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This chapter presents the Agenda and the Resolutions adopted at the Session of Members of the General Meeting of the Bolkhov Organisation of the Russian Communist Party (Bolsheviks) (RKP (B)) of Orel Province concerning the tasks facing the communists of the Town and the Country. The meeting was chaired by Comrade Sleptsov, and was attended by the deputy chairman Simakov, secretary Zinoviev, and 51 members. Keywords: Russian Communist Party (Bolsheviks) (RKP (B)), Orel Province

This chapter explains E.A. Preobrazhensky's Chapters from the Book The ABC of Communism (Co-authored with N.I. Bukharin). Topics covered in the E.A. Preobrazhensky's Chapters are the national question and communism, the programme of communists and the military question, the proletarian court, the school and communism, religion and communism, the organisation of agriculture, the organisation of distribution, the organisation of banks and monetary circulation, finances in the proletarian state, and the communists' programme on the housing question. Keywords:agriculture; communist party; E.A. Preobrazhensky; military question; national question; proletarian court; proletarian state; religion; The ABC of Communism

This chapter talks about the articles published in the newspaper Pravda in September-December 1920. It includes the articles of 'The Average Communist', the article of 'The Social Basis of the October Revolution', and the article of 'A Straw for the Drowning White Guards'. The psychological isolation of average Communists from the leading partygroups, and the isolation of leading groups from the proletarian masses - these are unquestionable facts. There are several causes. Besides what was said at the outset, it is necessary to point to the inattention of responsible comrades to the education of rank-and-file Communists, the difference in living conditions, the penetration into leading posts (mainly in the soviets) of careerist elements who are intrinsically alien to us, and the beginnings of psychological degeneration among a certain part of the old Communists. Keywords:average communists; newspaper Pravda ; october revolution; Soviet power; White-Guard press

This chapter talks about two speeches given at the First All-Russian Congress of Soviets of Workers' and Soldiers' Deputies. In the first, the speaker says that they are on the eve of a turning point in the Russian Revolution and, perhaps, they will soon and definitively have to say that the Russian Revolution has ended, that the Russian Revolution has given the maximum that it can give. Perhaps the tragedy is the Revolution, perhaps the people have come to the final summation and they will go no further. In the second, the speaker proposes a resolution on the question of the struggle against anti-Semitism, the wager on the Jews. According to the speaker, only the most decisive measures can bring the misguided people, who are currently following dark demagogues, back to a proper path. The resolutions proposed to the Congress are listed in the chapter. Keywords:All-Russian Congress; anti-Semitism; Jews; Russian Revolution; soldiers; workers

This chapter presents a report submitted by the Gendarmerie-Administration of Perm Province to the director of the Department of Police, N.P. Zuev, on determination of E.A. Preobrazhensky's authorship of the letters that were seized in the Ekaterinburg post and telegraph-office, and on his arrest. Keywords:E.A. Preobrazhensky; Gendarmerie-Administration

This chapter describes the address given by the Representative of the VTsIk E.A. Preobrazhensky at a Session of the Plenum of the Ufa Provincial Committee of the RKP(B) Concerning the Work of the Provincial Committee in Conditions of the Conflict Between the Centre and the Bashkir Republic. It includes the report of the Presidium of the Provincial Committee, and the Department for Work among the Nationalities. Keywords:Bashkir Republic; E.A. Preobrazhensky; nationalities; Presidium; Provincial Committee

This chapter presents the author's comments on two articles from the Bolshevik newspaper, Ural'skii rabochii . The first article, 'On the Present Moment', revolves around the question whether there will be a repetition of the October Revolution in the near future on a grander scale, or will there be a final consolidation of the Stolypin constitution? According to the author, the industrial expansion is a temporary improvement against the background of a deep depression that will not end until the agrarian question is resolved in a sense favourable to the peasantry. Commenting on the second article 'The Task of the Moment', the author outlines why we must pay special attention to organisational work precisely now, and why we must place it in the foreground of our work among proletarians. He feels that the main task of the moment in the sphere of the trade-union movement lies in winning new possibilities. Keywords:Bolshevik newspaper; depression; October Revolution; proletarians; Russia; Stolypin constitution; trade-union movement; Ural'skii rabochii

