Union of Struggle for the Liberation of the Working Class

Union of Struggle for the Liberation of the Working Class (Russian: Soiuz borby za osvobozhdenie rabochego klassa). An underground organization in Kyiv, founded in March 1897 by Russian and Polish social democrats. Initially the union had 30 members. Among the most active were P. Belousov, B. Eidelman, and Pavlo Tuchapsky. The union issued revolutionary leaflets, brochures, and a newspaper, maintained a library, and had contacts with other Marxist groups in the Russian Empire. The First Congress of the Russian Social Democratic Workers' party in March 1898 in Minsk was called at the union's insistence. Shortly after the congress 142 of the union's members were arrested by the tsarist police and banished to Siberia, whereupon the union ceased to exist.

[This article originally appeared in the Encyclopedia of Ukraine, vol. 5 (1993).]