Peter Petroff (communist)

Peter Petroff (Russian: Петр Петров; 1884 – 12 June 1947) was a Russian communist activist, mostly active in the United Kingdom.

Born to a Jewish family in Ostropol, Ukraine, Petroff became a carpenter, and joined the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party (RSDLP) in 1901, spending several stints in prison for his activities. He was a party organiser by the time of the 1905 Russian Revolution, during which he was very active, organising a socialist group within the Russian Army, and leading an uprising in Voronezh. He was seriously injured, captured and exiled to Siberia, but escaped and made his way to Geneva, then on to the UK.

Once in Britain, Petroff contacted the Social Democratic Federation (SDF), a socialist organisation sympathetic to the Russian Marxists. They put him in touch with John Maclean, who for two months housed him in Glasgow and taught him English. Petroff then moved to London and began working for the German Social Democratic Party. He also contributed to La Voix du Social Democrat and Russkoe Slovo.

As Petroff's English improved, he began speaking on behalf of the SDF, and writing regularly for party newspapers. However, he became a leading opponent of the party's leadership, which he felt was ineffective, undemocratic, and nationalistic. The SDF reformed as the British Socialist Party (BSP) in 1912, and Petroff was elected to its first standing orders committee, alongside Duncan Carmichael, E. C. Fairchild and C. T. Douthwaite. The four worked together to ensure voices in the party opposing British rearmament were heard.

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