Raphael Abramovitch

Raphael Abramovitch Rein (Рафаил Абрамович Рейн; 21 July 1880 – 11 April 1963), best known as Raphael Abramovitch, was a Russian socialist, a member of the General Jewish Workers' Union in Lithuania, Poland and Russia (Bund), and a leader of the Menshevik wing of the Russian Social-Democratic Workers' Party (RSDRP).

Abramovitch emigrated from Soviet Russia in 1920, landing in Berlin, where he was a co-founder of the long-running Menshevik journal The Socialist Courier .

When the Bund withdrew from the RSDRP in 1903, Abramovitch maintained contact with Menshevik leaders Martov and Fyodor Dan.

In 1914 he at first sided with the Internationalist wing of the Menshevik party, which opposed the First World War, but he was not as radically anti-war as Martov.

However, they opposed territorial or financial war aims and rejected the unqualified pro-war stance of 'Social Patriots' like the aged Plekhanov and A.N.

Neither Lenin nor most of the leaders of the other proposed coalition partners had any interest in this idea, though there was popular support for it among workers.

In 1918 he was arrested for anti-Soviet activities and escaped execution due to the intervention of Friedrich Adler and other foreign socialists.

At the 12th Bund Congress, he fiercely opposed a proposal by some of those present to amalgamate with the Communist party, In 1920 Abramovitch left Soviet Russia.

[5] Raphael Abramovitch was the father of the journalist Mark Rein, who was kidnapped in Spain in 1937, presumably by the OGPU (Soviet secret service).