SRs-members of the Russian Party of Socialist Revolutionaries (written: “s = r-s”, read: “Socialist-Revolutionaries”). The party was formed by the unification of populist groups as the left wing of democracy in late 1901 and early 1902.
In the second half of the 1890s, small, predominantly intellectual populist groups and circles existed in St. Petersburg, Penza, Poltava, Voronezh, Kharkov, and Odessa. Some of them united in 1900 in the Southern Party of Socialist-Revolutionaries, the other in 1901 - in the Union of Socialist-Revolutionaries. The organizers were former populists (M.R. Gots, O.S. Minor and others) and extremist-minded students (N.D. Avksentiev, V.M. Zenzinov, B.V. Savinkov, I.P. Kalyaev, E .S. Sozonov and others). At the end of 1901, the Southern Party of Socialist-Revolutionaries and the Union of Socialist-Revolutionaries merged, and in January 1902 the Revolutionary Russia newspaper announced the creation of the party. The founding congress of the party, which approved its program and charter, took place, however, only three years later and took place on December 29, 1905 - January 4, 1906 in Imatra (Finland).
Simultaneously with the establishment of the party itself, its Combat Organization (BO) was created. Its leaders - G.A. Gershuni, E.F. Azef - put forward individual terror against top government officials as the main goal of their activities. His victims in 1902–1905 were the ministers of internal affairs (D.S. Sipyagin, V.K. Pleve), governors (I.M. Obolensky, N.M. Kachura), and also led. book. Sergei Alexandrovich, who was killed by the famous Socialist-Revolutionary I. Kalyaev. During the two and a half years of the first Russian revolution, the Social Revolutionaries committed about 200 terrorist acts ().
In general, party members were supporters of democratic socialism, which they saw as a society of economic and political democracy. Their main requirements were reflected in the Party Program drawn up by V.M. Chernov and adopted at the First Constituent Congress of the Party in late December 1905 - early January 1906.
As defenders of the interests of the peasantry and followers of the populists, the Social Revolutionaries demanded the "socialization of the land" (transferring it to the possession of communities and establishing equal labor land use), denied social stratification, and did not share the idea of establishing the dictatorship of the proletariat, which was actively promoted at that time by many Marxists. The program of "socialization of the land" was supposed to provide a peaceful, evolutionary path of transition to socialism.
The Program of the Socialist-Revolutionary Party contained demands for the introduction of democratic rights and freedoms in Russia - the convening of a Constituent Assembly, the establishment of a republic with autonomy for regions and communities on a federal basis, the introduction of universal suffrage and democratic freedoms (speech, press, conscience, meetings, unions, separation of the church from the state, universal free education, the destruction of the standing army, the introduction of an 8-hour working day, social insurance at the expense of the state and the owners of enterprises, the organization of trade unions.
Considering political freedom and democracy as the main prerequisites for socialism in Russia, they recognized the importance of mass movements in achieving them. But in matters of tactics, the Social Revolutionaries stipulated that the struggle for the implementation of the program would be carried out “in forms corresponding to the specific conditions of Russian reality,” which involved the use of the entire arsenal of means of struggle, including individual terror.
The leadership of the Socialist Revolutionary Party was entrusted to the Central Committee (CC). Under the Central Committee there were special commissions: peasant, workers. military, literary, etc. Special rights in the structure of the organization were vested in the Council of members of the Central Committee, representatives of the Moscow and St. Petersburg committees and regions (the first meeting of the Council was held in May 1906, the last, the tenth in August 1921). Structural parts of the party were also the Peasants' Union (since 1902), the Union of People's Teachers (since 1903), and separate workers' unions (since 1903). Members of the Socialist-Revolutionary Party took part in the Paris Conference of Opposition and Revolutionary Parties (autumn 1904) and the Geneva Conference of Revolutionary Parties (in April 1905).
By the beginning of the revolution of 1905–1907, over 40 Socialist-Revolutionary committees and groups were operating in Russia, uniting about 2.5 thousand people, mostly intellectuals; more than a quarter of the staff were workers and peasants. Members of the BO party were engaged in the delivery of weapons to Russia, created dynamite workshops, and organized combat squads. The publication of the Manifesto on October 17, 1905, the leadership of the party was inclined to consider the beginning of the constitutional order, so it was decided to dissolve the BO of the party as not corresponding to the constitutional regime. Together with other leftist parties, the Socialist-Revolutionaries co-organized the Labor Group consisting of deputies of the First State Duma (1906), which actively participated in the development of projects related to land use. In the Second State Duma, the Socialist-Revolutionaries were represented by 37 deputies, who were especially active in the debate on the agrarian question. At that time, the left wing stood out from the party (creating the "Union of Socialist Revolutionary Maximalists") and the right wing ("popular socialists" or "popular people"). At the same time, the size of the party increased in 1907 to 50-60 thousand people; and the number of workers and peasants in it reached 90%.
However, the lack of ideological unity became one of the main factors explaining the organizational weakness of the Socialist-Revolutionary Party in the context of the political reaction of 1907–1910. A number of prominent figures, and above all B.V. Savinkov, tried to overcome the tactical and organizational crisis that arose in the party after the exposure of the provocative activities of E.F. Azef in late 1908 - early 1909. The crisis of the party was aggravated by the Stolypin agrarian reform, which strengthened the feeling of ownership in the peasants and undermined the foundations of the Socialist-Revolutionary agrarian socialism. In a situation of crisis in the country and in the party, many of its leaders, having become disillusioned with the idea of preparing terrorist attacks, concentrated almost entirely on literary activity. Its fruits were published by legal Social Revolutionary newspapers - "Son of the Fatherland", "People's Messenger", "Working People".
After the victory of the February Revolution of 1917, the Socialist-Revolutionary Party became completely legal, influential, mass, and one of the ruling parties in the country. In terms of growth rates, the Social Revolutionaries were ahead of other political parties: by the summer of 1917 there were about 1 million of them, united in 436 organizations in 62 provinces, in the fleets and on the fronts of the active army. Entire villages, regiments and factories joined the Socialist-Revolutionary Party that year. These were peasants, soldiers, workers, intellectuals, petty officials and officers, students who had little idea of the theoretical principles of the party, its goals and objectives. The range of views was huge - from the Bolshevik-anarchist to the Menshevik-Enes. Some hoped to gain personal benefit from membership in the most influential party and entered for selfish reasons (they were later called the "March Social Revolutionaries", since they announced their membership after the tsar's abdication in March 1917).
The internal history of the Socialist-Revolutionary Party in 1917 is characterized by the folding of three currents in it - right, center and left.
The right SRs (E. Breshko-Breshkovskaya, A. Kerensky, B. Savinkov) believed that the issue of socialist reorganization was not on the agenda and therefore considered it necessary to focus on the issues of democratization of the political system and forms of ownership. The rightists were supporters of coalition governments, "defencism" in foreign policy. Right SRs and Popular Socialists (since 1917 - Labor People's Socialist Party) were represented even in the Provisional Government, in particular, A.F. Kerensky was first Minister of Justice (March-April 1917), then Minister of War and Marine (in the 1st and 2nd coalition governments), and from September 1917 - head of the 3rd coalition government. Other right SRs also participated in the coalition compositions of the Provisional Government: N.D. Avksentiev (Minister of Internal Affairs in the 2nd composition), B.V. Savinkov (manager of the military and naval ministry in the 1st and 2nd composition) .
The left SRs who did not agree with them (M. Spiridonova, B. Kamkov and others, who published their articles in the newspapers "Delo Naroda", "Land and Freedom", "Banner of Labor") considered the current situation possible for a "breakthrough to socialism", and therefore advocated the immediate transfer of all land to the peasants. They considered the world revolution capable of ending the war, and therefore some of them called (like the Bolsheviks) not to trust the Provisional Government, to go to the end, until the establishment of democracy.
However, the general course of the party was determined by the centrists (V. Chernov and S. L. Maslov).
From February to July-August 1917, the Social Revolutionaries actively worked in the Soviets of Workers', Soldiers' and Sailors' Deputies, considering them "necessary to continue the coup and consolidate fundamental freedoms and democratic principles", in order to "push" the Provisional Government along the path of reforms, and at the Constituent Assembly - to ensure the implementation of its decisions. If the Right SRs refused to support the Bolshevik slogan "All power to the Soviets!" and considered the coalition government a necessary condition and means for overcoming the devastation and chaos in the economy, winning the war and bringing the country to the Constituent Assembly, then the leftists saw the salvation of Russia in a breakthrough to socialism through the creation of a "homogeneous socialist government" based on a bloc of labor and socialist parties . During the summer of 1917 they actively participated in the work of land committees and local soviets in various Russian provinces.
The October Revolution of 1917 was carried out with the active assistance of the Left SRs. Land Decree, adopted by the Bolsheviks at the II Congress of Soviets on October 26, 1917, legalized what was done by the Soviets and land committees: the seizure of land from landowners, the royal house and wealthy peasants. His text included Order about the earth, formulated by the Left SRs on the basis of 242 local orders (“Private ownership of land is abolished forever. All lands are transferred to the disposal of local councils”). Thanks to a coalition with the Left SRs, the Bolsheviks were able to quickly establish a new power in the countryside: the peasants believed that the Bolsheviks were the very “maximalists” who approved of their “black redistribution” of land.
The right SRs, on the contrary, did not accept the October events, regarding them as "a crime against the motherland and the revolution." From their ruling party, after the Bolsheviks seized power, it again became opposition. While the left wing of the Socialist-Revolutionaries (about 62 thousand people) was transformed into the "Party of the Left Socialist-Revolutionaries (Internationalists)" and delegated several of its representatives to the All-Russian Central Executive Committee, the right wing did not lose hope of overthrowing the power of the Bolsheviks. In the late autumn of 1917, they organized a rebellion of junkers in Petrograd, tried to recall their deputies from the Soviets, and opposed the conclusion of peace between Russia and Germany.
The last congress of the Socialist-Revolutionary Party in history worked from November 26 to December 5, 1917. Its leadership refused to recognize "the Bolshevik socialist revolution and the Soviet government as not recognized by the country."
During the elections to the Constituent Assembly, the Socialist-Revolutionaries received 58% of the votes, due to voters from the agrarian provinces. On the eve of its convocation, the Right Socialist-Revolutionaries planned to "seize the entire Bolshevik head" (meaning the murder of V.I. Lenin and L.D. Trotsky), but they were afraid that such actions could lead to "a reverse wave of terror against the intelligentsia." On January 5, 1918, the Constituent Assembly began its work. The head of the Socialist-Revolutionary Party, V.M. Chernov, was elected its chairman (244 votes against 151). The Bolshevik Ya.M. Sverdlov, who came to the meeting, proposed to approve the drafted by V.I. Lenin Declaration of the Rights of the Workers and the Exploited People, but only 146 deputies voted for this proposal. In protest, the Bolsheviks left the meeting, and on the morning of January 6, when V.M. Chernov read Draft Basic Land Law- forced to stop reading and leave the room.
After the dissolution of the Constituent Assembly, the Social Revolutionaries decided to abandon the conspiratorial tactics and wage an open struggle against Bolshevism, consistently winning back the masses, taking part in the activities of any legal organizations - Soviets, All-Russian Congresses of Land Committees, congresses of women workers, etc. After the conclusion of the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk in March 1918, one of the first places in the propaganda of the Social Revolutionaries was taken by the idea of restoring the integrity and independence of Russia. True, the Left Socialist-Revolutionaries continued in the spring of 1918 to look for compromise ways in relations with the Bolsheviks, until the Bolsheviks overflowed their patience with the creation of committees and the seizure of bread from the peasants. This resulted in a rebellion on July 6, 1918 - an attempt to provoke a military conflict with Germany in order to break the shameful Brest peace and at the same time stop the deployment of the "socialist revolution in the countryside", as the Bolsheviks called it (the introduction of a surplus and the forcible seizure of grain "surpluses" from the peasants). The rebellion was suppressed, the Left Socialist-Revolutionary Party split into "populist communists" (lasted until November 1918) and "revolutionary communists" (lasted until 1920, when they decided to merge with the RCP (b)). Separate groups of Left Socialist-Revolutionaries did not join either of the newly formed parties and continued to fight the Bolsheviks, demanding the abolition of emergency commissions, revolutionary committees, committees, food detachments, and food requisitions.
