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In Hebrew. 368 pages : frontispiece (portrait) plates (part double) ; 21 x 13.5 cm. Ex library with its withdrawal stamp. ¿Rutenberg, some damage to two plates, see image here. Pinhas Rutenberg (5 February 1879 Romny, north of Poltava, Russian Empire, now in the Ukraine - 3 January 1942 (aged 62) Jerusalem, Mandatory Palestine) was a Russian Jewish engineer, businessman, and political activist. He played an active role in the Russian revolutions of 1905 and 1917 and during World War I was among the founders of the Jewish Legion and of the American Jewish Congress. Later he obtained a concession for production and distribution of electric power and founded the Palestine Electric Company, currently the Israel Electric Corporation. A vocal and committed Jewish Nationalist, Rutenberg also participated in establishing the Haganah, the main Jewish militia in pre-war Palestine, and founded Palestine Airways. He subsequently served as President of the Jewish National Council. He studied at the Technology Institute in Saint Petersburg and joined the Socialist-Revolutionary Party (also known as the S.R. or Eser party). He worked as a workshop manager at the Putilov plant, the largest Petersburg industry. The plant was a center of the Assembly of Russian Factory and Plant Workers, founded in 1903 by a popular working class leader, Father George Gapon, who collaborated with the Police Department (the Okhrana), which believed it could control the workers' movement. Rutenberg became Gapon¿s friend, which made him a noticeable figure in the S.R. party. On Sunday 9 January 1905 (Old Style date), which became known as ¿Bloody Sunday¿ Gapon organized a "peaceful workers¿ procession" to the Winter Palace in order to present a petition to the Tzar. Rutenberg participated with his party's approval. The army fired at the crowd, killing hundreds. Amid the panic, Rutenberg retained self-control and saved Gapon¿s life, taking him away from gun fire. Bloody Sunday sparked the first Russian Revolution of 1905. Gapon and Rutenberg fled abroad, and were welcomed in Europe both by prominent Russian emigrants Georgy Plekhanov, Vladimir Lenin, and French socialist leaders Jean Jaurès and Georges Clemenceau. Before the end of 1905, Rutenberg returned to Russia, and Gapon followed him. When Gapon then revealed to Rutenberg his police connection, and tried to recruit him, too, reasoning that double loyalty is helpful to the workers¿ cause, Rutenberg reported this to his party leaders, Yevno Azef and Boris Savinkov. Azef demanded that the traitor be put to death. Ironically, Azef was himself an agent provocateur, exposed by Vladimir Burtsev in 1908. On 26 March 1906 Gapon arrived to meet Rutenberg in a rented cottage out of St. Petersburg, and after a month he was found there hanged. Rutenberg asserted later that Gapon was condemned by a comrades¿ court and that three S.R. party combatants overheard their conversation from the next room. After Gapon had repeated his collaboration proposal, Rutenberg called the comrades into the room and he left. When he returned, Gapon was dead. However, the S.R. party leadership refused to assume responsibility, announcing that the execution was undertaken by Rutenberg individually and the cause was a personal one, denying ever having sent their comrades to the meeting on 26 March. Rutenberg was then condemned and expelled from the party. Forced to emigrate, Rutenberg settled in Italy. Away from politics, he concentrated on hydraulic engineering. Pondering on specific Jewish problems, he became convinced that the solution was to establish a national home for the Jewish people. After World War I broke out, the Zionist movement mainly supported the Entente Powers. Rutenberg sought to create a Jewish armed force to fight for the Land of Israel. He visited European capitals, met prominent politicians and Zionist leaders, and finally joined the efforts of Jabotinsky and Trumpeldor to set up the Jewish Legion. In May 1915. . . Seller Inventory # 011310
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