GORDON, ABRAHAM

GORDON, ABRAHAM (1874–1941?), socialist, active in Vilna. From a poor family, Gordon became an engraver, from which profession he derived his Russian pseudonym "Rezchik." He took an active part in the Jewish workers' circles in Vilna and was influenced by populism. In the early 1890s Gordon led the opposition against the shift in aims of the workers' circles – from spreading general education and explaining socialist ideology in the Russian language to conducting propaganda in Yiddish on economic problems and the organization of strikes. Gordon fought the influence of the Social-Democrat   intelligentsia (who later founded the bund ) on the workers' movement. Even without supporters, he continued to advocate his ideas for many years, and published a number of pamphlets. He was last reported in Vilna in 1940. The circumstances of his death are unknown. -BIBLIOGRAPHY: E. Mendelssohn, in: International Review of Social History, 10 (1965), 271–3; LNYL, 2 (1958), 116–7; N.A. Buchbinder, Di Geshikhte fun der Arbeter-Bavegung in Rusland (1931), 69–70. (Moshe Mishkinsky)