Mark Veniaminovich Vishniak (; 1883–1976) was a Russian socialist, lawyer and writer, prominent member of the

Socialist Revolutionary Party The Socialist Revolutionary Party (SR; ,, ) was a major socialist political party in the late Russian Empire, during both phases of the Russian Revolution, and in early Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic, Soviet Russia. The party memb ...

Early activism

M. V. Vishniak was born in Moscow in 1883, the son of a wealthy merchant. He was a childhood friend of the future

Socialist-Revolutionary The Socialist Revolutionary Party (SR; ,, ) was a major socialist political party in the late Russian Empire, during both phases of the Russian Revolution, and in early Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic, Soviet Russia. The party memb ...

leaders A.R. Gots and I.I. Fondaminsky. As a law student at Moscow University he came in contact with

Narodnik The Narodniks were members of a movement of the Russian Empire intelligentsia in the 1860s and 1870s, some of whom became involved in revolutionary agitation against tsarism. Their ideology, known as Narodism, Narodnism or ,; , similar to the ...

circles, but he did not join the Socialist-Revolutionary Party (PSR) until 1905, when he was radicalised by the

Revolution of 1905 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, t ...

. He was a delegate at the PSR Congress in 1906. Vishniak contributed to several party journals under the pseudonym 'Veniamin Marks'. Under that name he wrote ''The Legal Status of Jews in Russia'', one of the earliest sustained discussions of the condition of Russian Jews. In 1906 he was arrested and deported to Narimski but escaped. Over the next ten years, he was repeatedly arrested, escaped several times and spent time abroad (mainly in France).

Defencism and Revolution

In 1914 he took a Defencist position. After the

February Revolution The February Revolution (), known in Soviet historiography as the February Bourgeois Democratic Revolution and sometimes as the March Revolution or February Coup was the first of Russian Revolution, two revolutions which took place in Russia ...

of 1917, he was elected to the All-Russian Congress of Soviets of Peasants' Deputies and to the Executive Committee of the All-Russian Soviet of Peasants' Deputies. Vishniak belonged to the commission which drafted the proceedings for elections to the Constituent Assembly. He belonged to the Interim Council of the Republic (Pre-Parliament) and was elected to the short-lived Constituent Assembly (which the

Bolsheviks The Bolsheviks, led by Vladimir Lenin, were a radical Faction (political), faction of the Marxist Russian Social Democratic Labour Party (RSDLP) which split with the Mensheviks at the 2nd Congress of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party, ...

suspended after one day). Vishniak was fiercely opposed to the

October Revolution The October Revolution, also known as the Great October Socialist Revolution (in Historiography in the Soviet Union, Soviet historiography), October coup, Bolshevik coup, or Bolshevik revolution, was the second of Russian Revolution, two r ...

. He participated in anti-Bolshevik activities. In 1918 he moved to

Ukraine Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the List of European countries by area, second-largest country in Europe after Russia, which Russia–Ukraine border, borders it to the east and northeast. Ukraine also borders Belarus to the nor ...

, where he fell foul of the government of Herman

Skoropadski The House of Skoropadsky () is a noble Ukrainian family of Cossack origin. Famous members * Ivan Skoropadsky (1646 – September 3, 1722; reigned 1708–1722), Hetman of Zaporizhian Host, succeeded the deposed Hetman Ivan Mazepa after his de ...

and was arrested. After the Hetman fell, Vishniak was released. In 1919 he emigrated to Western Europe, living mainly in Paris, France, until 1940.

Exile in Europe

In France Vishniak was active among Russian exiles and in the Jewish community. He attended the Paris Peace Conference in 1919 as a delegate for the Jewish people and had become a supporter of socialist Zionism. He also belonged to the World Congress of Jewish Minorities. Within the exile community he was close to resolute anti-Bolsheviks like Fondaminsky and even co-operated with P.B. Struve and P.N. Miliukov. In the internecine factional struggles of the PSR, he stood on the right. He contributed to several émigré journals, including ''

Sovremennye zapiski ' (, "Contemporary Papers") was a politicized literary journal published from 1920 to 1940. A group of adherents of the Russian Socialist-Revolutionary Party launched the journal during the Russian Civil War. Headquartered in Paris, ''Sovremenny ...

'' (''Contemporary Annals'') and the ''Evreiskaia Tribuna'' (the ''Jewish Tribune''). From 1937 on he edited ''Russkie Zapiskii'' (''Russian Notes''). When Hitler invaded France, Vishniak escaped to the United States, but he could not persuade his friend Fondaminsky to flee; Fondaminsky was later killed in

Auschwitz Auschwitz, or Oświęcim, was a complex of over 40 concentration and extermination camps operated by Nazi Germany in occupied Poland (in a portion annexed into Germany in 1939) during World War II and the Holocaust. It consisted of Auschw ...

Exile in America

Vishniak himself settled in New York in 1940. He became an American citizen and a respected figure in American journalism and academia: He served on the editorial board of ''Time'' Magazine and worked as its consultant on Russian affairs. He also taught Russian language and literature at

Cornell University Cornell University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university based in Ithaca, New York, United States. The university was co-founded by American philanthropist Ezra Cornell and historian and educator Andrew Dickson W ...

. One of his students was the historian

Richard Pipes Richard Edgar Pipes (; July 11, 1923 – May 17, 2018) was an American historian who specialized in Russian and Soviet history. Pipes was a frequent interviewee in the press on the matters of Soviet history and foreign affairs. His writings als ...

. Vishniak wrote prolifically on the history of the Russian Revolution, Bolshevism and Soviet policy, his memoirs, the Jewish community, etc. His memoirs include ''A Tribute to the Past'' (1954) and ''Years of Emigration, 1919-1969.''

Early activism

Defencism and Revolution

Exile in Europe

Exile in America

Nptes

References

Further reading