Lev Deich,
the son of a Jewish
merchant,
was born in Russia in 1855. After he was
converted to Marxism, he spent his time distributing
propaganda in southern Russia.
In 1875
he was arrested but escaped from custody and over the next couple
of years attempted to organize a peasant insurrection.
Deich joined
the Land and Liberty and when it split into
two factions, he joined the Black Repartition
group that supported a socialist propaganda campaign among workers
and peasants. The majority of members, joined People's
Will, the group that favoured terrorism.
In 1880
Deich and other leaders of the Black Repartition
group, including George Plekhanov,
Vera Zasulich and Pavel
Axelrod went to live in Geneva. Three years later they formed
the Liberation of Labour group.
While in
Germany in 1884 Deich was arrested and extradited
for trial by a Russian court for a terrorist offence he had committed
in 1876. Found guilty he was sentenced 13 years hard labour in Siberia.
Deich escaped
from prison in 1901 and became active in the Social
Democratic Labour Party. At the Second Congress of the Social
Democratic Party in London in 1903, there
was a dispute between Vladimir Lenin and
Jules Martov, two of the party's main
leaders. Lenin argued for a small party of professional revolutionaries
with a large fringe of non-party sympathizers and supporters. Martov
disagreed believing it was better to have a large party of activists.
Martov won the vote 28-23 but Lenin was unwilling to accept the result
and formed a faction known as the Bolsheviks.
Those who remained loyal to Martov became known as Mensheviks.
Deich joined
George Plekhanov, Pavel
Axelrod, Leon Trotsky, Irakli
Tsereteli, Moisei Uritsky, Noi
Zhordania and Fedor Dan in supporting
Jules Martov.
During
the 1905 Revolution Deich returned to Russia
but was arrested and imprisoned. However, on the way to Siberia
he escaped and made his way to London where
he lived for the next eleven years.
After the
February Revolution Deich returned to
Petrograd and joined George Plekhanov
in editing Edinstvo (Unity). He
also wrote his memoirs and edited a volume of documents associated
with the Liberation of Labour group.
Lev Deich died in 1941.
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