At this time, the right SRs, having proposed back in May 1918 to start an armed struggle against the Soviet government with the aim of "hoisting the banner of the Constituent Assembly" in the Volga region and the Urals, managed to create (not without the help of the rebellious Czechoslovak prisoners of war) by June 1918 in Samara a Committee of members of the Constituent Assembly (Komuch) headed by V.K. Volsky. These actions were regarded by the Bolsheviks as counter-revolutionary, and on June 14, 1918, they expelled the Right Social Revolutionaries from the All-Russian Central Executive Committee.
Since that time, the right SRs have embarked on the path of creating numerous conspiracies and terrorist acts, participated in military mutinies in Yaroslavl, Murom, Rybinsk, in assassination attempts: on June 20 - on the member of the Presidium of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee V.M. Volodarsky, on August 30 on the chairman of the Petrograd Extraordinary Commission ( Cheka) M.S. Uritsky in Petrograd and on the same day - on V.I. Lenin in Moscow.
The Socialist-Revolutionary Siberian Regional Duma in Tomsk declared Siberia an autonomous region, creating the Provisional Siberian Government with its center in Vladivostok and with a branch (the West Siberian Commissariat) in Omsk. The latter - with the approval of the Siberian Regional Duma - in June 1918 transferred government functions to the coalition Siberian government headed by the former cadet P.A. Vologodsky.
In September 1918 in Ufa, at a meeting of anti-Bolshevik regional governments and groups, the Right Social Revolutionaries formed a coalition (with the Cadets) Ufa directory - the Provisional All-Russian Government. Of its 179 members, 100 were Social Revolutionaries, many famous figures of past years (N.D. Avksentiev, V.M. Zenzinov) entered the leadership of the directory. In October 1918, Komuch ceded power to the Directory, under which the Congress of members of the Constituent Assembly, which did not have real administrative resources, was created. In those same years, the Government of Autonomous Siberia acted in the Far East, and the Supreme Administration of the Northern Region acted in Arkhangelsk. All of them, who had right SRs in their composition, actively canceled Soviet decrees, especially those relating to land, liquidated Soviet institutions and considered themselves a “third force” in relation to the Bolsheviks and the White Movement.
The monarchical forces, led by Admiral A.V. Kolchak, were suspicious of their activities. November 18, 1918 they overthrew the Directory and formed the Siberian government. The top of the Social Revolutionary groups, which was part of the Directory - N.D. Avksentiev, V.M. Zenzinov, A.A. Argunov - was arrested and expelled by A.V. Kolchak from Russia. All of them reached Paris, laying the foundation there for the last wave of Socialist-Revolutionary emigration.
The scattered Socialist-Revolutionary groups that remained out of work tried to compromise with the Bolsheviks, admitting their mistakes. The Soviet government temporarily used them (not to the right of the centrists) for their own tactical purposes. In February 1919, it even legalized the Socialist-Revolutionary Party with its center in Moscow, but a month later the persecution of the Socialist-Revolutionaries was resumed and arrests began. Meanwhile, the Social Revolutionary Plenum of the Central Committee tried in April 1919 to restore the party. He recognized the participation of the Socialist-Revolutionaries in the Ufa directory and in regional governments as a mistake, expressed a negative attitude towards foreign intervention in Russia. However, the majority of those present believed that the Bolsheviks "rejected the basic principles of socialism - freedom and democracy, replaced them with the dictatorship of the minority over the majority, and thus deleted themselves from the ranks of socialism."
Not everyone agreed with these conclusions. The deepening split in the party took place along the lines of recognizing the power of the Soviets or fighting against it. Thus, the Ufa organization of the Socialist-Revolutionary Party, in an appeal published in August 1919, called for recognition of the Bolshevik government and uniting with it. The "People" group, led by the former chairman of the Samara Komuch V.K. Volsky, called on the "labor masses" to support the Red Army in the fight against Denikin. Supporters of V.K. Volsky in October 1919 declared their disagreement with the line of the Central Committee of their party and the creation of the group "Minority of the Socialist-Revolutionary Party".
In 1920–1921, during the war with Poland and the offensive of Gen. P.N. Wrangel, the Central Committee of the Socialist-Revolutionary Party called, without stopping the fight against the Bolsheviks, to give all their strength to the defense of the motherland. He rejected participation in the party mobilization announced by the Revolutionary Military Council, but condemned the sabotage of volunteer detachments that carried out raids on Soviet territory during the war with Poland, in which convinced right-wing socialist-revolutionaries and, above all, B.V. Savinkov participated.
After the end of the Civil War, the Socialist-Revolutionary Party found itself in an illegal position; its numbers decreased sharply, most of the organizations collapsed, many members of the Central Committee were in prison. In June 1920, the Central Organizational Bureau of the Central Committee was created, uniting members of the Central Committee and other influential members of the party who had survived the arrests. In August 1921, the 10th Party Council, the last in the history of the Socialist-Revolutionary Party, took place in Samara. By this time, most of the prominent figures of the party, including one of its founders, V.M. Chernov, had long been in exile. Those who remained in Russia tried to organize a non-partisan Union of the working peasantry, declared their support for the rebellious Kronstadt (where the slogan "For Soviets without Communists" was raised).
Under the conditions of the country's post-war development, the Socialist-Revolutionary alternative to this development, which provided for the democratization of not only the economic, but also the political life of the country, could become attractive to the masses. Therefore, the Bolsheviks hastened to discredit the policy and ideas of the Socialist-Revolutionaries. With great haste, “cases” began to be fabricated against former allies and like-minded people who did not have time to go abroad. On the basis of absolutely fictitious facts, the Social Revolutionaries were accused of preparing a “general uprising” in the country, sabotage, destruction of grain reserves and other criminal actions, they were called (following V.I. Lenin) “the vanguard of reaction”. In August 1922, the trial of the Supreme Tribunal of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee took place in Moscow over 34 representatives of the Socialist-Revolutionary Party: 12 of them (including old party leaders - A.R. Gotz and others) were sentenced to death, the rest received prison terms from 2 to 10 years . With the arrest in 1925 of the last members of the Central Bank of the Socialist-Revolutionary Party, it practically ceased to exist in Russia.
In Revel, Paris, Berlin, and Prague, the Socialist-Revolutionary emigration headed by the Party's Foreign Delegation continued to operate. In 1926 it split, as a result of which groups arose: V. M. Chernov (who created the League of the New East in 1927), A. F. Kerensky, V. M. Zenzinov and others. The activities of these groups by the early 1930s almost froze. Some revival was brought only by discussions about events in their homeland: some of those who left completely rejected collective farms, others saw in them similarities with communal self-government.
During the Second World War, part of the emigrant Socialist-Revolutionaries advocated unconditional support for the Soviet Union. Some leaders of the Socialist-Revolutionary Party participated in the French resistance movement, died in fascist concentration camps. Others - for example, S.N. Nikolaev, S.P. Postnikov - after the liberation of Prague agreed to return to their homeland, but, having received “terms”, they were forced to serve their sentence until 1956.
During the war years, the Parisian and Prague groups of the Socialist-Revolutionary Party ceased to exist. A number of leaders moved from France to New York (N.D. Avksentiev, V.M. Zenzinov, V.M. Chernov and others). A new center of Socialist-Revolutionary emigration was formed there. In March 1952, an appeal of 14 Russian socialists appeared: three Party Socialist-Revolutionaries (Chernov, Zenzinov, M.V. Vishnyak), eight Mensheviks and three non-party socialists. It said that history had removed from the order of the day all the controversial issues that divided the socialists and expressed the hope that in the future "post-Bolshevik Russia" there should be one "broad, tolerant, humanitarian and freedom-loving socialist party."
Irina Pushkareva
The Party of Social Revolutionaries (AKP) is a political force that unites all the previously disparate forces of the opposition, who sought to overthrow the government. Today there is a myth that the AKP are terrorists, radicals who have chosen blood and murder as a method of struggle. This delusion was formed because many representatives of populism entered into a new force, and they actually chose radical methods of political struggle. However, the AKP did not consist entirely of ardent nationalists and terrorists; its structure also included moderate-minded members. Many of them even held prominent political posts, were well-known and respected people. However, there was still a "Combat Organization" in the party. It was she who was engaged in terror and murder. Its goal is to sow fear and panic in society. They partially succeeded: there were cases when politicians refused the posts of governors, because they were afraid of being killed. But not all Social Revolutionary leaders held such views. Many of them wanted to fight for power in a legitimate constitutional way. It is the leaders of the Social Revolutionaries who will become the main characters of our article. But first, let's talk about when the party officially appeared and who was a member of it.
The emergence of the AKP in the political arena
The name "social revolutionaries" was adopted by representatives of revolutionary populism. In this game, they saw the continuation of their struggle. They formed the backbone of the party's first combat organization.Already in the mid-90s. In the 19th century, Social Revolutionary organizations began to form: in 1894, the first Saratov Union of Russian Social Revolutionaries appeared. By the end of the 19th century, similar organizations had sprung up in almost all major cities. These are Odessa, Minsk, Petersburg, Tambov, Kharkov, Poltava, Moscow. The first leader of the party was A. Argunov.
"Combat Organization"
The "combat organization" of the Social Revolutionaries was a terrorist organization. It is by it that the entire party is judged as "bloody". In fact, such a formation existed, but it was autonomous from the Central Committee, often not subordinate to it. For the sake of fairness, let's say that many party leaders also did not share such methods of waging a struggle: there were so-called Left and Right Socialist-Revolutionaries.The idea of terror was not new in Russian history: the 19th century was accompanied by mass murders of prominent political figures. Then the “populists” were engaged in this, which by the beginning of the 20th century had joined the AKP. In 1902, the "Combat Organization" for the first time showed itself as an independent organization - the Minister of the Interior, D.S. Sipyagin, was killed. A series of murders of other prominent political figures, governors, and others soon followed. The leaders of the Social Revolutionaries could not influence their bloody offspring, which put forward the slogan: "Terror as the path to a brighter future." It is noteworthy, but one of the main leaders of the "Combat Organization" was the double agent Azef. At the same time, he organized terrorist acts, chose the next victims, and on the other hand, he was a secret agent of the Okhrana, “leaked” prominent performers to the special services, weaved intrigues in the party, and did not allow the death of the emperor himself.
Leaders of the Fighting Organization
The leaders of the "Combat Organization" (BO) were Azef - a double agent, as well as Boris Savinkov, who left memoirs about this organization. It was from his notes that historians studied all the subtleties of BO. It did not have a rigid party hierarchy, as, for example, in the Central Committee of the AKP. According to B. Savinkov, there was an atmosphere of a team, a family. Harmony reigned in it, respect for each other. Azef himself was well aware that authoritarian methods alone could not keep the BOs in subjection, he allowed the activists to determine their own inner life. Its other active figures - Boris Savinkov, I. Schweitzer, E. Sozonov - did everything to make the organization a single family. In 1904, another finance minister, V. K. Plehve, was assassinated. After that, the Charter of the BO was adopted, but it was never implemented. According to the memoirs of B. Savinkov, it was just a piece of paper that had no legal force, no one paid any attention to it. In January 1906, the "Combat Organization" was finally liquidated at the party congress due to the refusal of its leaders to continue terror, and Azef himself became a supporter of political legal struggle. In the future, of course, there were attempts to revive her with the aim of killing the emperor himself, but Azef all the time leveled them up to his exposure and flight. Driving political force of the AKP
The Socialist-Revolutionaries in the impending revolution focused on the peasantry. This is understandable: it was the agrarians who made up the majority of the inhabitants of Russia, it was they who endured centuries of oppression. Viktor Chernov thought so too. By the way, before the first Russian revolution of 1905, serfdom was actually preserved in Russia in a modified format. Only the reforms of P. A. Stolypin freed the most industrious forces from the hated community, thereby creating a powerful impetus for socio-economic development. The SRs of 1905 were skeptical about the revolution. They did not consider the First Revolution of 1905 to be either socialist or bourgeois. The transition to socialism was supposed to be peaceful, gradual in our country, and the bourgeois revolution, in their opinion, was not needed at all, because in Russia the majority of the inhabitants of the empire were peasants, not workers.
The Social Revolutionaries proclaimed the phrase "Land and Freedom" as their political slogan.
