The earliest Marxist theorist in Russia; a famous leader in the International Workers’ Movement. He was born in a small aristocratic landlord family in Gudalovka village, Lipetsk county, in Tambov Governate. He went to Voronezh Military Academy. He joined the St. Petersburg Institute of Mining in 1874, in 1876 he joined the Narodniks. He was arrested three times during his political activities. In the early 1880, he fled abroad and began his 37-year exile life outside the Soviet Union. He remotely knew Marx and Engels in Europe. In 1882 he translated the Manifesto of the Communist Party into Russian language. Soon after he received the preface to the Russian edition of 1882 written by Marx and Engels, the Russian edition of the Manifesto of the Communist Party was printed and distributed. Studies and translations of important Marxist documents have made Plekhanov transform from a Narodnik to a Marxist. In 1883, he founded the Emancipation of the Labor Group, the first Marxist group in Russia. In 1889, as the representative of Russian socialists, Plekhanov attended the founding conference of the International Workers’ Congress (the “Second International”). After the conference, he went to London to visit Engels and was warmly received by Engels.
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