REVIEW OF THE POLITICAL AND ECONOMIC STATE OF THE RSFSR - MENSHEVİKS

 This article is a thematic and chronological selection of the monthly political overviews prepared by the information department of the OGPU. The source is a collection of documents: "Top secret": Lubyanka-Stalin on the situation in the country (1922-1934). The years from 1922 to 1927 have been posted so far.

REVIEW OF THE POLITICAL AND ECONOMIC STATE OF THE RSFSR for February 1922

Mensheviks [1]

The departure of a group of Mensheviks headed by Dan [2] abroad will undoubtedly strengthen the foreign agitation of the RSDLP party. On the territory of the Republic over the past February, a weakening of propaganda work and an increase in organizational work are planned. The liquidation of the Social Democratic Youth Bureau in Moscow increased the party's conspiracy, which is also noted in the provinces as a result of the struggle of the GPU organs with local social democratic groups.

The slogans advanced by the party are extremely variegated. Thus, the Mensheviks of Georgia at the Rabipros congress ended the congress with exclamations "Long live the Constituent Assembly!" [3] while the Mensheviks of the central provinces put forward a demand for the independence of the trade unions. There is a tendency to hold a referendum on the issue of wages and to immediately establish a subsistence level (Moscow).

A characteristic feature of the Menshevik party is ambivalence in its work: since the Mensheviks consider themselves members of the legal party, they intensify their organizational activity, confident that they will not bear responsibility for this; on the other hand, carrying on anti-Soviet activities, they intensify their secrecy measures to the extreme, carefully covering up the traces of their work.

REVIEW OF THE INTERNAL POLITICAL SITUATION OF THE RSFSR for March 1922

Mensheviks

During the past month the Mensheviks have not shown themselves in any way. Scattered in different provinces, disunited groups continue to carry out petty work, which takes the form of either incitement to a strike of workers of this or that enterprise, occasional speeches at any meetings, or, in rare cases, in the form of attempts to distribute some party literature among workers. ...

More or less energetic work is being carried out by their Moscow Committee, which publishes leaflets quite regularly and is now going to start publishing the permanent organ of Social Democratic youth, Young Proletarian. Locally, they work mainly in trade unions (for printers, rabipros, etc.). Some revival can be noted in the work of the Ukrainian organization, especially in Kharkov, where they managed, under the guise of a seminary at the Institute of National Economy, to arrange something like their own party school. Caucasian Mensheviks continue to spread rumors that a new intervention is supposedly being prepared with the aim of "liberating the Caucasus."

REVIEW OF THE POLITICAL AND ECONOMIC STATE OF THE RSFSR for May-June 1922

Mensheviks

All the activities of the Mensheviks during the period under review were concentrated, as before, in the largest centers of the Republic saturated with the industrial proletariat. The main areas of their work are still Moscow and Petrograd, and their Moscow organization shows the maximum efficiency. Petrograd and Odessa are not lagging behind either.

The Moscow organization, in view of the expansion of its activities, was forced to co-opt new persons to work in the committee. The committees are strictly secret and almost the majority of members live illegally. Meetings of the MK RSDLP take place regularly and active workers are involved in them.

The organization finally went underground and all its activities are strictly conspiratorial. Her work still takes the form of agitation in factories and the occasional publication of leaflets and proclamations (the latter type of activity has intensified in recent years, as discussed below) and the distribution of the Socialist Bulletin. The MK RSDLP pays very significant attention to work among working youth, in connection with which the development of the activities of the Social Democratic Union of Working Youth has recently been noted. The latter plans to publish in the near future the 2nd issue of the magazine "Young Proletarian". The reporting two months resulted in an increase in the number of former members of the RKSM joining the SDSRM. They are very readily accepted by the Social Democratic Union and in most cases are promoted to responsible party posts. Active workers of the Social Democratic Union are looking for connections with the Komsomol members and lure the weaker ones to themselves. The Social Democratic Youth Union is also used by the party as a technical apparatus for the distribution of literature and for communication with the districts. For example, the bureau of the Union of Social Democratic Youth organizes special apartments in the districts with members on duty, from which local workers receive literature and party documents on various issues.

The Petrograd organization of the Mensheviks is less active than the Moscow one. Its activity is expressed in oral and written agitation at some St. Petersburg factories, mainly at the Sestroretsk Arms Plant, where they have something like a cell. The PC also publishes its own typewritten magazine, "Rabochiy leaf", of which there were two issues, and also issues leaflets.

Among the provincial organizations, one should single out organizations: Minsk, Vitebsk, Gomel and Novonikolaevsk, Kharkov and Odessa.

The organization of the Social Democratic "Bund" operates in Minsk [4]... The work is carried out mainly in the trade unions, with the main objects of attention being Rabispros and Vsemedikosantrud. By the end of June, the Vitebsk organization had been defeated, its members in the majority were arrested and will probably be expelled in the near future. Before the defeat of the organization, it was possible to get several people into the local Council, where they spoke out with demands for "democratic freedoms," etc. Quite energetic work was also carried out among the Jewish masses. The organization managed to get eight of its members to a non-partisan Jewish conference held in late May. At this conference, they demanded the establishment of a united front of socialist parties in Russia. In Tyumen, the Mensheviks distributed leaflets about the lockout at the printing house of the former Sytin, and also campaigned against the seizure of church property. The fact is quite remarkable, although, however, it is far from being isolated. Novonikolaevskaya organization is one of the largest provincial organizations of the RSDLP - it has over 50 members. The organization works primarily in Soviet institutions (VSNKh, Sibprodkom, Sibtsentro-Union, etc.). Its activity is insignificant. Kharkov and Odessa organizations publish leaflets and their own magazine.

Among the non-Russian Menshevik organizations, it is necessary to put in the first place, of course, the work of the Menshevik organizations in Georgia.

Compared to the work of the RSDLP, the Georgian Mensheviks have done a great deal of work during the period under review. On May 24-26, the days of the celebration of the "liberation" of Georgia, the Mensheviks decided to officially mark with grandiose demonstrations against the "Bolshevik tyranny", in fact, with an attempt to organize a mass popular uprising (this is described in detail in the corresponding place of the second part of this review). Here we want only to shed some more detail on the role of the Mensheviks in this "enterprise."

The decisions of the Genoa Conference to remove the question of Georgia as a question of a country lying outside Europe, and the decision of the Nine (which had not yet disintegrated by that time) on the collection of materials on the Georgian question for the upcoming World Workers' Congress put the Mensheviks in front of the need to create material, which would cry out to the whole world, convince the workers' congress and reach the ears of the "high patroness" - the Entente.

From the end of April, the Mensheviks began to feverishly prepare for the May 26 celebration. Through colossal ideological and programmatic concessions, a united front is being created with the right-wing bourgeois-nationalist parties in the person of the Parity Committee. By the 20th of May, slogans were worked out, instructors, organizers, etc. were sent out to the provinces. The matter, of course, ended in nothing, they did not succeed in provoking the population to a real active uprising against Soviet power. After that, the activities of the Mensheviks immediately began to decline and at present no complications from this side can be expected in Georgia either.

