A questionnaire filled in by Bolshevik leaders in 1917 reveals their social origin and educational level:

Bolshevik central committee 1917
Name | Profession of father | Studies |
Antonov-Ovseenko | Officer | Higher |
Bukharin | Mathematician | ,, |
Bubnov | ? [Merchant?] | Primary |
Shliapnikov | Carpenter | ,, |
Dzherzinski | Lesser nobility | Higher |
Joffe Rich | merchant | ,, |
Kalinin | Poor peasant | Secondary |
Kamenev | Engineer | Higher |
Kollontai | Nobility | ,, |
Krupskaya | Nobility | Secondary |
Lenin | High functionary | Higher |
Lozovski | Lecturer | Secondary |
Lunacharski | Functionary | Higher |
Molotov | Merchant | ,, |
Pyatakov | Industrialist | ,, |
Podvoisky | Priest | ,, |
Preobrazensky | Priest | ,, |
Radek | Lecturer | ,, |
Raskolnikov | Functionary | ,, |
Rykov | Poor shopkeeper | Secondary |
Smilga | Big landowner | ? |
Stassova | Lawyer | Higher |
Skrypnik | Railway worker | Secondary |
Stalin | Shoemaker | ,, |
Sverdlov | Engraver | ,, |
Tomsky | Natural child [Illegitimate] | Primary |
Trotsky | Landowner | Higher |
Uritsky | Merchant | ,, |
Zinoviev | Landowner | Autodidact |
The above are the statistics from a questionnaire filled in at a Bolshevik conference in 1917.
- Sources:
-
Ferro, Marc. Des Soviets au communisme bureacratique. Collection Archives, France, 1980
- Haupt, G, Marie J-J, Les Bolcheviks par eux-memes, France, 1967
This was meant to be in columns but somehow it's compressed them. Can one of libcom administrators sort this out or tell me how to do it????
This is great information, thanks for posting it.
To post tables on the Internet, they need to be coded in a particular way. How to do this is here:
http://www.pageresource.com/html/table1.htm
But if you've not got time, I will go and sort it out when I get a chance this week. Cheers!
I changed the 1st column from 'age in 1917' to 'name' as no ages were given. Tomsky's 'profession of father' is given as 'natural child'??
Ret Marut
would that be a euphemism for child out of wedlock, i.e. father's occupation unknown?
According to the biographical dictionary "Political Activists of Russia in 1917" (Moscow, 1993), Bubnov's father was a merchant.
is there equivalent information for prominent anarchist, SR, or menshevik figures?
Natural child means "illegitmate" or bastard
Perhaps Bubnov was concealing his origins.
"is there equivalent information for prominent anarchist, SR, or menshevik figures?"
I've not seen one. You'd have to first compile a list of leading members and get their bios.
But at least for the Makhnovists it was almost entirely poor peasant or worker as can be seen from the bios here on libcom.
I amended Bubnov and Tomsky.
posi
I think it was in André Liebich's From the other shore : Russian social democracy after 1921 were I read, that the exile leadership of the Mensheviks with the exception of Nicolaevsky who came from a peasant background came from the urban intelligentsia, ... many leading Georgian Mensheviks came from the petty aristocracy and were (like Stalin) students/dropouts of the theological seminary at Tbilisi
This is interesting but I'd question how accurate it is seeing as a number of mistakes have already been noted and who the father of bolsheviks were is something none of us should know. It's really nerdy. But on that, the 'profession' for Dzherzinsky's father is also wrong. It says he was 'lesser nobility' which according to wiki he was (he was part of a szlachta family), but also according to wiki his profession was as a teacher.
george
Read again. No mistakes have previously been noted, only additional info. As the caption above says "The above are the statistics from a questionnaire filled in at a Bolshevik conference in 1917." The info is presumably as provided by Dzherzinsky himself, so if a "mistake" then it's in how he chose to answer.
As for whether "This is interesting but ... who the father of bolsheviks were is something none of us should know" - it should hardly seem surprising that the class composition of Party leaderships within working class movements should be of some interest.
btw., being a member of the Szlachta, especially after 1700 (mainly due to the tradition of passing the property equally divided to all sons) didn't necessarily mean that people were well off, they were of course holder of all kinds of privileges
Here's a PDF version http://www.mediafire.com/view/?uz36wuba5zsvwmu