Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1920-09-07
HISTORY OF M|NSK
EXPLAINS RED|SM
Russian City Was Hotbed OF
Radical Intrigue for
Decades.

"One OF the least interesting among
Russian cities in it's physical aspects,
Minsk has an economic history that
helps in explaining how bolshevism
spread SO readily among the Russian
people," says a National Geographic
Society bulletin concerning the city
where the Poles and the bolsheviks
have been meeting to discuss peace
terms.
The industrial history of Minsk is
Especially significant in view OF pres
emit conditions in Russia. 1t was one
minated which blossomed forth 50
suddenly into bolshevism under the
dollhouse influences OF war distress.
There, in the early nineties OF the
last century. group OF dilettantes
formed a Working Mans Union. later
more accurately termed the Union for
Struggle. PRONUNCIATION OF literature.
struggled into the country or printed
in secret, was a major activity OF
this group in Minsk. Few working
men belonged to 1t.
Accumulated Followers.
I'm the course of five years these
groups, working in Moscow, st. Pc
tersburg and Minsk, had accumulated
a number of followers. few Of whom
agreed. They gave wide publicity to
the doctrines Of Marx. mixed indis-
criminately with every variety OF
radi calism. native and imported. With
| such diversity Of aims little was
accomplished, and it was with the
hope Of formulating definite pro.
a committee Of the Jewish Bund held
their notable convention at Minsk in
1898. From that meeting arose the
social democratic working mems
'The professed aims Of various
groups at that conference have
familiar ring. One urged that labor
seek complete liberation from the
yoke Of capital another broadly de-
the condition Of every workinsman,'
a third frankly provided that the
mass of their adherents should not
have voice in the direction of the
group. but rather should be dis
Once more Minsk figured in an in
teresting chapter of Russia's eco
nomic history when Zubatov set two
women to organize labor party
among the Jews. under police protec-
ton. Originally an agent provocateur.
Zubatoy. when promoted to a high Of
flee among the political police, under
took to organize laboring men so
their growing discomfort would be di-
rected against employers rather than
a rival organization, the Universal
Jewish Labor Union, Immediately was
formed, which quickly eliminated tn.
police union
Half Population Jewish.
'Minsk is built upon the Svislotck
river. nearly 500 miles southwest of
Moscow by rail, and has q population
Of 10000. fully half Of whom are
Jews. 1t was the capital of the old
Russian government OF Minsk, which
included some Of the least fertile and
least developed regions Of the fallen
empire.
Its annual fair, held in March, fur
nlshed the chief event in the towns
life. Its trade, mainly in corn. lumber
and leather, gained perceptibly when
1T became the intersection point of
the railway from Moscow to Warsaw
and that from Libau to Kharkov. For
merly 1t maintained municipal
pawnshop.
"The city has passed through the
hands OF many masters. In the time
OF William the Conqueror it was a
dependency of the princes of Podolsk.
BY the close OF the twelfth century il
had fallen into the hands Of Lithuania.
Three hundred years later it belonged
to Poland. and at the time of the
French revolution Russia acquired it.
Napoleon occupied it in 1917