[1] Robotnik was first published on 12 July 1894 in Lipniszki near Wilno in the amount of 1,200 copies,[2] by the local branch of the then-illegal PPS,[3] led by the future Chief of State of the Second Polish Republic, Józef Piłsudski.

Its notable contributors included Zygmunt Zaremba, Stanisław Posner, Karol Irzykowski, Cezary Jellenta and Jan Nepomucen Miller, and its circulation reached 10–20,000 issues.

After the May Coup (in 1926) of Piłsudski, who after the First World War distanced himself from PPS, Robotnik took an opposition stance towards his government; in return, some of its editions were subject to confiscations (only from 1926 to 1935 about 500 issues were confiscated).The journal was a strong supporter of PPS and socialism in general; among the notable policies opposed by the journal was that of antisemitism.

[5] After the war several newspapers of that name were printed in Poland and abroad; among the most notable was another underground paper published by the Solidarity movement from 1983–1990.

[6] The current Polish Socialist Party (refounded in 1989) published the Nowy Robotnik ("The New Worker") from 2003 to 2006.