This chapter relates the author's experiences with Yakov Mikhailovich Sverdlov or Ya.M. Sverdlov, whom he often turned to for directions while serving in the Congress. Yakov Mikhailovich showed amazing tact and skill in his negotiations with the Left S-Rs, despite the resistance and hysterics of bawlers and windbags from that Party. According to the author, Ya.M. Sverdlov's most prominent characteristics were: 1) his excellent knowledge of how to approach people, and his ability to quickly determine what they might contribute to the matter at hand; 2) his ability to ascertain what was most essential in people while, and not overlook all the peculiarities and concrete details of their character; 3) his extremely tactful abstention from meddling in those fields of work where he did not consider himself to be an expert; and 4) his remarkable ability to guide the necessary resolutions through meetings, conferences, congresses and so on. Keywords:Congress of Soviets; Left S-Rs; Soviet Russia; Ya.M. Sverdlov

According to Comrade Preobrazhensky, the opening day of the Third All-Russian Congress of Soviets, will forever be indelibly imprinted in the memory of all participants. The All-Russian Congress of Soviets welcomed the Great October Revolution, promised support for Soviet power from the workers of the Old and New Worlds, and when they departed amid burning applause, they carried away in their spirit the inaudible music of deepest feeling for the brotherhood of peoples, which the bourgeois world did not and could not know. The Third All-Russian Congress of Soviets had gathered under good omens. The proletariat of Austria and Hungary have embarked on a path of revolutionary struggle. They were beginning to build, whereas the West had only begun to break things down. Preobrazhensky hopes that the time will soon come when the first congress of workers' and soldiers' deputies from the republics of Europe will gather in Petrograd. Keywords:bourgeois; Comrade Preobrazhensky; Great October Revolution; newspaper Pravda ; proletariat; revolution; Third All-Russian Congress of Soviets

This chapter discusses the articles on 'The Urals Counter-Revolution', Published in the Newspaper Pravda , by E. Preobrazhensky. At the call of the regional military commissariat, the workers of the Urals factories sent their best forces to the front against the Czechoslovaks. When almost the entire local organisation of Communists, numbering three hundred persons, had left Nev'yansk factory under arms, the automobile-company, which had evacuated to the factory from Luga and had always opposed the local soviet, began a counter- revolutionary uprising. In addition to Nev'yansk, the soviets were dispersed in Verkh-Neivinsk and also in Polevsk factory, where a gang of frontline soldiers even dug trenches at the approach of Soviet forces. Keywords:Communists; Czechoslovaks; Nev'yansk; Pravda ; Soviet forces; The Urals Counter-Revolution

This chapter presents a letter, which is from the Presidium of the Ural Oblast Committee of Communes to V.I.Lenin concerning the critical position of sections of the Red Army on the eastern front and the possibility of surrender of Perm to the White Guards. Keywords:Lenin; Perm; Presidium; Red Army; White Guards

This chapter begins with the fact that anarchists are continuously repeating in their brochures, newspapers and speeches that they oppose any and all coercion along with any state-power as an organ of violence. The anarchists' struggle against the proletarian state, at a time when this state has yet to complete its work of suppressing the resistance of the exploiters, has the inevitable effect, whatever their intention, of making them allies of the counter-revolutionaries. In the economic sphere, matters are even worse. The ultimate economic ideal of anarchism is simply a petty-bourgeois variant of capitalist commodity-economy and represents a step backwards even by comparison with developed capitalism. In order to clarify differences between the communist and anarchist programmes for the economic reconstruction of society, the chapter briefly sketches the tasks of communism in the realm of production and distribution. Keywords:anarchism; anarchist economy; autocratic-landlord state; communism; communist economy; proletarian state