The revival of Menshevik activity throughout the Republic over the past two months must be explained by the fact that a number of large campaigns we have conducted, of which the first place should be placed: the campaign to confiscate church valuables, the process of the Social Revolutionaries that has begun, the re-elections of the Soviets that have taken place in some centers, etc. , could not force the Menshevik party to refrain from expressing their opinion on all these reasons. Most of all, the Mensheviks were angry about the Socialist-Revolutionary process, the first days of which were marked by the issuance of all kinds of proclamations, proclamations, leaflets, etc., and their distribution among enterprises. This moment should be considered the moment of maximum development of their activities in Russia for the two reporting months.

The influence of the Mensheviks on the working masses is extremely insignificant. Even in Georgia, the workers hardly succumb to their provocation, and if on a local scale they can sometimes cause minor troubles to the Soviet power, then on a national scale they are at least of a real political magnitude that can somehow influence the political life of the country. certainly not.

The foreign delegation of the RSDLP during the reporting period did not show itself in anything. Its activity is still in the publication of the "Socialist Bulletin". Its influence on emigration is even more negligible than the influence of their Russian counterparts on the proletariat of the Soviet Republic. The process of the Socialist-Revolutionaries, as one would expect, causes a fierce campaign in their organs.

During the period under review, the so-called Moscow and Petrograd groups of Social Democrats made themselves known again in public speeches: these groups, according to their program, stand entirely on the platform of the Second International and are almost a copy of Scheidemann's [5] Social Democratic Party of Germany. These groups, by the way, threw out the slogan of overthrowing Soviet power.

During the reporting period, a weekly newspaper of social democratic thought, Zarya, was also published abroad, the publishers of which call themselves adherents of Plekhanov [6] and Potresov [7] . There is an assumption that there is an ideological and organizational connection between the Moscow and Petrograd groups of Social Democrats and the Zarya magazine.

REVIEW OF THE POLITICAL AND ECONOMIC STATE OF THE RSFSR for July 1922

Mensheviks

The Menshevik party remains the most active of all the so-called socialist parties.

The most powerful of its organizations are, of course, St. Petersburg and Moscow, but the periphery also has many places where the Mensheviks do quite significant work.

Now, after the subsequent arrests of the Mensheviks, the Moscow organization is carefully conspiratorial, going deeper and deeper into the underground.

The Mensheviks continue to publish and distribute their printed organs and literature.

This is the work of the Mensheviks in federation.

At st. Moscow North Railway a Menshevik leaflet with a protest against the detention of a group of Mensheviks was found in the middle repair workshop of the traction service of the 1st sector.

In Moscow, among the students of the Institute of National Economy. Karl Marx revealed the opposition-Menshevik trend. So far, he has not shown social and political activity due to the overload of students with educational work, in connection with the examination session.

In the Butyrsky district of Moscow, there is a group calling itself "Social Democrat". The goal pursued by the group is the restoration of the workers against Soviet power, the convocation of a Constituent Assembly, or, in extreme cases, a constitutional monarchy. From this group, several people were identified - members of the group and several sympathizers.

In the workshops of the 1st section of the North Railway. the leaflet "Appeal to all Moscow workers" was discovered, issued by the RSDLP on June 15, 1922.

The work of the Mensheviks at the Glukhovsky convent is noted.

In Sokolniki, proclamations of the Central Committee and the EC of the RSDLP dated July 13, 1922 were pasted up.

A group of Mensheviks was discovered in Vneshtorg.

The work of the Moscow organization of the Mensheviks, which had quieted down at the beginning of the reporting month, after the last arrests in the 2nd half of June, is gradually beginning to revive, the Mensheviks who have escaped arrest live illegally and are hiding in the outskirts of Moscow in their dachas. To conspire with themselves, active workers of the RSDLP use fictitious forged documents.

There are two trends among the Moscow organization - left and right. The latter has a connection with the non-party group of Social Democrats, which threw out the slogan of overthrowing Soviet power. This group, however, has not shown itself in anything lately.

In Petrograd the Petrograd organization is intensifying its work among the workers.

The Petrograd Committee of the RSDLP, starting from June of this year, has been publishing a typewritten magazine "Rabochiy Listok".

In the provinces, the work of the Mensheviks during the month under review was expressed as follows.

In Minsk, two groups of Bundists were found: in the scientific society of doctors, another of 12 people, actively working in the Vneshtorg of Belarus.

In Vitebsk, during a search of the Mensheviks, a resolution of the RSDLP Committee on the trial of the Socialist-Revolutionaries was found, which the Mensheviks intended to submit to a meeting of the City Council.

In Vyatka, the administrative exiles working in the gubernia council of national economy - Mensheviks, spoke actively at the meeting of employees. Some of them were elected by a meeting to the people's courts and the local council. Recently, administrative exiles have been actively speaking at meetings and conferences.

In Novonikolaevsk, the Mensheviks did not take part in the anti-Socialist-Revolutionary demonstration and were indignant at the trial of the Socialist-Revolutionaries.

In the Tyumen province. at the congress of food cooperators, two Mensheviks, representatives of the All-Russian Union of Industrial Cooperation, called for protesting against the arrest of the former board of the Industrial Union, considering the arrest a violation of cooperative ethics. The board was arrested for official fraud.

In the Tver province. at the Morozov convent the Mensheviks formed an organizational bureau, the purpose of which was to prepare general meetings of workers.

In the Moscow province. Mensheviks are trying to overthrow the rule of Rabispros.

The Kharkov organization of the RSDLP issued the 10th issue of the magazine "Social-Democrat", the organ of the Kharkov committee of the RSDLP.

There is a group of Social-Democratic youth in Kiev, which is doing quite successful work in contact with a circle of Socialist-Revolutionary youth.

In Nikolaevsk, the organization of the RSDLP split into two pronounced directions - right and left.

In Poltava, the existing organization of the Mensheviks of 30 people does not show active work.

In Tomsk, in connection with the campaign of re-election of the boards of the UCHTPO and trade unions, the work of the Mensheviks is noted, trying to discredit the candidates nominated in the list of the RCP and to deceive persons with a petty-bourgeois psychology.

As for the activities of the RSDLP abroad, we have no information about it. According to the editorial of the Socialist Bulletin No. 11 entitled “In the Struggle for Unity,” we can judge the assessment of the attitude towards the RCP and Soviet power.

The article concludes that Bolshevism is currently a "subclass" anti-socialist state organization hostile to the working class, therefore, there can be no united front with the Bolsheviks referred to in the article as the camp of the bourgeoisie.

This article caught the Central Committee by surprise in Russia, [which] does not agree with the official party organ to reconsider the issue of further tactics without its knowledge, although for its part it has nothing against revision, considering it only necessary to do this not by an article, but by the official party document.

REVIEW OF THE POLITICAL AND ECONOMIC STATE OF THE RSFSR for August 1922

Mensheviks

Data on the activities of the RSDLP abroad for the reporting month are very scarce.

The organizational activity of the Mensheviks in Russia was mainly aimed at organizing aid in Moscow to those expelled with their families. In addition, she expressed herself: 1) in the production of elections to the Bureau of the Central Committee

RSDLP instead of the previously existing Central Committee, 2) in the breakdown of organizations into regional dozens and the approval of authorized regional dozens, 3) in the issue of the second issue of the circular letter to organizations, 4) in organizing an active four to manage the work of the youth union, and 5) in the resumption of organizational activities circles for discussing the party program and the current moment.

