Leonid Radin

Born Aug. 9 (21), 1860, in the city of Ranenburg, now the city of Chaplygin, Lipetsk Ob-last; died Mar. 16 (29), 1900, in Yalta. Professional revolutionary; poet and inventor.

Radin studied at Moscow University in 1879 and 1880 and at the University of St. Petersburg from 1884 to 1888. He was a student of D. I. Mendeleev. Radin conducted propaganda in Social Democratic circles and wrote proclamations. His popular book Simple Words About a Difficult Science: Rudiments of Chemistry, written under the pseudonym Iakov Pasynkov, was published and distributed among workers in 1895.

In 1894 and 1895, Radin reconstructed Edison’s mimeograph machine, which the Social Democrats supplied to underground printing works. In 1896 he was a leader of the Moscow Workers’ Union. Radin wrote the music and text of the famous workers’ march “Comrades, March Boldly in Step” (written 1896; published in the journal Krasnoe znamia [Red Banner], 1900, no. 3). He also wrote the popular workers’ songs “Again I Hear the Beloved Song ‘Luchina’” and “Let’s March Boldly Forward, Friends.” Radin was often the victim of official persecution.