This chapter discusses two newspaper articles. The first article titled, 'Quo Vadis', discusses that while the question of civilisations salvation remains a question of the elements struggling to that end, we do have a cause that is capable of justifying all the sacrifices, and able to inspire great enthusiasm. That means we know what is good and what is criminal, what we are creating and what we are destroying. There is no evil without good, even though the good in such circumstances is always too meagre. The second article, titled 'Our Defencists', talks about basic theses of the defencists, and whether they are right. The only guilty party in the present war is the capitalist mode of production with its inherent drive for expansion, which had to lead to a general clash between the capitalist nations and thus to find the means for the existence and development of the other. Keywords:capitalism; civilisations salvation; defencists; newspaper articles; Zabaikal'skoeobozrenie

This chapter presents two excerpts of speeches, one by A.Ya. Arosev and the other by E.A. Preobrazhenskyan. In his speech, Comrade Arosev says that Marxists have no fetishes - and nothing frightens them. They are never afraid of compromises if the place and time require them. They do not reject a socialist war, but need three to five months to organise a new socialist army. Referring to this speech, Comrade Preobrazhensky questions whether it is possible that the compromise with the Junkers during the October Revolution taught Comrade Arosev nothing about how to proceed during the struggle against Kaledin, and so on. According to him, peace is precisely a permit for German capital as far as Vladivostok. If they were to strike at the parts, then it was necessary to strike at Germany immediately. Keywords:Comrade Arosev; Comrade Preobrazhensky; Germany; Moscow City-Wide Conference; October Revolution; peace; RSDRP(B); war

This chapter presents the report submitted by the Yenisei Provincial Gendarmerie-Administration to the Director of the Police- Department G.G. Mollov on the Impossibility of Determining the Author of a Letter Addressed to the Exile I.S. Shvarts. Keywords:G.G. Mollov; Gendarmerie; I.S. Shvarts; Yenisei

This chapter discusses two newspaper articles published in Zabaikal'skii rabochii . The first, titled 'On our Party's Programme', talks about labour-power. The Social-Democratic Party demands in its programme a number of measures to protect the worker during the labour-process and endeavours to extend the worker's life. The Party seeks the complete emancipation of labour from the power of capital. It seeks to hand over all the factories, plants and shops to the state, a future one in which supreme power will belong to the proletariat. The second article titled 'Dual Power, Dual Soul and Cowardice', explores what type of power do we have, dual power or single power; what do the liberal groups who are sending their telegrams to the Provisional Government want, and what do they fear. The single power that they dream about is not a political unity of powers, but one of the bourgeoisie in ruling the country. Keywords:bourgeois revolution; dual power; labour-process; newspaper articles; proletariat; Provisional Government; Russia; Social-Democratic Party

This chapter presents Preobrazhensky's articles 45 and 46 Published in the Newspaper Pravda at the Beginning of June 1919. Six communes and 52 artels are registered with the district land-department. Of this number, 39 artel-communes have been subsidized by the land-department. Despite the fact that Karachev district is not, for the most part, a producing district, and that the majority of its parishes are poor, it is not mainly the poor peasants who are joining the commune, but the middle-peasantry. All of the communards, while not being party-members, are, nevertheless, the most committed supporters of Soviet power. They voluntarily give over all of their surpluses to food-organisations and conceal nothing. The chapter discusses the population and behaviour of communes. Keywords:commune; Karachev; Pravda ; Preobrazhensky; soviet power

This chapter talks about E.A. Preobrazhensky's Pamphlet Peasant-Russia and Socialism (Towards a Review of our agrarian programme). There are certain naive Socialist-Revolutionaries who suggest that our Party, by issuing the Decree on Land at the All-Russian Congress of Soviets, renounced any intention of putting forth its own agrarian programme and limited itself to supporting the S-R version of socialisation of the land. Not only the Socialist-Revolutionaries, but even many of our own party-comrades, do not clearly understand how, in the final analysis, matters will stand with our agrarian programme. Keywords:agrarian programme; congress; Russian Revolution; socialism; Socialist-Revolutionaries