Official appearance
The process of forming an official political party was a long one. The reason was that the Social Revolutionary leaders had different views both on the ultimate goal of the party and on the use of methods to achieve their goals. In addition, two independent forces actually existed in the country: the Southern Party of Socialist-Revolutionaries and the Union of Socialist-Revolutionaries. They merged into a single structure. The new leader of the Socialist-Revolutionary Party at the beginning of the 20th century managed to gather all the prominent figures together. The founding congress was held from December 29, 1905 to January 4, 1906 in Finland. Then it was not an independent country, but an autonomy within the Russian Empire. Unlike the future Bolsheviks, who created their RSDLP party abroad, the Social Revolutionaries were formed inside Russia. Viktor Chernov became the leader of the united party.In Finland, the AKP approved its program, its provisional charter, and summed up the results of its movement. The Manifesto of October 17, 1905 contributed to the formalization of the party. He officially proclaimed the State Duma, which was formed through elections. The Socialist-Revolutionary leaders did not want to stand aside - they also began the official legal struggle. Extensive propaganda work is being carried out, official printed publications are being issued, and new members are actively recruited. By 1907, the Combat Organization was disbanded. After that, the leaders of the Social Revolutionaries do not control their former militants and terrorists, their activities become decentralized, their numbers grow. But with the dissolution of the military wing, on the contrary, an increase in terrorist acts occurs - there are a total of 223 of them. The loudest of them is the explosion of the carriage of the Moscow mayor Kalyaev.
Disagreements
Since 1905, disagreements began between political groups and forces in the AKP. The so-called Left Socialist-Revolutionaries and Centrists appear. The term "Right Socialist-Revolutionaries" was not found in the party itself. This label was later invented by the Bolsheviks. In the party itself, there was a division not into "left" and "right", but into maximalists and minimalists, by analogy with the Bolsheviks and Mensheviks. The Left SRs are the maximalists. In 1906 they broke away from the main forces. Maximalists insisted on the continuation of agrarian terror, that is, the overthrow of power by revolutionary methods. The Minimalists insisted on fighting in legal, democratic ways. Interestingly, the RSDLP party divided into Mensheviks and Bolsheviks in almost the same way. Maria Spiridonova became the leader of the Left SRs. It is noteworthy that they subsequently merged with the Bolsheviks, while the Minimalists united with other forces, and the leader V. Chernov himself was a member of the Provisional Government.female leader
The Social Revolutionaries inherited the traditions of the populists, whose prominent figures for some time were women. At one time, after the arrest of the main leaders of the Narodnaya Volya, only one member of the executive committee remained at large - Vera Figner, who led the organization for almost two years. The murder of Alexander II is also associated with the name of another woman from the People's Will - Sophia Perovskaya. Therefore, no one was against it when Maria Spiridonova became the head of the Left Socialist-Revolutionaries. Next - a little about the activities of Mary.The popularity of Spiridonova
Maria Spiridonova is a symbol of the First Russian Revolution; many prominent figures, poets, and writers worked on her sacred image. Maria did nothing supernatural compared to the activities of other terrorists who carried out the so-called agrarian terror. In January 1906, she made an attempt on the life of Gavriil Luzhenovsky, an adviser to the governor. He "offended" before the Russian revolutionaries during 1905. Luzhenovsky brutally suppressed any revolutionary actions in his province, was the leader of the Tambov Black Hundreds, a nationalist party that defended traditional monarchist values. The assassination attempt for Maria Spiridonova ended unsuccessfully: she was brutally beaten by Cossacks and policemen. Perhaps she was even raped, but this information is unofficial. Particularly zealous offenders of Maria - the policeman Zhdanov and the Cossack officer Avramov - were overtaken by reprisals in the future. Spiridonova herself became a "great martyr" who suffered for the ideals of the Russian revolution. The public response to her case spread all over the pages of the foreign press, which already in those years liked to talk about human rights in countries not controlled by them. Journalist Vladimir Popov made a name for himself on this story. He conducted an investigation for the liberal newspaper Rus. Maria's case was a real PR action: her every gesture, every word spoken in court was described in the newspapers, letters to relatives and friends from prison were published. One of the most prominent lawyers of that time stood up for her defense: a member of the Central Committee of the Cadets, Nikolai Teslenko, who headed the Union of Lawyers of Russia. Spiridonova's photograph was distributed throughout the empire - this was one of the most popular photographs of that time. There is evidence that Tambov peasants prayed for her in a special chapel built in the name of Mary of Egypt. All articles about Maria were republished, each student considered it an honor to have her card in his pocket, along with a student ID. The system of power could not withstand the public outcry: Mary was abolished the death penalty, changing the punishment to life imprisonment. In 1917, Spiridonova will join the Bolsheviks.
Other Left SR leaders
Speaking about the leaders of the Socialist-Revolutionaries, it is necessary to mention several other prominent figures of this party. The first is Boris Kamkov (real name Katz).
One of the founders of the AKP party. Born in 1885 in Bessarabia. The son of a Zemstvo Jewish doctor, participated in the revolutionary movement in Chisinau, Odessa, for which he was arrested as a member of the BO. In 1907 he fled abroad, where he carried out all his active work. During the First World War, he adhered to defeatist views, that is, he actively desired the defeat of the Russian troops in the imperialist war. He was a member of the editorial office of the anti-war newspaper Life, as well as a committee for helping prisoners of war. He returned to Russia only after the February Revolution, in 1917. Kamkov actively opposed the Provisional "bourgeois" government and against the continuation of the war. Convinced that he would not be able to oppose the policy of the AKP, Kamkov, together with Maria Spiridonova and Mark Natanson, initiated the creation of the Left Socialist-Revolutionary faction. In the Pre-Parliament (September 22 - October 25, 1917), Kamkov defended his positions on peace and the Decree on Land. However, they were rejected, which led him to rapprochement with Lenin and Trotsky. The Bolsheviks decided to leave the Pre-Parliament, calling on the Left Socialist-Revolutionaries to follow along with them. Kamkov decided to stay, but declared solidarity with the Bolsheviks in the event of a revolutionary uprising. Thus, Kamkov already then either knew or guessed about the possible seizure of power by Lenin and Trotsky. In the autumn of 1917, he became one of the leaders of the largest Petrograd cell of the AKP. After October 1917, he tried to establish relations with the Bolsheviks, declaring that all parties should be included in the new Council of People's Commissars. He actively opposed the Brest peace, although in the summer he declared the inadmissibility of continuing the war. In July 1918, the Left SR movements against the Bolsheviks began, in which Kamkov took part. Since January 1920, a series of arrests and exiles began, but he never abandoned his loyalty to the AKP, despite the fact that he once actively supported the Bolsheviks. Only with the beginning of the Trotskyist purges, on August 29, 1938, Stalin was shot. Rehabilitated by the Prosecutor's Office of the Russian Federation in 1992.
Another prominent theorist of the Left SRs is Steinberg Isaak Zakharovich. At first, just like others, he was a supporter of rapprochement between the Bolsheviks and the Left SRs. He was even People's Commissar of Justice in the Council of People's Commissars. However, just like Kamkov, he was an ardent opponent of the conclusion of the Brest peace. During the Social Revolutionary uprising, Isaak Zakharovich was abroad. After returning to the RSFSR, he led an underground struggle against the Bolsheviks, as a result of which he was arrested by the Cheka in 1919. After the final defeat of the Left Social Revolutionaries, he emigrated abroad, where he conducted anti-Soviet activities. Author of the book "From February to October 1917", which was published in Berlin.
Another prominent figure who maintained contact with the Bolsheviks was Natanson Mark Andreevich. After the October Revolution in November 1917, he initiated the creation of a new party - the Party of the Left SRs. These were the new "leftists" who did not want to join the Bolsheviks, but did not join the centrists from the Constituent Assembly either. In 1918, the party openly opposed the Bolsheviks, but Natanson remained loyal to the alliance with them, breaking away from the Left SRs. A new trend was organized - the Party of Revolutionary Communism, of which Natanson was a member of the Central Executive Committee. In 1919, he realized that the Bolsheviks would not tolerate any other political force. Fearing arrest, he left for Switzerland, where he died of illness.
SRs: 1917
After the high-profile terrorist attacks of 1906-1909. Socialist-Revolutionaries are considered the main threat to the empire. Real raids by the police begin against them. The February Revolution revived the party, and the idea of "peasant socialism" resonated in the hearts of the people, since many wanted to redistribute the landowners' lands. By the end of the summer of 1917, the membership of the party reaches one million people. 436 party organizations are being formed in 62 provinces. Despite the large numbers and support, the political struggle was rather sluggish: for example, in the entire history of the party, only four congresses were held, and by 1917 a permanent Charter had not been adopted. The rapid growth of the party, the lack of a clear structure, membership fees, and accounting for its members lead to a strong discord in political views. Some of its illiterate members did not see the difference between the AKP and the RSDLP at all, they considered the Social Revolutionaries and the Bolsheviks to be one party. There were frequent cases of transition from one political force to another. Also, whole villages, factories, plants joined the party. The leaders of the AKP noted that many of the so-called March SRs enter the party solely for the purpose of career growth. This was confirmed by their mass departure after the Bolsheviks came to power on October 25, 1917. The "March SRs" almost all went over to the Bolsheviks by the beginning of 1918.
By the autumn of 1917, the Social Revolutionaries split into three parties: the right (Breshko-Breshkovskaya E.K., Kerensky A.F., Savinkov B.V.), centrists (Chernov V.M., Maslov S.L.), left ( Spiridonova M.A., Kamkov B.D.).
Also - Socialist-Revolutionaries, the Socialist-Revolutionary Party (from the reduction in the first letters - S.R.), Socialist-Revolutionaries.
Revolutionary, socialist political party of Russia in the first third of the 20th century. The name "Socialist-Revolutionaries", as a rule, denoted those representatives of Russian socialism who associated themselves with the political traditions and ideas of Narodnaya Volya. At the same time, this term made it possible to distance oneself both from reformist populism with its theory of “small deeds” and from Marxism with its idea of the obligatory evolution of socio-economic relations through capitalism to socialism.
The term Socialist Revolutionaries is not currently used. The term "Socialist-Revolutionaries", solely because of the coincidence of the first letters in the name of the party, journalists, political analysts, leaders of individual political parties and movements, apply to the party "Fair Russia". However, this organization has no ideological and historical continuity from genuine Socialist-Revolutionaries.
Expanded characteristic
The Socialist Revolutionary Party arose at the beginning of the 20th century. on the basis of the unification of a number of revolutionary organizations that considered themselves as successors of the political traditions of the People's Will. Having gained notoriety for terrorist activities, participation in the revolutionary events of 1905-1907, it became one of the most influential revolutionary parties, a rival of the Russian Social Democracy for influence on the minds of the workers, peasantry, and intelligentsia. In 1917, the Socialist-Revolutionary Party was the most massive political force in Russia. Its representatives had great influence in the Soviets, other local governments, were part of the Provisional Government. The success of the Socialist-Revolutionaries in the elections to the Constituent Assembly was also impressive. However, the party went through an internal crisis caused, to a large extent, by ideological differences. Its result was the split of the AKP into three independent currents. During the Second Russian Revolution and the Civil War, the Social Revolutionaries were defeated in the fight against the Bolsheviks. In the 1920s - early 1930s. as a result of repressions by the Bolshevik dictatorship, the AKP was defeated and finally left the political arena in the USSR. At the same time, part of the party continued its activities in the conditions of emigration until the end of the 1960s.
Historical context
The first Socialist-Revolutionary organizations appeared in the mid-1890s. These included the Union of Russian Socialist Revolutionaries (1893, Bern) and the Union of Socialist Revolutionaries (SSR) (1895 - 1896), organized in Saratov and then operating in Moscow. The first unsuccessful attempts to unite them into a single party were made at congresses in Voronezh, Poltava (1897) and Kyiv (1898).
