Tadeusz Rechniewski (2 April 1862,

Saint Petersburg Saint Petersburg, formerly known as Petrograd and later Leningrad, is the List of cities and towns in Russia by population, second-largest city in Russia after Moscow. It is situated on the Neva, River Neva, at the head of the Gulf of Finland ...

– 21 July 1916,

Warsaw Warsaw, officially the Capital City of Warsaw, is the capital and List of cities and towns in Poland, largest city of Poland. The metropolis stands on the Vistula, River Vistula in east-central Poland. Its population is officially estimated at ...

) was a Polish revolutionary and one of the leaders of the

First Proletariat Proletariat is the name used to refer to three Polish political parties: *The First Proletariat (''International Social Revolutionary Party "Proletariat"'' (Polish: ) (1882–1886)), also called the Great Proletariat. *The Second Proletariat ('' ...

party. Born into the nobility in

St. Petersburg Saint Petersburg, formerly known as Petrograd and later Leningrad, is the second-largest city in Russia after Moscow. It is situated on the River Neva, at the head of the Gulf of Finland on the Baltic Sea. The city had a population of 5,601, ...

in 1862, Rechniewski began studying law at

St. Petersburg University Saint Petersburg State University (SPBGU; ) is a public research university in Saint Petersburg, Russia, and one of the oldest and most prestigious universities in Russia. Founded in 1724 by a decree of Peter the Great, the university from the be ...

in 1879. There, he met members of the

People's Will Narodnaya Volya () was a late 19th-century revolutionary socialist political organization operating in the Russian Empire, which conducted assassinations of government officials in an attempt to overthrow the autocratic Tsarist system. The org ...

and Polish socialist groups, and he joined the student movement, becoming in 1883 a member of the central committee of the First Proletariat party. Rechniewski was arrested and sentenced to fourteen years in prison. Tadeusz Rechniewski

In 1886, Rechniewski arrived at the harsh Kariyskaya labor camps, where he led study sessions on

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) ...

's ''

Das Kapital ''Capital: A Critique of Political Economy'' (), also known as ''Capital'' or (), is the most significant work by Karl Marx and the cornerstone of Marxian economics, published in three volumes in 1867, 1885, and 1894. The culmination of his ...

'' and survived the Kariyskaya tragedy. In 1889, Rechniewski was joined by his wife, who was helping to support political prisoners. In 1894, he was sent to settle in the

Transbaikal Transbaikal, Trans-Baikal, Transbaikalia ( rus, Забайка́лье, r=Zabaykal'ye, p=zəbɐjˈkalʲjɪ), or Dauria (, ''Dauriya'') is a mountainous region to the east of or "beyond" (trans-) Lake Baikal at the south side of the eastern Si ...

region, where he worked as a draftsman in the construction of the

Trans-Siberian Railroad The Trans-Siberian Railway, historically known as the Great Siberian Route and often shortened to Transsib, is a large railway system that connects European Russia to the Russian Far East. Spanning a length of over , it is the longest railway ...

. In 1901, he moved to

Irkutsk Irkutsk ( ; rus, Иркутск, p=ɪrˈkutsk; Buryat language, Buryat and , ''Erhüü'', ) is the largest city and administrative center of Irkutsk Oblast, Russia. With a population of 587,891 Irkutsk is the List of cities and towns in Russ ...

, where he worked for the newspaper ''Eastern Review'' (Восточное обозрение). During all this time, he continued his revolutionary activities and organized escapes for other exiles. During the

1905 Russian Revolution The Russian Revolution of 1905, also known as the First Russian Revolution, was a revolution in the Russian Empire which began on 22 January 1905 and led to the establishment of a constitutional monarchy under the Russian Constitution of 1906, th ...

, Rechniewski was arrested for participating in rallies. After being freed, he went to Poland and became one of the leaders of the

Polish Socialist Party – Left The Polish Socialist Party – Left (, PPS–L), also known as the Young Faction (), was one of two factions formed when the Polish Socialist Party split at its ninth congress in 1906. The faction's primary objective was to transform Poland ...

(one of the precursors of the Polish Communist Party) and editor of its organ from 1906 to 1914. In 1915, he was one of the founders of the People's University in Warsaw.

References

1862 births 1916 deaths Polish revolutionaries Polish prisoners and detainees People from the Russian Empire {{Poland-politician-stub