Iskra (Russian: Искра, IPA: [ˈiskrə], the Spark) was a fortnightly political newspaper of Russian socialist emigrants established as the official organ of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party (RSDLP).
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👉 Iskra in the context of Julius Martov
Yuliy Osipovich Tsederbaum (Russian: Юлий Осипович Цедербаум [ˈjʉlʲɪj ˈosʲɪpəvʲɪtɕ tsɨdʲɪrˈbaʊm]; 24 November 1873 – 4 April 1923), better known as Julius Martov (Юлий Мартов [ˈmartəf] ), was a Russian revolutionary and a leader of the Mensheviks, the minority faction of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party (RSDLP). A close friend and collaborator of Vladimir Lenin in the early years of their revolutionary careers, he became his chief rival after the RSDLP split at its Second Congress in 1903.
Born into a middle-class, assimilated Jewish family in Constantinople, Martov became a Marxist activist in the Russian Empire in the early 1890s. With Lenin, he co-founded the League of Struggle for the Emancipation of the Working Class in 1895. Both were arrested shortly after and exiled to Siberia. After his exile, Martov joined Lenin and Georgy Plekhanov in founding the party newspaper Iskra, which became the primary organ of the RSDLP. At the Second Party Congress, Martov's proposal for the definition of party membership, which was broader and more inclusive than Lenin's, was passed. However, after several delegates walked out, Lenin's faction won a vote on the composition of the party's Central Committee, leading to the historic split between Lenin's Bolsheviks ("majority-ites") and Martov's Mensheviks ("minority-ites").
In this Dossier
Iskra in the context of Georgi Plekhanov
Georgi Valentinovich Plekhanov (Russian: Георгий Валентинович Плеханов [ɡʲɪˈorɡʲɪj vəlʲɪnʲˈtʲinəvʲɪtɕ plʲɪˈxanəf] ; 11 December [O.S. 29 November] 1856 – 30 May 1918) was a Russian Marxist theorist, philosopher, and revolutionary. After beginning his revolutionary career as a populist, in 1883 Plekhanov established the Emancipation of Labour group, the first Russian Marxist political organisation. He is widely regarded as the "father of Russian Marxism", and his theoretical works were instrumental in converting a generation of revolutionaries, including Vladimir Lenin, to the cause.
Plekhanov was a prominent leader in the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party (RSDLP) and the Second International. In 1900, he collaborated with Lenin in founding the party newspaper Iskra, and at the party's Second Congress in 1903, initially sided with Lenin's Bolshevik faction. However, he soon broke with the Bolsheviks over their organisational principles, which he criticised as overly centralist, and became a leading figure in the opposing Menshevik faction. During the 1905 Russian Revolution, Plekhanov maintained that Russia was only ready for a bourgeois-democratic revolution and argued against what he saw as premature attempts to seize power by the proletariat.
Iskra in the context of Alexander Potresov
Alexander Nikolayevich Potresov (Russian: Алекса́ндр Никола́евич Потре́сов; August 31, 1869 – July 11, 1934) was a Russian social democratic politician and one of the leaders of the Menshevik faction of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party. He was one of six original editors of the newspaper Iskra, under the pen name "Starover".
Iskra in the context of Anti-Bolshevik propaganda
Anti-Bolshevik propaganda was created in opposition to the events on the Russian political scene. The Bolsheviks were a radical and revolutionary wing of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party which came to power during the October Revolution phase of the Russian Revolution in 1917. The word "Bolshevik" (большевик) means "one of the majority" in Russian and is derived from the word "большинство" (transliteration: bol'shinstvo, see also Romanization of Russian) which means "majority" in English. The group was founded at the 2nd Congress of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party when Vladimir Lenin's followers gained majority on the party’s central committee and on the editorial board of the newspaper Iskra. Their opponents were the Mensheviks, whose name literally means "Those of the minority" and is derived from the word меньшинство ("men'shinstvo", English: minority).
On 7 November 1917, the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic (Russian SFSR or RSFSR; Russian: Российская Советская Федеративная Социалистическая Республика, transliteration: Rossiyskaya Sovetskaya Federativnaya Sotsialisticheskaya Respublika) was proclaimed. The Bolsheviks changed their name to Russian Communist Party (Bolsheviks) in March 1918; to All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks) in December 1925; and to Communist Party of the Soviet Union in October 1952.
Iskra in the context of What Is to Be Done?
What Is to Be Done? Burning Questions of Our Movement is a political pamphlet written by Vladimir Lenin (credited as N. Lenin) in 1901 and published in March 1902. He previewed the work in a May 1901 Iskra article, "Where to Begin", which he called "a skeleton plan to be developed in greater detail in a pamphlet now in preparation for print". The title of What Is to Be Done? was taken from an 1863 novel of the same name by Russian revolutionary Nikolai Chernyshevsky.
The pamphlet's central focus is the ideological formation of the proletariat. Lenin argues that the working class will not become politically advanced simply by fighting economic battles against employers over wages, hours, and the like. To imbue the working class with Marxist principles, he recommends a cadre of dedicated revolutionaries form a vanguard political party that can teach Marxism to workers.