Edinstvo Unity

a newspaper published by the group of the same name in Petrograd. The editorial staff included L. I. Akserrod.(C)rtodoks), G. A. Aleksinskii, N. V. Vasil’ev,

L. G. Deutsch, V. I. Zasulich, N. I. lordanskii, and G. V. Plekhanov. In May and June of 1914 four issues of the paper came out; when it resumed publication in 1917’, Edinstvo appeared daily from March through November, and 189 issues were brought out. From December 1917 through January 1918 the paper was called Nashe edinstvo (Our Unity). It took an ultrachauvinistic stand, advocated a coalition with the Cadets, and opposed the socialist revolution. The paper supported the bourgeois Provisional Government. In its attacks on the Bolsheviks it resorted to the tactics of yellow journalism.

a group of extreme right-wing Menshevist defensists, former liquidators. G. V. Plekhanov, A. F. Bur’ianov, and N. I. lordanskii played a guiding role in the group.

Edinstvo originated in 1914 and was formally organized in March 1917. It had organizations in Petrograd, Moscow, Baku, and other cities and published the newspaper Edinstvo in Petrograd. The group denied the possibility of victory for socialist revolution in Russia, supported the bourgeois Provisional Government, spoke out for continuation of the imperialist war “to complete victory,” and engaged in the unbridled hounding of Bolsheviks. After the July Days of 1917 it favored counterrevolutionary “strong government.”

Lenin commented that by acting this way Edinstvo was “aiding and abetting the dark forces which threaten violence, bombs, and riots”(Poln. sohr. soch. , 5th ed., vol. 31, p. 229). Edinstvo was hostile to the October Revolution and the establishment of the Soviet regime. The group broke up in the summer of 1918.