Libmonster ID: EE-1285
Author(s) of the publication: L. N. PETROVA

The leaflets of the St. Petersburg Union of Struggle for the Emancipation of the Working Class, issued during the period of its activity under the leadership of V. I. Lenin (1895-January 1897), played a major role in awakening the class consciousness of the Russian workers and in establishing strong ties between the social - democratic organization and the masses. Their identification, collection and study began after the Great October Revolution. the socialist revolution. Already in 1924, a list of Soyuz proclamations was published in the appendix to the first volume of the Collected Works of Stucco Molding, 1 and at the same time the question of introducing this valuable historical material into scientific circulation was raised. By 1934, the problem was mostly solved. Publication of the bibliographic index of leaflets of the St. Petersburg Bolshevik Organization prepared by the Marx - Engels - Lenin Institute of the Central Committee of the CPSU(b)

1 V. I. Lenin, Soch. Izd. 1-E. T. 1, pp. 630-637,

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RSDLP 2 and the collection "Leaflets of the St. Petersburg Union of Struggle for the Emancipation of the Working Class". 1895-1897 " 3 made available to the scientific community all the publications identified by that time-67 proclamations (13 of them were found in several versions).

A "List of non-available leaflets" was also published, summarizing information on eight appeals mentioned in the literature .4 This list was aimed at continuing the search and, it would seem, predetermined its possible results. It is not without reason that a number of studies mention 75 appeals issued by the "Union" in 1895-January 1897.5 However, the printed output of the St. Petersburg "Union of Struggle" turned out to be wider and more diverse than it was recorded in 1934. So far, only two of the leaflets listed in the "List of Not Available Leaflets" have been found: a handwritten proclamation "What port Workers should Strive for" (discovered abroad in 1935).6 and the proclamation "Comrades workers". A number of unknown publications were also found. Two of them have already been published in print: "Questions about the situation of the working class in Russia"7 and an appeal "To the workers of the Phoenix factory"8 ; information about most of them is introduced here for the first time in the literature.

We are talking about the leaflets of the "Union of Struggle" and documents about them, revealed recently, during the work on the "Consolidated catalog of the Russian illegal and banned press of the XIX century. Leaflets " 9 . A comprehensive survey of the collections of libraries and archives that took part in its compilation revealed four unknown Union proclamations and variants to nine appeals. They usually don't pay much attention to the options. Meanwhile, it is valuable material for studying the activities of organizations and the history of the texts of the most important party documents.

One of the first printed leaflets of the Union of Struggle was an appeal written by Lenin "To the workers and women workers of the Thornton Factory" on the occasion of the weavers ' strike on November 6-7, 1895. It was sent abroad and published in N 1-2 of the non-periodic collection "Worker". However, the text printed in the "Worker" was stylistically somewhat different from the text of the hectographed leaflet. Since it was not known who carried out the revision, in all the collected Works of V. I. Lenin (except the 1st), the appeal was printed using a hectographed leaflet. The issue was resolved only after a mimeographed version of Lenin's proclamation was discovered, the text of which coincided with the text published in the collection. It was possible to establish that it was the mimeographed version that Lenin considered as final and was directly involved in its distribution. 10
Variants appeared because the organization did not have a multiplying technique for obtaining large print runs: a hectograph or mimeograph gave prints from only one original (stencil). Therefore, the presence of an option is primarily an assessment of the significance of the appeal made by the Union itself. From this point of view, it is interesting to focus on some of the newly found documents. On December 15, 1895, "after the arrest of Lenin and other members of the organization, a proclamation was issued" From the Union of Struggle for the Emancipation of the Working Class", calling for the pro-Soviet movement of the Working Class.-

2 "Social-democratic leaflets of 1894-1917". Bibliographic index. Vol. 2, part 1: Leaflets of the St. Petersburg Bolshevik organization R. S. D. R. P. M. 1934.

3 " Leaflets of the St. Petersburg Union of Struggle for the Emancipation of the Working Class." 1895-1897. " Compiled by S. N. Valk, Moscow, 1934.

4 Ibid., pp. 163-164.

5 Yu. Z. Polevoy. From the History of the working press, Moscow, 1962, p. 114; A.V. Khoroshikh. Methodological guide on the topic "Leaflets of the revolutionary social-democratic organizations of Ukraine (1895-1904) as a historical source". Kyiv. 1971, p. 21. The figure 79 is also called, but the source of this kind of information is not indicated ("The Bolshevik press of 1894-1917. Brief sketches of History", Moscow, 1962, p. 28).

