Eastern Europe

Matiushenko, Afanasy Nikolaevich 1879-1907

Battlescarred — Wed, 05 Dec 2007 11:09:13 +0000

Afanasy Nikolaevich Matiushenko
Also spelled Afanasiy Matyushenko, born 1879 - Kharkov, Russia, died 20 October 1907 - Sevastopol, Russia

The Potemkin mutineer
Afanasy Matiushenko was the son of peasants from Kharkov province in the Ukraine. He was born in 1879, in the village of Dergachi. His father had to give up the unrewarding work of farming to become a shoemaker.

Strike wave sweeps Finland

Joseph K. — Fri, 26 Oct 2007 10:38:07 +0000

The Financial Times reports:

Strikes have either broken out or are threatened in industries spanning the economy, affecting some 40,000 workers in core areas including shipping, forestry, postal services and steel.

In the most serious development, 12,800 nurses have decided to resign en masse next month if their demands for a 25 per cent wage increase over the next two years are not met.

Poland: Bus drivers win strike

Ed — Sun, 14 Oct 2007 19:43:49 +0000

After 17 days the bus drivers in the South Polish city of Kielce have surprisingly won their strike. The sale of the communal bus company MPK planned by the city’s mayor is stopped and MPK is given to the workers instead. The strike had been preceded by months of confrontation.

1919-1922: The Workers’ Opposition

Ed — Thu, 20 Sep 2007 16:49:14 +0000

The Workers Opposition began to form in 1919, as a result of the policies of War Communism, which set a precedence for the domination of the Communist Party over local party branches and trade unions. During the civil war, the Workers Opposition began agitating against the lack of democracy in the Communist Party as a result of the centralising actions of the party’s bureaucracy.

Counter-revolution and the Soviet Union - Gregori Maximov

Ed — Fri, 14 Sep 2007 14:51:13 +0000

Taken from the Bulletin of the Kate Sharpley Library, No. 14 (March 1998), can also be found on the KSL website here.

Medvedev, Sergei Pavlovich, 1885-1937

Ed — Thu, 06 Sep 2007 14:27:24 +0000

Sergei Pavlovich Medvedev was a Russian Bolshevik revolutionary, metalworker, and trade union organizer. Born into a peasant estate, he grew up in the countryside near Moscow and in St. Petersburg. After receiving a primary school education, he began factory work at age thirteen. He first worked at the Obukhov factory in St. Petersburg and participated in the 1901 Obukhov strike.

Kollontai, Alexandra, 1872-1952

Ed — Tue, 04 Sep 2007 17:47:17 +0000

Alexandra Kollontai was a major figure in the Russian socialist movement from the turn of the century through the revolution and civil war. During periods of exile she was also active as a speaker and writer in Germany, Belgium, France, Britain, Scandinavia and the United States.

Women fighters in the days of the great October Revolution - Alexandra Kollontai

Ed — Tue, 04 Sep 2007 17:26:32 +0000

The women who took part in the Great October Revolution – who were they? Isolated individuals? No, there were hosts of them; tens, hundreds of thousands of nameless heroines who, marching side by side with the workers and peasants behind the Red Flag and the slogan of the Soviets, passed over the ruins of tsarist theocracy into a new future...

The Workers' Opposition - Alexandra Kollontai

Ed — Tue, 04 Sep 2007 13:48:26 +0000

First published in Pravda, January 25, 1921 this text was banned in Soviet Russia in March of 1921, by resolution of the 10th Congress of the Communist Party. It was then printed in the Workers ' Dreadnought (by Sylvia Pankhurst), April 22 - August 19, 1921.

On the History of the Movement of Women Workers in Russia - Alexandra Kollontai

Ed — Tue, 04 Sep 2007 13:31:33 +0000

What year could be said to mark the beginning of the working women's movement in Russia?