This chapter describes the resolution taken by the Politburo of the Central Committee of the RKP(B) concerning the case of Oskar Blum. On 28 June 1920, the commission, consisting of comrades Preobrazhensky, Latsis and Kursky, which was appointed by the Politburo of the Central Committee of the RKP, addresses the question of whether there is any need to review the Blum case, after considering all the proceedings in the Blum case by the revolutionary tribunal under the VTsIK, together with the accompanying documents, and having also questioned comrades Bukharin and Radek and the Latvian comrades. Keywords:Oskar Blum; Politburo; Preobrazhensky; revolutionary tribunal; RKP

This chapter presents reports for 10-16 May 1919 from the Plenipotentiary of the VTsIK and responsible representative of the central committee of the RKP(B) to Orel Province E.A. Preobrazhensky to the central committee of the RKP(B) on assisting the local authority in mobilisation of the population for the struggle against Denikin. The first report deals with the activities done by the central committee from 10th May 1919 to 13th May 1919, which includes an arrangement of meeting, discussion with students, assigning the students to the districts and the investigation. The second regular report deals with the activities done by the Central-Committee Plenipotentiary Preobrazhensky from 13th to 16th May 1919. Keywords:central committee; Denikin; Orel province; Plenipotentiary Preobrazhensky

This chapter presents an excerpt from the author's autobiography. After the February Revolution, he began work in Zlatoust with his old Urals friends. The organisation succeeded everywhere in taking power and nationalising the enterprises of the Simsky mining region. In the summer of 1918, he took part in putting down the uprising by the Left S-Rs, and was slightly wounded in the left temple during the attack on the Central Telegraph. Following the liberation of the Urals, he did party- and sovietwork in Ufa and was then elected to the Ninth Party-Congress. At the Congress, he was elected to the Central Committee, who selected him as one of three secretaries. The author was also one of the editors of Pravda , and apart from some minor pamphlets and many articles the journal, his works included Anarchism and Communism , On Morals and Class-Norms , and The New Economics . Keywords:autobiography; Central Committee; February Revolution; Left S-Rs; Ninth Party-Congress; Pravda ; Urals

This chapter presents three speeches given at the Sixth Congress of the RSDRP. The first is a report on the Work of the Social-Democratic Party in the Urals presented by Preobrazhensky. The second and the third speeches concern the resolution 'The Current Moment and the War.' According to Preobrazhensky, given the impossibility of solving all the conflicts between the petty bourgeoisie and the big bourgeoisie, together with a situation of military successes at the front, there may be a new outbreak of the revolution. The chapter also relates a discussion of the Question of Elections to the Constituent Assembly, that according to Preobrazhensky, should be worded as 'No electoral agreements or drawing up of joint lists of candidates with non-party revolutionary organisations is permitted.' The Chairman also agreed with Preobrazhensky. Keywords:bourgeoisie; Constituent Assembly; Preobrazhensky; revolution; RSDRP; Sixth Congress; Social-Democratic Party; Urals

This chapter talks about the memories of Preobrazhensky about Yakov Mikhailovich and the revolutionary activities in the Urals region during the early 1900s. Preobrazhensky briefly met Yakov Mikhailovich for the first time in Moscow in December 1905, when he was making his way to the Joint Party-Congress and was caught by a railway-strike in Moscow. Preobrazhensky's clearest memory is of a meeting of the Perm Party-Committee, which had to adopt a resolution on unifying their organisations in the Urals. An example in the chapter illustrates how unique the conditions always were for their work in the Urals, especially for propaganda-work. Yakov Mikhailovich was arrested in the summer of 1906. But even during this time, many Preobrazhensky's colleagues had no doubt concerning the victory of the revolution, and did not expect to be detained for long behind prison-walls. Keywords:Preobrazhensky; propaganda-work; revolutionary activities; Urals; Yakov Mikhailovich

