Russian Section of the First International

a revolutionary-democratic organization of Russian Narodnik (Populist) emigres. It was created in Geneva in late 1869 and early 1870 with the goal of linking the Russian liberation movement with the European liberation movement. Its leading organizers—N. I. Utin, A. D. Trusov, V. I. Bartenev, and E. G. Barteneva—were followers of N. G. Chernyshevskii.

The emergence of the Russian Section of the First International was closely linked with the appearance of the journal Narodnoe delo (The People’s Cause), whose first issue came out in Geneva in September 1868. Published by M. A. Bakunin, N. I. Zhukovskii, and Utin, Narodnoe delo expounded Bakunin’s anarchist doctrine. Utin did not countenance this, and the editorial board split. Bakunin and Zhukovskii left the board, and Utin and those who shared his views formed the Narodnoe Delo printing house in Geneva. In 1870, Narodnoe delo became the press organ of the Russian Section.

On Mar. 12, 1870, the committee of the Russian section asked K. Marx to be its representative at the General Council of the International. On March 24, Marx communicated that the Russian Section had been accepted into the International; he also agreed to represent it.

The sociopolitical views of the members of the Russian Section were not Marxist, although they reveal a certain Marxist influence. The section’s members rejected Marx’ doctrine of the dictatorship of the proletariat; they saw no difference in principle between the proletarian movement headed by the International and the popular movements in Russia. They failed to understand the essence of capitalist development in agriculture and thus believed that in Russia, owing to the presence of communal landholding, the conditions for revolution were more favorable than in Western Europe. The Russian Section came to the Narodnik conclusion that Russia could bypass the capitalist stage and move directly to socialism.

The section’s members opposed Bakunin’s mistaken theory of political neutralism and his adventurism and mystifications. They supported Marx and Engels in the struggle against Bakunin and S. G. Nechaev, and they took part in the workers’ movements of Switzerland and France. Although the Russian Section failed to appreciate the historical significance of the Paris Commune, it fully supported the Communards’ struggle. E. L. Dmitrieva (Tomanovskaia) and A. V. Jacquelard took part in the activities of the Paris Commune.

Members of the Russian Section propagandized the ideas of the International in the revolutionary underground of Russia. As V. I. Lenin wrote in 1869–70, “the Russian Narodnik socialists were trying to introduce into Russia the most advanced and most important of ‘European institutions’—the International” (Poln. sobr. soch., 5th ed., vol. 1, p. 287). Narodnoe delo was read by young raznochintsy (intellectuals of no definite class) in St. Petersburg, Moscow, Kharkov, Kazan, Odessa, and other cities. Other publications of the Russian Section were also known in Russia: J. P. Becker’s Manifesto to the Agricultural Population and the Trial of L. Niemeyer (1869–70); Marx’ First Manifesto of the International Working Men’s Association (the Founding Manifesto of the International Workingmen’s Association was published under this title); and the pamphlet The International Working Men’s Association, which included the rules of both the First International and the Russian Section. The section ceased to exist in 1872.