6 Proletarian Revolution, 1937, No. 8, pp. 124-136.

7 I. Nikitin. From the history of the St. Petersburg "Union of Struggle for the Liberation of the Working Class", Moscow, 1947, pp. 11-12.

8 "The Labor Movement in Russia in the XIX Century", vol. 4, part 1, Moscow, 1961, pp. 216-217.

9 Prepared for publication by the largest Soviet libraries and archives: the V. I. Lenin State Library of the USSR, the M. E. Saltykov-Shchedrin State Public Library, the library of the Institute of Marxism-Leninism under the Central Committee of the CPSU( BIML), the Library of the USSR Academy of Sciences, the A. M. Gorky Library at Moscow University, the Central State Academy of Sciences of the USSR and the Central State Institute of

10 L. N. Petrov. To the history of the publication of the leaflet "To the workers and workers of the Thornton factory". "Archeographic yearbook for 1971", Moscow, 1972, pp. 191-194.

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to continue the struggle, despite the police harassment, is the first in which the "Union" performed under its own name, which has now gone down in history. There is no information in the sources about its distribution, but at the same time there is information that on January 3, 1896, a proclamation beginning with the address "Comrades Workers" was distributed at 20 St. Petersburg enterprises, for the publication of which the "Union of Struggle" was preparing very thoroughly 11 . Both facts came together when a leaflet from among the 12 discovered by the St. Petersburg police at that time was found in the Central State Academic Administration of the USSR. It turned out that this is a version of the appeal dated December 15 (the publishing organization is indicated in it in the form of a signature, not a headline). Included in the literature according to the first words of the text ("Comrades workers"), it is listed in the "List of not available leaflets" 13 .

When discussing in the" Union of Struggle "the proclamation" What is a Socialist and a political criminal " written by I. V. Babushkin (late December 1895), disagreements arose as to whether it was worth preparing a leaflet on a purely political topic .14 The two versions of appeal 15 that are now available clearly demonstrate the resolution of the dispute in favor of mass political agitation. They were printed twice: the proclamation " Comrades. In the Sbavka locomotive and mechanical workshop (first on a hectograph, then on a mimeograph on the night of December 5, 1895)16, the appeal of the Union of Struggle "To the workers of All St. Petersburg paper mills" 17, issued on June 1, 1896 in connection with the textile workers ' strike that had begun, and some other documents.

Studying the options helps to clarify certain points related to the organization of the "Union" of its multiplying equipment. Five variants of the leaflet "Working holiday on May 1" and three variants "What do the workers of St. Petersburg paper mills demand" (were known earlier), with knowledge of the total circulation of each of them (2 thousand and over 1 thousand copies, respectively), allow us to conclude that the maximum technical capabilities of the "Union" are approximately 400-prints on a mimeograph from a single template, and therefore determine the approximate circulation of a number of its publications.

All the newly found appeals of the" Union of Struggle " refer to 1896 - the year of its greatest publishing activity. Two of them were previously unknown, the third one was mentioned only in passing, and the fourth one was not previously identified with the publications of the St. Petersburg "Union of Struggle". Identifying and attributing them was associated with considerable difficulties: not all Soyuz leaflets have its seal or signature. Therefore, their identification took place gradually, as data accumulated to clarify the history of a particular publication.

In the collection "The labor movement in Russia in the XIX century" with reference to an archival source (TsGAOR USSR, f. DP, 3 d-vo. 1895, d. 684, l. 289), a report was published about the distribution of a proclamation by the St. Petersburg "Union of Struggle for the Emancipation of the Working Class" on February 28, 1896 at the Riks wallpaper factory . It was not clear from the message whether it was addressed to the workers of the named factory. The "Review of the Most Important Inquiries" helped to clarify this: it not only called a special appeal to the workers of the Rix wallpaper factory on behalf of the "Union of Struggle for the Emancipation of the Working Class", but also indicated its distinctive feature - a hectographed reproduction .19 A copy of this appeal was once attached to the report of the authorities, which was referred to by the compilers of the collection " Labor Movement..."; later torn from the document, it was lost among the leaflets and was identified thanks to the preserved note: "From the DO case, 684, 1895, l. 290" 20 . It turned out that it was a piece of paper printed with a typewritten text (without a title, date, or signature), beginning with the address: "Comrades. We spend all our time at work and do not notice the system of robbery and deception with which the manufacturer entangles us. " 21 In it, say-

11 TsGAOR USSR, f. 102, d-vo 5, 1897. d. 38, part 1, ll. 6, 61-62, 64.

12 Ibid., f. 1741, NN 15006, 10068, 11434.

13 "Leaflets of the St. Petersburg" Union of Struggle...", p. 164, No. 8.

