Emancipation of Labor Group

The first Marxist group in Russia, founded in Geneva on September 25, 1883 by G.V. Plekhanov, P. B. Axelrod, L. G. Deutsch, V. N. Ignatov, V. I. Zasulich and others.

The Emancipation of Labor group translated many important works of Marx and Engels, such as The Communist Manifesto, On the Question of Free Trade, Ludwig Feuerbach and the End of Classical German Philosophy and On Social Relations in Russia into Russian, published them abroad and secretly shipped them back to Russia, thereby spreading scientific socialist ideas in Russia, and at the same time, actively using Marxist views to analyze the major problems of social relations in Russia. It, therefore, played a great role in the spread of Marxism in Russia. The works written by Plekhanov, such as Socialism and Political Struggle, Our Differences and The Development of the Monist View of History, first raised the banner of opposition to the Narodniks and analyzed the reality of Russian society and some basic problems of the Russian revolution. The Emancipation of Labour group was the embryonic form of Russia’s proletarian party. The two draft programmes of the Emancipation of Labor group drawn up by Plekhanov—the Programme of “the Social-Democratic Emancipation of Labour group” of 1883 and “the Draft Programme of the Russian Social-Democrats” of 1885—were important for the establishment of the Russian Social-Democratic Labor Party, of which the theoretical part of the latter draft programme included the basic elements of a Marxist party programme.The Emancipation of Labour group also did a lot to gather and unite the forces of the Russian Social-Democratic Labor Party. It was also actively participated in the international activities of Social Democrats, and had contacts with the Social Democrats in Germany, France, Britain and other countries. The Emancipation of Labour group, represented by Plekhanov, actively fought against Bernsteinism and played an important role in opposing the Russian economism.

Lenin argued that the historical significance of the Emancipation of Labour group was that it laid the theoretical foundation for the Russian Social-Democratic Labor Party and took the first step towards merging with the workers' movement; the main weaknesses of the Emancipation of Labour group were that it failed to combine with the workers' movement, its members lacked understanding of the characteristics of the development of Russian capitalism, overestimated the role of the liberal bourgeoisie and underestimated the revolutionary role of the peasantry. The “Emancipation of Labour” group was dissolved at the Second Congress of the Russian Social-Democratic Labor Party in August 1903.