This chapter presents an article published in the newspaper Ural'skii rabochii , titled "We Must Not Wait." According to the speaker, the demand for bread is the most fundamental and pressing demand of the broad popular masses, and it is necessary to turn immediately to its implementation. Talking about the measures that must be taken without delay, the speaker appeals to the Urals and to all responsible members of factory- and works-committees, and of the soviets and of other workers' organisations, to take the most decisive and immediate measures in the matter of demobilising the Urals industry. According to him, in the localities, the Urals can lay down fire against the counter-revolution by putting out iron-products for the rural market. Keywords:bread; counter-revolution; factory- and works-committees; iron-products; Ural'skii rabochii ; Urals industry

This chapter presents a speech where the speaker encourages Ural workers to correctly cast his vote for his workers' party. The speaker discusses needs of the workers, touching upon unemployment and workers' wages. The speaker then talks about the death of Urals industry, followed by insights into the industrial expansion in the Urals. The speaker deals with the land-question in the Urals, for which a proper solution is enormously important to the workers' interests. Finally, the speaker talks about how to treat the enormous scale of unemployment in the Urals and the low wages. Re-equipping of Urals industry will mean rescuing the working class of the Urals from starvation-wages and their complete lack of faith in the future. According to the speaker, in voting for the Bolsheviks, let every Urals worker say that they have had enough of unemployment, enough of starvation-wages, and enough of rule by the factory-owners. Keywords:industrial expansion; land-question; starvation-wages; unemployment; Urals industry; Urals workers

This chapter talks about the articles published in the Newspaper Pravda in September-October 1919. It describes the lessons of Mamontov, and a question: when will the revolution begin in Europe? Preobrazhensky has no intention of making any prediction concerning the time within which the revolution must be completed in the capitalist countries of the West. He intends to answer a different question: How long is it possible for the revolution not to occur in the West?. Keywords:Europe; Mamontov; newspaper Pravda ; Preobrazhensky; revolution

This chapter presents a report submitted by the Gendarmerie-Administration of Perm province to the director of the Department of Police, M.I. Trusevich on the discovery during a search of E.A. Preobrazhensky of a typescript written by him 'To Members of the Duma-Fraction'. Keywords:E.A. Preobrazhensky; Gendarmerie-Administration

This chapter presents Preobrazhensky's articles 48 to 56 Published in the Newspaper Pravda at the Beginning of June 1919. It compares the communes of Eletsk district with soviet-estates. Comrade Tolmachev was known and loved by all conscious workers of the Urals. Recalled from the Urals front by the Central Committee of the Party, Tolmachev was moved to Petrograd and perished while defending the city of world proletarian revolution. The chapter provides few facts and considerations in opposing the existing system of management of soviet-farms. It clarify the causes of the protracted Civil war, and then pose and attempt to give a completely objective answer to the question of how long the opposing sides in the struggle are physically and materially capable of continuing the War. We must adopt the goal of creating steadfast army-personnel in the Red Army, and not entrust the matter exclusively to the spontaneity of civil war. Keywords:Comrade Tolmachev; Pravda ; Preobrazhensky; Red Army; soviet-estates

This chapter presents the resolution of the first all-Bashkir conference of the RKP(B) on the tasks facing the Communists of Bashkiria in the period of Civil War. The conference of Communists of Soviet Bashkiria, meeting on the day after celebration of the second anniversary of the October Revolution, defines the international and domestic position that has emerged for the Soviet Republic, and its own tasks. The chapter lists the tasks including, the disintegration of capitalism in the West and the collapse of the bourgeoisie's productive forces are continuing and intensifying. On the basis of industrial collapse and hunger, a powerful strike-movement has begun in all the capitalist countries. A speedy destruction of Denikin is also imperative for Soviet Russia due to the enormous exhaustion of the country resulting from the prolonged Civil War that threatens to undermine all its vital forces. Keywords:Bashkiria; civil war; communists; October Revolution; Russia; Soviet Republic

