Metadata : Materials on the History of Revolutionary Propaganda in Russia
Collection
- Country:
- Russia
- Holding institution:
- The Plekhanov House
- Holding institution (official language):
- Дом Плеханова
- Postal address:
- 190005, St. Petersburg, ul. 4-ia Krasnoarmeiskaia, 1/33
- Phone number:
- (812) 316-74-11
- Web address:
- http://www.nlr.ru/coll/housePleh/
- Email:
- domplekh@nlr.ru
- Country:
- Russia
- Holding institution:
- The Plekhanov House
- Holding institution (official language):
- Дом Плеханова
- Postal address:
- 190005, St. Petersburg, ul. 4-ia Krasnoarmeiskaia, 1/33
- Phone number:
- (812) 316-74-11
- Web address:
- http://www.nlr.ru/coll/housePleh/
- Email:
- domplekh@nlr.ru
- Reference number:
- F. 473
- Title:
- Materials on the History of Revolutionary Propaganda in Russia
- Title (official language):
- МАТЕРИАЛЫ ПО ИСТОРИИ РЕВОЛЮЦИОННОЙ ПРОПАГАНДЫ В РОССИИ
- Creator/accumulator:
- Materials on the History of Revolutionary Propaganda in Russia
- Date(s):
- 1873/1916
- Language:
- Russian
- Extent:
- 78 storage units
- Type of material:
- Textual material
- Scope and content:
- Housed in the fonds are the following materials: the leaflets “To Society (on student unrest)”; “To All Honest People”; “The Attempt on the Life of [A. D.] Drentel’n” (1879); reports on court proceedings of the Senate’s special office on revolutionary propaganda in Russia (“The Trial of the 193”) from October 1877; correspondence of Populist revolutionaries; files of the chancellery of the Kazan’ governor, including correspondence with the Main Prison Administration and the Department of the Police regarding the Populist movement and persons involved in it who were sentenced to hard labour in the 1870s; etc. Pertaining to the history of Jews in Russia are Ministry of the Interior circulars to provincial leaders instructing them to search for particular persons and provide information on those found; appended are name lists of sought-for persons, and brief biographies thereof; these indicate their religious confession, and the reasons they were being sought; these lists indicate a considerable number of “persons of the Judaic confession” accused of state crimes and sentenced to exile or imprisonment; in particular, there is a copy of Interior Minister Count N. P. Ignat’ev’s circular № 2735 (6 May 1881), which informs provincial leaders of the government’s views on the domestic situation in the Russian Empire, and states that the primary task was “to eradicate sedition via police efforts,” and in particular notes that “the movement against the Jews which has appeared in recent days in the south represents a lamentable example of how people loyal to Throne and Fatherland, having come under the influence of malevolent persons stoking sinister passions among the popular masses, are falling into anarchy and vigilantism and, without even realising it, acting according to the seditionists’ aims (1874-1901); a “Memorandum on the narodniki, based on official data,” which is in the form of a report, and gives statistics on persons accused of state crimes, including Jews indicted on charges of involvement in the revolutionary movement; and specifying separately that “Jews have acquired particular significance in this regard, outdoing all other estates except the nobility, and not only in the political but often in the overall civic regard, and are extremely harmful to locations they have chosen to operate in” for 1873-77; lists of members (including Jewish members) of Populist groups organised in Kiev, Nizhnii Novgorod, Odessa, Samara, St. Petersburg, Taganrog, Penza, Chernigov, and other cities and towns of the Russian Empire (1870s); “A Memorandum on Activities of the Narodniki in Ukraine,” which gives the results of Department of the Police operations in uncovering the revolutionary activities of F. Likhachev in Chernigov county and reports that “interrogation led to the discovery of local Jews who are likely accomplices of the revolutionary” (1879); etc.
- Archival history:
- The Plekhanov House is a structural subdivision (department) of the National Library of Russia and constitutes a research centre for the study of the history of the Russian and international revolutionary and social movements, and the history of culture and education. The core of its fonds consists of the archive and library of Georgii Valentinovich Plekhanov (1856-1918), the philosopher, public commentator, and prominent figure in the revolutionary movement who was one of the founders of the Russian Social-Democratic Workers’ Party (RSDRP). In 1925 these materials were turned over to the Committee to Memorialize G. V. Plekhanov by his widow R. M. Plekhanova (nee Bograd) on the condition that they always be stored together as a unit. The grand opening of the Plekhanov House took place 11 June 1929 at the conference hall of the former Free Economic Society. In accordance with the conditions of the agreement between the committee and the State Public Library board, G. V. Plekhanov’s heritage had to be housed in a separate building with a particular staff; this became a standalone branch of the library. The library board accepted the proposed conditions, and by the spring of 1931 the construction and furnishing of the new building of the Plekhanov House were complete. For the final twenty years of her life R. M. Plekhanova served as director of the Plekhanov House and was involved in organising its fonds; along with her husband’s archive, these housed documents of members of the Liberation of Labor group and their comrades and fellow-thinkers, and numerous other materials. Simultaneously with the processing of the fonds in 1929-30, catalogues and card files began to be organised, including for the Plekhanov library; and materials connected with Plekhanov’s life and activities were collected. Analysis of Plekhanov’s archive, its scholarly inventorying and attribution, and the transcription of markings in it, is currently ongoing.
