Nikolai Rusanov
Encyclopedia
Nikolay Sergeyevich Rusanov , 1859, Oryol
— July 28, 1939, Berne
), also known under the pseudonyms of K. Tarasov and N. Kudrin, was a Russia
n revolutionary who connected the revolutionary populist movement of the 1870s with the revolutionary parties of the early twentieth century, particularly the Russian Socialist-Revolutionary Party (PSR).
Rusanov studied medicine at the Medical and Surgical Academy in St. Petersburg, where he became involved in radical student politics. He supported the populist (narodnik) movement and in 1877 joined the group 'Land and Liberty'
(Zemlya i Volya). When the group split in 1879, Rusanov sided with 'The People's Will' (Nardodnaya Volya). This group emphasised urban organisation over rural agitation among the peasants and also endorsed political terrorism as a tactic. The group assassinated Tsar Aleksandr II
in 1881. Although Rusanov was not directly involved in the plot, the repression which followed caused him to flee into exile in 1882. He remained in Western Europe
, mostly in France
and Germany
, until 1905.
Rusanov was one of the earliest Russian revolutionaries to be strongly influenced by Marxism
, after reading Marx
' Das Kapital
, The Communist Manifesto
and The Civil War in France
. He contributed articles to some early Marxist journals and deployed Marx' thesis that the economic 'basis' determines the political 'superstructure' to argue against the Jacobin
voluntarism and élitism of Lev Tikhomirov
, the leading ideologue of 'The People's Will' in exile. Rusanov also rejected the popular view among narodniki that capitalism had not yet taken firm root in Russia an could still be avoided. These views put him closer to G.V. Plekhanov, the founder of Russian Social-Democracy
, than to populism. Nevertheless, he was attracted to 'The People's Will' and later the PSR
for its revolutionary élan. He foundin Nikolai Danielson
a welcome interpretation of Marxism that did not seem to require a long period of capitalist development.
In the early 1890s, Rusanov helped found the Group of Old Members of the People's Will, together with the venerable revolutionary veteran P.L. Lavrov, I. A. Rubanovich
and others. From 1893 to 1896, Lavrov and Rusanov co-edited the seven issues of Materials for the History of the Russian Social Revolutionary Movement. During these years Rusanov also met Friedrich Engels
, whom he impressed by reciting Pushkin from memory. In 1901, Rusanov, Rubanovich and M.R. Gots
co-founded the journal Herald of the Russian Revolution (Vestnik russkoi revoliutsii), which became the theoretical organ of the Socialist-Revolutionary Party (PSR). Rusanov also contributed to legal Russian journals under the pseudonym 'N. Kudrin'.
The PSR emerged at the end of the 1890s and held its first congress in 1901. It united revolutionary socialists who, for various reasons, objected to the "orthodox" Marxism of the Russian Social-Democratic Workers Party (RSDRP), and who looked back to the indigenous Russian revolutionary tradition of Alexander Herzen
, Peter Lavrov, Nikolay Chernyshevsky, Nikolai Danielson
, and others. Ideologically and tactically the PSR was quite diverse, comprising anti-Marxists as well as professed Marxists, advocates and opponents of political terror, those who favoured organisation among urban workers and those who emphasised rousing the peasantry. Rusanov joined the PSR in 1901, together with such venerable veteran revolutionaries as Vera Figner
. While remaining in exile he and Rubanovich were instrumental in establishing the PSR's contacts with Western socialist parties and with the Second International
, which the PSR eventually joined.
The abortive Russian Revolution of 1905 brought Rusanov back to Russia, where he participated in the creation of workers' councils (soviets) - a tactic Lenin then still opposed. In 1914, the PSR, like most European socialist parties, split into 'Defencists
' who supported Russia's war effort and 'Internationalists' who opposed it. Rusanov tried to steer a centrist course, like V.M. Chernov. In 1917 he was selected by the PSR as a delegate to the international socialist peace conference in Stockholm. After the February Revolution
of 1917, Rusanov supported the Provisional Government and A.F. Kerensky
. He opposed the Bolshevik October Revolution
and in 1918 emigrated to Western Europe. At first he settled in Berlin, but eventually he moved to Bern, Switzerland, where he died in 1939. He wrote his memoirs in two parts, published under the titles In Emigration (1929) and In the Homeland (1931).
Oryol
Oryol or Orel is a city and the administrative center of Oryol Oblast, Russia, located on the Oka River, approximately south-southwest of Moscow...
— July 28, 1939, Berne
Berne
The city of Bern or Berne is the Bundesstadt of Switzerland, and, with a population of , the fourth most populous city in Switzerland. The Bern agglomeration, which includes 43 municipalities, has a population of 349,000. The metropolitan area had a population of 660,000 in 2000...
