Its editors were Boris Krichevsky, Pavel Teplov, Vladimir Ivanshin and, from 1900, Aleksandr S. Martynov.

characterised the position of Rabocheye Delo in the following way: ...Rabocheye Delo acquired a special significance, a "historical" significance, if you will, because it expressed fully and strikingly, not consistent Economism, but the confusion and vacillation which constitute the distinguishing feature of an entire period in the history of Russian Social-Democracy.

Rabocheye Delo was originally founded by the League of Struggle for the Emancipation of the Working Class, in late 1895.

Its first issue was ready to go to press when it was seized by gendarmes during a raid on Anatoly Vaneyev's house.

In the second half of 1898, however, the League and Rabocheye Delo fell under control of the Economists through their paper, Rabochaya Mysl (Russian: Рабочая Mысль, Workers' Thought).