14 N. K. Krupskaya. Memoirs of Lenin, Moscow, 1972, p. 23.

15 TsGAOR USSR, f. 1741, N 34719; BIML.

16 Ibid., NN 15002, 2O09L

17 Ibid., NN 7289, 20002.

18 "The Labor Movement in Russia in the XIX Century", vol. 4, part 2, Moscow, 1963, p. 712.

19 "Reviews of the most important inquiries made in the gendarme departments of the Empire on state crimes, for 1895 and 1896". SPB. B. G. Vol. 19-20, p. 116.

20 TsGAOR USSR, f. 1741, N 15010.

21 Further the text of the appeal reflects the specifics of wallpaper production,

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elk talked about difficult working conditions, a sophisticated system of fines ("for noise and for talking, for gathering a crowd, ...for smoking tobacco, for taking someone else's number, for resisting the shameful ...search"), about the constant threat of dismissal hanging over every worker. "Submission doesn't help matters here... the proclamation explained. "The weapons in our hands are unanimity, courage and fortitude, and we must use them. We have presented our demands to the manufacturer, and if he does not yield to us, we will take up arms, that is, we will declare a strike! A strike will not bring us mountains of gold, but it will show us our common enemy, the manufacturer, in the best possible way, it will strengthen our sense of unanimity and unite us more closely to fight the enemy." The leaflet formulated the requirements that had to be presented to the manufacturer. The author of this, so far the only, appeal to the workers of the Riks factory was A. G. Kishkin, 22 a student of the Institute of Technology, who took an active part in the work of the St. Petersburg "Union of Struggle for the Liberation of the Working Class".23
Until now, only one appeal of the "Union of Struggle" to the workers of the I. A. Voronin manufactory was known - a leaflet distributed there on April 16, 1896 .24 Her call for a strike in the event that demands for an end to fraud with the grade of yarn that affected earnings are not met, met with fervent support. "Threatening to strike the entire factory if he [the owner] continues to behave outrageously," the workers forced the administration to make concessions: "Buksin is now only working in the 1st grade, the ducks are getting better, and it has become less fined." These lines are taken from the May appeal "To the workers of I. A. Voronin's Rezvo-Ostrovskaya Manufactory", discovered by the compilers of the Consolidated Catalog 25 . Recalling its success in April, it called for the defense of female employees who had their prices lowered. "We must all stand up for them, even for our own interests," the appeal said. "If we allow the threaders to reduce their prices to-day, the master will reduce them to-morrow, and the bobbins to-morrow, and then the dressers will go and get the weavers. Let us not forget, comrades, that this is the usual method of all landlords: gradually lowering prices one by one, without exciting all the workers at once; and if only a small group of people oppose it each time, then he will be able to cope with it. If every time we all defend our interests together, then the owner... nothing can be done about us." The text ends with the signature "Union of Struggle for the Emancipation of the Working Class" and the date "May 1896". The appeal was printed on a mimeograph before the general strike of textile workers began.

Among the publications issued by the "Union of Struggle" in connection with this strike, a special place was occupied by leaflets about the appeal of the Minister of Finance S. Y. Witte to the St. Petersburg workers (June 15, 1896), in which the strike was declared illegal and depicted as the result of incitement of the workers by "malicious people". The "Union of Struggle" responded to it by issuing on June 27 appeals "To the Petersburg workers" and "To the workers of the Baltic Factory", and in November-a proclamation written by V. I. Lenin to the "Tsarist Government" .26 Another leaflet was dedicated to exposing the government's statement - " Comrades! On May 27, up to 30 thousand workers stopped working at 17 paper-spinning and weaving factories in St. Petersburg... " 27, published without a title, date or signature. At the end of June 1896, it was distributed by the Moscow "Workers' Union " 28, and this is probably why, when its text was published in 1939, it was attributed as the Moscow edition 29 . However, the general nature of the appeal (its content largely echoed the content of the appeal "To the Petersburg Workers"), the theme and style that distinguished it from other leaflets of the Moscow "Workers' Union " of that time, and finally, the technique of printing on a mimeograph made it possible to assume that some stronger organization would participate in its publication.

22 " Reviews of the most important inquiries...", vol. 19-20, p. 116.

23 M. A. Silvin. Lenin in the period of the party's birth. Memoirs, L. 1958, p. 327.

24 "Leaflets of the St. Petersburg" Union of Struggle...", pp. 40-41.

25 TsGAOR USSR, f. 1741, N 10049.

26 "Leaflets of the St. Petersburg" Union of Struggle...", pp. 77-80, 99-106; M. A. Sylvin. Op. ed., pp. 150-151.

