Nikolai Yevgrafovich Fedoseyev (; May 9 1871, O.S 27 April">Old_Style_and_New_Style_dates.html" ;"title="nowiki/>Old Style and New Style dates">O.S 27 AprilNolinsk – July 4 [O.S 22 June] 1898, Verkhoyansk) was a pioneer of Marxism in the Russian Empire.

Career

Fedoseyev was born in Nolinsk, in Vyatka province, the son of a detective. He studied at Kazan Gymnasium, where he became interested in social science, and began studying the writings of

Karl Marx Karl Marx (; 5 May 1818 – 14 March 1883) was a German philosopher, political theorist, economist, journalist, and revolutionary socialist. He is best-known for the 1848 pamphlet '' The Communist Manifesto'' (written with Friedrich Engels) ...

, at a time where there were no organised Marxist groups anywhere in the Russian empire. On 5 December 1887, he was expelled from the gymnasium for 'political unreliability'. According to Soviet historiography, Vladimir Ulyanov, later known as Lenin, became a member of Fedoseyev Marist circles in the late 1880s, through which he supposedly discovered

's 1867 book '' Capital''. However, it was not until 1888 that Fedoseyev founded a Marxist study group, at which time Lenin, who had previously been a first year student at Kazan University, had already left the city. This meant that Lenin and Fedoseyev did not meet. By Lenin's own omission:

I heard about Fedoseyev while I was in Kazan, but I never met him.

Therefore, it is likely that this claim was fabricated by later Soviet officials, who were eager to exaggerate Lenin's early involvement with Marxism and downplay the influence of other socialist currents on his thought. However, Lenin did praise Fedoseyev for his contributions to Russian Marxism. In 1922, he wrote: Fedoseyev also influenced the young itinerant baker, Aleksei Peshkov, who was later a world famous writer, under the name

Maxim Gorky Alexei Maximovich Peshkov (; – 18 June 1936), popularly known as Maxim Gorky (; ), was a Russian and Soviet writer and proponent of socialism. He was nominated five times for the Nobel Prize in Literature. Before his success as an aut ...

. In his memoirs, Gorky recalled being invited to a secret meeting organised by Fedoseyev, to listen to a reading of ''Our Differences'' by Georgi Plekhanov, the founder of Russian Marxism. The reading was interrupted by barracking from the audience, who objected to Plekhanov's criticism of Russian populism, one of whom suggested that it was an insult to the memory of Lenin's older brother, Aleksandr Ulyanov, who been hanged for plotting to assassinate the Tsar. Afterwards, Peshkov was taken aside by Fedoseyev, who taught him the basics of Marxist theory. Gorky later wrote: In June 1889, the police discovered an illegal printing press that Fedoseyev had organised. He was arrested on 13 July, and was held in custody for 15 months, then sentenced to a year and three months in solitary confinement. In January 1892, he settled in Vladimir, made contact with other Marxists, and helped organise a strike in a factory owned by the Morozov family. Arrested again on 10 September 1892, he and Lenin exchanged letters while he was in Vladimir prison, in which they discussed Marxist theory. According to historian Ralph Fox, he was "in some way perhaps the teacher to Lenin." Lenin travelled to Vladimir, hoping to meet him when he escaped from prison, but the planned escape did not come off. In September 1893, Fedoseyev was released pending trial because of ill health, and in November he was sentenced to three years exile in

Solvychegodsk Solvychegodsk () is a types of inhabited localities in Russia, town in Kotlassky District of Arkhangelsk Oblast, Russia, located on the right-hand bank of the Vychegda, Vychegda River, about northeast of Kotlas, the administrative center of the ...

, in the far north, but he was arrested again in July 1895 for maintaining contact with Marxists in Vladimir, and sentenced to five years exile in Verkholensk, in Siberia. On his journey to Siberia, Fedoseyev came into contact with Doukhobors, religious dissenters who were persecuted for refusing to do military service. He wrote to

Leo Tolstoy Count Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy Tolstoy pronounced his first name as , which corresponds to the romanization ''Lyov''. () (; ,Throughout Tolstoy's whole life, his name was written as using Reforms of Russian orthography#The post-revolution re ...

, author of '' War and Peace'', who had taken up the Doukhobors' cause, describing the plight of the exiles'. Three of his letters to Tolstoy survived. He also travelled part of the journey to Siberia with two peasants named P.V.Olkovik and Kirill Sereda, Tolstoyans also exiled for refusing to do military service. He was accused of 'uncomradely relations' with the two. The accusation was heard on 5 January 1898 by the United Assembly of Political Exiles, who found that there was "not a shadow of suspicion" that his relations with them were anything but "friendly". He was also accused of embezzling party funds led to shame and a switch to an austere lifestyle that eventually led to his suicide.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Fedoseev, Nikolai 1871 births 1898 deaths Marxists from the Russian Empire 1890s suicides Revolutionaries from the Russian Empire People from Vyatka Governorate People from Nolinsky Uyezd