Mark Natanson

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Mark Natanson
Mark Natanson
Born Mark Andreyevich Natanson
6 January 1851
venionys, Lithuania
Died 29 July 1919 (aged68)
Berne, Switzerland
Ethnicity Jewish
Occupation Revolutionary, political activist
Mark Andreyevich Natanson (Russian: ; alias - , or Bobrov) (25 December
1850 (N.S. 6 January 1851), venionys - 29 July 1919, Berne) was a Russian revolutionary and one of the founders
of the Circle of Tchaikovsky, Land and Liberty, and the Socialist-Revolutionary Party. In 1917, he was a leader of
the Left Socialist-Revolutionaries, supporting the Bolsheviks in the October Revolution. He was the uncle of
Alexander Berkman.
Biorgraphy
Mark Natanson was born in 1850 in venionys, Lithuania to a wealthy Jewish family. He studied in St Petersburg at
the Medical and Surgical Academy (186871) and at the Institute of Agriculture (1871). During this time, he became
involved in radical student politics. He opposed the 'nihilistic' tendency of Sergei Nechaev. Natanson participated in
founding the vand the populist (Narodnik) organisation 'Land and Liberty' and helped organise some of the first
socialist groups among the small industrial working class in Western Russia. He also took part in demonstrations,
notably the Kazan demonstration in St Petersburg in 1876. After 'Land and Liberty' split, Natanson joined 'The
People's Will' (Narodnaya Volya). That group favoured agitation among urban workers and intellectuals over
propaganda among the peasants (a tactic adopted by the other offshoot of 'Land and Liberty', the 'Black Repartition'
group). Narodnaya Volya also endorsed political terrorism as a tactic and in 1881 assassinated Tsar Aleksandr II.
Natanson was not involved in any terrorist act, but, in 1869 he was imprisoned in the notorious Peter and Paul
Fortress (mainly used as a political prison), and from 1879 to 1889, he was banished to Siberia.
After his release he returned to European Russia and became active in Minsk, where in 1893 he founded the party
'The People's Right' ('Narodnaya Prava'). Like 'The People's Will' its focus was urban rather than rural, but unlike
Mark Natanson
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'The People's Will', it did not engage in terrorism. In 1894, Natanson was arrested again and banished to eastern
Siberia. In 1904, after his release, Natanson went into exile in Switzerland and there became involved in the
Socialist-Revolutionary Party (PSR), which united a variety of populist and revolutionary organisations.
The tactical position adopted by the PSR represented a compromise between the rural agitation favoured by South
Russian and Ukrainian populists, the factory organisation favoured by 'The People's Right' and the terrorist tactic
embraced by the remnants of 'The People's Will' and some of the revolutionary groups of Moscow and St Petersburg.
During the abortive Russian revolution of 1905-1907, Natanson returned to Russia and served on the central
committee of the PSR. After the revolution was put down, Natanson returned to exile in Switzerland.
When the First World War broke out in 1914, the PSR, like most other European socialist parties, split into those
who supported a war of 'national defence' ('Defencists') and those who opposed the war ('Internationalists'). Natanson
sided with the 'Internationalists' and attended the international socialist peace conferences such as the Zimmerwald
Conference and one at Kienthal in Switzerland, signing the conference's manifestoes on behalf of the SR
Internationalists.
When the February Revolution occurred in Russia in 1917, Natanson returned to Russia and became one of the most
prominent leaders of the left wing of the PSR, which became increasingly disenchanted with the Provisional
Government and with Alexander Kerensky. The Left SRs eventually broke away from the PSR and formed a
separate party. Natanson and the Left SRs supported the Bolshevik Revolution in October 1917 and briefly entered
the Soviet government. However, they rejected the Soviet-German peace treaty of Brest-Litovsk (later superseded by
the Versailles treaty), which imposed onerous terms on Russia in exchange for a separate peace with Russia.
The Left SRs exited the Soviet government in protest, and some now took up arms against the Bolsheviks. Natanson
opposed this course, fearing that a defeat of the Soviet government would spell the end of the revolution and usher in
a counter-revolution. He founded the party of Revolutionary Communists, which supported the Bolsheviks and
eventually merged with the Communist Party of the USSR. Natanson was a member of the Presidium of the
All-Russian Central Executive Committee. However, Natanson's opposition to the anti-Bolshevik uprising of the
Left SRs did not imply whole-hearted acceptance of the Bolsheviks' policies. In particular, he objected to Lenin's
decision to ban all other political parties in the Soviet Union. In 1919, he once again returned to Switzerland and
died there.
References
The Great Soviet Encyclopedia, 3rd Edition, Moscow, 1970-1979.
Aptekman, O. V. Dve dorogie teni: Iz vospominanii o G. V. Plekhanove i M. A. Natansone kak
semidesiatnikakh. Byloe, 1921, no. 16.
Figner, V. N. M. A. Natanson. Poln. sobr. soch. vol. 5. Moscow, 1932.
Itenberg, B. S. Dvizhenie revoliutsionnogo narodnichestva. Moscow, 1965.
External links
Russian biography
[1]
References
[1] http:/ / www. hronos.km. ru/ biograf/ natanson. html
Article Sources and Contributors
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Article Sources and Contributors
Mark Natanson Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=610986223 Contributors: Agatha Christie's parrot, Altzinn, Aviados, Bacteria, Chastra, Chicheley, Closedmouth, Dalliance,
DonaldDuck, Fabrib, GiW, KNewman, Kastanienbaum, Klemen Kocjancic, Lamro, Languagehat, Lekoren, Lquilter, Monegasque, Rjwilmsi, SchuminWeb, TheAnkopinko15, Waacstats, 2
anonymous edits
Image Sources, Licenses and Contributors
File:Mark_Andreyevich_Natanson.jpg Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Mark_Andreyevich_Natanson.jpg License: Public Domain Contributors: Aristodem, Bearas,
Cholo Aleman, TeleComNasSprVen,
License
Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0
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