In the Ukraine, the activity of the Mensheviks, after the rout, revived only in Kharkov. The Kharkiv organization has again constructed a sponge and a city committee. The conspiracy in the organization has intensified. Issued No. 1 of the Social Democrat and No. 12 of the Bulletin of the City Committee. The Gorkom organized a troika in order to cleanse it of dubious elements. The cleaning is done behind the scenes. The Kharkov organization is divided into three districts: 1) social democratic, 2) professional, and 3) Bund. Each district has its own liaison officer. The district is divided into dozens, headed in turn by the delegates. In other provinces of Ukraine, as a result of this defeat, the Mensheviks did not show vigorous activity.

From other regions of the Republic, Gomel can be noted, where the work of the Mensheviks covers the unions of printers, tanners, garment workers and Soviet workers, there are even factions. The Mensheviks are pursuing a course towards exemplary democracy. There is a connection with a local organization, with the Central Committee of the Bund in Minsk and the Central Committee of the RSDLP in Moscow, from where the instructional material is obtained.

In Vyatka, in connection with the presence of a significant group of prominent members of the RSDLP in exile, revival is noticed. They speak at meetings in non-party conferences, propose resolutions in the spirit of their party tactics. They have no connection whatsoever with the working masses and are not popular.

In Tyumen there is a large group of Mensheviks - 73 people. The latter has a connection with the center, receiving literature and instructions from there. The most significant group of Mensheviks is in the Tyumen EPO, where they enjoy some influence.

In Arkhangelsk, members of the RSDLP, together with the Social Revolutionaries, managed to provoke the workers of the shipyard to a strike.

In Siberia, the activity of the Mensheviks is concentrated in the workers' centers. Their work is aimed at gaining influence in cooperative bodies.

In Moscow, in connection with the arrest of members of the RSDLP, the organization does not show particular activity for fear of further arrests. Prominent members of the party are strictly conspiratorial and hide. From the daily work of the Mensheviks among the workers of Moscow, we note the work among the printers in connection with the ongoing Gubernia Conference and the work of the Mensheviks in the Mosprodkom.

REVIEW OF THE POLITICAL AND ECONOMIC STATE OF THE RSFSR for September 1922

Mensheviks

September marked the resumption of the organizational activity of the Mensheviks in the center and in the localities.

In Moscow, the bureaus of the Central Committee of the RSDLP and the MK turned all their attention to establishing ties with individual members of the party living in Moscow and with provincial organizations.

No active activity of the Mensheviks in the factories and factories of Moscow was noted.

Of the provincial organizations, the Kharkov one is the most vital and active and has published the 15th issue of Sotsial-Democrat.

The most prominent Mensheviks flock to Kharkov from the rest of the cities of Ukraine. The party's commander-in-chief, designed last month, is going to redistribute forces to resume work, which stopped after the March defeat.

The Kharkiv city organization of the RSDLP directed its work in three directions: 1) to attract individual workers to the party, 2) to create circles, 3) to create non-party clubs.

At a joint meeting of district commissioners, it was decided to publish the Sotsial-Demokrat magazine every 10 days and to convene a city-wide conference to discuss issues of attitude to the united front, the internal and external position of the organization, and attitude towards Soviet power.

In the rest of the provinces of the Ukraine, the Menshevik organizations are much weaker. In the Yekaterinoslav and Podolsk provinces. there are only individual members of the party. In the Poltava province. there is a city organization. There are no organizations registered in the counties, but there are individual party members associated with the city committee.

In Siberia, mainly in Novonikolaevsk, the Mensheviks, like the Socialist-Revolutionaries, turned their attention to cooperation. They are most active in the Siberian Center of the Union, where they hold many responsible posts.

In Tyumen, a group of Mensheviks, in connection with the arrests of some of its members, is now not showing activity.

In Turkestan there is legally a committee of the RSDLP, whose members are old party workers; administrative exiles also take part. Organizational work was not shown by the committee.

The Mensheviks are conducting covert agitation against Soviet power in the City Republic and in Georgia.

The Union of Social Democratic Working Youth showed itself only in Moscow by issuing a leaflet on the occasion of the International Youth Day, which, however, did not receive wide distribution. 5 members of the SDSRM and 3 active members of the RSDLP, who work among young people, were arrested.

A small amount of information about the foreign activities of the RSDLP was received. From reliable sources it turned out that the financial situation of the Socialist Bulletin is improving, since the editorial board managed to contact the Central Bank of the Mensheviks of the Far East, which undertook the responsibility to distribute the magazine there and send sums of money. Until now, the magazine is mostly distributed free of charge.

REVIEW OF THE POLITICAL AND ECONOMIC STATE OF THE RSFSR for October 1922

Mensheviks

Party inertia. The lull in the work of the Mensheviks that was observed last month continues to this day. If, however, in some places more or less active performance of individual members of the RSDLP continues to be noted, then in any case it has a completely disorganized character.

Further loss of influence in St. Petersburg. The campaign for re-election to the Soviets was almost completely unused by them. The Menshevik agitation did not enjoy the success and sympathy of the broad masses of the workers: the leaflets "Under the Banner of Social-Demotratiya" pasted up in the port and factory districts of Petrograd had no influence on the workers. In Kharkov, the regional committee and city committee of the RSDLP decided to boycott the elections to the Soviets, although the decree of the Central Committee of the RSDLP proposed just the opposite.

In some places, the Mensheviks, it is true, still enjoy the sympathy of the workers, for example, in Ekater in the non-Slavic province. at the Shayduar plant, the Mensheviks succeeded in disrupting the general meeting of workers, on the agenda of which was a report on the international situation.

Job in Moscow. On the Kursk railway. In the Moscow region, the Mensheviks organized a strike of the traction service workers, for which they called a meeting of the railway workers of Podolsk, which was attended by 500 people. The unrest, based on economic grounds, was clearly caused by the Mensheviks.

Georgia also deserves attention. Here the Mensheviks are most active in their work and are still continuing the armed struggle against Soviet power. Thus, the Menshevik Metenashvilli again organized a gang of 400 people.

Work in OKA. There is a fairly strong Menshevik group in the Separate Caucasian Army, the leaders of which are the division commander Masenedze and some of the officers.

Foreign work. Abroad, the activity of the Mensheviks was expressed in establishing close contact with the Socialist-Revolutionaries and even with the Cadets. The foreign delegations of the SDLP and the AKP decided to combine the work 1) to send people to Russia for literature, 2) to organize joint cells in factories and plants, and in trade unions, 3) to jointly distribute literature in Soviet Russia. In Paris, a meeting of representatives of the Left Cadets, Right Socialist Revolutionaries and Mensheviks is to be held shortly on the question of creating a united Republican Democratic Party and the publication of a new magazine "Nov", intended mainly for Russia.

BRIEF OVERVIEW OF THE POLITICAL AND ECONOMIC STATE OF THE RSFSR for December 1922

Mensheviks and Social Revolutionaries

The activities of anti-Soviet parties in Soviet Russia continue to remain almost completely invisible. The main parties of the Mensheviks and Socialist-Revolutionaries show almost no signs of life. As already mentioned above, the revival in their work concerns only both written and oral agitation among young people and the organization of circles of the latter. Both the Socialist-Revolutionaries and the Mensheviks nowhere enjoy influence over the workers, with a few very insignificant exceptions.

