Yakutian Labour Union of Federalists

Yakut Labor Union of Federalists
Leader	Vasilii V. Nikiforov Gavriil V. Ksenofontov
Secretary	Roman Ivanovich Orosin
Founded	June 27, 1917
Dissolved	1919
Ideology	Regionalism Federalism Parliamentary Republicanism Women's Suffrage Yakut interests

The Yakut Labour Union of Federalists (Russian: Якутский трудовой союз федералистов; Yakut: Саха федералистарын үлэһит сойууһа) also known as the Union of Federalists was a Yakut political party founded by Yakut intellectuals to represent the Yakut people. The Yakut Labor Union of Federalists (YLUF) was founded on June 27, 1917, initially having 400 members. The party promoted federalism, equal rights for all, and civil liberties for all; while also advocating for local self-government primarily though zemstvos. By late 1917, it had grown to 1198 members and gained political representation in Siberian and Russian but ceased operations in 1919 after the Bolsheviks took control of the region.

History

In May 1914, several issues of the newspaper “Yakutskaya okraina” published articles by Gavriil V. Ksenofontov, which raised important issues about improving school education and teaching Yakut children their native language. In the article Ksenofontov argued that Yakut children would learn better of they were educated on their native languages instead of Russian. But that to do this they would need to create a Yakut language primer and dictionary, which would be difficult but completely achievable. The article proved to be very topical and received support from several important members of Yakut Society from the time such as Semyon Novgorodov, Vasilii Nikiforov who was an important intellectual, and Prokopiy N. Sokolnikov who was an important doctor.

Before WW1 Yakut nationalist intelligentsia began to collaborate more closely in their discussions of the problems facing Yakut social and political life, and this culminated in the creation of the "Yakut Questions" (Russian: Yakutskiye Voprosy) newspaper in July 1916 by Nikiforov. The newspaper brought together many Yakut intellectuals including Gavrilii V. Ksenofontov, he and other younger people were brought in because Nikiforov who was already 50 began to think about how the movement would live on after his death and wanted to encourage a new generation of Yakut nationalists. Ksenofontov quickly distinguished himself as the most capable of these younger members.

The creation of the YLUF was scheduled for June 1917 at the 2nd Congress of Yakuts and Russian Peasants, but most of the members of the "freedom union" who would've created the party were unavailable due to being busy with agricultural work and as such a constituent congress was gathered on June 27, 1917 with the event's most important outcome being the creation of the Yakut Labor Union of Federalists" party. At the parties creation it had 400 members including important members of Yakut politics and intelligentsia. The party was led by a 9 man central committee whose exact membership was not survived. But it is known that in practice the primarily ran by Vasilii V. Nikiforov and Gavriil V. Ksenofontov, who while not holding any official position within the party they were headed or were part of other important Yakut organization which gave them de facto control of the party. other important figures included Alexei Dmitrievich Shirokih who was active party member and skilled organizer who was elected Chairman of the Central Committee; and Roman Ivanovich Orosin, an active figure in Yakut Nationalist politics who was elected Secretary of the Central Committee. The party quickly grew and by November 1917 it had 1198 members and 19 committees.

In their program, the federalists support the equal rights of all Russian citizens regardless of religion, gender, class, religious or other differences. They called for legal inviolability of the person and home, freedom of religion, freedom of speech, freedom of the press, freedom of assembly, and the right to strike. They also wanted protection and support for the previously oppressed peoples of Russia.

The party allocated much of its resources and effort to the development of local government by utilizing the zemstvo's. Zemstvo's first began to form in Yakutia in the end of 1917 and Vasily Vasilyevich Nikiforov was a head of the Yakut regional zemstvo created in January 1918.

The party received 1541 votes (43.02%) in the Yakutsk Electoral District in the 1917 elections and Ksenofontov was elected to 1 of the districts 2 seats but due to instability he was unable to actually attend the Russian Constituent Assembly. Ksenofontov also served as the YLUF's representative in the Siberian Regional Duma and as the representative in the Provisional Siberian Government for the party.

The party ceased to operate in 1919 after the Bolsheviks seized power in the region.