- Administrative/biographical history:
- Revolutionary propaganda in Russia of the 1870s-80s pertained first and foremost to the ideology of Populism [narodnichestvo], which was based on a system of views regarding Russia’s “distinctive” path to socialism, avoiding capitalism. The mass movement of revolutionary populists’ “going to the people” unfolded in the spring of 1874. Armed with propagandistic literature, populists conducted mass agitation among the peasants of Russia for the socialist idea of universal equality. The “Going to the People” encompassed fifty-one of the empire’s provinces and involved a total of 10,000 participants. The underground press of the Land and Freedom society worked intensively, printing proclamations and reports on court proceedings. Operations of the Land and Freedom organisation (1876-79) consisted in actions meant to disrupt the state (recruiting officers and officials to their ranks, and assassinating provocateurs and the most “noxious” representatives of the authorities). Land and Freedom lasted until 1879, at which point it split apart. The terrorist wing formed a new organisation, The People’s Will, while the wing that adhered to a strictly propagandistic course formed the Black Redistribution society. Participants in The People’s Will (1879-82) followed the program of P. N. Tkachev, demanding that a Constituent Assembly be convened and power be transferred to elected deputies of the people; the affirmation of political freedoms; and the eventual construction of communal [obshchina] socialism; the primary means of attaining these goals was considered to be a political takeover aided by the army and supported by the people. The Black Redistribution organisation (1879-82) was led by G. V. Plekhanov, P. B. Aksel’rod, L. G. Deich, and V. I. Zasulich; they continued to stand for the Populist goals of communal socialism. They saw their primary aim as that of inciting peasants to revolt via propaganda conducted in rural areas. It was decided to establish this fonds in July 1959. It was originally compiled by the Manuscripts Department of the State Public Library from manuscripts and particular materials acquired at various times.
- Access points: persons/families:
- Drentel’n, A. D.
- Ignat’ev, N. P.
- Likhachev, F.
- Subject terms:
- Correspondence
- Law enforcement
- Legal matters
- Pogroms
- Prisoners
- Revolutions
- Statistics
- System of arrangement:
- The fonds includes a single inventory systematised by structure, and in part alphabetically.
- Finding aids:
- An inventory is available.
- Yerusha Network member:
- Jewish Theological Seminary
- Reference number:
- F. 473
- Title:
- Materials on the History of Revolutionary Propaganda in Russia
- Title (official language):
- МАТЕРИАЛЫ ПО ИСТОРИИ РЕВОЛЮЦИОННОЙ ПРОПАГАНДЫ В РОССИИ
- Creator/accumulator:
- Materials on the History of Revolutionary Propaganda in Russia
- Date(s):
- 1873/1916
- Language:
- Russian
- Extent:
- 78 storage units
- Type of material:
- Textual material
- Scope and content:
- Housed in the fonds are the following materials: the leaflets “To Society (on student unrest)”; “To All Honest People”; “The Attempt on the Life of [A. D.] Drentel’n” (1879); reports on court proceedings of the Senate’s special office on revolutionary propaganda in Russia (“The Trial of the 193”) from October 1877; correspondence of Populist revolutionaries; files of the chancellery of the Kazan’ governor, including correspondence with the Main Prison Administration and the Department of the Police regarding the Populist movement and persons involved in it who were sentenced to hard labour in the 1870s; etc. Pertaining to the history of Jews in Russia are Ministry of the Interior circulars to provincial leaders instructing them to search for particular persons and provide information on those found; appended are name lists of sought-for persons, and brief biographies thereof; these indicate their religious confession, and the reasons they were being sought; these lists indicate a considerable number of “persons of the Judaic confession” accused of state crimes and sentenced to exile or imprisonment; in particular, there is a copy of Interior Minister Count N. P. Ignat’ev’s circular № 2735 (6 May 1881), which informs provincial leaders of the government’s views on the domestic situation in the Russian Empire, and states that the primary task was “to eradicate sedition via police efforts,” and in particular notes that “the movement against the Jews which has appeared in recent days in the south represents a lamentable example of how people loyal to Throne and Fatherland, having come under the influence of malevolent persons stoking sinister passions among the popular masses, are falling into anarchy and vigilantism and, without even realising it, acting according to the seditionists’ aims (1874-1901); a “Memorandum on the narodniki, based on official data,” which is in the form of a report, and gives statistics on persons accused of state crimes, including Jews indicted on charges of involvement in the revolutionary movement; and specifying separately that “Jews have acquired particular significance in this regard, outdoing all other estates except the nobility, and not only in the political but often in the overall civic regard, and are extremely harmful to locations they have chosen to operate in” for 1873-77; lists of members (including Jewish members) of Populist groups organised in Kiev, Nizhnii Novgorod, Odessa, Samara, St. Petersburg, Taganrog, Penza, Chernigov, and other cities and towns of the Russian Empire (1870s); “A Memorandum on Activities of the Narodniki in Ukraine,” which gives the results of Department of the Police operations in uncovering the revolutionary activities of F. Likhachev in Chernigov county and reports that “interrogation led to the discovery of local Jews who are likely accomplices of the revolutionary” (1879); etc.
