1905–1912Editorial board of Nachalo, main Menshevik paper; delegate to 4th and 5th RSDLP Congresses; co-editor of Golos Sotsial-Demokrata
1917Executive Committee of Petrograd Soviet, Presidium of Central Executive Committee; ideologist of 'revolutionary defencism'
1919–1920Speaker for Mensheviks at 7th and 8th All-Russian Congresses of Soviets; served as Red Army doctor
1922–1923Arrested, imprisoned, then exiled abroad; helped found Socialist Workers' International; deprived of Soviet citizenship
1923–1940Headed Menshevik Foreign Delegation; exile activity in Berlin then Paris
1941–1947Exile in New York, published Novy Put journal; wrote The Origins of Bolshevism (1943)
Lenin’s oldest friend and most principled adversary
In 1918 Martov published an exposé revealing that Stalin had been expelled from the party in 1907. Stalin sued him for libel, and the revolutionary tribunal sentenced Martov to 'public censure.'
He built Iskra alongside Lenin, then split with him in 1903 over a single clause on party membership and led the Mensheviks. After October he stayed, fighting to keep a legal opposition alive, and in 1920 was permitted to leave. He died of tuberculosis in Berlin. It is told that the dying Lenin asked after him.
Career timeline
1895Co-founds the Petersburg League of Struggle with Lenin
1900–1903On Iskra; leads the Mensheviks after the split
1914–1917Anti-war internationalist
1917–1920Leads the Menshevik Internationalists; tries legal opposition