Broke out in the 1890s. The economic crisis cast doubt on the optimistic forecast of Marxists regarding the progressive role of capitalism, demonstrating that the policy of industrialization can only be successful if the political system and agriculture are modernized. These circumstances contributed to the growth of the influence of the Socialist-Revolutionaries among the radical intelligentsia, making again popular their ideas about Russia's special path to socialism, about the great importance of the peasantry in the revolution. The revision of Marxism carried out by E. Bernstein and his followers in the 1890s also influenced the theoretical work of the Socialist-Revolutionaries. So, V.M. Chernov, who became the most prominent theorist of the Socialist-Revolutionary movement, in his works refuted the notion of the petty-bourgeois character of the working peasantry, emphasizing the commonality of its socio-economic interests with industrial workers.
In 1900, a number of Socialist-Revolutionary organizations in southern Russia united into the southern Party of Socialist Revolutionaries. At the same time, in Paris, on the initiative of V.M. Chernov, the Agrarian Socialist League (ASL) was created. In early December 1901, at a secret meeting in Berlin, E. Azef and M. Selyuk (representing the SSR), and G.A. Gershuni (a representative of the southern AKP), without the consent of the members of their organizations, decided to unite them into the All-Russian Party of Socialist Revolutionaries.
The announcement of the formation of the AKP was published in January 1902 on the pages of the Revolutionary Russia newspaper. By 1905, it included more than 40 committees and groups, uniting about 2 - 2.5 thousand people. The social composition of the AKP was characterized by the predominance of the intelligentsia, pupils and students. Only about 28% of its members were workers and peasants. In 1902 - 1904 on the ground, a number of organizations were created focused on working with various segments of the population (the Peasant Union of the AKP, the Union of Folk Teachers, workers' unions).
Leadership and Bodies
The governing body of the party was initially the commission for relations with foreign countries (consisting of E.K. Breshkovskaya, P.P. Kraft and G.A. Gershuni), and then the Central Committee, which consisted of two branches (St. Petersburg and Moscow). By 1905, it included about 20 people. There was also the Party Council, convened to resolve urgent tactical and organizational issues, which consisted of members of the Central Committee, delegates of the regional, as well as the Moscow and St. Petersburg committees. There were more than 10 regional committees that coordinated the activities of local organizations. The central press organ of the AKP was originally the newspaper "Revolutionary Russia", since 1908 - "Znamya Truda". Its leaders were M.R., who had the right to co-opt the Central Committee. Gotz and E.F. Azef, by that time already actively collaborating with the Okhrana, giving out information about the activities of the Social Revolutionaries and at the same time playing a double game in his own interests. The leading theorist of the RPS was V.M. Chernov. Even before the formation of a single AKP, G.A. Gershuni began the formation of her Fighting Organization, designed to conduct central terror against statesmen, in the opinion of the party leadership, who most discredited themselves in the eyes of the public. She was completely autonomous in the party. The Central Committee had no right to interfere in the internal affairs of the BO, only choosing the object of the action. The post of head of the organization was occupied by Gershuni (1901 - May 1903) and Azef (1903 - 1908). In April 1902, the BO carried out the first terrorist attack (the assassination by S.V. Balmashov of Minister of the Interior D.S. Sipyagin). During the existence of the organization, its members included 10 - 30 at the same time, and in total - more than 80 people.
views
The Social Revolutionaries recognized pluralism in the field of theory. The party was like adherents of the ideas of subjective sociology N.K. Mikhailovsky, and adherents of the teachings of Machism, neo-Kantianism and empirio-criticism. The basis of the ideology of the AKP was the populist concept of Russia's special path to socialism. The leading theorist of the party, V.M. Chernov, explained the need for such a path by its special position. the fact that in its development it is located between the industrial and agrarian-colonial countries. Unlike developed industrial countries, Russian capitalism, in his opinion, was dominated by destructive tendencies, which was especially evident in relation to agriculture.
The class differentiation of society, according to the Socialist-Revolutionary theorists, was determined by the attitude to work and sources of income. Therefore, they included workers, peasants and the intelligentsia in the labor, revolutionary camp. In other words, people who live by their own labor, without exploiting others. Peasantry was considered its main force. At the same time, the duality of the social nature of this stratum of the population was recognized, since the peasant is both a worker and an owner. The Social Revolutionaries also noted that the working class, due to its high concentration in the large cities of Russia, posed a serious danger to the ruling regime. The link between the workers and the countryside was seen as one of the foundations of worker-peasant unity. The Russian intelligentsia, assessed as anti-bourgeois in its worldview, was supposed to carry the ideas of socialism to the peasantry and the proletariat. The future revolution was considered by the Socialist-Revolutionaries as a "social" one, a transitional variant between the bourgeois and the socialist. One of its main goals was the socialization of the land.
Party program
The program and temporary organizational charter of the AKP were approved at the Constituent Congress of the Party in Finland on December 29, 1905 - January 4, 1906.
It was supposed to convene the Constituent Assembly on a democratic basis, the party's coming to power by winning a majority in democratic local elections, and then in the Constituent Assembly. The transition to socialism was then supposed to be carried out by the reformist way. The most important requirements of the program were: the elimination of the autocracy and the establishment of a democratic republic, political and civil liberties. The Social Revolutionaries advocated the introduction of federative relations between nationalities, the recognition of their right to self-determination and autonomy of self-government bodies. The central point of the economic part of the AKP program was the demand for the socialization of the land. It was supposed to abolish private ownership of land, and then - its transformation into public property with a ban on buying and selling. It was to be managed by the organs of national self-government. Equalization-labor use of the land was envisaged (provided that it was cultivated by one's own labor, personal or collective). Its distribution was assumed according to the consumer and labor norms. Socialization was supposed to solve the “working issue”, the AKP program proclaimed the limitation of the length of the working day to 8 hours, the introduction of a minimum wage, insurance of workers at the expense of the state and owners of enterprises, legislative labor protection under the control of an elected factory inspectorate, freedom of trade unions, the rights of workers' organizations participate in the organization of labor in the enterprise. It was supposed to introduce free medical care.
A variety of methods and means of struggle were recognized. Among them, as propaganda and agitation, parliamentary and extra-parliamentary struggle, including strikes, demonstrations, uprisings. For agitation, excitation of the revolutionary forces of society, and also as a measure to combat the arbitrariness of the government, individual terror was used. The terrorist acts of the BO have created the party's wide notoriety. The most famous among them is the murder of the Ministers of the Interior D.S. Sipyagin (April 2, 1902) and V.K. Plehve (07/15/1904). For the cruel suppression of peasant unrest in the spring of 1902, the Kharkov governor I.M. was killed. Obolensky (June 26, 1902), and for the execution of a workers' demonstration in the city of Zlatoust - the Ufa governor N.M. Bogdanovich (05/06/1903). The Socialist-Revolutionaries conducted active agitation and propaganda work among the workers, forming circles and participating in mass demonstrations and strikes. The publication of literature for the peasants was organized, which was distributed in the Volga region, a number of southern and central provinces of Russia.
In 1903, a left-wing radical opposition appeared in the AKP, represented by a group of "agrarian terrorists", who proposed to shift the main focus of the party from political struggle to upholding the social interests of the peasantry. It was supposed to call on the peasants to resolve the agrarian problem by seizing land, to use "agrarian terror". In the context of the deteriorating position of the autocracy in the conditions of the defeats of the Russo-Japanese war and the rise of the liberal movement, the leadership of the AKP relied on the creation of a broad association of political opposition. In the autumn of 1904 V.M. Chernov and E.F. Azef took part in a conference of Russian opposition parties in Paris.
During the years of the First Russian Revolution, the AKP set the overthrow of the autocracy as the main goal of its activities. In February 1905, the last significant act of the BO took place - the assassination of Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich, uncle of Nicholas II, the former governor-general of Moscow. In the autumn of 1906, the BO was temporarily disbanded and replaced by flying combat detachments. The terror of the AKP has become decentralized and directed primarily against middle and lower-ranking officials. At this time, the Social Revolutionaries participated in the preparation of a number of important revolutionary actions (strike, demonstrations, rallies, uprisings). the most famous among them are the December armed uprising in Moscow, as well as military uprisings in Kronstadt and Sveaborg in the summer of 1906. Many trade unions were created with the participation of the Social Revolutionaries. Some of them (the All-Russian Railway Union, the Postal and Telegraph Union, the Union of Teachers, and a number of others) were dominated by supporters of the AKP. The party won the predominant influence among the workers of a number of the largest St. Petersburg and Moscow factories, especially at the Prokhorovskaya manufactory. Numerous representatives of the Socialist-Revolutionaries participated in the St. Petersburg, Moscow, and a number of other Soviets of Workers' Deputies. The Socialist-Revolutionaries were actively working among the peasantry. So, in a number of Volga provinces and in the Central Black Earth region, peasant brotherhoods were created. With the support of the AKP, the All-Russian Peasant Union and the Labor Group in the State Duma were created. As a result, the number of RPS increased significantly, reaching 60 thousand people.
Having supported the boycott of the Bulygin Duma and taking part in the All-Russian October strike, the Social Revolutionaries ambiguously met the Manifesto of October 17, 1905. Most of the party leaders, especially E. Azef, proposed switching to constitutional methods of struggle, abandoning terror. Considering that the line on an armed uprising and a boycott of the elections to the First State Duma did not receive the support of broad sections of the peasantry, the Social Revolutionaries took part in a new election campaign. A Socialist-Revolutionary faction of 37 deputies was formed within the Duma. Under the agrarian project of the Socialist-Revolutionaries in the Second Duma, 104 deputies' signatures were collected. In 1906, the Social Revolutionaries called on the peasantry to boycott the Stolypin agrarian reform, seeing it as a threat to the idea of land socialization. Subsequently, calls were made for the peasants to boycott the owners of farms and cuts.
Split
In 1905 - 1906. The AKP survived a split, as a result of which moderate populist circles close to it formed the Party of People's Socialists. At the same time, the radical left wing, represented by supporters of the immediate implementation of the socialist revolution in Russia, which also spoke from the position of radicalization of revolutionary terror, formed the Union of Maximalist Socialist Revolutionaries.
After the defeat of the revolution of 1905-1907. The AKP was in a state of crisis. The new tactical guidelines of the Social Revolutionaries were based on the fact that the June 3 coup d'etat returned the pre-revolutionary political situation to Russia. Because of this, confidence in the inevitability of a new revolution remained. The AKP officially launched a boycott of the State Duma. It was also decided to increase combat training for future uprisings and to resume terror. The party crisis was exacerbated by the exposure of V.L. Burtsev provocative activities of E.F. Azef. In early January 1909, the Central Committee of the AKP officially recognized the fact of his cooperation with the Okhrana. B.V.'s attempt Savinkov to recreate BO was unsuccessful. As a result of mass arrests, the disappointment and departure of a number of activists, and the growth of emigration, the number of the AKP was sharply reduced. At the Fifth Party Council, held in May 1909, the old composition of the Central Committee resigned. Since 1912, the functions of the Central Committee were transferred to the Foreign Delegation.
Discussions and ideological divisions in the party are intensifying. A number of theorists turned their attention to the role of cooperation in the development of socialist relations. So, I.I. Fondaminsky assumed that the gradual development of cooperative farms would lead to the socialization of the land. A left-wing faction of the "initiative minority" (1908 - 1909) and a right wing emerged, grouped around the magazine "Initiation" (1912) and uniting supporters of the transition to legal activity. The "initiative minority" group was formed in Paris from members of the local Socialist-Revolutionary group, who had long been in opposition to the party line. In June 1909, supporters of the "initiative minority" left the party, joining the Union of Left SRs.
The growth of the labor movement and opposition sentiments in Russia contributed to the growth of the ranks of the AKP, whose organizations in 1914 appear at large enterprises in St. Petersburg, Moscow and many other cities. The agitation and propaganda work of the party among the peasantry was resumed. Socialist-Revolutionary legal newspapers (Trudovoy Golos, Mysl) began to appear in St. Petersburg. The process of consolidation of the AKP was interrupted by the outbreak of the First World War.
The Socialist-Revolutionary Party was never able to work out a common party platform on the question of attitudes towards the war. As a result, among the Social Revolutionaries there were supporters of both the defencist and internationalist positions. The defencists (Avksent'ev, Argunov, Lazarev, Fondaminsky) suggested coordinating tactics and forms of struggle with the tasks of Russia's defense. The victory of the Entente over German militarism was considered by the SR-defencists as a progressive phenomenon capable of influencing the political evolution of the Russian monarchy. The position of the internationalists was represented by Kamkov, Natanson, Rakitnikov and Chernov. They proceeded from the fact that the tsarist government was waging a war of conquest. The socialists were supposed to become a "third force" that would achieve a just peace without annexations and indemnities.