27 TsGAOR USSR, f. 1741, NN7303, 9728, 19972.

28 "The Labor Movement in Russia in the XIX century", vol. 4, part 1, p. 406.

29 "Red Archive", 1939, N 2, pp. 142-144.

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the investigative materials in the case of the Moscow "Workers' Union " actually found information that the appeals "concerning the government message of June 15 ...they were not compiled by the circle, but were placed at its disposal. " 30 In the testimony of one of the leaders of the Moscow Workers 'Union, this was stated even more clearly:" We were delivered the appeals worked out on a mimeograph: 1) "Demands of the Petersburg workers", 2) "Concerning the circular of the Minister of Finance to the Petersburg workers" - but we also failed to distribute them, with a few exceptions." (40 copies) the first and more than 100 - second appeals fell into the hands of the police during the defeat of the Moscow organization on July 6, 1896) 31 .

Knowing that the " Demands of the Petersburg Workers "is a proclamation issued by the St. Petersburg Union of Struggle" What the workers of the St. Petersburg paper mills demand", we can assume that the second appeal was also issued by them. This is confirmed by data on the state of the multiplication technique of the revolutionary underground. The leaflet was printed on a mimeograph from a typewritten template, and of all the social-democratic organizations operating in Russia at that time, only the St. Petersburg Union of Struggle had a mimeograph .32 A copy of this appeal was indeed found during a search at the home of one of his technicians .33 And since the proclamation " Comrades workers! On May 27, up to 30 thousand workers stopped working at 17 paper-spinning and weaving factories in St. Petersburg..."if it was addressed to all workers (regardless of the place and nature of their activities), then it can be assumed that the Union of Struggle intended to distribute it not only in Moscow.

The Union's relations with the Lakhta printing House are well known. There were printed V. I. Lenin's pamphlet "Explanation of the law on Fines" and "Questions about the situation of the working class in Russia" - the only printed leaflet of the "Union". It was this printing house that the St. Petersburg Social Democrats were guided by when they conceived the publication of the Rabocheye Delo newspaper. The manuscript of Lenin's pamphlet "On Strikes" was also sent there for typesetting, and later, when the printing house was arrested, it fell into the hands of the police. In connection with the arrest of the Lakhta printing house on June 24, 1896, the last of the found leaflets was issued .34 We will quote it in full: "Comrades, our superiors diligently take care that we remain in darkness and ignorance: it destroys all books from which we can learn how to make up our minds and improve our situation; it puts in prison those people who brought us such books, taught us in words, and stood up for us. Brothers, let us do what we can to help ourselves and our friends who have so bravely stood up for our cause. Let each of us donate as much as we can to buy books and help our imprisoned comrades. For the benefit of the arrested comrades who fought for the common cause." The last sentence is preceded by a round seal: "Union of Struggle for the Emancipation of the Working Class." This seal, issued by decision of the meeting that discussed the name of the organization, usually confirmed the receipt of funds by the "Union of Struggle"; it also stamped literature approved by the" Union " for distribution among the workers .35 The appeal was printed on a mimeograph from a typewritten stencil and was published no later than August 12, 1896. On that day, 22 copies of the appeal were taken during a search of the apartment of M. A. Lurie, a member of the" Union of Struggle", who was in charge of" technique " 36 .

The identified leaflets not only increase the number of well - known publications of the St. Petersburg Union of Struggle for the Emancipation of the Working Class, but also complement the existing ideas about certain aspects of its activities, and first of all about the Union's relations with other social-democratic and other revolutionary organizations. To date, the most complete list of publications of the St. Petersburg "Union of Struggle for the Emancipation of the Working Class" is contained in the prepared edition of the new edition.-

30 TsGAOR USSR, f. 124, op. 5, 1896, d. 4, l. 96.

31 Ibid., l. 20.

32 The Moscow "Workers ' Union" not only did not have a mimeograph, but even a typewriter at that time.

33 TsGAOR USSR, f. 102, d-vo 3, 1896, 580, l. 299.

34 Ibid., f. 124, MU, 1896, d. 25, l. 42 (located in the case of the Lakhta printing house).

35 M. A. Silvin. Op. ed., pp. 122, 130; B. I. Gorev. From the Party Past, l. 1924, p. 128.

36 TsGAOR USSR, f. 102, d-vo 7, 1896, d. 319, l. 105.

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chati " Consolidated catalog of the Russian illegal and banned press of the XIX century. Leaflets". It registered 72 appeals (22 of them in several versions), and a total of 99 publications issued by the "Union of Struggle" for the period from 1895 to January 189737 .

37 Handwritten proclamations (two have survived so far) are not included in the catalog,

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