1923 year

REVIEW OF THE POLITICAL AND ECONOMIC CONDITION OF THE USSR for April - May 1923

Mensheviks

The activities of the Mensheviks, temporarily disrupted by the operations of the GPU, revived again. This is evidenced by their publishing work. During the reporting period, they issued: 4th and 5th issues of "Social Democrat", No. 4 "Bulletin of the Bureau of the Central Committee of the RSDLP", leaflets: "Ruhr events", "By May 1", "English ultimatum", "Appeal to Amsterdam Congress ". Newspapers are also published in Petrograd, Kharkov, Odessa at the expense of the foreign Mensheviks, with whom close ties are maintained from Russia.

Menshevik agitation has a hidden character, is conducted mainly among workers and students, and in the Caucasus and among peasants. The enterprises use insufficient material security of workers, delayed wages, etc. to excite the strike mood. There is reason to believe that strikes at state-owned enterprises are often carried out under the secret leadership of the Mensheviks. The efforts of Menshevik agitators sometimes fail the lists of communists in elections to factory committees (in Moscow printing houses Nos. 7, 11, 39 and Novaya Derevanie). Cases of anti-Soviet agitation were also noted among the unemployed (especially in Moscow). There is a Menshevik youth organization in Petrograd, which consists mainly of students and has a Bureau of Social Democratic Working Youth.

The largest concentration point for Mensheviks is still Georgia. After the defeat of the Menshevik organizations (arrests of the presidium of the regional Tiflis committee and the Abkhaz district), their activities revived again. Apparently, there is a connection between the Georgian Mensheviks and the nationalists of Georgia and Turkey; there is information that the Mensheviks are organizing fighting squads together with the leaders of the Muslim national movement.

Although during the period under review there have been mass withdrawals from the Menshevik Party (195 people in Georgia, 59 in the Crimea, and in small groups in different cities), this circumstance still cannot be given serious importance.

REVIEW OF THE POLITICAL AND ECONOMIC CONDITION OF THE USSR for June 1923

Mensheviks

During the month under review, the Mensheviks somewhat curtailed their activities, especially publishing. In Moscow, in connection with the arrest of about 30 active workers, some prominent members of the party went into an illegal position to create an efficient apparatus. In Petrograd, the Mensheviks have significant ties with the factory and higher education institutions and are establishing contacts with the districts; the organization receives publications from the Bureau of the Central Committee of the RSDLP and abroad. The strictest secrecy is observed in the work.

The activity of the Mensheviks in individual provinces was expressed: in Moscow, Menshevik appeals about the British note were spread among the railway workers of the Moscow-Baltic Belorussian railway. etc .; in Saratov, among the railway workers in connection with the Hamburg Congress of the Second and Two-and-a-Half Internationals, there was agitation in the sense that the workers of the West were against the Communists; in the Votsky region. and Ryazan lips. - stimulation of workers on a purely economic basis and in Tomsk - local Mensheviks strive to win the sympathy of the workers by protecting their interests within the framework of modern legality.

In Ryazan lips. the Menshevik grouping was liquidated.

REVIEW OF THE POLITICAL AND ECONOMIC STATE OF THE USSR for July, August and half of September 1923

Mensheviks

A number of GPU operations weakened the work of Menshevik organizations both in the center and in the periphery. In the provinces of Tambov, Gomel, Kiev, Kharkov and Odessa (sotsmol), the activities of the Menshevik organizations, as a result of arrests, are completely paralyzed. In Kiev, the 1st All-Russian Conference of the Social Democratic Youth Union and its city organization were liquidated. The Far Eastern center of the RSDLP declared the organization dissolved in view of the instructions of the Central Committee on the transition to an illegal position. Their publishing work has also been greatly reduced.

Along with this, an attempt is revealed to strengthen illegal work. In view of the expulsion of the members of the Commander-in-Chief of Ukraine, the Kharkov Gubernia Committee temporarily assumed its functions. In Petrograd, the activities of the Mensheviks are still strictly conspiratorial. In addition to the provincial committee, there are also district committees directly connected with the cells - initiative groups, usually working behind the back of completely legally existing organizations. The composition of the Petrograd Committee has not been identified personally. A number of Mensheviks who left the party in Ivanovo-Voznesensk province. continues to maintain in practice connections with like-minded people. Some revival of the Mensheviks' activity is observed among the exiles of the Perm province. and Bashkiria. In the Kostroma province. The Mensheviks carried out work among the teachers, and after the arrests made, attempts by individual Mensheviks to re-establish the organization were outlined.

REVIEW OF THE POLITICAL AND ECONOMIC STATE OF THE USSR for the period from September 15 to November 1, 1923

Mensheviks

The activity of the Mensheviks in September revived in a number of provinces. In Moscow, their significant influence among printers is revealed (see the section of the survey "Workers"). Taking advantage of the difficult economic situation of the workers, the Mensheviks seek to exacerbate the relationship between the workers and the administration. The strike at the Selstroy plant in Moscow was organized under the leadership of a worker Menshevik. In the Yaroslavl main workshops and on the Southern Railway. the disturbances of railway workers under the influence of agitation of workers suspected of belonging to the SDP were noted. In Orekhovo-Zuevo, the Mensheviks were campaigning against the assembly to the Air Fleet. In the Tula province. they are campaigning against the dismissal of workers and wage cuts. The activity of the Mensheviks among the workers was noted in the Crimea (garment workers), Ivanovo-Voznesensk Gubernia, Penza Gubernia. (Pipe plant), Tomsk province.

The dissemination of Menshevik literature (the newspapers Sotsial-Demokrat, Yuny Proletarian and the brochure Our Tasks) has grown noticeably. A whole series of leaflets appeared, scattered around factories, universities and during the explosion on Neglinny passage. In Petrograd, the journal "Rabochy leaf" No. 5 and 6 was published, and leaflets of the Central Committee of the Soviet Union "Towards the working class" were distributed.

In Petrograd, mass withdrawals from the party through the press have recently been registered. An organizing bureau was created to convene a regional conference of former Mensheviks.

REVIEW OF THE POLITICAL AND ECONOMIC CONDITION OF THE USSR for November - December 1923

Mensheviks

In the activities of the Mensheviks in the months of November and December, the previous revival is not observed. In Moscow, there was no open activity of the Mensheviks, but there was a noticeable intensification of organizational work to establish contacts with local organizations and with abroad. In Petrograd, the activities of the Mensheviks and the Social Democratic Youth Union did not appear. In early November, there was a certain revival among a group of students - members of the Social Democratic Union of Youth, which published its own magazine "Call of Youth". The insignificant work of local organizations, consisting in the anti-Soviet agitation of individual Mensheviks, was noted in the Yaroslavl province. (there are two groups at the factory of the former Karzinkin "Krasny Perekop" and the railway workshops of the Yaroslavl junction), in the Arkhangelsk province. (exiled Mensheviks), in Voronezh and Kostroma provinces. (identified social-democratic groups conducting organizational work), Nizhny Novgorod province. (there is an active group that conducts internal party work, maintains contact with the center and distributes party literature), Tula (some enterprises have small social democratic groups) and Pokrovsk (there is an organizational group connecting with other cities and distributing literature).

As a result of operations carried out in November, an illegal Menshevik printing house with a ready-made set of leaflets and various Social Democratic literature for 1923 was seized in Petrograd. In Moscow, seized about 30 poods. typographic type and various social democratic literature for 1920-1923, in the Tula province. discovered a print shop (press and type) in Kaluga province. withdrawn old party cards.