This chapter describes E.A. Preobrazhensky's Diary with Notes on Questions Discussed at Meetings of the Politburo and the Plenum of the Central Committee of the RKP(B). The most important issue at the plenary meeting was the question of Curzon's note. Preobrazhensky was not personally prepared for a decision and had not thought through his own position. But it was perfectly clear to him that the issue was a war with the whole of the Entente. Il'ich, who had considered the situation more thoroughly than anyone else, was also most prepared to reach a decision. He read out some brief theses that had been prepared very skilfully in advance. They began with the perfectly indisputable point to assist Polish workers to achieve the sovietisation of Poland, recommended rejection of mediation by the Entente and the League of Nations, and concluded with a directive to continue the offensive. Keywords:Curzon; plenary meeting; Politburo; Preobrazhensky; RKP; sovietisation

This chapter describes the articles published in the newspaper Pravda in July-August 1920. It presents a few words about the dramatisation of mass action with which your St. Petersburg comrades concluded the opening day of the Second Congress of the Third International. Then, it talks about Comrade Larin's The Laws of Monetary Circulation , and an extremely interesting book, The Economics of the Transition Period , with deeply penetrating conclusions by comrade Bukharin. Keywords:Bukharin; congress; Larin; newspaper Pravda ; St. Petersburg comrades; The Economics of the Transition Period ; The Laws of Monetary Circulation

This chapter discusses the Article "A Congress is Necessary", Published in the Journal Kommunist . The lively debates at the recently-concluded Urals Regional Conference of Communist Party- which was distinguished by a large multitude of people - involved a discussion of the general policies of our Soviet centres and of economic policy in particular, which is the same thing as the policies of the Central Committee of the Party. The article presents the resolution that was accepted by everyone at the Conference with nine abstentions. It discusses one of them concerning the demand for the prompt convocation of a broad party-congress. In his polemical feuilletons directed against the position of the Left- Communists - which contain some very grand discoveries or, to put it more precisely, inventions about state-capitalism in Soviet Russia - comrade Lenin refers to the publishers of Kommunist as a tiny group. Keywords:A Congress is Necessary; Communist Party; Comrade Lenin; Kommunist ; Soviet Russia; Urals Regional Conference

This chapter talks about the address of the Representative of VTsIK E.A. Preobrazhensky at a Session of Responsible Party-Workers of the Ufa Provincial Organisation of the RKP(B) Concerning Failure of the Putsch Mounted by Bourgeois Nationalists. On the basis of personal impressions Preobrazhensky says that Yumagulov's activity expresses opposition to the whole of Soviet economic policy by the kulak-part of the peasantry of Bashkiria, who are being pressed from two sides by the Communist Party of Bashkiria and by the peasant-poor, whom the Party is trying to promote in order to divide the Bashkir peasantry. Subsequently, he portrays in general outline the events that preceded Yumagulov's activity, and considers it necessary, in the event of possible further activities of a more serious character by the kulak-elements of Bashkiria, to prepare appropriate forces with which to repulse this danger. Keywords:Bourgeois Nationalists; E.A. Preobrazhensky; party-workers; putsch; Soviet economic policy; Ufa provincial organisation; Yumagulov's activity

The chapter talks about the address from the Central Committee of the RKP(B) to the Party-Organisations of Bashkiria - Concerning Wide Involvement of the Toiling Masses of the Republic in the Communist Party. It also presents the address from the Central Committee of the RKP(B) to the Provincial Committees of Kazan, Simbirsk, Samara, Ufa, Chelyabinsk and Orenburg - Concerning the Inadmissibility of any Development of National Animosity towards the Tatar and Bashkir Press. Keywords:Bashkiria; communist party; national animosity; party-organisations; provincial committee; RKP; toiling masses

This chapter presents the articles and a Report, Published in the Newspaper Ural'skii rabochii in August-December 1918. It commences with the article 'Tedious Work', and ends with 'The Union of Oppressed Peoples'. Some other articles discussed in this chapter are 'Worldwide Bolshevism', 'To the Provincial Conference of the RKP', 'Report to the Perm Provincial Conference of the RKP', and 'Concluding Remarks at the Perm Conference of the RKP'. Keywords:Bolshevism; Perm Provincial Conference; Russian Communist Party; Ural'skii rabochii

