The creation of the St. Petersburg "Union of Struggle for the Emancipation of the Working Class" was a significant milestone in the history of the Russian liberation movement. The beginning of the formation of the "Union" dates back to the autumn of 1893, when V. I. Ulyanov appeared in the Marxist youth circle, which consisted mainly of students of the Technological Institute. Great erudition in matters of revolutionary theory, creative application of the Marxist method to the analysis of Russia's economic development, and organizational talent gave the 23-year-old Vladimir Ilyich a high reputation among his new comrades. Lenin saw an indissoluble link between theoretical work and the creation of the Marxist party, the justification of its program and tactics. 1 Lenin had a decisive influence on the further activities of the members of the circle (the so-called old men), its gradual transformation into the core of a citywide revolutionary organization, into the central group of the future "Union of Struggle". Although the activities of the St. Petersburg Union of Struggle for the Emancipation of the Working Class have been studied in more detail before the December arrests of 1895 than in a later period, some aspects of its formation need further research and clarification. For the problem under consideration, it is fundamentally important to find out how to determine the boundary that separates the existence of a disparate network of circles from the formation of a citywide organization, in other words, what is meant by the association of circles. Based on the practical experience of the St. Petersburg "Union of Struggle," Lenin gave an exhaustive assessment of this a few years later: "If we' unite 'individual - say, district-circles of a single city, then this requires common institutions, i.e., not just a common title of the 'union,' but really common work, the exchange of material,the exchange of ideas, and the exchange of ideas." with their experience and resou ... Read more