In a number of provinces there are groups of former Mensheviks for the self-liquidation of Menshevik organizations. Such groups have already been created in the Tomsk province. (a corresponding declaration was issued), the Tatrespublika, Bryansk, Smolensk, Vladimir, Tula (a declaration was issued), Petrograd and Orenburg (a declaration was issued). It is also planned to organize one in Kursk province.

1924 year

REVIEW OF THE POLITECONOMIC CONDITION OF THE USSR for January 1924

Mensheviks

The organizational and publishing and propaganda work of the Mensheviks, both in the center and in the localities, which had fallen after the summer and autumn failures, has noticeably revived, despite the serious blows received in their individual large centers (Rostov, Leningrad, Odessa). In Moscow, organizational work is still underway to restore communication with the localities. In Leningrad, a group of students - members of the Union of Social Democratic Youth published the magazine "Voice of the Social Democrat" No. 1 for December. In a number of provinces, at the same time, there is also a tendency to self-liquidation (Leningrad, Pskov, Tambov provinces, the Far East, etc.).

REVIEW OF THE STATE OF political economy of the USSR for 1924 February city of

Mensheviks

In Moscow, there was no widespread mass activity of the Mensheviks; internal party, propaganda and organizational work is underway. The publishing activity, interrupted on the September leaflet "To the Students", is now being restored.

The activity of the Mensheviks in Leningrad is very significant, especially among the organization of Social-Democratic youth who went underground after the arrests. At the end of December, an issue of the "Work sheet" was published here.

Their work is also highly developed in the South-East and, in particular, in Rostov, on the Middle Volga and Ukraine (in particular, in Kiev), where after the September defeat [1923] by the January defeat the organization was completely restored.

Work on the elimination of the Menshevik Party through congresses of the "former" is being carried out in the provinces: Vladimir, Yaroslavl, Smolensk, Nizhny Novgorod, Bryansk, Kuban-Black Sea, Tomsk, Yenisei, Far East Military District and Ukraine (liquidation work is best done in Ukraine).

In the Ural province. a small group of Mensheviks are campaigning against self-liquidation. In the Ufa province. the meeting of the former Mensheviks adopted a vague resolution stating that they cannot be held responsible for the ruling bodies of the RSDLP, from which they broke away from 1919, and their goal is to help the USSR in freeing the workers from the yoke of capital and to fight against reaction. By this resolution, the group dissociates itself from the Social Democrats.

REVIEW OF THE POLITECONOMIC CONDITION OF THE USSR for March 1924

Mensheviks

In early March, an operation was carried out to confiscate active workers in the Moscow organization of the RSDLP, and leaflets from the Bureau of the RSDLP "To all party members" were seized. At the end of March, up to 700 copies of the Sotsial-Demokrat magazine No. 1-2 for January-February 1924, issued by the Central Committee Bureau, were confiscated. The leaflets “To All Party Members” contain an acknowledgment of the ongoing collapse of the Menshevik Party and call for increased party energy. At the end of February, a leaflet "To All Party Members" was distributed in Leningrad; in addition, signed by the "Petrograd Committee of the RSDLP," a leaflet was issued here for the 7th anniversary of the February revolution.

The idea of ​​calling congresses of former Mensheviks is spreading, but the results are poor. Conferences were held in the Nizhny Novgorod province. (90 people, mostly workers) and the Perm District. Declarative statements of groups of former Mensheviks in Ufa and Blagoveshchensk have been published.

On March 10, a group of 20-25 Mensheviks was liquidated, which was conducting covert agitation at the Sormovo factories of the Nizhny Novgorod province, and illegal literature and correspondence were seized.

REVIEW OF THE POLITECONOMIC CONDITION OF THE USSR for April 1924

Mensheviks

The significant publishing activity of the Menshevik organizations in Moscow and Leningrad continues to be noted. In Moscow, on the night before May 1, more than 200 proclamations were found under the title "May 1st", signed by the Bureau of the Central Committee of the RSDLP and the Central Committee of the Bund in Russia. Proclamations were found in the First Moscow State University and the Pokrovsky workers' faculty (50 each), in the area of ​​factories and plants. On the day of the 7th anniversary of the February Revolution [1917] leaflets of the Bureau of the Central Committee of the RSDLP were distributed in Leningrad. Detained 4 students of the 1st Polytechnic Institute, who were pasting proclamations on the Vyborg side. In the same place, about 30 copies were seized by searches. magazine "Voice of a Social Democrat" No. 3-4 for March - April 1924 (organ of the student bureau of the RSDLP). The magazine is printed on a glass-recorder.

The operations carried out seized in Moscow active workers of the Moscow and central organizations of the RSDLP and in Leningrad up to 100 active workers, most of them members of the Social Democratic Youth Union and active workers of the student bureau of the Leningrad Committee of the RSDLP.

In April, a regional conference on self-liquidation of the RSDLP of Novgorod, Kanavin and Sormov was held. 81 people took part, of which 54 with pre-revolutionary experience and 46 workers. The conference elected a bureau for the convocation of the provincial congress. The movement towards the self-liquidation of the Mensheviks is deepening in Tomsk Gubernia, especially in connection with the Leninist appeal to the RCP. In the Urals, preparations are underway for the convocation of legal congresses by groups of former Mensheviks - Yekaterinburg, Nevyansk, Neyvo-Rudyansk, Nizhny Tagil. In the Yenisei province. a statement was published on the withdrawal from the RSDLP of a group of 10 people (9 workers and 1 intellectual).

REVIEW OF THE POLITECONOMIC STATE OF THE USSR for May 1924

Mensheviks

Operations carried out in May seized active workers from Moscow and some local organizations and several active workers from the central party apparatus of the RSDLP. The right-wing group (zarists), consisting of the Bureau, workers and student circles, has been completely eliminated in Moscow. The right-wing group has been particularly active in recent years. After the April arrests, the Leningrad organization did not show any wide mass activity, except for the dissemination of the appeal “To the students of Petrograd, to the workers and to all citizens”, signed by “Stud. Bureau of the Central Committee of the RSDLP ".

Conferences of former Mensheviks were held in the provinces of Saratov, Bryansk, Smolensk, and others. Preparations for the convocation of their provincial congresses are under way in the Nizhny Novgorod, Gomel, Vladimir provinces, in the Urals and in some other provinces.

REVIEW OF THE POLITECONOMIC CONDITION OF THE USSR for June 1924

Mensheviks

No activity of the Mensheviks in Moscow was noted. It is quite characteristic that there were no Menshevik protests in connection with the purge of universities. In Leningrad, the open activity of the Mensheviks is not manifested, but the inner-party work continues unabated. There were attempts by the Bureau of the Central Committee of the RSDLP to arrange work in the Urals. During the reporting month, a number of prominent workers of the right-wing group of Social Democrats from the Bureau of the Central Committee of the RSDLP in Moscow, two workers in the Urals were arrested, and the Menshevik cell of the Kooperativnoe Publishing House (10 people), which was active among the workers of the printing house, was liquidated.

In June, provincial conferences of former Mensheviks were held in the Nizhny Novgorod and Vladimir provinces and a regional congress in the Urals. Preparatory work is underway to convene congresses in the Gomel province. and the regions of the Kuban-Black Sea and Votskaya.

REVIEW OF THE POLITECONOMIC CONDITION OF THE USSR for July 1924

Mensheviks

In Moscow the Mensheviks are busy putting together their defeated apparatus. No literature is published, only two or three people distribute by scattering the old issues of the Socialist Bulletin [8] . In Leningrad, the activity of the Mensheviks manifested itself among the students. A new program of the RSDLP was discussed. Two prominent Mensheviks were also arrested there. Illegal literature for 1924 was found in Kharkov.

