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
Vilnius ( , ; see also other names) is the capital and largest city of Lithuania, with a population of 592,389 (according to the state register) or 625,107 (according to the municipality of Vilnius). The population of Vilnius's functional urb ...
in Lithuania). The group was founded in the mid-1890s. Its members devoted themselves to disseminating
Marxist
Marxism is a Left-wing politics, left-wing to Far-left politics, far-left method of socioeconomic analysis that uses a Materialism, materialist interpretation of historical development, better known as historical materialism, to understand S ...
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
Yiddish (, or , ''yidish'' or ''idish'', , ; , ''Yidish-Taytsh'', ) is a West Germanic language historically spoken by Ashkenazi Jews. It originated during the 9th century in Central Europe, providing the nascent Ashkenazi community with a ver ...
. All this was illegal and had to be done clandestinely, and all members of the Vilna Group were arrested at various points. The Vilna group included, among others,
Arkadi Kremer
Arkadi Kremer ( yi, אַרקאַדי קרעמער; also known as Aleksandr Kremer or Solomon Kremer; 1865–1935) was a Russian socialist leader known as the 'Father of the Bund' (the General Jewish Workers' Union in Lithuania, Poland and Russia ...
and his wife
Pati Kremer (a.k.a. Matla Srednicki or Srednitskaya),
John Mill and
Mikhail Liber
Mikhail Isaakovich Liber (5 June 1880 – 4 October 1937), sometimes known as Mark Liber, was a leader of the General Jewish Workers' Union (the 'Bund'). He also played a role in the Russian Social-Democratic Workers' Party (RSDRP) and was a le ...
. 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
The Russian Social Democratic Labour Party (RSDLP; in , ''Rossiyskaya sotsial-demokraticheskaya rabochaya partiya (RSDRP)''), also known as the Russian Social Democratic Workers' Party or the Russian Social Democratic Party, was a socialist pol ...
(RSDRP) in 1898. Most veterans of the Vilna Group later supported the
Mensheviks
The Mensheviks (russian: меньшевики́, from меньшинство 'minority') were one of the three dominant factions in the Russian socialist movement, the others being the Bolsheviks and Socialist Revolutionaries.
The factions eme ...
.
Labor in Lithuania
Jews and Judaism in the Russian Empire
Jewish clubs and societies
History of socialism
Marxism
Socialist organizations
Labour movement
History of Vilnius
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