- Archival history:
- The Plekhanov House is a structural subdivision (department) of the National Library of Russia and constitutes a research centre for the study of the history of the Russian and international revolutionary and social movements, and the history of culture and education. The core of its fonds consists of the archive and library of Georgii Valentinovich Plekhanov (1856-1918), the philosopher, public commentator, and prominent figure in the revolutionary movement who was one of the founders of the Russian Social-Democratic Workers’ Party (RSDRP). In 1925 these materials were turned over to the Committee to Memorialize G. V. Plekhanov by his widow R. M. Plekhanova (nee Bograd) on the condition that they always be stored together as a unit. The grand opening of the Plekhanov House took place 11 June 1929 at the conference hall of the former Free Economic Society. In accordance with the conditions of the agreement between the committee and the State Public Library board, G. V. Plekhanov’s heritage had to be housed in a separate building with a particular staff; this became a standalone branch of the library. The library board accepted the proposed conditions, and by the spring of 1931 the construction and furnishing of the new building of the Plekhanov House were complete. For the final twenty years of her life R. M. Plekhanova served as director of the Plekhanov House and was involved in organising its fonds; along with her husband’s archive, these housed documents of members of the Liberation of Labor group and their comrades and fellow-thinkers, and numerous other materials. Simultaneously with the processing of the fonds in 1929-30, catalogues and card files began to be organised, including for the Plekhanov library; and materials connected with Plekhanov’s life and activities were collected. Analysis of Plekhanov’s archive, its scholarly inventorying and attribution, and the transcription of markings in it, is currently ongoing.
- Administrative/biographical history:
- Revolutionary propaganda in Russia of the 1870s-80s pertained first and foremost to the ideology of Populism [narodnichestvo], which was based on a system of views regarding Russia’s “distinctive” path to socialism, avoiding capitalism. The mass movement of revolutionary populists’ “going to the people” unfolded in the spring of 1874. Armed with propagandistic literature, populists conducted mass agitation among the peasants of Russia for the socialist idea of universal equality. The “Going to the People” encompassed fifty-one of the empire’s provinces and involved a total of 10,000 participants. The underground press of the Land and Freedom society worked intensively, printing proclamations and reports on court proceedings. Operations of the Land and Freedom organisation (1876-79) consisted in actions meant to disrupt the state (recruiting officers and officials to their ranks, and assassinating provocateurs and the most “noxious” representatives of the authorities). Land and Freedom lasted until 1879, at which point it split apart. The terrorist wing formed a new organisation, The People’s Will, while the wing that adhered to a strictly propagandistic course formed the Black Redistribution society. Participants in The People’s Will (1879-82) followed the program of P. N. Tkachev, demanding that a Constituent Assembly be convened and power be transferred to elected deputies of the people; the affirmation of political freedoms; and the eventual construction of communal [obshchina] socialism; the primary means of attaining these goals was considered to be a political takeover aided by the army and supported by the people. The Black Redistribution organisation (1879-82) was led by G. V. Plekhanov, P. B. Aksel’rod, L. G. Deich, and V. I. Zasulich; they continued to stand for the Populist goals of communal socialism. They saw their primary aim as that of inciting peasants to revolt via propaganda conducted in rural areas. It was decided to establish this fonds in July 1959. It was originally compiled by the Manuscripts Department of the State Public Library from manuscripts and particular materials acquired at various times.
- Access points: persons/families:
- Drentel’n, A. D.
- Ignat’ev, N. P.
- Likhachev, F.
- Subject terms:
- Correspondence
- Law enforcement
- Legal matters
- Pogroms
- Prisoners
- Revolutions
- Statistics
- System of arrangement:
- The fonds includes a single inventory systematised by structure, and in part alphabetically.
- Finding aids:
- An inventory is available.
- Yerusha Network member:
- Jewish Theological Seminary
