had written the RSDRP's first programme), and the philosophers N.A. Berdyaev and S.L. Frank, with a number of former Narodniks, such as A.V. Peshekhonov, N.F. Annensky and V.A. Myakotin, and with national liberals like P.N. Miliukov who had no socialist background at all. For some time, the ex-Marxists in the KDP maintained contact with the German Social-Democrats and insisted that they were still socialists, but that Russia was not ripe for socialism and must first have a capitalist democracy. Kuskova was one of the founders and editors of the journal Nasha Zhizn (Our Life), which became the official organ of the KDP. She became associated with Father Gapon, an Orthodox priest and social reformer who led the unarmed demonstration on Bloody Sunday, January 9, 1905 (OS), that sparked the Revolution of 1905. Because of her association with Gapon, Kuskova was briefly arrested. Upon her release, she helped organise the Union of Unions, one of the principal foci of liberal opposition to the régime. She was briefly a member of the Central Committee of the KDP, but soon resigned and left the KDP, because she disagreed with the conservative direction of its leader, Miliukov. In the 1910s Kuskova devoted herself to journalism, founding, editing and contributing to several journals, such as Tovarich (Comrade) and Bez Zaglaviia (Without Title), which was closed down by the authorities. She contributed to Russkie Vedomosti (The Russian Gazette) as well. She advocated a reformist socialism, to the left of the KDP but incompatible with the Marxist orthodoxy of the RSDRP. Although she never attempted to rejoin the RSDRP, she maintained friendly relations with some of the Mensheviks, particularly the so-called 'Liquidators' who, in the 1910s, wanted to dissolve the illegal underground apparatus of the RSDRP and concentrate on legal work in trade unions and co-operatives. (Unions had been legalised in 1906.) Before the war Kuskova was involved in the co-operative movement, in Freemasonry and in the struggle for women's rights. She was an early advocate of feminism in Russia. She was an active member of the irregular freemasonic lodge, the Grand Orient of Russia’s Peoples. In 1914, Kuskova adopted a Defencist position. In 1917 she welcomed the February Revolution and supported the Provisional Government, which her husband at joined as Minister of Trade and Energy and then as Minister of Food. Kuskova launched the democratic socialist journal Vlasti Naroda (The People's Power), which united Defencist socialists