The split paralyzed the activities of the Foreign Delegation. At the end of 1914, opponents of the war among the Socialist-Revolutionaries began publishing the newspaper Mysl in Paris. Chernov and Natanson participated in the Zimmerwald (1915) and Kienthal (1916) international conferences of internationalists. M.A. Nathanson signed the Zimmerwald Manifesto. Chernov refused to sign it because his amendments were rejected. The Socialist-Revolutionary defensists, together with their associates from the Social Democrats, published the weekly newspaper Call in Paris (October 1915 - March 1917). As the external and internal situation in Russia worsened, the political crisis grew, the ideas of the Socialist-Revolutionary Internationalists found more and more supporters. Many Social Revolutionaries during the First World War worked in legal organizations, gradually expanding the influence of the party.
Socialist-Revolutionaries in 1917
The revolutionary events of February 1917 were attended by the Social Revolutionaries led by P.A. Alexandrovich. Zenzinov and Aleksandrovich were among the initiators of the creation of the Petrograd Soviet. Representatives of the AKP were included in the first composition of the Executive Committee of the Petrosoviet. In many other cities, the Socialist-Revolutionaries were also members of the Soviets and headed the revolutionary bodies of self-government. The return of leaders and activists of the party from exile and emigration contributed to its revival. On March 2, 1917, the First Petrograd Conference of the Socialist-Revolutionaries took place, which elected a city committee, which temporarily assumed the functions of the Central Committee. In mid-March, the publication of the new central body of the AKP, the newspaper Delo Naroda, began. New local organizations were created. At the beginning of August, during the period of the greatest popularity of the party, it included 436 organizations in 62 provinces (312 committees and 124 groups). The party grew in size. Its maximum number in 1917 was about a million people. Since June 1917, the organ of the Central Committee of the AKP "Delo Naroda" has been one of the largest Russian newspapers. Its circulation reached 300 thousand copies.
The III Party Congress (May 25 - June 4, 1917) completed its organizational design. In the spring of 1917, the right wing (leaders - A.A. Argunov, E.K. Breshkovskaya, A.F. Kerensky) and the left wing (M.A. Natanson, B.D. Kamkov and M.A. Spiridonova) took shape in the AKP ). The organ of the Right Socialist-Revolutionaries was the newspaper Volya Naroda. the left wing of the party expressed its position on the pages of the Znamya Truda newspaper. The official course of the AKP was determined by the centrist group headed by V.M. Zenzinov, V.M. Chernov, A.R. Gotz and N.D. Avksentiev. The differences were based on different assessments of the prospects for the development of the revolution in Russia and equally different views on the role of the Socialist-Revolutionary Party in this process. The Right SRs believed that in Russia, as in most countries of the world, the prerequisites for the socialist reorganization of society had not yet been prepared. Under these conditions, the main task of the revolution is the democratization of the political system. They saw its realization as possible only in a coalition with the liberal circles of the bourgeoisie and the intelligentsia, represented by the Cadets. Only a united front of democratic forces, according to the ideologists of the right SRs, was a means of overcoming economic ruin, achieving victory over Germany. The Left Socialist-Revolutionaries, on the other hand, considered it possible for Russia to go over to socialism in the event of an imminent world revolution. Rejecting any blockade with the liberals, they put forward the idea of a homogeneous socialist government and demanded radical social reforms. Among them was the transfer of landlords' land to the disposal of land committees. As before, the left wing of the party remained on the anti-war, internationalist point of view. The Centrist Socialist-Revolutionaries put forward the theory of a special, "people's labor" revolution, preserving the capitalist system, but at the same time creating the prerequisites for a socialist system. It was supposed to maintain a temporary coalition with all the forces interested in establishing and developing a democratic system. a temporary bloc with liberal parties was not ruled out. As an alternative to dictatorship, power was supposed to be transferred to a coalition of socialist parties by winning a majority democratically.
Although the left circles of the AKP opposed the support of the Provisional Government, participating in anti-government demonstrations on the streets of Petrograd. At the same time, many rightists and centrists approved of the entry into the Provisional Government of A.F. Kerensky. After the April crisis, the leadership of the AKP recognized the need for the socialists to enter the cabinet in order to correct its political course. Members of the AKP were part of three coalition governments. In the first, the posts of the Minister of Justice, and then the Minister of War and the Navy were held by A.F. Kerensky, V.M. was the Minister of Agriculture. Chernov. In the second composition of the government, Kerensky served as minister-chairman, as well as military and naval ministers, V.M. Chernov - Minister of Agriculture, N.D. Avksentiev - Minister of the Interior. The third coalition government included Kerensky, who retained the same posts and S.L. Maslov, who became the Minister of Agriculture.
The AKP also officially declared its support for the Soviets, perceiving them not as bodies of power, but as a class organization of the working masses, defending their interests and controlling the Provisional Government. The Socialist-Revolutionaries enjoyed the predominant influence in the Soviets of Peasants' Deputies. Local power was supposed to be transferred to city, district dumas and zemstvos elected democratically. The Socialist-Revolutionaries saw their political task in winning a majority in the elections to these self-government bodies, and then in the Constituent Assembly. In August 1917, the AKP won the elections to the city dumas. At the same time, the idea of a direct seizure of power by the AKP, put forward at the VII Council of the Party by M.A. Spiridonova.
The resolution of the Third Party Congress, reflecting the position of the centrists, was devoted to the question of the war and included the demand for a democratic peace. But right up to the end of the war, the need was recognized to maintain unity of action with the allies in the Entente and to help strengthen the combat potential of the army. Appeals to refuse to participate in hostilities and to disobey orders were recognized as unacceptable. The Left SRs criticized this position for retaining elements of defencism. The right wing of the party, on the contrary, demanded a complete break with the ideas of Zimmerwald.
By decision of the III Congress of the AKP, the agrarian issue was to be decided by the Constituent Assembly. Up to this point, it was recognized as necessary to place the land at the disposal of the land committees, which were supposed to prepare its fair redistribution. at that time, the AKP limited itself to achieving the abolition of the Stolypin land laws and the adoption of a law banning land transactions. Projects for the transfer of land to the land committees were never approved by the Provisional Government. The III Congress of the AKP also recognized the need for state regulation of production, control over trade and finance.
In the autumn of 1917, the crisis of the Socialist-Revolutionary Party reached its apogee. The intensified ideological differences led to its split. On September 16, the Right SRs issued an appeal accusing the Central Committee of a defeatist position. They urged their supporters to prepare for a separate congress. N.D. Avksentiev and A.R. Gotz, defending the position of the Right SRs, advocated the continuation of the coalition with the Cadets. V.M. Chernov, on the contrary, argued that this policy was fraught with the loss of the Party's popularity. Nevertheless, the majority of the Central Committee members at the end of September supported the coalition's tactics. The process of organizational unification of their supporters was started by the Left SRs, dissatisfied with this decision.
In response to the October coup, on October 25, 1917, the Central Committee of the AKP issued an appeal "To the entire revolutionary democracy of Russia." the actions of the Bolsheviks were condemned as a criminal act and usurpation of power. The Socialist-Revolutionary faction left the Second Congress of Soviets of Workers' and Soldiers' Deputies. At the initiative of the Central Committee, to unite the actions of the democratic forces, the "Committee for the Salvation of the Motherland and the Revolution" was created, headed by A. Gotz. The Social Revolutionaries played a decisive role in the Union for the Defense of the Constituent Assembly, headed by a member of the AKP V.N. Filippovsky. Representatives of the left wing, on the contrary, supported the actions of the Bolsheviks and became members of the Council of People's Commissars. In response, by a decision of the Central Committee, and then by a decision held in Petrograd on 26.11. - On December 5, 1917, at the 4th Congress of the AKP, the Left SRs were expelled from the party. At the same time, the congress rejected the policy of a coalition of anti-Bolshevik forces and confirmed the decision of the Central Committee to expel the extreme right group of the Socialist-Revolutionary Defensists from the party.
Socialist-Revolutionaries and Soviet Power
The Social Revolutionaries won the elections to the All-Russian Constituent Assembly, receiving 370 seats out of 715. The leader of the AKP Chernov was elected chairman of the VUS, which was opened on 01/05/1918 and worked for one day. After the dissolution of the Constituent Assembly by the Bolsheviks, the main slogan of the party was the struggle for its restoration. VIII Council of the RPS, held in Moscow from 7 - 16.05. the same year, oriented the party towards the overthrow of the Bolshevik dictatorship by the forces of the mass popular movement. Part of the responsible workers of the AKP went abroad. In March - April 1918 N.S. Rusanov and V.V. Sukhomlin went to Stockholm, where, together with D.O. Gavronsky formed the Foreign Delegation of the AKP. In early June 1918, relying on the support of the insurgent Czechoslovak Corps, the Socialist-Revolutionaries formed in Samara the Committee of Members of the Constituent Assembly, whose chairman was V.K. Volsky. The formation of the People's Army of KOMUCH began. The majority of members of the Siberian Regional Duma in Tomsk also belonged to the AKP. The Provisional Siberian Government formed on her initiative was also headed by the Socialist-Revolutionary P.Ya. Derber. In response to the open participation of the Social Revolutionaries in the anti-Bolshevik armed struggle, by the decision of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee of June 14, 1918, they were expelled from the Soviets of all levels.
The Socialist-Revolutionaries also had a majority at the State Conference held in Ufa in September 1918. N.D. Avksentiev and V.M. Zenzinov. The AKP Central Committee criticized the policy of the Directory. After the coup committed on 11/18/1918 in Omsk, Avksentiev and Zenzinov were arrested and deported abroad. The government of A.V. Kolchak launched repressions against the Socialist-Revolutionaries.
The consequences of Kolchak's coup were the decisions taken at the beginning of 1919 by the Moscow bureau of the AKP and the conference of party leaders. Denying both the possibility of an agreement with the RCP(b) and with the White Guard forces, the Socialist-Revolutionary leaders defined the danger from the right as the greatest. As a result, they decided to abandon the armed struggle against the Soviet regime. A group of Social Revolutionaries led by V.K. Volsky entered into negotiations with the Bolsheviks on close cooperation, was condemned. At the same time, the Ufa delegation called for the recognition of Soviet power and uniting under its leadership to fight the counter-revolution. However, the party leadership condemned her position. At the end of October 1919, the Volsky group left the AKP, taking the name " Minority of the Party of Socialist Revolutionaries" (MPSR).
By the decision of February 26, 1919, the Socialist-Revolutionary Party was legalized on the territory of Soviet Russia. But soon the persecution of the Social Revolutionaries resumed as a reaction to their criticism of the Soviet government. The publication of Dela Naroda was discontinued, and a number of members of the Central Committee of the AKP were arrested. Despite this, the plenum of the Central Committee (April 1919) and the IX Council of the Party (June 1919) confirmed the decision to abandon armed confrontation with the Soviet government. At the same time, the continuation of the political struggle against it was announced until the elimination of the Bolshevik dictatorship by the forces of mass popular movements.
As early as April 1917, the Ukrainian Party of Socialist Revolutionaries seceded from the AKP. Part of the Social Revolutionaries in the territories of the South of Russia and Ukraine, controlled by Denikin, legally worked in public organizations. Some of them were repressed. So, for example, G.I. Schreider, who published the newspaper Rodnaya Zemlya in Ekaterinodar, was arrested. His publication was closed. The Social Revolutionaries also occupied leading positions in the "Committee for the Liberation of the Black Sea Governorate", which led the peasant movement directed against Denikin under leftist and democratic slogans. In 1920, the Central Committee of the AKP called on party members to continue the political struggle against the Bolsheviks. At the same time, Poland and P.N.'s supporters were declared the main opponents. Wrangel. At the same time, the leaders of the Socialist-Revolutionary Party condemned the Riga Peace Treaty as a betrayal of Russia's national interests.