At the end of June, a plenum of the RSDLP was held in Berlin, which was attended by representatives from the USSR and five people from the right opposition. A new program of the RSDLP was worked out, which was adopted by all with the opposition abstaining. Issues 14 and 15 of Sotsialisticheskiy Vestnik and No. 5-6 of Zarya magazine, published by the right-wing group (St. Ivanovich), were published. The efforts of the Mensheviks boil down to establishing ties with Russia. Dan undertakes informational trips to Western Europe. Dan's invariable diagnosis is that "the policy of the Bolsheviks leads to Thermidor and Bonapartism."

REVIEW OF THE POLITECONOMIC STATE OF THE USSR for August 1924

Mensheviks

Issued abroad No. 16 of "Socialist Bulletin", the content of which is not of particular interest. No information has been received on the activities of the Mensheviks abroad.

In Moscow, the organization of the RSDLP was not active. Internal organizational work continues to restore the destroyed apparatus. A similar condition exists in Leningrad.

In Ukraine, employees of local organizations of the RSDLP were additionally seized. In Rostov-on-Don, 15 people were seized.

During the period under review, statements by individual Mensheviks about their resignation from the party were published in the local and central press.

OVERVIEW OF THE POLITICAL STATE OF THE USSR for September 1924

Mensheviks

In the Union of the SSR, the organizations of the RSDLP (m) did not show vigorous activity. In Moscow and in Leningrad, three massive operations were carried out to seize active Mensheviks. Similar operations were carried out in Ukraine. In Leningrad, the leading head of the Leningrad organization was removed, and about 30 people were arrested.

The disintegration of the Mensheviks, breaking ties with the Party, continues almost everywhere.

REVIEW OF THE POLITICAL STATE OF THE USSR for October 1924

Mensheviks

The arrests of active members of the RSDLP, carried out during the reporting period, severely paralyzed the activities of the party's central apparatus, which had already begun to show active work within the organization. A total of 28 active Mensheviks were arrested in Moscow and Leningrad. No illegal party literature was released. In the localities, the press continues to receive statements about the withdrawal from the RSDLP, which indicates the ideological disintegration of the party.

OVERVIEW OF THE POLITICAL STATE OF THE USSR for November 1924

Mensheviks

As before, in the organizations of the RSDLP (m), both in the center and in the field, no open activities have been shown. Searches carried out in Moscow seized five active Mensheviks. In the localities, letters from the former Mensheviks continue to go to press about the withdrawal from the RSDLP, exposing it to counter-revolutionary activities. This movement is especially vivid in the Moscow province. (industrial areas of Orekhovo-Zuevo, Yegoryevsk, Kolomna, Bronnitsy, etc.), in these areas, up to 90% of the former Menshevik workers announced a break with the RSDLP (M).

REVIEW OF THE POLITICAL STATE OF THE USSR for the month of December 1924

Mensheviks

In Leningrad, the organization of the RSDLP issued in a small number of copies on a typewriter two appeals to the British delegation (from the Leningrad Committee of the RSDLP and on behalf of a group of workers). The operation carried out here confiscated literature and correspondence from factories and plants. In other areas, the Mensheviks were not noted. The publication of statements on disassociation from the RSDLP continues.

REPORT OF THE SECRET AND INFORMATION DEPARTMENTS OF THE OGPU [ON THE POLITICAL STATE OF THE USSR] dated February 17, 1925

RSDLP (m). As a result of the operational work of the OGPU during 1923 and 1924, the provincial organizations [9]the Mensheviks were mostly liquidated. However, there are Menshevik organizations in a number of cities (Moscow, Saratov, Kharkov, Rostov-on-Don, Odessa, etc.). A comparatively strong organization of Mensheviks with a very solid student nucleus exists in Leningrad. Talking about the state of their party apparatus, the Mensheviks admit that their Bureau of the Central Administration is not vital, that the ideological and organizational center, which could direct and reflect the opinion of the party, answer and speak out on topical issues outside of it, outline practical tasks and put into practice - the party does not have that all the work of the Party is casual and artisanal; that the Central Bank does not have a person who fully reflects the position of the party; that all the party organizations scattered in different cities, with which the connection is extremely weak, cannot be considered complete and completely sharing the party's position. The latter are cut off from the center, without receiving literature for a long time, remain left to themselves and cook in their own juice. This characterization of the party was made by one of its main contemporary leaders. The activities of the Mensheviks are all the time aimed at restoring the organizational apparatus (systematically liquidated by the OGPU), which absorbs all the forces and energy of the Mensheviks who are underground. The distribution of literature is extremely weak; the distribution of party members was registered only in Leningrad. The right side of the ruling elite of the RSDLP (opposition) thinks as follows about the task of party work in Russia: preserving party cadres, strengthening the party apparatus, staying deep underground, where it seriously trains new cadres of party workers who can lead the leadership of the movement in the future. To create certain technical and material prerequisites for work and even then to fight for the organization of the "workers' movement" and for carrying out the political tasks outlined by the party. This part of the party leadership is dissatisfied with the "platform", which is mainly devoted to criticism of the Soviet regime and does not give a way out, and speaks out against the establishment of party techniques in Russia due to the material crisis. Striving to train party workers from among workers, the right wing raises the question of bringing the Socialist Bulletin closer in language and style to the mass of the workers in order to make it more accessible. Bearing in mind the attraction of elements of the working class associated with the countryside into their sphere of influence, the introduction of their influence into the countryside through the latter, the rightists deem it necessary to devote serious attention to the problems of the Russian countryside and agriculture in the Socialist Bulletin. On the issue of a united front in the trade union movement, the right-wing part of the party took a sharply negative position, believing that there are virtually no trade unions in Russia.

The left wing of the party (more precisely, some of its most prominent representatives in the USSR) believe: 1) that the RSDLP is faced with the task of fighting for the unity of the working class on an international scale and the connection of this struggle with the struggle for workers' democracy in Russia; 2) that the moment may come when the party will have to take the initiative to unite those workers 'and social-democratic elements in Russia who stand for unity, but understand that the path to it lies through workers' democracy. One of the forms of such an association could be non-party groups fighting for unity and workers' democracy. The latter could serve as a center of attraction for those non-party workers and members of other socialist parties and even communists (from Rabochaya Pravda and from the Working Group) who are dissatisfied with the communist dictatorship.

Lone Mensheviks, who are not associated with the Party, usually act in an unorganized manner, playing the role of boosters and instigators in the "bagpipes" at factories.

The main reserve that nourishes the Menshevik organizations, especially their top leaders, are: 1) the old members of the RSDLP, although organizationally separated from the party, but retained ties with it, helping the party with money, apartments, employment, etc. and often, at the request of the party, going to underground organizations to conduct work; 2) the working intelligentsia, which partly, before and after the revolution, followed the Mensheviks, continues to feed the ranks of the RSDLP with workers: 3) anti-Soviet circles of the student body (especially from the number of students purged from universities); 4) the backward strata of the workers, where the Mensheviks are now doing work, using dissatisfaction with the campaign to increase labor productivity, etc.

