Nikolay Bukharin in 1914

Nikolay Bukharin was born in Moscow on 27th September 1888. His parents were primary school teachers and they helped him get a good education.

Bukharin became involved in politics during the 1905 Revolution and the following year joined the Bolsheviks. By 1908 he was a member of the Moscow Party Committee. The following year he was arrested while at a committee meeting. He was released but re-arrested several times and in 1910 decided to go into exile.

He lived in Austria, Switzerland, Sweden and the USA. He met all the leading revolutionaries in exile including Vladimir Lenin, Lev Kamenev, Gregory Zinoviev, and Leon Trotsky. He also wrote for Pravda, Neue Zeit and Novy Mir.

Nikolay Bukharin

1. Was highly critical of Nicholas II and the autocracy.

2. Wanted Russia to have universal suffrage.

3. Wanted the Russian government to allow freedom of expression and an end to political censorship of newspapers and books.

4. Believed that democracy could only be achieved in Russia by the violent overthrow of Nicholas II and the autocracy.

5. Was strongly opposed to Russia going to war with Austria-Hungary and Germany.

6. Believed that if Russia did go to war with Austria-Hungary and Germany the Mensheviks, Bolsheviks and the Socialist Revolutionaries should try to persuade the Russian soldiers to use their weapons to overthrow Nicholas II.