In Siberia, the Social Revolutionaries played a prominent role in the struggle against the dictatorship of Admiral A.V. Kolchak. Member of the Central Committee of the AKP F.F. Fedorovich headed the " Political Center", which prepared an armed uprising against the Kolchak regime in Irkutsk, carried out in late December 1919 - early January 1920. The political center took power in the city into its own hands for some time. Also, the Social Revolutionaries were part of the coalition authorities operating in the Far East in 1920-1921. - Primorsky Regional Zemstvo Council, and then to the government of the Far Eastern Republic.
By the beginning of 1921, the Central Committee of the AKP ceased its activities. The leading role in the party in August of the same year, in connection with the arrests of the Central Committee members, passed to the Central Organizational Bureau formed back in June 1920. Some members of the Central Committee, including V.M. Chernov, by this time were in exile. The 10th Party Council, held in Samara (August 1921), recognized the accumulation of forces as the most urgent task of the Socialist-Revolutionaries, called for keeping the worker and peasant masses from spontaneous uprisings, dispersing their strength and provoking repression. However, in March 1921 V.M. Chernov, called on the working people of Russia to a general strike and armed struggle in support of the insurgents of Kronstadt.
In the summer of 1922, the Moscow trial of members of the Central Committee of the AKP took place, accused of organizing terrorist acts against the leaders of the RCP (b) in 1918. In August, 12 people, including 8 Central Committee members, were sentenced by the Supreme Tribunal of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee to death. It was announced that the sentence would be carried out if the AKP used armed methods of struggle against Soviet power. On January 14, 1924, this sentence was commuted to a 5-year prison sentence, followed by a 3-year exile. In early January 1923, under the control of the GPU, the "initiative group" of the Socialist-Revolutionaries held a meeting that decided to dissolve the Petrograd organization of the AKP. In the same way, in March of the same year, the All-Russian Congress of former members of the AKP was held in Moscow, which decided to dissolve the party. In the autumn of 1923, the OGPU defeated the group of B.V. Chernov in Leningrad. At the end of 1924, E.E. Kolosov recreated the new Central Bank of the party, which had connections with the organizations of the Social Revolutionaries at the Obukhov plant, at the Pedagogical Institute. N.K. Krupskaya, as well as in Kolpino, Krasnodar, Tsaritsyn and Cherepovets. At the beginning of May 1925, the last members of the Central Bank of the AKP were arrested. However, even after that, the activities of the Social Revolutionaries on the territory of the USSR did not end. As M.V. Sokolov, "many who were in exile and again arrested firmly called themselves members of the AKP or reported that they shared its platform." As far as possible, they kept in touch with each other, discussing the political situation in Russia. In the spring and summer of 1930, members of the AKP, who were in exile in Central Asia, developed and discussed a new party platform, designed to reflect the socio-economic and political realities of the USSR. In August - September 1930, the OGPU carried out arrests among the exiled SRs in Central Asia, as well as former and current members of the AKP in Moscow, Leningrad and Kazan. After that, the activities of the AKP continued only in exile.
Emigrant organizations and publishing houses of the Social Revolutionaries continued to exist until the 1960s. in Paris, Berlin, Prague and New York. Many AKP figures ended up abroad. Among them - N.D. Avksentiev, E.K. Breshko-Breshkovskaya, M.V. Vishnyak, V.M. Zenzinov, O.S. Minor, V.M. Chernov and others. Since 1920, periodicals of the PSR began to appear abroad. In December of this year, V. Chernov began publishing the journal Revolutionary Russia in Yuryev, and then in Reval, Berlin, and Prague. In 1921, the Socialist-Revolutionaries published the magazine “For the People!” in Revel. Later, the magazines "Will of Russia" (Prague, 1922 - 1932), "Modern Notes" (Paris, 1920 - 1940) and others were also published. Most of the circulation of Socialist-Revolutionary publications was illegally delivered to Russia. Publications were also distributed among the emigrants. In 1923 the first, and in 1928 the second congress of foreign organizations of the AKP took place. The literary activity of the Socialist-Revolutionaries in exile continued until the end of the 1960s.
SRs in scientific literature
Numerous research papers and documentary publications are currently being published on the history of the Socialist-Revolutionary Party, the life and work of its leaders. The “terrorist” reputation has a serious impact on the modern positioning of the Social Revolutionaries, which is why the assessment of its role in the history of Russia by many modern historians, but especially by publicists, writers, filmmakers, is painted in negative tones.
The struggle of the Socialist-Revolutionary Party was reflected in Russian fiction as early as the beginning of the 20th century. First of all, the theme of terror of the Socialist-Revolutionary BO is covered in the novel by B.V. Savinkov "Pale Horse" (1909). The plot line of another novel, "That which was not" (1912 - 1913), is connected with the activities of the AKP during the First Russian Revolution. This novel reflects the activities of the fighting squads of the Social Revolutionaries, terrorist activities, provocations. A number of plots from the history of the AKP were also reflected in the novels of M.A. Osorgin "Witness of History" (1932) and "The Book of Ends" (1935).
The Party of Socialist Revolutionaries was created on the basis of previously existing populist organizations and occupied one of the leading places in the system of Russian political parties. It was the largest and most influential non-Marxist socialist party. Its fate was more dramatic than the fate of other parties. The year 1917 was a triumph and tragedy for the Socialist-Revolutionaries. In a short time after the February Revolution, the party turned into the largest political force, reached the million mark in terms of its numbers, acquired a dominant position in local self-government bodies and most public organizations, and won elections to the Constituent Assembly. Its representatives held a number of key positions in the government. Attractive to the population were her ideas of democratic socialism and a peaceful transition to it. However, despite all this, the Socialist-Revolutionaries could not hold on to power.
Governing bodies
- The highest body is the Congress of the Party of Socialist-Revolutionaries, the Council of the Party of Socialist-Revolutionaries
- The executive body is the Central Committee of the Party of Socialist-Revolutionaries
Party program
The historical and philosophical worldview of the party was substantiated by the works of Nikolai Chernyshevsky, Pyotr Lavrov, Nikolai Mikhailovsky.
The draft program of the party was published in May 1904 in Revolutionary Russia No. 46. The project, with minor changes, was approved as the program of the party at its first congress in early January 1906. This program remained the main document of the party throughout its existence. The main author of the program was the party's chief theoretician, Viktor Chernov.
The Social Revolutionaries were the direct heirs of the old populism, the essence of which was the idea of the possibility of Russia's transition to socialism in a non-capitalist way. But the Social Revolutionaries were supporters of democratic socialism, that is, economic and political democracy, which was to be expressed through the representation of organized producers (trade unions), organized consumers (cooperative unions) and organized citizens (democratic state represented by parliament and self-government bodies).
The originality of Socialist-Revolutionary socialism lay in the theory of the socialization of agriculture. This theory was a national feature of the Socialist-Revolutionary democratic socialism and was a contribution to the development of world socialist thought. The initial idea of this theory was that socialism in Russia should begin to grow first of all in the countryside. The soil for it, its preliminary stage, was to be the socialization of the land.
The socialization of land meant, firstly, the abolition of private ownership of land, at the same time not its transformation into state property, not its nationalization, but its transformation into a public property without the right to buy and sell. Secondly, the transfer of all land to the control of central and local organs of people's self-government, from democratically organized rural and urban communities to regional and central institutions. Thirdly, the use of land was to be egalitarian labor, that is, to provide a consumer norm on the basis of the application of one's own labor, either individually or in partnership.
The Socialist-Revolutionaries considered political freedom and democracy to be the most important prerequisite for socialism and its organic form. Political democracy and the socialization of the land were the main demands of the Socialist-Revolutionary minimum program. They were supposed to ensure a peaceful, evolutionary, without a special, socialist revolution, Russia's transition to socialism. The program, in particular, spoke about the establishment of a democratic republic with inalienable rights of man and citizen: freedom of conscience, speech, press, assembly, unions, strikes, inviolability of the person and home, universal and equal suffrage for every citizen from 20 years old, without distinction gender, religion and nationality, subject to a direct system of elections and closed voting. Broad autonomy was also required for regions and communities, both urban and rural, and perhaps a wider application of federal relations between individual national regions, while recognizing their unconditional right to self-determination. The Socialist-Revolutionaries, earlier than the Social Democrats, put forward the demand for a federal structure of the Russian state. They were also bolder and more democratic in setting such demands as proportional representation in elected bodies and direct people's legislation (referendum and initiative).
Editions (for 1913): "Revolutionary Russia" (in 1902-1905 illegally), "People's Messenger", "Thought", "Conscious Russia", "Covenants".
Party history
Pre-revolutionary period
The Socialist-Revolutionary Party began with the Saratov circle, which arose in and was in connection with the Flying Leaf group of Narodnaya Volya. When the Narodnaya Volya group was dispersed, the Saratov circle became isolated and began to act independently. In he developed the program. It was printed on a hectograph under the title “Our tasks. Basic Provisions of the Program of the Socialist-Revolutionaries. This pamphlet was published by the Union of Russian Socialist-Revolutionaries Abroad together with Grigorovich's article "Socialist-Revolutionaries and Social-Democrats". In the Saratov circle he moved to Moscow, was engaged in the issuance of proclamations, the distribution of foreign literature. The circle acquired a new name - the Northern Union of Socialist Revolutionaries. It was led by Andrey Argunov.
In the second half of the 1890s, small populist-socialist groups and circles existed in St. Petersburg, Penza, Poltava, Voronezh, Kharkov, and Odessa. Some of them merged in 1900 into the Southern Party of Socialist-Revolutionaries, others in 1901 into the Union of Socialist-Revolutionaries. At the end of 1901, the Southern Party of Socialist-Revolutionaries and the Union of Socialist-Revolutionaries merged, and in January 1902 the Revolutionary Russia newspaper announced the creation of the party. The Geneva "Agrarian-Socialist League" joined it.
In April 1902, the Fighting Organization (BO) of the Socialist-Revolutionaries declared itself a terrorist act against the Minister of the Interior Dmitry Sipyagin. The BO was the most conspiratorial part of the party, its charter was written by Mikhail Gotz. Over the entire history of the existence of the BO (1901-1908), over 80 people worked in it. The organization was in the party in an autonomous position, the Central Committee only gave it the task of committing the next terrorist act and indicated the desired date for its execution. The BO had its own cash desk, turnouts, addresses, apartments, the Central Committee had no right to interfere in its internal affairs. The leaders of the BO Gershuni (1901-1903) and Azef (1903-1908) (who is a secret police agent) were the organizers of the Social Revolutionary Party and the most influential members of its Central Committee.
The period of the first Russian revolution 1905-1907
During the years of the revolution of 1905-1907, the peak of the terrorist activities of the Social Revolutionaries fell. During this period, 233 terrorist attacks were carried out (among others, 2 ministers, 33 governors, in particular, the uncle of the tsar, and 7 generals were killed), from 1902 to 1911 - 216 assassination attempts.
After the February Revolution
The Socialist-Revolutionary Party actively participated in the country's political life after the February Revolution of 1917, blocated with the defencist Mensheviks and was the largest party of this period. By the summer of 1917, there were about 1 million people in the party, united in 436 organizations in 62 provinces, in the fleets and on the fronts of the active army.
The Left Socialist-Revolutionaries remained legal until the events of July 6-7, 1918. On many political issues, the Left Socialist-Revolutionaries disagreed with the Bolsheviks. Such issues were: the Brest peace and agrarian policy, primarily the surplus appropriation and committees. On July 6, 1918, the leaders of the Left SRs who were present at the Fifth Congress of Soviets in Moscow were arrested. (See the Left SR uprisings (1918)).
At the beginning of 1919, the Moscow Bureau of the AKP, and then a conference of Socialist-Revolutionary organizations that functioned on the territory of Soviet Russia, spoke out against any agreements both with the Bolsheviks and with "bourgeois reaction". At the same time, it was recognized that the danger from the right was greater, and therefore it was decided to abandon the armed struggle against the Soviet government. However, a group of Social Revolutionaries led by the former head of Komuch Vladimir Volsky, the so-called "Ufa Delegation", which entered into negotiations with the Bolsheviks on closer cooperation, was condemned.
