Petr Moiseenko

Born in 1852, in the village of Obydennaia, Smolensk Province; died Nov. 30, 1923, in Kharkov; buried in Orekhovo-Zuevo, Moscow Oblast. Russian revolutionary worker.

Of peasant descent, Moiseenko began working in a Moscow factory in 1865; after 1871 he worked as a weaver in OrekhovoZuevo. During 1874–75 he worked in St. Petersburg. It was here in workers’ circles that he became acquainted with such revolutionary populists and progressive workers as G. V. Plekhanov and S. N. Khalturin. He took part in the Kazan Square demonstration of 1876 and was a member of the Northern Union of Russian Workers.

In 1880, Moiseenko was arrested and banished to Eniseisk Province for strike organizing at the Novobumagopriadil’naia factory during 1879. After 1883 he worked at the Nikol’skaia mill of the Morozov textile firm in Orekhovo-Zuevo. As one of the organizers of the Morozov strike of 1885 he was arrested and tried; although acquitted by a jury, he was banished to Arkhangel’sk Province from 1885 to 1889. In 1894 he was rearrested in Rostov-on-Don and banished to Vologda Province.

After 1898, Moiseenko engaged in revolutionary work in the Donbas; in 1905 he became a member of the RSDLP, a Bolshevik, and an active participant in the Revolution of 1905–07. He worked in Baku during 1909–10 and in Gorlovka after 1912 and was a worker-correspondent for Pravda. In 1916 he was one of the leaders of a strike of 30,000 miners in Gorlovka Raion.

In 1917–18, Moiseenko worked on behalf of the Soviets in Baku and the Northern Caucasus and then participated in the Civil War of 1918–20. After 1922 he worked for Istpart (the Commission on Party History) in Kharkov. He wrote Memoirs: 1873–1923 (1924, reissued 1966).

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