The extreme right-wing group of social democrats "Zarya" [10] .We should dwell on the groups of extreme right-wing Mensheviks existing in Russia as representatives of the Zarya Foreign Group. The ideology of this group, roughly outlined, is as follows: a democratic republic based on a Constituent Assembly. The group's tactics are propaganda among the workers for a future uprising. According to the group, Soviet power will lead to a complete stratification and weakening of the proletariat and thereby create the inevitability of a restoration, bourgeois or monarchist. The Zarist periphery has a small group of those who survived the liquidation in Moscow, a relatively large group rallied in Leningrad and small groups in Kharkov and Rostov-on-Don. The immediate organizational tasks of this group are rallying and establishing ties with the periphery and resuming active work.

1925 year

REVIEW OF THE POLITICAL STATE OF THE USSR for January 1925

Mensheviks

As before, the Mensheviks show no activity. Only the Odessa organization is conducting intensive internal organizational work. The withdrawal of individual Mensheviks from the RSDLP through the press continues.

REVIEW OF THE POLITICAL CONDITION OF THE USSR for February 1925

Mensheviks

In the organizations of the RSDLP and the Bund, internal organizational work was noted to establish communication with the western provinces of the USSR. As a result of the undertaken operation, a number of Mensheviks were seized in Moscow (two of them were illegal immigrants who fled from Turkestan) and Zapkrai. Along with this, in a number of provinces, statements by individual Mensheviks about leaving the party continue to be published.

OVERVIEW OF THE POLITICAL STATE OF THE USSR for March 1925

Mensheviks

In March, in order to suppress organizational work, operations were carried out to seize active Mensheviks in Moscow, Leningrad, and Tver province. A number of prominent Mensheviks were arrested. A group of the Social Democratic Youth Union has been liquidated in Moscow. In Leningrad, some of those who fled from exile in 1919-1922 were arrested. In the Tver province. In the city of Kashin, the group organized around the old member of the Central Committee of the RSDLP Zederbaum Yezhov was liquidated, 6 people were arrested, who, upon preliminary interrogation, recognized themselves as Social Democrats.

OVERVIEW OF THE POLITICAL STATE OF THE USSR for April 1925

Mensheviks

During the period under review, the Mensheviks did not display openly active anti-Soviet activities. The publication and distribution of illegal literature was not observed. The Leningrad organization of the RSDLP (m) was liquidated. During the operation, a Mek printing house was taken, on which the Sotsial-Demokrat magazine was printed, several lithographic and chapirographic presses. More than 100 people were arrested in total. Among those arrested are many active workers of the Leningrad organization of the RSDLP (m).

REVIEW OF THE POLITICAL STATE OF THE USSR for May 1925

Mensheviks

THE USSR. In the reporting period, no vigorous activity of Meks was noted. The investigation into the case of the Leningrad Mensheviks arrested in April confirmed the testimony of the Menshevik AP Banzina about the existence of a connection with foreign Mensheviks through the Finnish Ambassador in Leningrad, published in Pravda on May 16, 1925.

The liquidation of the Odessa and Leningrad groups was carried out. In Leningrad, the remnants of the local organization were finally liquidated. 26 people were arrested, only the leaders and active workers of the local organization. In Odessa, a group of Menshevik youth was liquidated, 18 people were arrested, and literature and some of the equipment for printing literature were confiscated. An operation carried out on the Sormovo group of Meks found the numbers of the Socialist Bulletin.

Abroad. At the invitation of the Central Committee of the French Socialist Party, Dan came to Paris as an expert on Russian affairs. The foreign delegation of the RSDLP (m) in an information letter to the USSR speaks out against the unification of Russian trade unions with the Amsterdam International [11] .

OVERVIEW OF THE POLITICAL STATE OF THE USSR for June 1925

Mensheviks in the USSR

The Mensheviks did not show any open activity in the USSR; several partial operations were carried out in Moscow, Kharkov and other cities. An old member of the Moscow organization of the RSDLP (m) Aleksandr Fedorovich Devyatin, who has been in hiding since 1922, was arrested.

REVIEW OF THE POLITICAL STATE OF THE USSR for July 1925

Mensheviks in the USSR

There is no open activity on the part of the Mensheviks in the USSR. The Mensheviks confine themselves to narrowly party work.

In Moscow and Kharkov, two memorandums were intercepted by the Bureau of the Central Committee of the RSDLP addressed to the German workers' delegation, describing the position of the working class in Russia. Over the past month, individual arrests have been recorded across the Union.

REVIEW OF THE POLITICAL STATE OF THE USSR for August 1925

Mensheviks

Several active Mensheviks, workers of the Moscow organization of the RSDLP, were arrested in Moscow.

OVERVIEW OF THE POLITICAL STATE OF THE USSR for September 1925

RSDLP. Mensheviks

In Moscow, arrests were made among the Mensheviks: the head of the Menshevik group in the 6th printing house of Transpechat, who was conducting agitation among the workers of the said printing house, was liquidated. Two active workers of Ukrainian organizations were arrested in Kharkov. In Leningrad, during the arrest of one of the active members of the Youth Union of the Moscow organization, several copies of the Menshevik foreign magazine "Socialist Bulletin" were found.

REVIEW OF THE POLITICAL STATE OF THE USSR for October 1925

RSDLP

The leaders of the Menshevik group in the 6th printing house of Transpechat were arrested in Moscow. Therefore, their activity stalled. On an all-Russian scale, some organizational internal party activity is noticeable.

OVERVIEW OF THE POLITICAL STATE OF THE USSR for November 1925

In the activities of the anarchists, Mensheviks, Right Socialist-Revolutionaries and monarchists, nothing significant was noted during the reporting period.

1926 year

OVERVIEW OF THE POLITICAL STATE OF THE USSR for March 1926

Mensheviks

Searches and arrests of Social Democratic youth were carried out in Moscow. Found in two places 3 copies of the "Socialist Bulletin" [12] in the last months of 1925 and 1 copy of the magazine "Worklist" in 1924, 5 people were arrested. 5 Mensheviks were arrested in Kharkov; during a search, one of them had an illegal brochure from a foreign publication called “Our Platform”.

REVIEW OF THE POLITICAL STATE OF THE USSR for July 1926

There have been no changes in the activities of the Mensheviks in comparison with the previous month. Arrests were made among the Moscow Mensheviks, 6 people were arrested.

REVIEW OF THE POLITICAL STATE OF THE USSR for August 1926

Mensheviks

The Mensheviks turned to the 2nd German Workers' Delegation with a special letter containing an assessment of the economic and political state of the USSR. Individual members of the delegation are showing interest in the position of the Mensheviks and, apparently, have received special instructions from the Mensheviks abroad.

In Leningrad, searches seized a lot of new party material (the bulletin "From the Party" for July 1926, an appeal to the 2nd German delegation, a draft of the brochure "On the Results of NEP and the Immediate Tasks of the Working Class" and party correspondence). Three illegal workers were arrested. In Tashkent and Poltoratsk, the connection of exiled Mensheviks with abroad and with exiles from other regions through correspondence was revealed, up to 20 people were arrested. Martov's cousin living illegally was arrested in Moscow.

REVIEW OF THE POLITICAL STATE OF THE USSR for December 1926

Mensheviks

In December, 10 active workers and their assistants were arrested in Moscow, and 2 active workers of a local group in Odessa. Among those arrested, VL Ioffe, who escaped from exile to the Urals, was identified. Searches found 3 copies of the "Socialist Bulletin" for August and November 1926.