To use the potential of the Socialist-Revolutionary Party in the fight against the White movement, on February 26, the Soviet government legalized the Socialist-Revolutionary Party. Members of the Central Committee began to gather in Moscow, and the publication of the central party newspaper Delo Naroda was resumed there. But the Social Revolutionaries did not stop sharply criticizing the Bolshevik regime, and the persecution of the party was resumed: the publication of Dyelo Naroda was banned, and a number of active members of the party were arrested. Nevertheless, the plenum of the Central Committee of the AKP, held in April 1919, based on the fact that the party did not have the strength to wage an armed struggle on two fronts at once, urged not to resume it against the Bolsheviks yet. The plenum condemned the participation of party representatives in the Ufa state meeting, the Directory, in the regional governments of Siberia, the Urals and the Crimea, as well as in the Yassy conference of Russian anti-Bolshevik forces (November 1918), spoke out against foreign intervention, stating that it would be only an expression "self-serving imperialist interests" the governments of the intervention countries. At the same time, it was emphasized that no agreements should be made with the Bolsheviks. The IX Council of the Party, held in Moscow or near Moscow in June 1919, confirmed the decision of the Party to renounce armed struggle against the Soviet regime while continuing the political struggle against it. It was ordered to direct their efforts to mobilize, organize and put on alert the forces of democracy, so that if the Bolsheviks did not voluntarily abandon their policy, eliminate them by force in the name of "democracy, freedom and socialism".
At the same time, the leaders of the right wing of the party, who were then already abroad, reacted with hostility to the decisions of the IX Council and continued to believe that only an armed struggle against the Bolsheviks could be successful, that in this struggle a coalition was acceptable even with non-democratic forces that could be democratized with the help of tactics "enveloping". They also allowed foreign intervention to help "Anti-Bolshevik Front".
At the same time, the Ufa delegation called for the recognition of Soviet power and uniting under its leadership to fight the counter-revolution. This group began to publish its own weekly "People", and therefore is also known as the group "People". The Central Committee of the Socialist-Revolutionary Party, calling the actions of the "People" group disorganizing, decided to dissolve it, but the "People" group did not obey this decision, at the end of October 1919 left the party and adopted the name "Minority of the Socialist-Revolutionary Party".
In early January 1923, the bureau of the Petrograd Provincial Committee of the RCP (b) allowed the "initiative group" of the Socialist-Revolutionaries, under the covert control of the GPU, to hold a city meeting. As a result, a result was achieved - the decision to dissolve the city organization of the Socialist-Revolutionary Party.
In March 1923, with the participation of the "Petrograd initiative" in Moscow, the All-Russian Congress of former rank-and-file members of the Socialist-Revolutionary Party was held, which deprived the former leadership of the party of authority and decided to dissolve the party. The party, and soon its regional organizations were forced to cease to exist on the territory of the RSFSR. In 1925, the last members of the Central Bureau of the Party were arrested. Only the Socialist-Revolutionary emigration continued its activities, which existed until the 1960s, first in Paris, Berlin, Prague, and then in New York
Maria Spiridonova
Of all the leaders of the Left Social Revolutionaries, only the People's Commissar for Justice in the first post-October government, Steinberg, managed to escape. The rest were repeatedly arrested, spent many years in exile, and during the years of the "Great Terror" were shot. A member of the Central Committee of the Left Socialist-Revolutionaries, Maria Spiridonova, was shot on the basis of a sentence passed on September 8, 1941, on the basis of a decision of the State Defense Committee, without initiating a criminal case and conducting preliminary and trial proceedings, by the military collegium of the Supreme Court of the USSR, chaired by Ulrich V. V. (members of the collegium Kandybin D. Ya. and Bukanov V. V.).
Emigration
The beginning of the SR emigration was marked by the departure of N. S. Rusanov and V. V. Sukhomlin in March-April 1918 to Stockholm, where they and D. O. Gavronsky formed the Delegation Abroad of the AKP. Despite the fact that the leadership of the AKP was extremely negative about the presence of significant SR emigration, in the end there were quite a few prominent figures of the AKP abroad, including V. M. Chernov, N. D. Avksentiev, E. K. Breshko-Breshkovskaya , M. V. Vishnyak, V. M. Zenzinov, E. E. Lazarev, O. S. Minor and others.
Paris, Berlin and Prague became the centers of the Socialist-Revolutionary emigration. in 1923, the first congress of foreign organizations of the AKP was held, in 1928 - the second. Since 1920, the party's periodicals began to appear abroad. Viktor Chernov, who left Russia in September 1920, played a huge role in setting up this business. First in Revel (now Tallinn, Estonia), and then in Berlin, Chernov organized the publication of the Revolutionary Russia magazine (the title repeated the title of the party's central organ in 1901-1905 years). The first issue of Revolutionary Russia came out in December 1920. The magazine was published in Yuriev (now Tartu), Berlin, Prague.
In addition to Revolutionary Russia, the Socialist-Revolutionaries published several other printed organs in exile. In 1921, three issues of the magazine "For the People!" (officially it was not considered a party one and was called the "Workers'-Peasants'-Red Army Journal"), political and cultural journals "The Will of Russia" (Prague, 1922-1932), "Modern Notes" (Paris, 1920-1940) and others, including number in foreign languages. In the first half of the 1920s, most of these publications were oriented towards Russia, where most of the circulation was illegally delivered. Since the mid-1920s, the ties between the AKP Foreign Delegation and Russia have been weakening, and the Socialist-Revolutionary press begins to spread mainly among the émigré community. In the second half of the 1930s. Socialist-Revolutionaries in the most significant of the émigré literary magazines, Sovremennye Zapiski, called on Soviet Russia "back to capitalism."
see also
Notes
Literature
- Pavlenkov F. F. Encyclopedic Dictionary. SPb., 1913 (5th ed.).
- Eltsin B. M.(ed.) Political Dictionary. M.; L .: Krasnaya nov, 1924 (2nd ed.).
- Supplement to the Encyclopedic Dictionary // In the reprint of the 5th edition of the Encyclopedic Dictionary by F. Pavlenkov, New York, 1956.
- Radkey O.H. The Sickle under the Hammer: The Russian Socialist Revolutionaries in the Early Months of Soviet Rule. N.Y.; L.: Columbia University Press, 1963. 525 p.
- Gusev K.V. The Socialist-Revolutionary Party: From Petty-Bourgeois Revolutionaryism to Counter-Revolution: An Historical Sketch / KV Gusev. M.: Thought, 1975. - 383 p.
- Gusev K.V. Terror knights. M.: Luch, 1992.
- Party of Socialist Revolutionaries after the October Revolution of 1917: Documents from the archives of P.S.-R. / Collected and supplied with notes and an outline of the history of the party in the post-revolutionary period by Marc Jansen. Amsterdam: Stichting beheer IISG, 1989. 772 p.
- Leonov M.I. Party of Socialist Revolutionaries in 1905 - 1907. - M .: ROSSPEN, 1997. - 512 p. - ISBN 5-86004-118-7
- Morozov K. N. Party of Socialist Revolutionaries in 1907-1914 / K. N. Morozov. M.: ROSSPEN, 1998. - 624 p.
- Morozov K. N. The Trial of Socialist-Revolutionaries and Prison Confrontation (1922-1926): Ethics and Tactics of Confrontation / K. N. Morozov. M.: ROSSPEN, 2005. 736 p.
- Suslov A. Yu. Socialist-revolutionaries in Soviet Russia: sources and historiography / A. Yu. Suslov. Kazan: Kazan Publishing House. state technol. un-ta, 2007.
- Programs of the main Russian parties: 1. People's Socialists. 2. Social - Democratic Labor Party. 3. Socialist-revolutionaries. 4. Party of People's Freedom. 5. The Octobrist parties (Union of October 17, 1905). 6. Peasant union. 7. National Democratic-Republican Party. 8. Political parties of various nationalities in Russia ("Ukrainians", "Bund", etc.): with the appendix of articles: a) On Russian parties, b) Bolsheviks and Mensheviks. - [M.], . - 64 p.
- Chernomordik S. Socialist-Revolutionaries: (Party of Socialist Revolutionaries) .- H .: Proletary, 1929.- 61 p.- (What parties were in Russia)
- Shulyatikov V. M. Dying party. "Workers' banner". March 1908, No I.
From "Narodnaya Volya" (populism) to social revolutionaries
A political party is an organized group of like-minded people representing the interests of a part of the people and aiming to realize them by conquering state power or participating in its implementation. All political parties of the early 20th century, in accordance with their vision of the future of Russia, can be divided into three groups: socialist, liberal, traditionalist.
The first political parties appeared in the Russian Empire even before the start of the revolution of 1905-1907. Moreover, these were parties, as a rule, of national and socialist orientation. Liberal and traditionalist-monarchist parties were formed only during the first Russian revolution.
A feature of the first multi-party system in Russia was a significant number of parties, their diversity even within the same direction. Various splits, divisions, fragmentation and mergers did not pass almost a single organization. It was very important that the formation of political parties did not proceed under the influence of an impulse "from below", when more active members of it stood out from the ranks of a particular social group or class to defend common socialist and political interests, but, on the contrary, when representatives of one or another social stratum - the intelligentsia - divided among themselves the spheres of authorized representation of the interests of almost all groups of the Russian population. Therefore, the composition of not only the leading core of political parties, but often the rank and file members was predominantly intellectual. Finally, the fact that the revolutionary socialist parties were the first to take shape greatly reduced the chances of Russian society for evolutionary development, leaving almost no alternative to the country's revolutionary development.
Among the numerous organizations of the revolutionary socialist direction, the two largest all-Russian parties, the RSDLP and the AKP (Socialist-Revolutionary Party), stood out.
In 1901-1902. some populist circles and groups merged into the party of socialist revolutionaries (Socialist-Revolutionaries). An important role in this association was played by the newspaper Revolutionary Russia, which was published first in Russia (illegally), and then abroad, and became the official organ of the party. Such veterans of the populist movement as N.V. Tchaikovsky and M.A. Natanson joined the Social Revolutionaries. The main theoretician and prominent leader of the party was V. M. Chernov, a native of peasants who had been engaged in underground activities since his gymnasium years. Until 1917, the Social Revolutionaries were in an illegal position. They relied mainly on the kulaks; the Socialist-Revolutionaries are the left wing of bourgeois democracy; party members are the petty bourgeoisie.
In their program, the Socialist-Revolutionaries retained the Narodnik thesis of the peasant community as the germ of socialism. The interests of the peasants, they said, are identical with the interests of the workers and the working intelligentsia. The "working people," the Socialist-Revolutionaries believed, consisted of these three groups. They considered themselves to be at the forefront. The Socialist-Revolutionaries divided the whole society into those who live on the money earned by their labor, and those who use unearned income, that is, unlike the Marxists, who included only the proletariat in the concept of "working people", the Socialist-Revolutionaries united the peasantry, hired workers, and intelligentsia with this concept. . They considered the main contradiction of the time to be the contradiction between the authorities and society, between the peasant masses and large landowners.
The coming revolution was presented to them as socialist. They assigned the main role to the peasantry.
Requirements:
- a democratic republic;
- universal suffrage;
- federal relations between individual nationalities;
- freedom of conscience, press, speech, assembly;
- universal primary education;
- destruction of the standing army;
- introduction of an eight-hour working day;
- transfer of land for public use;
The central point of the Socialist-Revolutionary agrarian policy was the demand for the "socialization" of land, which meant the elimination of private property in the countryside and the transfer of land to "non-estate rural and urban communities." The use of land, according to the Socialist-Revolutionaries, was to be based on the equalizing labor principle.
The Socialist-Revolutionary Party did not take shape as a disciplined and centralized organization. There was always a lot of anarchy and amateur activity of individual leaders and circles in it. For this reason, the Socialist-Revolutionaries for a very long time (until 1905) could not convene their first congress. The Central Committee, which arose almost without authorization, without being elected, did not enjoy great authority. Due to frequent arrests, its composition was constantly changing. In the first years of its existence, the unity of the party was maintained mainly by the efforts of three energetic leaders: G. A. Gershuni, E. F. Azef and M. R. Gotz.
Gershuni is a modest pharmacy worker by profession, he was once fond of cultural and educational work, and then he adopted the ideas of extreme radicalism and moved to an illegal position. Azef combined his studies in Karlsruhe and Darmschat with participation in the work of revolutionary circles abroad. Having received an engineering degree, he completely immersed himself in affairs related to the revolution and became one of the founders of the Socialist-Revolutionary Party. M. Gotz, the son of a millionaire merchant, was the main organizer of all the work of the party abroad and generously financed it.