), also known under the pseudonyms of K. Tarasov and N. Kudrin, was a Russia
Russia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
n revolutionary who connected the revolutionary populist movement of the 1870s with the revolutionary parties of the early twentieth century, particularly the Russian Socialist-Revolutionary Party (PSR).
Socialist-Revolutionary Party
thumb|right|200px|Socialist-Revolutionary election poster, 1917. The caption in red reads "партия соц-рев" , short for Party of the Socialist Revolutionaries...
Rusanov studied medicine at the Medical and Surgical Academy in St. Petersburg, where he became involved in radical student politics. He supported the populist (narodnik) movement and in 1877 joined the group 'Land and Liberty'
Land and Liberty (Russia)
Land and Liberty was a Russian clandestine revolutionary organization of Narodniki in the 1870s...
(Zemlya i Volya). When the group split in 1879, Rusanov sided with 'The People's Will' (Nardodnaya Volya). This group emphasised urban organisation over rural agitation among the peasants and also endorsed political terrorism as a tactic. The group assassinated Tsar Aleksandr II
Alexander II of Russia
Alexander II , also known as Alexander the Liberator was the Emperor of the Russian Empire from 3 March 1855 until his assassination in 1881...
in 1881. Although Rusanov was not directly involved in the plot, the repression which followed caused him to flee into exile in 1882. He remained in Western Europe
Western Europe
Western Europe is a loose term for the collection of countries in the western most region of the European continents, though this definition is context-dependent and carries cultural and political connotations. One definition describes Western Europe as a geographic entity—the region lying in the...
, mostly in France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
and Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
, until 1905.
Rusanov was one of the earliest Russian revolutionaries to be strongly influenced by Marxism
Marxism
Marxism is an economic and sociopolitical worldview and method of socioeconomic inquiry that centers upon a materialist interpretation of history, a dialectical view of social change, and an analysis and critique of the development of capitalism. Marxism was pioneered in the early to mid 19th...
, after reading Marx
Karl Marx
Karl Heinrich Marx was a German philosopher, economist, sociologist, historian, journalist, and revolutionary socialist. His ideas played a significant role in the development of social science and the socialist political movement...
' Das Kapital
Das Kapital
Das Kapital, Kritik der politischen Ökonomie , by Karl Marx, is a critical analysis of capitalism as political economy, meant to reveal the economic laws of the capitalist mode of production, and how it was the precursor of the socialist mode of production.- Themes :In Capital: Critique of...
, The Communist Manifesto
The Communist Manifesto
The Communist Manifesto, originally titled Manifesto of the Communist Party is a short 1848 publication written by the German Marxist political theorists Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. It has since been recognized as one of the world's most influential political manuscripts. Commissioned by the...
and The Civil War in France
The Civil War in France
The Civil War in France was a pamphlet written by Karl Marx as an official statement of the General Council of the International on the character and significance of the struggle of the Parisian Communards in the French Civil War of 1871....
. He contributed articles to some early Marxist journals and deployed Marx' thesis that the economic 'basis' determines the political 'superstructure' to argue against the Jacobin
Jacobin
Jacobin may refer to:* Jacobin , a member of the Jacobin club, or political radical, generally* The Jacobin Club, a political club during the French Revolution* Jacobin , an American leftist political magazine....
voluntarism and élitism of Lev Tikhomirov
Lev Tikhomirov
Lev Alexandrovich Tikhomirov , originally a Russian revolutionary and one of the members of the Executive Committee of the Narodnaya Volya, following his disenchantment with violent revolution became one of the leading conservative thinkers in Russia...
, the leading ideologue of 'The People's Will' in exile. Rusanov also rejected the popular view among narodniki that capitalism had not yet taken firm root in Russia an could still be avoided. These views put him closer to G.V. Plekhanov, the founder of Russian Social-Democracy
Russian Social Democratic Labour Party
The Russian Social Democratic Labour Party , also known as Russian Social Democratic Workers' Party or Russian Social Democratic Party, was a revolutionary socialist Russian political party formed in 1898 in Minsk to unite the various revolutionary organizations into one party...
, than to populism. Nevertheless, he was attracted to 'The People's Will' and later the PSR
Socialist-Revolutionary Party
thumb|right|200px|Socialist-Revolutionary election poster, 1917. The caption in red reads "партия соц-рев" , short for Party of the Socialist Revolutionaries...
for its revolutionary élan. He foundin Nikolai Danielson
Nikolai Danielson
Nikolai Frantsevich Danielson was a Russian economist and sociologist.-Early Life:...
a welcome interpretation of Marxism that did not seem to require a long period of capitalist development.