1927 year

REVIEW OF THE POLITICAL STATE OF THE USSR for May 1927

Mensheviks. On the 1st of May in Leningrad, leaflets were distributed signed "Democratic Youth Group", as well as unsigned, written on a chapirograph. Both leaflets are clearly Menshevik in content. The "Democratic Youth Group" of three people was liquidated by the OGPU PP in the LVO, and it was found that it managed to publish 7 titles of leaflets on topical issues and two brochures: "Platform of the DSM" and "Soviet system". The content of this literature testifies to the acquaintance of the members of the group with the program and the foreign press organ of the Mensheviks.

OVERVIEW OF THE POLITICAL STATE OF THE USSR for June 1927

Mensheviks. There is no open activity of the Mensheviks in the USSR. The lone Mensheviks are mainly engaged in discussing the Anglo-Russian divide. Like those abroad, they are negative about the possibility of war, but they consider it necessary to use the difficulties of the Soviet regime in order to weaken the regime and establish democracy.

REVIEW OF THE POLITICAL STATE OF THE USSR for July 1927

RSDLP (m). The Mensheviks in the USSR have recently been busy mainly discussing the current international position of the Union in connection with the possibility of war. There is speculation about the possibility of amnesty for political prisoners for the upcoming 10th anniversary of the October Revolution.

The investigation into the case of the right-wing social-democrat Bogomil-Dnevnitsky established that he and the right-wing social-democrat Gorelov (who later turned out to be Nazarov Mikhail Nazarovich), who was in political isolation, participated in the counter-revolutionary Tagantsev organization in 1921 and were then sentenced to death.

OVERVIEW OF THE POLITICAL STATE OF THE USSR for December 1927

Mensheviks. Recently, in a number of places in the Union, the distribution of Menshevik leaflets addressed to "all workers of the Soviet Union" signed by the "Central Committee of the RSDLP" has been discovered. Leaflets indicate that in the internal party struggle "the death throes of the entire system of the communist dictatorship and at the same time a great mystery about the state system that will replace it" were revealed. At the same time, the Mensheviks call on the working class to put forward political demands in the spirit of the RSDLP program in order to "prevent a Bonapartist coup and establish the democratic rule of the working people."

The issuance of these leaflets should be considered as the first manifestation of the Mensheviks' activity with the aim of using the internal party struggle in the CPSU (b) in the interests of their party.

Many Mensheviks, especially those in exile, come to the conclusion that the time has come for active Party (Menshevik) work.

[1] The Mensheviks are part of the RSDLP, which appeared in 1903 as a result of a split in the party. They fought against the Bolsheviks on all the main issues of the organization, program, charter, strategy and tactics of Russian social democracy. On June 14, 1918, the All-Russian Central Executive Committee adopted a resolution to expel the Mensheviks from its membership and from the local Soviets. In the early 1920s. existed in Russia in the form of scattered underground groups. The Mensheviks, together with the Social Revolutionaries, led the uprisings against Soviet power in the villages, took part in the Kronstadt mutiny of 1921.

[2]Dan (Gurvich) F.I. (1871-1947), pseud .: D., Derevo, Nadezhda, F. Beresnev, A. Glebov, F. Danilov, Menshevik, Nad, F. D. - one of the leaders of Menshevism, publicist and public figure. From a Jewish family, the son of a pharmacy owner. Graduated from Yuryev University. In 1917 - member of the Presidium of the Central Executive Committee. He was elected as a Deputy Chairman of the CEC. October 25, 1917 opened the meeting of the II All-Russian Congress of Soviets. After the decision to transfer power to the Bolsheviks, he left the hall together with the Menshevik faction. Since 1918, a member of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee, in 1920 - a deputy of the Moscow City Council. He opposed the Bolshevik course. In February 1921 he was imprisoned in the Peter and Paul Fortress, in July 1921 he was transferred to the Butyrka prison. In 1922 he was exiled to Berlin, in 1923 he was stripped of his Soviet citizenship. He worked in the Foreign Delegation (ZD) of the RSDLP (party representation abroad). After L. Martova headed the ZD from 1923 to 1940. From 1933 - in Paris. In 1940 he emigrated to the USA.

[3] The Constituent Assembly is a parliamentary institution of Russia, the meeting of which took place on January 5 (18), 1918 in the Tauride Palace in Petrograd. It did not recognize the decrees of the Soviet government, adopted at the II All-Russian Congress of Soviets. On the night of 6 (19) to 7 (20) January, the Constituent Assembly was dispersed by the Bolsheviks with the support of the Left Social Revolutionaries.

[4] Bund (Yiddish “union”) - The General Jewish Union in Lithuania, Poland and Russia. Founded in 1897 in Vilno. Before 1903 and after 1906 it was a member of the RSDLP. He supported the Mensheviks on general issues. Claimed to represent the entire Jewish proletariat by the party, advocated Jewish cultural autonomy. Leaders: R. A. Abramovich (Rein), I. L. Aisen-stadt, A. I. Kremer, and others. During the October Revolution, the Bund demanded the creation of a coalition government, in December 1917 it developed tactics of struggle against Soviet power ... At the end of 1918, left-wing groups arose in the Bund, which led to a split in the union.

[5] Philip Scheidemann (1865-1939) - one of the leaders of the Social Democratic Party of Germany, in 1918 - Vice President of the German Reichstag and Secretary of State in the government of Prince Max of Baden. Member of the Council of People's Representatives. Reich Chancellor of the Weimar Republic.

[6] Plekhanov GV (1856-1918) - the leader of the Russian and international labor movement, theorist and propagandist of Marxism. Since 1903 - one of the leaders of Menshevism. After the February Revolution, he returned to Russia, advocated the continuation of the war, for the voluntary cooperation of the working class and the bourgeoisie. He assessed the October revolution negatively, believing that it dooms the country to economic ruin; rejected BV Savinkov's proposal to head the anti-Bolshevik government. He died after a serious illness. ( Tyutyukin S.V. The fate of Russian Marxism. M., 1997. S. 357).

[7] Potresov A.N. (1869-1934), pseud. Starover is one of the leaders of Menshevism. In 1917, he was one of the editors of the Menshevik newspaper Den. In 1919 he was arrested by the Petrograd Cheka and released from custody in the same year. In 1920-1922. gave lectures in Moscow at the Prechistenskiy working courses. Member of the Masonic Lodge. In emigration he collaborated in the weekly A. F. Kerensky "Days".

[8] "Socialist Bulletin" - newspaper, organ of the Menshevik emigrants; founded by L. Martov in February 1921; until March 1933 it was published in Russian in Berlin, from May 1933 to June 1940 - in Paris, later in America.

[9] At the beginning of the 1920s, about 20 provincial and more than 10 urban underground organizations of the RSDLP Mensheviks operated in the country.

[10] ' Dawn ' - overseas group Mensheviks right. She published a magazine of the same name, which was published in Berlin in 1922-1924. in Russian.

[11] Amsterdam International (Amsterdam Association) - International association of trade unions, created in the summer of 1919 in Amsterdam; it included the reformist trade unions of Western Europe and the United States, which were on anti-communist positions. It existed until autumn 1945, when the World Federation of Trade Unions was created

[12] "Socialist Bulletin" - magazine. Published since February 1921 in Berlin. The central organ of the Menshevik Party. Editor - F.I.Dan (Gurvich).