Raphael Abramovitch

Raphael Rein Abramovich (1880–1963) was a Russian socialist, a member of the General Jewish Workers' Union in Lithuania, Poland and Russia (Bund) and a leader of the Menshevik wing of the Russian Social-Democratic Workers' Party (RSDRP).

Raphael Abramovich was born in Daugavpils in 1880; his real name was Raphael Rein, Abramovich being his patronymic name. As a student at Riga Polytechnic he became involved in revolutionary politics and became a convinced Marxist. In 1901 he joined the Bund and the RSDRP. When the Bund withdrew from the RSDRP in 1903, Abramovich maintained contact with Menshevik leaders Martov and Fyodor Dan. The Bund and the Mensheviks eventually patched up their differences, and Abramovich became a member of the Menshevik party. He edited the Social-Democratic journals Evreiskii Rabochii (Jewish Workers) and Nashe Slovo (Our Word). In 1905 Abramovich became a member of the Central Committee of the Bund. During the abortive Revolution of 1905, he represented the Bund in the St. Petersburg Soviet. In 1907 he ran unsuccessfully as a candidate for the second Duma. He attended the conferences of the Bund and the RSDRP in 1906 and 1907. In 1911 he narrowly escaped arrest and fled abroad, mostly living in Germany and France.

In 1914 he at first sided with the Internationalist wing of the Menshevik party, which opposed the First World War, but he was not as radically anti-war as Martov. After the February Revolution of 1917, Abramovich returned to Russia. He became a member of the Central Committee of the Petrograd Soviet. For a while he became a qualified Revolutionary Defencist, siding with Mensheviks like Dan and Tsereteli against Martov. While Martov's Menshevik Internationalists opposed the war altogether, the Revolutionary Defencists supported a limited war effort in defence of the Revolution. However, they opposed territorial or financial war aims and rejected the unqualified pro-war stance of 'Social Patriots' like the aged Plekhanov and A.N. Potresov. After the October Revolution, Abramovich and Dan once more moved to the left and rejoined Martov's faction. Abramovich played a role in unsuccessful attempts to negotiate and all-socialist coalition with the Bolsheviks, comprising Bolsheviks, Mensheviks, Socialist-Revolutionaries of various factions and Popular Socialists. Neither Lenin nor most of the leaders of the other proposed coalition partners had any interest in this idea, though there was popular support for it among workers. The negotiations failed. Abramovich subsequently became more critical of the Bolsheviks. In 1918 he was arrested for anti-Soviet activities and escaped execution due to the intervention of Friedrich Adler and other foreign socialists.

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