In the early 1890s, Rusanov helped found the Group of Old Members of the People's Will, together with the venerable revolutionary veteran P.L. Lavrov, I. A. Rubanovich
Ilya Rubanovich
Rubanovich, Ilya Alfonsovich Ilya Rubanovich was a Russian revolutionary who joined 'The People's Will' in the 1880s. In 1881 that group assassinated Tsar Aleksandr II. During the repression which followed, Rubanovich fled abroad, eventually settling in Paris, France, and becoming a French citizen...
and others. From 1893 to 1896, Lavrov and Rusanov co-edited the seven issues of Materials for the History of the Russian Social Revolutionary Movement. During these years Rusanov also met Friedrich Engels
Friedrich Engels
Friedrich Engels was a German industrialist, social scientist, author, political theorist, philosopher, and father of Marxist theory, alongside Karl Marx. In 1845 he published The Condition of the Working Class in England, based on personal observations and research...
, whom he impressed by reciting Pushkin from memory. In 1901, Rusanov, Rubanovich and M.R. Gots
Mikhail Gots
Mikhail Rafailovich Gots was a Russian revolutionary, member of 'The People's Will' and one of the founders of the Socialist-Revolutionary Party . He as the older brother of Avram R. Gots.- Biography :...
co-founded the journal Herald of the Russian Revolution (Vestnik russkoi revoliutsii), which became the theoretical organ of the Socialist-Revolutionary Party (PSR). Rusanov also contributed to legal Russian journals under the pseudonym 'N. Kudrin'.
The PSR emerged at the end of the 1890s and held its first congress in 1901. It united revolutionary socialists who, for various reasons, objected to the "orthodox" Marxism of the Russian Social-Democratic Workers Party (RSDRP), and who looked back to the indigenous Russian revolutionary tradition of Alexander Herzen
Alexander Herzen
Aleksandr Ivanovich Herzen was a Russian pro-Western writer and thinker known as the "father of Russian socialism", and one of the main fathers of agrarian populism...
, Peter Lavrov, Nikolay Chernyshevsky, Nikolai Danielson
Nikolai Danielson
Nikolai Frantsevich Danielson was a Russian economist and sociologist.-Early Life:...
, and others. Ideologically and tactically the PSR was quite diverse, comprising anti-Marxists as well as professed Marxists, advocates and opponents of political terror, those who favoured organisation among urban workers and those who emphasised rousing the peasantry. Rusanov joined the PSR in 1901, together with such venerable veteran revolutionaries as Vera Figner
Vera Figner
Vera Nikolayevna Figner was a Russian revolutionary and narodnik born in Kazan, Russia.-Biography:...
. While remaining in exile he and Rubanovich were instrumental in establishing the PSR's contacts with Western socialist parties and with the Second International
Second International
The Second International , the original Socialist International, was an organization of socialist and labour parties formed in Paris on July 14, 1889. At the Paris meeting delegations from 20 countries participated...
, which the PSR eventually joined.
The abortive Russian Revolution of 1905 brought Rusanov back to Russia, where he participated in the creation of workers' councils (soviets) - a tactic Lenin then still opposed. In 1914, the PSR, like most European socialist parties, split into 'Defencists
Internationalist/Defencist Schism
The terms 'Internationalist' and 'Defencist' were commonly used to describe the broad opposing camps in the international socialist movement during and shortly after the First World War. Prior to 1914, anti-militarism had been an article of faith among most European socialist parties...
' who supported Russia's war effort and 'Internationalists' who opposed it. Rusanov tried to steer a centrist course, like V.M. Chernov. In 1917 he was selected by the PSR as a delegate to the international socialist peace conference in Stockholm. After the February Revolution
February Revolution
The February Revolution of 1917 was the first of two revolutions in Russia in 1917. Centered around the then capital Petrograd in March . Its immediate result was the abdication of Tsar Nicholas II, the end of the Romanov dynasty, and the end of the Russian Empire...
of 1917, Rusanov supported the Provisional Government and A.F. Kerensky
Alexander Kerensky
Alexander Fyodorovich Kerensky was a major political leader before and during the Russian Revolutions of 1917.Kerensky served as the second Prime Minister of the Russian Provisional Government until Vladimir Lenin was elected by the All-Russian Congress of Soviets following the October Revolution...
. He opposed the Bolshevik October Revolution
October Revolution
The October Revolution , also known as the Great October Socialist Revolution , Red October, the October Uprising or the Bolshevik Revolution, was a political revolution and a part of the Russian Revolution of 1917...
and in 1918 emigrated to Western Europe. At first he settled in Berlin, but eventually he moved to Bern, Switzerland, where he died in 1939. He wrote his memoirs in two parts, published under the titles In Emigration (1929) and In the Homeland (1931).