The Vilna Group was a circle of Jewish Social-Democrats which met secretly in the city of Vilna, then part of the Russian empire (now Vilnius in Lithuania).
Activities edit
The group was founded in the mid-1890s. Its members devoted themselves to disseminating Marxist and socialist literature to Jewish textile workers and to some extent to Jewish and non-Jewish workers generally, providing literacy and education classes for workers and supporting the formation of trade unions. They were among the first to produce socialist literature in Yiddish. All this was illegal and had to be done clandestinely, and all members of the Vilna Group were arrested at various points.
Members edit
The Vilna group included, among others:
- Arkadi Kremer[1]
- Tsemakh Kopelzon[1]
- Pati Kremer (a.k.a. Matla Srednicki or Srednitskaya)[citation needed]
- John Mill[citation needed]
- Mikhail Liber[citation needed]
- Leo Jogiches[1]
Legacy edit
It was one of the precursors of the General Jewish Workers' Association in Lithuania, Poland and Russia (known as the 'Bund'), founded in 1897. The Vilna Group also played a role in founding the Russian Social-Democratic Workers' Party (RSDRP) in 1898. Most veterans of the Vilna Group later supported the Mensheviks.
References edit
- ^ a b c Zimmerman, Joshua D. (28 June 2022). Jozef Pilsudski: Founding Father of Modern Poland. Harvard University Press. p. 81. ISBN 978-0-674-27585-0.
 | This labor-related article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. |
  | This Lithuanian history-related article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. |
 | This article related to Jewish history is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. |