Comrade Preobrazhensky gives a report on the question of economic construction. He reports on the practical steps outlined by the commission for implementing the decree on universal labour-duty for restoration of our ruined economy. He also reports on relations with the Bashkir Republic and on the difficulties being encountered in practically implementing the federal constitution in view of its lacking a number of concrete and practical instructions, and he proposes the following resolution: the Ufa Provincial Conference proposes to the Party-Congress that it charge the Central Committee with working out a draft federal constitution on the basis of a single Red Army, a single production- and food-policy, and single state-wide control over all the resources of the RSFSR. Keywords:Bashkir Republic; E.A. Preobrazhensky; Economic Construction; federal constitution; Sixth Ufa Provincial Conference; universal labour-duty

This chapter presents a Preobrazhensky's letter to V.I. Lenin Concerning K.B. Radek's Speeches on the War with Poland and Its Press-Coverage. Preobrazhensky suggests that they put an end to indecency on the matter of 'patriotism'. Radek has exaggerated 'national war' in his speeches. Today in Agitrosta, Bergman included an indecent article about true Russian people who love the fatherland. What will they end up writing in Chukhlom? He asks Lenin's permission to give direction to newspaper-editors, especially those in the provinces. Keywords:K.B. Radek's speeches; national war; Poland; Preobrazhensky; V.I. Lenin

In 1908, Preobrazhensky was brought to trial under Article 102 in three cities: in Chelyabinsk, where he was arrested at the party-conference in the spring of that year and was returned again to that city's prison after fleeing the police-administration; then in Perm, where thrie Perm organisation collapsed and documents were found that established his link with that organisation as a member of the Urals Regional Committee of the Bolsheviks; and finally, he was tried again in Ufa, where he was arrested on the street with articles for Ural'skii rabochii . In 1910, many revolutionaries were collected in the Aleksandrovsk transit-prison, expecting to be sent to the Lena detachment. Among the deportees awaiting shipment were representatives from the most diverse revolutionary parties and groups. Even before being shipped into exile, the different groups of Bolsheviks joined together in order to continue political activity both in exile and after fleeing from exile. Keywords:political activity; Preobrazhensky; revolutionaries

The chapter describes an article 'Concerning the Mobilisation of Unskilled Labour-Power', Published in the Newspaper Pravda . The Soviet authority can mobilise the main mass of crude manpower by capitalism and by the state in two ways: either in the form of hiring unskilled workers who were completely or almost completely detached from the land, or else in the form of peasants who sold their labour during time freed from agriculture. It would be a mistake to have any illusions concerning the possibility that a large part of the work could be done by a permanent army of workers completely detached from agriculture. There are even fewer grounds for thinking that the labour of a worker who is mobilised by the state and receiving rations and clothing from the state would be economically better than that of peasants who are enlisted for work but who still remain attached to their farms. Keywords:capitalism; peasants; Pravda ; Soviet authority; unskilled labour-power mobilisation

The chapter describes the response from Secretary of the Central Committee of the RKP(B) E.A. Preobrazhensky to the 'First Draft of Theses on the National Question', prepared by V.I. Lenin for a report to the second Congress of the Comintern. The national question in Europe (with the possible exception of the backward eastern and south-eastern regions) is part of the general question of the proletarian revolution and will be nine-tenths resolved by the very fact of its victory. The main difficulties lie in the relations between proletarian Soviet Republics and economically backward countries, where there is no proletariat or it is just emerging, and where a commercial bourgeoisie and an upper stratum of intellectuals exist as the only cultured elements of the people. Keywords:Comintern; Congress; E .A. Preobrazhensky; Europe; proletarian revolution; RKP; V.I. Lenin

