Perl Feliks

Feliks Perl, pseud. Res, Juliusz, Latarnik, Rewolucjonista and others - (26/04/1871 Warsaw- 15/04/1927 Warsaw) - social activist.

Perl was born into an assimilated, Jewish family in Warsaw. His father Dawid fought in the September Uprising. Feliks attended high school, after which he began legal studies. In the years (1883-1891), he was active in the II Proletariat. He then lived, in exile, in Berlin and later in Paris, where he co-founded the Foreign Union of Polish Socialists. In 1892, he participated in the organising of the Polish Socialist Party congress. He was the spokesman for the combing of the Marxist social concept with the independence program. In 1902, he was elected to the Central Workers Committee of the PPS. Following two years’ imprisonment (1904-1905), he joined the PPS Revolutionary Faction and then, in the 1912-1914. He joined the PPS-Opposition. From 1914, he was in the governing authority of the PPS. In 1919, he was elected to the Polish parliament (Sejm). From 1924, he chaired its Central Executive Commission. He co-edited the party organ “Robotnik” (“The Worker”), as well as, earlier, “Placówka” and “Walka”.

Perl was one of the sharpest critics of communism. In 1919, he was one of those who pushed for the cessation of cooperation with the Communists in councils of workers’ delegates. In 1920, he was the co-author of the PPS program. He favoured independent socialism and parliamentary democracy. He opposed the expansion to the east, in favour of free determination of their own fate by Ukrainians, Belarusians and Lithuanians, although he did support a federation program. Following the 1926 May Coup, he was in opposition to Józef Piłsudski. In 1910, he published Dzieje ruchu socjalistycznego w zaborze rosyjskim (A History of the Socialist Movement in the Russian Partition). He was buried in the Jewish Cemetery in Warsaw.