In the context of the political reaction that began in 1907, about a dozen different literary and social journals were published in Russia. One of the most progressive among them was the magazine "Education" 1 . To a certain extent, its face was defined by the Marxists published in it since 1902 (V. V. Borovsky, V. D. Bonch-Bruevich, A.V. Lunacharsky, M. S. Olminsky, etc.). This was the case until the end of the summer of 1908, when the social-Democratic part of the editorial board announced its collective withdrawal from the magazine for political reasons. What are the reasons for such a step taken by revolutionary publicists?

In June 1908, the bourgeois-liberal publicist N. Ya. Ostrogorsky 2, who had been the publisher of the magazine since 1896, was forced to leave it due to financial difficulties. Obrazovanie was bought by the reactionary writer I. Vasilevsky (pseudonym-Ne-Bukva). The change of publisher and the subsequent renewal of the editorial staff immediately changed the direction of the magazine, although I Vasilevsky and the new staff formally expressed their willingness to work with writers of other political persuasions and even assured them that they would not deviate from the Marxist traditions of the journal (see the editorial announcement in No. 7 of 1908). In this way, they hoped to retain at least temporarily the best part of the staff, including Marxists, and thereby preserve the journal's credibility among subscribers. This is evidenced by the meeting of V. D. Bonch-Bruevich with the new head of the magazine in June 1908 in St. Petersburg, which he reported in a letter to M. S. Olminsky on June 26, 3 . V. D. Bonch-Bruevich tried to find out from I. Vasilevsky why the Marxists, permanent employees of Obrazovanie, were not promptly notified of the magazine's transfer to another publisher. The latter stated that "he will be very happy to see all the old employees in the magazine, the only thing that will change is the fiction department - he will banish Artsybashevism and try to give good fiction: he invites Veresaev, Mamin-Sibiryak, Chirikov, etc." 4. At the same time, I. Vasilevsky sent a letter to A.M. Gorky and A.V. Lunacharsky in Capri in which he invited them to take part in a new "Education", but received a strong refusal 5 . However, the new editorial board's promise to keep the journal in line with advanced traditions was broken in its first issue (1908, No. 7). Evolution Magazine-

1 The magazine was published in St. Petersburg in 1892-1909 and was a continuation of the magazine " Women's Education "(1876-1891). By the beginning of the 900s, it was transformed from a purely pedagogical one into a pedagogical and popular science, and then into a literary and socio-political magazine (see "Brief Literary Encyclopedia"). Vol. 5. Moscow, 1968, stb. 369-370). In 1906, the journal (No. 2) published chapters V - IX of V. I. Lenin's work "The Agrarian Question and the Critique of Marx" (see V. I. Lenin, PSS. Vol. 5, pp. 156-157). V. I. Lenin repeatedly mentioned some of the works published in the journal (see " Reference Volume to the 4th edition of the Works of V. I. Lenin". Part 2. Moscow, 1956, p. 267).

