Fedor Il'ič Dan Papers

Period 1903-1947
Total size  0.7 m.
Consultation  Not restricted

Biography

Fedor (Theodore) Dan pseudonym of Fedor Il'ič Gurvic ; born in St. Petersburg 1871, died in New York 1947; Menshevik; studied medicine; one of the founders of the Sojuz Bor'by za Osvoboždenie Rabočego Klassa 1895; his (second) wife was Lidija O. Cederbaum, a sister of Martov; left Russia in 1900; in 1902 he became closely linked with the editors of Iskra; after 1903 he became a central figure of the Menshevik fraction of the RS-DRP, while living most of the time in Western Europe; he was active in the Second International and an editor of Golos Social' demokrata; returned to Russia in 1913 and wrote for Menshevik papers in St. Petersburg; was permitted to emigrate in 1922 and became member of the Delegation Abroad of the Rossijskaja Social-Demokratičeskaja Rabočaja Partija (RSDRP) and editor of Socialističeskij Vestnik; active in the Sozialistische Arbeiter-Internationale (SAI); after increasing differences in point of view he resigned in 1940 from the chairmanship to the Delegation Abroad and the editorship of the Socialističeskij Vestnik; from 1943 till 1946 he wrote his opus ' Proizchoždenie bol'ševizma'.

Content

Some letters received by Fedor Dan 1926-1928, 1940-1946; correspondence between Aleksandr Potresov and Julij Martov 1910-1913 (copies); letters by Fedor Dan to Victor and by Friedrich Adler (copies); letters from Fedor Dan to Pavel Aksel'rod and others, annotated by Lidija Dan; letters received on his 70th and 75th birthday; addressbook; editorial documents of Golos Social'demokrata 1907-1912; documents relating to the Delegation Abroad of the RSDRP 1921-1934; editorial documents of Socialističeskij Vestnik 1923-1934; documents relating to the Labour and Socialist International (LSI/SAI) 1923-1925; articles by Fedor Dan; articles by others; typescript, translations and other documents relating to his publication `Proischždenie bol'sevizma'.

Arrangement

Boris Sapir published some documents from the F.I. Dan papers in 'Theodore Dan - Letters', Amsterdam 1985. About 80 letters, F.I. Dan wrote to Berta Mering from 1922 till 1946, have been incorporated into her papers.

Processing information

List made by Hermien van Veen in 1995

Alternate Form of Material

Partly published in: Fedor Il'ic Dan, Pis'ma (1899-1946). Otobral, snabdil primecanijami i ocerkom politiceskoj biografii Dana Boris Sapir (Theodore Dan, Letters 1899-1946. Selected, annotated and with an outline of Dan's political biography by Boris Sapir). Amsterdam, 1985.