The Revolutionary Sotsial-Demokrat Organisation (Russian: Революционная организация "Социал-демократ", also transliterated as the Revolutionary "Sotsial-Demokrat" Organisation) was an organisation of Russian socialists formed in May 1900. It was established by the members of the Emancipation of Labour group (the first Russian Marxist organisation, founded by Georgi Plekhanov) and their supporters, following the split of the Union of Russian Social-Democrats Abroad at its Second Congress.
Origins
The organisation emerged from a schism within the Russian Social-Democratic movement abroad. The Union of Russian Social-Democrats Abroad experienced internal divisions between the older generation of Marxists associated with the Emancipation of Labour group—figures such as Plekhanov, Pavel Axelrod, and Vera Zasulich—and younger, more militant revolutionary elements who opposed the Union's leadership. After the split at the Union's Second Congress, the revolutionary faction reorganised itself into the Revolutionary Sotsial-Demokrat Organisation.
Union with the Iskra Organisation
In October 1901, on the proposal of Vladimir Lenin, the Revolutionary Sotsial-Demokrat Organisation united with the Iskra organisation abroad (the group supporting the revolutionary newspaper Iskra, founded by Lenin in 1900) to form the League of Russian Revolutionary Social-Democracy Abroad. This merger consolidated the revolutionary wing of the Russian Social-Democratic movement in exile and played a role in the organisational development that would later culminate in the formation of the Russian Social-Democratic Labour Party (RSDLP) factions.
Significance
The organisation is historically significant as part of the broader factional history of early Russian Marxism and the Russian revolutionary movement in emigration. It represented one of the organisational groupings through which the ideas of revolutionary Social-Democracy were propagated and consolidated abroad in the period preceding the 1903 split of the RSDLP into Bolshevik and Menshevik factions.
References
- Lenin, "To ***" (correspondence referenced in the organisation's history)
- The League of Russian Revolutionary Social-Democracy Abroad, founded October 1901 through the merger of the Revolutionary Sotsial-Demokrat Organisation and the Iskra organisation abroad.
Note: The organisation should not be confused with the newspaper Sotsial-Demokrat, a publication of the RSDLP's Central Committee that circulated in the early 20th century.