2 About him, see: V. I. Lenin, PSS. Vol. 37, pp. 338, 674.

3 TSPA IML under the Central Committee of the CPSU, f. 91, op. 1, ed. hr. 131, l. 1.

4 Ibid.

5 Archive of IMLI named after M. Gorky of the USSR Academy of Sciences.

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he leaned towards mysticism and lampooning the revolution. In this regard, the position of M. S. Olminsky, who for several years was a regular reviewer of the magazine "Education" and was known to readers as a talented Marxist publicist, is indicative. He had shrewdly grasped what a change of editorial staff meant, and he decided to prevent any attempt on the part of the new publisher to use his last name in order to maintain the publication's former prestige. Therefore, in mid-July 1908, he wrote to ask V. D. Bonch-Bruevich to notify the editorial board of his refusal to cooperate further in the journal. M. S. Olminsky was not yet aware of the decision of the Marxists to draw up a general letter of resignation from Obrazovanie. V. D. Bonch-Bruevich informed him about this at the end of July 1908: "The situation with the new" Education "is as follows: after the publication of No. 7, we will draw up a general letter and after signing it we will print it (July 29, 1908)." 6
After the article "A mixture of Social - Democrats, neo-Christians and pornographers" appeared in the cadet newspaper Rech (August 10, 1908), the anonymous author of which viciously ridiculed the alleged association of Marxists with religious "innovators" and decadent writers in the "Education", M. S. Olminsky wrote a sharp letter to the press on August 14. to the editorial office of this newspaper: "Dear Mr. Editor, Do not refuse to print the following about the article "A mixture of Social-Democrats, neo-Christians and pornographers" (Rech No. 190). Having learned (far from Petersburg) about the transfer of Obrazovanie to Mr. Vasilevsky, in mid-July I sent a statement to St. Petersburg addressed to a familiar person about my non - participation in the magazine, in case the new editorial board of Obrazovanie misused the names of myself and other persons of the same political outlook for advertising purposes... In the collection "Literary Disintegration" 7, as you know, writers from "Free Thoughts" 8 were treated as "literary scum". You can disagree with this definition. But we must not allow the idea that people of the worldview that was reflected in the " Literary Disintegration "were included in the staff of G. Vasilevsky, who is too close to"Free Thoughts"... As for the fact that Obrazovaniya No. 7 published articles by persons who were considered social-Democrats, this phenomenon, in my opinion, can be regarded as one of the manifestations of political apostasy and literary debauchery, which are always rich in epochs of the collapse of liberation hopes. " 9 It is characteristic that M. S. Olminsky spoke not only on his own behalf, but also as a representative of the entire Marxist trend and stopped any attempts to abuse not only his own name, but also the surnames of his associates.

A month later, the September 1908 issue of the magazine Sovremennyi Mir published a collective protest signed by V. I. Lenin, V. V. Vorovsky, M. S. Olminsky, A.V. Lunacharsky, V. D. Bonch-Bruevich, I. I. Stepanov and others, stating their refusal to cooperate in "Education". The conditions of social-democratic work of those years, the isolation of Marxist publicists from each other (V. I. Lenin was in Geneva, V. D. Bonch-Bruevich-in St. Petersburg, V. V. Borovsky - in Odessa, M. S. Olminsky - in Baku, A.V. Lunacharsky - in Capri) did not allow us to quickly issue a collective statement of non-participation in this magazine. But the Marxists corresponded on this issue, as evidenced by A.V. Lunacharsky's letter to M. S. Olminsky: "Regarding Obrazovanie, I grant you the right to take my firm from there at the same time as the names of my comrades. I join every protest and demand of the Bolshevik employees. " 10
The main reason for the refusal was that the new editorial board had changed the best traditions of the journal, "placing articles that completely contradict the direction of the old "Education" 11 . To remain further in the magazine would mean for the revolutionary social-Democrats to violate the party's instructions not to participate in bourgeois newspapers and magazines , 12 and to neglect the party point of view

6 TSPA IML under the Central Committee of the CPSU, f. 91, op. 1, ed. hr. 131, l. 24.

7 "Literary disintegration". Critical Collection, St. Petersburg, 1908 (collection of the Marxist trend).

8 A reactionary newspaper edited by I. Vasilevsky.

9 TsGALI, f. 1666, op. 1, ed. hr. 2012.

10 TSPA IML under the Central Committee of the CPSU, f. 91, op. 1, ed. hr. 157, l. 6.

11 "Modern World", 1908, N 9, p. 101.

12 The Fourth Conference of the RSDLP ("Third All-Russian Conference") adopted a special decision against the cooperation of party writers in the bourgeoisie-

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views on the role of literature in the proletarian struggle. V. V. Borovsky noted the departure of Bolshevik employees from the magazine, followed by people with progressive political beliefs, as a welcome development .13
See "The CPSU in resolutions and decisions of Congresses, conferences and plenums of the Central Committee", vol. 1. Ed. 8, pp. 239-240.

13 V. V. Borovsky. Literary and critical articles, Moscow, 1956, p. 407.

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