He had joined the Social Democratic movement which in those days was spreading widely in Russia.
He had been a member of the Social Democratic Federation since 1883.
He was by occupation a worker in wood, but took to writing for Social Democratic newspapers, and was from 1897 to 1902 on the staff of the Konigsberger Volkszeitung and afterwards on that of the Volksstimme at Chemnitz.
Noske, notwithstanding the genuineness of his Republican and Social Democratic opinions, enjoyed con siderable popularity in the new army and with the reactionary friends of law and order, as a man of decided character, great energy and resourcefulness in times of crisis.
The number of Social Democratic delegates in a diet of 80 members rose from 5 in 1885 to 14 in 1895.
