The first combination of socialism with the labor movement - 22 years before the October Revolution
Young Lenin was very worried and worried about the discrepancy between the grandeur of the historical tasks facing the working class of Russia and the fragmentation and amateurism of the then Social Democratic organizations. About his moods of that time, he wrote later, in 1902: “I worked in a circle that set itself very broad, all-encompassing tasks, and all of us, the members of this circle, had to suffer, painfully, from the consciousness that we find ourselves by handicraftsmen at such a historical moment, when it would be possible, changing the well-known maxim, to say: give us an organization of revolutionaries - and we will turn Russia over!”
Lenin set about creating such an organization from the very beginning of his work in Petersburg. Returning from abroad, he began to strengthen and expand the Social Democratic organization with new energy. He visited the working districts almost daily, held meetings, and talked with the workers.
On November 18, 1895, the 25-year-old Lenin united all Marxist workers' circles (there were about 20 of them) in St. Petersburg into one "Union of Struggle for the Emancipation of the Working Class". The work of the “Union of Struggle” was built on the principles of centralism and strict discipline. Soyuz was headed by a central group, while the direct work was led by several members of this group headed by Lenin, who was also the editor of Soyuz publications. The organization was divided into regional groups, which included advanced, conscious workers who connected these groups with factories. The factories had organizers for the collection of information and for the dissemination of literature. At large enterprises, workers' circles were created in which, along with the propaganda of the theory of Marxism, current issues of political life were discussed. These circles actually represented the cells of the nascent Marxist party.
The Union of Struggle, led by Lenin, was closely associated with the mass labor movement. In-depth knowledge of the workers' position and mood enabled the Union to specifically direct the strike. The Soyuz published leaflets raising the workers' revolutionary consciousness.
In November 1895, the Union of Struggle organized a strike at Thornton’s cloth factory, which belonged to British manufacturers. The Union of Struggle published and distributed a piece of paper “What do weavers demand?”. A few days later, a second leaflet was written, written by Lenin, for the workers and workers of the Thornton factory. The leaflet explained that the workers can improve their position only by common, united efforts. The strike ended successfully for workers. It marked the beginning of a new upsurge of the strike movement in St. Petersburg.
The activity of the “Union of Struggle” was manifested with particular force in the summer of 1896, when the famous strike of Petersburg textile workers took place, in which 30 thousand people took part.
Under the leadership of Lenin, the St. Petersburg Union of Struggle for the Emancipation of the Working Class linked the struggle of workers for economic demands with the political struggle against tsarism and capitalist exploitation, for the first time in Russia began to combine socialism with the workers' movement.
The Petersburg Union of Struggle gave a powerful impetus to the unification of workers' circles into similar alliances in other cities and regions of Russia.
The significance of the St. Petersburg Union of Struggle for the Emancipation of the Working Class was that, as Lenin put it, it represented the first serious embryo of a revolutionary party based on the labor movement.
Lenin relied on the revolutionary experience of the Petersburg Union of Struggle in his work on the creation of a Marxist Social Democratic Party in Russia.
Material prepared by Comrade Mels
From the Editor:
Comrades, workers, employees and students!
If we want to survive, if we want human life, not bestial, if we do not want to be turned into meat robots, then we need to unite and act collectively, just like 123 years ago!
Lenin was in our years the same age. He succeeded because he was determined and steadfast. He found like-minded people and immediately began to unite them together. Already, the work of uniting the Marxists and workers is going on in Kuibyshev. It was this path that turned out to be successful: working districts, conversations, meetings.
It is now permitted to form trade unions, distribute literature and distribute materials via the Internet. The possibilities for unification are much greater than under Lenin. We use it!
Commented Ivan Kotran