This chapter presents E.A. Preobrazhensky's address to a meeting of responsible workers of Ufa Province concerning conditions in the Bashkir Republic and the tasks facing communists as a result of the Uprising Mounted by Bashkir nationalists. There are no special methods for Muslims to implement Soviet power. The difficulties are great, but the methods are the same as for Russians. To accept everything that is being said about minimising the economic tasks would result in the mullahs winning and the Communists surrendering. The practical conclusion - it is imperative to strengthen work among the Muslim population and to promote its internal stratification. Keywords:Bashkir nationalists; communists; economic tasks; Muslim uprising; Preobrazhensky; Soviet power; Ufa Province

This chapter presents six articles written by E. Preobrazhensky published in the newspaper Ural'skii rabochii between March and May 1918. In the first article, Preobrazhensky presents the main outlines of the disagreements that took shape in the Party on the question of war and peace. In the second, he examines the motives of those who supported signing the counter-revolutionary peace, and endeavours to demonstrate that, in the existing circumstances, this peace cannot be anything other than counter-revolutionary, both on an international scale and in terms of all its consequences for the Russian Revolution. The third says that for the Soviet authority, signing a peaceful agreement with Germany, and implementing it under the sharp eye of the Hoffmann executioners, will not mean the possibility of salvation, but simply execution by the Greek method. The subsequent articles relate Preobrazhensky's detailed defence of the position in favour of revolutionary war. Keywords:E. Preobrazhensky; Hoffmann executioners; peace; revolutionary war; Russian Revolution; Ural'skii rabochii

The Russian telegraph-agency accurately informs the Russian citizen of whenever a petty shop is robbed, of how many roubles are stolen and of just how many expropriators are hanged for the crime - yet this agency uttered not a single word about the grandiose expropriation conducted by the Urals possessional factories' owners a year and a half ago. And as with every expropriation from the pockets of the people, this one was conducted with the help of secret and other advisors behind 'closed doors'. In this case, the robbery is so obvious that no fig-leaf can cover it up: with their 'performance', the robbers have put themselves in the dock. We must make every effort so that the campaign will lead to the greatest possible discrediting of our gang of expropriators - and of their protectors 'by the grace of God' - in the eyes of the people of Europe. Keywords:grandiose expropriation; private banks; Russian citizen; Urals possessional factories

This chapter describes the protocol No. 58 of the session of the Committee of the Bolkhov Organisation of the RKP(B) of Orel Province in Connection with the murder of the Communist Makarin. It presents the report made by comrade Ivanov concerning his trip to the provincial Cheka in connection with murder of the Communist, comrade Makarin. Comrade Preobrazhensky's resolution is approved by three votes to one, with two abstentions: 'To revoke the district Communist Party's resolution of 25 August concerning hostages in the city of Bolkhov and, if the murder of Makarin was committed on political grounds, to turn to the provincial Communist Party for sanctions'. Keywords:Bolkhov; Ivanov; murder of communist Makarin; Orel Province; Preobrazhensky; provincial Cheka; provincial communist party

Preobrazhensky was born in 1886 in the town of Bolkhov, in Orel province, into the family of a priest. In his childhood he was very religious. His loathing of material inequality arose from social sentiments that awakened in him at a very early age. When he entered the seventh class at the gymnasium, he could no longer remain in a state of undefined and formless revolutionism. He had to choose between the Socialist-Revolutionaries and the Social Democrats. At that time the decisive influence in working out his world-view came from two works: The Communist Manifesto and The Development of Scientific Socialism by Engels. Pondering these two works for a long time, he decided that the Narodnik world-view was bankrupt and unscientific and that Marxism alone could show him the proper path. Keywords:political economy; Preobrazhensky; socialist-revolutionaries

This chapter describes the report by E.A. Preobrazhensky to the commission of the Central Committee of the RKP(B) on the question of eliminating inequality in the ranks of the RKP(B). It discusses the symptoms of demoralisation in our Party. The Central Committee must steer a course in the direction of the middle-ranking Communist, who has only duties and practically no rights, and must pay more attention to his education, to attracting him into real participation in party-life, and to reducing the material privileges of the upper party-ranks for his benefit. Keywords:demoralisation; E.A. Preobrazhensky; inequality; middle-ranking Communist; RKP