Union of Struggle for Liberation of the Working Class, St. Petersburg

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UNION OF STRUGGLE FOR LIBERATION OF THE WORKING CLASS, St. Petersburg, one of the largest social democratic organizations in 1890s. It was founded in 1895 as a number of Marxist circles joined together and operated in close contact with the Group of Members of Narodnaya Volya. The Central Group with Vladimir Lenin, A.A. Vaneev, P.K. Zaporozhets, G.M. Krzhizhanovsky, N.K. Krupskaya, S.I. Radchenko, V.V. Starkov, and later L. Martov as its members was put at the head of the Union to coordinate activities of 3 district groups - Zarechnaya Group (Vasilievsky Island, Peterburgskaya Side and Vyborgskaya Side), Nevskaya Group (Shlisselburgsky Road, Nevskaya Zastava), and Narvsko-Moskovskaya Group (Obvodny Canal, Narvskaya Zastava and Moskovskaya Zastava). The central and district groups were in contacts with 20 to 30 social democratic circles and - via district managers - with 70 major industrial plants of St. Petersburg. The Union published Rabochaya Gazeta and stayed in touch with Social Democrats from other cities. Though the members of the Central Group were arrested on the night of December 9, 1895, the Union managed to take the lead in the walk-outs of 1895 and 1896 (see Petersburg Industrial War 1896). The mass arrests conducted in 1896-97 weakened the organization with 251 people including 170 workers arrested for their involvement in the Union. Imprisoned before trial, many of its members were later exiled to Siberia and other remote regions. After its revival, the Union started publishing Rabochee Delo newspaper with P. B. Struve's ideas gradually gaining prevalence, supportive of economic struggle of proletariat only. In July 1902, the Union was reorganized into the St. Petersburg Committee of the Russian Social Democratic Workers' Party.

Reference: Валк С. Н. Листовки Петербургского "Союза борьбы за освобождение рабочего класса", 1895-1897 гг. М., 1934; В. И. Ленин и питерские рабочие, 1893-1924. Л., 1982.

Z. P. Solovyeva. Krupskaya Nadezhda Konstantinovna
Krzhizhanovsky Gleb Maximilianovich
Lenin (real name Ulyanov) Vladimir Ilyich
Martov L. (real name Tsederbaum Yuly Osipovich)
Radchenko Stepan Ivanovich
Starkov Vasily Vasilievich
Vaneev Anatoly Alexandrovich
Zaporozhets Peter Kuzmich
Валк С. Н. Листовки Петербургского "Союза борьбы за освобождение рабочего класса", 1895-1897 гг. М., 1934
В. И. Ленин и питерские рабочие, 1893-1924. Л., 1982 Petersburg Industrial War 1896