Martov L. (1873-1923), revolutionary

Categories / Social Life/Personalia
MARTOV L. (born Yuly Osipovich Tsederbaum) (1873-1923), political figure, publicist. In 1881 he settled in St. Petersburg together with his parents; after graduating from the 1st Petersburg Gymnasium (1891) he entered the chair of Natural Sciences of the Department of Physics and Mathematics of St. Petersburg University, in 1892 he organised a Marxist society there. The same year he was arrested and exiled to Vilno. In the mid-1890s Martov returned to St. Petersburg, where he settled at 77/1 Nevsky Prospect. In 1895 he was one of the leaders of St. Petersburg Union for Working Class Liberation. In 1896 he was arrested again and banished to Eniseysky Province for 3 years. Martov was one of the founders of Iskra newspaper. He lived abroad as an emigrant since March 1901. During the 2nd congress of Russian Social-Democratic Workers' Party (1903) he stood at the head of the opposition to V.I. Lenin; later he was the leader of Mensheviks. In October of 1905, Martov returned to St. Petersburg, where he took part in the work of St. Petersburg Council of Working People's Deputies and was a member of the joint Central Committee of Russian Social-Democratic Workers' Party. In February and July 1906 he was arrested, and deported abroad in September 1906. He returned to Russia (Terioki) illegally in November, but soon thereafter left the country again. During the World War I of 1914-18, Martov showed himself as an internationalist, headed the Foreign Secretariat of Russian Social-Democratic Workers' Party Organisational Committee. In May 1917 Martov came back to Petrograd where he headed the faction of Menshevik Internationalists. He was also a member of the Executive Committee of the Petrograd Soviet, and delegate of the 1st, 2nd, 4th, 7th and 8th All-Russian Congresses of Soviets, member of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee (1917, 1918, 1919), member of the Central Committee of Russian Social-Democratic Workers' Party (from August 1917), editor of St. Petersburg International journal, Letuchy Listok, Iskra, Rabochaya Gazeta and Vpered newspapers, a contributor to Novaya Zhizn newspaper. Martov condemned the October overturn of 1917 as well as the dispersal of the Constituent Assembly (1918) and Brest Peace Treaty (1918). He was detained several times. In March 1918 he moved to Moscow and legally went abroad in September 1920. In February 1921 he founded Socialist Herald Journal in Berlin, established and stood at the head of the Foreign Delegation of the Russian Social-Democratic Workers' Party, being in the meantime one of the organisers and leaders of Vienna International (so-called 2 ? International) (1921). Martov wrote The Memoirs of a Socialist Democrat, in Berlin 1922. He died from tuberculosis in a sanatorium in Germany.

References: Савельев П. Ю., Тютюкин С. В. Юлий Осипович Мартов (1873-1928): человек и политик // Новая и новейшая история. 1995. № 4-5; Урилов И. Х. Ю. О. Мартов: политик и историк. М., 1997; Казарова Н. А. Ю. О. Мартов: Штрихи к полит. портрету. Ростов н/Д, 1998.

P. Y. Savelyev. Lenin (real name Ulyanov) Vladimir Ilyich
Martov L. (real name Tsederbaum Yuly Osipovich)
Nevsky prospect/Saint Petersburg, city, house 77/1
Казарова Н. А. Ю. О. Мартов: Штрихи к полит. портр. Ростов н/Д, 1998
Урилов И. Х. Ю. О. Мартов: политик и историк. М., 1997
Тютюкин С. В., Савельев П. Ю. Юлий Осипович Мартов (1873-1928): человек и политик // Новая и новейшая история, 1995 State University, St. Petersburg
Union of Struggle for Liberation of the Working Class, St. Petersburg
Novaya Zhizn (New Life), newspaper (1917-1918)
Constituent Assembly, All-Russian