Since the Socialist-Revolutionary Party is a party of socialist orientation, it often entered into coalitions with parties of this kind.
On July 14, 1905, a meeting of the Social Democratic Party and the labor group of the Duma, the Central Committee of the RSDLP and the Central Committee of the Socialist-Revolutionary Party, the All-Russian Constituent Union, etc., took place in Helsingfors. army and navy join the people.
The party program was attractive to the broad masses of the people, primarily to the intelligentsia. The membership of the party grew rapidly. By the beginning of the first Russian revolution, it was 2.5 thousand people. Of this number, about 70% were intelligentsia, about 25% were workers, peasants accounted for just over 1.5%, although the party was created as a peasant party. The Socialist-Revolutionary Party inherited the tactics of individual terror from Narodnaya Volya. The Central Committee never succeeded in bringing the Combat Organization, which was "an isolated and closed group with iron discipline," under its full control. At first, the "Combat Organization" was headed by Gershuni. In 1902, the Social Revolutionary militant S. V. Balmateev shot the Minister of the Interior D. S. Sinyagin. In 1903, the Ufa governor N. M. Bogdanovich, the main culprit of the "Zlatoust massacre", was killed. At the same time, Gershuni was captured and sent to hard labor. The "combat organization" was headed by Azef. On June 15, 1904, Yegor Sezov threw a bomb into the carriage of the Minister of the Interior V. K. Plehve. The terrorist acts directed against the most hated members of the regime created an exaggerated idea of the strength of the Socialist-Revolutionary Party. But it was a slippery slope, which later cost the Socialist-Revolutionaries dearly. The Socialist-Revolutionaries continued the tactics of individual terror even during the years of the first Russian revolution. On February 4, 1905, I. P. Kalyaev killed the uncle of the tsar, Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich.
In August 1906, Z. V. Konoplyannikov shot General G. A. Min, commander of the Semyonovsky regiment, which suppressed the Moscow uprising. In total, during the years of the revolution, the Social Revolutionaries committed about 200 terrorist acts.
Socialist-Revolutionary agitators sent to the countryside called for "agrarian terror" (arson and destruction of landowners' estates, felling in the manor's forests, etc.) . However, the Social Revolutionaries failed to organize a general uprising in the countryside.
The activities of the Socialist-Revolutionaries among the workers expanded. Particularly susceptible to their influence were workers who had not yet had time to break with the earth, primarily textile workers. The Moscow Prokhorovskaya Manufactory has become a real SR citadel.
Socialist-Revolutionary workers' squads and peasant brotherhoods needed weapons. Buying it abroad and transporting it to Russia required a lot of money. Trying to solve this problem, some Socialist-Revolutionaries have shown promiscuity in their means.
At the end of August 1905, near the coast of Finland, the steamer "John Grafton" ran into stones and crashed with weapons and ammunition destined for Polish socialists, Finnish militants, Social Revolutionaries and Bolsheviks. The preparation of the operation was carried out by the leader of the Finnish party of "active resistance" K. Zilliakus, the Socialist-Revolutionaries N.V. Tchaikovsky and F.V. Volkhovsky. The Socialist-Revolutionary leadership could well guess where these three got the money to buy weapons and ship equipment, but preferred not to know about anything, because the money was received from the Japanese military agent in Stockholm, Colonel M. Akashi.
On the other hand, however, Volkhovsky and Tchaikovsky acted clearly at their own peril and risk. Discipline was still weak in the Socialist-Revolutionary Party. The Central Committee consisted of 30-40 people, no one fully remembered its composition and did not take it into account. In the "days of freedom" having moved to Russia, the Socialist-Revolutionary Central Committee was divided into the St. Petersburg and Moscow branches, which often issued conflicting orders.
Split in the Socialist-Revolutionary Party: Separation of Maximalists and Socialist-Revolutionaries
I Congress of the Socialist-Revolutionary Party was held at the turn of 1905-1906. It officially approved the party program, written by V. M. Chernov, and the party charter, in accordance with which a Central Committee of five people was elected. Between congresses, a party council could be convened, consisting of members of the Central Committee and representatives of regional and metropolitan committees. The Party Council could cancel the decision of the Central Committee. During the revolution, the membership of the party reached 50-60 thousand people.
The new Central Committee tried to improve discipline, but ran into strong resistance. Almost the entire Moscow organization went over to the opposition and withdrew from obedience. Splits occurred in other organizations as well. Socialist-Revolutionary "dissidents" called themselves maximalists. The policy of the Central Committee seemed to them opportunistic, sluggish and inconsistent. They believed that the socialist system could be introduced immediately if they fought resolutely against the autocracy and the exploiting classes. Therefore, the Maximalists almost did not engage in agitation, did not join legal organizations (trade unions, cooperatives, etc.), but focused on individual terror and expropriations. The recognized leader of the Maximalists was M. I. Sokolov, one of the leaders of the December armed uprising of 1905 in Moscow.
Ignoring the bourgeois-democratic stage of the revolution, the Maximalists insisted on the immediate implementation of the Socialist-Revolutionary maximum program (hence the name of the group): the simultaneous socialization of both land and factories. The decisive role in the socialist revolution was assigned to the "initiative minority" - an organization based on the "working peasantry". Maximalists recognized individual terror and expropriation as the main method for the destruction of capitalism.
In October 1906, the first founding conference of the Union of Maximalists took place in Abo (Finland). But even before the conference, they declared themselves a number of high-profile cases. In March 1906, a group of militants led by V. V. Mazurin raided the Moscow Mutual Credit Society and seized 875 thousand rubles. On August 12, the dacha of the Minister of the Interior on Aptekarsky Island in St. Petersburg was blown up. The assassination attempt was made during office hours, so the number of victims turned out to be large (27 people were killed, including three terrorists). Stolypin did not suffer, but his children were among the wounded. “I am quite satisfied,” Sokolov, who was present at the assassination, said. “These“ human victims ”? A swarm of guards, they should have been shot individually ... It’s not about eliminating (Stolypin), but about intimidation, they must know what is coming at them force".
The police launched a real hunt for maximalists. Arrests and executions began. On September 1, 1906, Mazurin was hanged, on December 2, Sokolov. By the end of the revolution, small groups dispersed throughout the country remained from the Union of Maximalists.
Unlike the Maximalists, the Socialist-Revolutionary leadership tried to combine legal and illegal methods of struggle. True, the elections to the First Duma were boycotted. Later, convinced of the fallacy of this decision, the Social Revolutionaries tried to establish contacts with the Duma Labor Group. These attempts were not very successful.
After the dissolution of the First Duma in July 1906, the Socialist-Revolutionaries, who had strong organizations in the army and navy, spurred military mutinies in Sveaborg, Kronstadt, and Revel. The idea was to surround Petersburg with a ring of uprisings and force the government to capitulate. But the authorities quickly coped with the situation. The uprisings were put down, followed by numerous executions.
The Social Revolutionaries conducted active propaganda among the troops, among the intelligentsia. They actively participated in all the revolutionary uprisings of 1905-1906. (in the uprisings in the navy, the All-Russian October political strike, the December armed uprising, etc.).
The Socialist-Revolutionaries got 37 of their representatives into the Second Duma, much less than the Social Democrats and Trudoviks. The Socialist-Revolutionary group submitted a project for the socialization of the land to the Duma and tried to defend it, but did not have much success. In general, in the Second Duma, the Socialist-Revolutionaries did not show themselves in any way. The tactics of parliamentary struggle and the technique of legislative work required completely different skills.
In the history of the First Duma, a small but significant role was played by a small group of students of N.K. ). Realizing that the peasants were committed to a peaceful reform, with the transfer of the main part of the landowners' land into their hands, but without a general "equalization" and a general shake-up of land, they helped the peasant deputies unite in the "Labor Group" and draw up a draft agrarian reform, which became known as "Project 104's".
In preparation for the elections to the Second Duma, the Russian Wealth group created an illegal peasant party.
At the Socialist-Revolutionary congress in 1908, it was noted with alarm: "Any success of the government in the agrarian reform causes serious damage to the cause of the revolution."
During the period of reaction, the Socialist-Revolutionaries embarked on the path of "otzovism", recognizing primarily "extra-parliamentary" means of struggle. In practice, this meant the development of all the same terrorist activities.
The stake on terror gave rise to narrowly conservative organizational forms in the party: the activities of individual groups and certain individuals were strictly classified and carried out uncontrollably. In such circumstances, the tsarist secret police managed to introduce their provocateurs into the Socialist-Revolutionary Party. However, the internal party crisis destroyed these plans. In 1908, the so-called "Azef case" was opened. It turned out that a member of the Central Committee and the head of the "Combat Organization" of the Socialist-Revolutionaries for many years was an agent of the tsarist secret police Yevno Azef. Under his leadership, the murders of Plehve and Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich were organized. He enjoyed boundless confidence and complete lack of control on the part of the party. Azef's betrayal cost the Socialist-Revolutionary Party dearly: many dozens of revolutionaries were arrested and hanged. Among the rank-and-file Socialist-Revolutionaries, the "Azef case" caused genuine confusion. The immediate result of the "case" was the dissolution of the "Combat Organization" and the resignation of the Central Committee. In subsequent years, the number of Socialist-Revolutionary organizations, circulation and titles of printed publications was continuously reduced. In the party, as well as in the RSDLP, there were liquidators who offered to restructure the AKP for legal activity.
Numerous terrorist acts did not prevent the onset of reaction, did not prevent harsh repressions against the democratic forces. Ultra-revolutionary and ultra-terrorist views caused general disappointment. The prestige of the Socialist-Revolutionary Party was dealt a severe blow.
The disagreements that arose led to a new split in the Socialist-Revolutionary Party. The right wing, during the course of the revolution, organized itself into the party of "People's Socialists" (Socialist-Revolutionaries), which leaned towards legal forms of activity. This position brought the Socialist-Revolutionaries closer to the Trudovik deputies of the First State Duma.
The first attempt to create a party by uniting this group with the Trudoviks was made back in May-June 1906. On June 14, the participants in the constituent assembly elected the Organizing Committee of the Labor (People's Socialist) Party of 28 people, including the labor group did not support this idea. The Popular Socialist Party was created by A. V. Peshekhonov, V. A. Myakotin, N. F. Annensky, S. Ya. Elpatevsky and others.
They took part in election campaigns, organized workers' strikes, and appeared in the legal press. The Social Revolutionaries were distinguished by the confidence characteristic of liberal populism. During the years of the revolution, their views gradually shifted to the right. For the tsarist secret police, they were not of serious interest, and therefore the wave of repressions did not affect them much. The main part of the Socialist-Revolutionary Party during the years of reaction continued to adhere to its former positions. However, terror was dying. The Socialist-Revolutionary Party actually broke up into disparate groups that expressed doubts about the viability of the program based on the old populist ideas. By 1910 the membership of the party had been greatly reduced, so that of all the petty-bourgeois tendencies, the Narodnik currents exerted the most corrupting influence on the working-class movement.
Viktor Mikhailovich Chernov
Chernov Viktor Mikhailovich (1873, Novouzensk, Samara Province - 1952, New York, USA) - party leader SRs.
Born in the family of an official who served as hereditary nobility. While studying at the gymnasium, Chernov was already involved in revolutionary circles. In 1892 he entered the Moscow Faculty of Law. university In 1894 he was arrested for participating in populist circles and after 8 months. imprisonment in the Peter and Paul Fortress, he was exiled for 3 years to Tambov, where he was actively engaged in journalism and conducted propaganda work among the peasants. In 1899, after the end of his exile, Chernov legally went abroad. Studying the experience of Western European socialism, communicating with the leaders of the Russian emigration, Chernov began to develop an agrarian theory. In 1901-1902 the major Narodnik organizations united to form the Socialist-Revolutionary (Socialist-Revolutionary) Party. One of the founders of the party, a member of its Central Committee, editor of the newspaper. "Revolutionary Russia" and Chernov became the leading theoretician. He was the author of the program, in which he expressed his point of view on the future of the country: the socialization of the land, i.e. the conversion of state and landed estates into public ownership, followed by equal distribution. In the political field, the demand was put forward for "complete democratization of the entire state and legal system on the basis of freedom and equality." In 1905 he illegally returned to Russia, actively participating in the revolution ("We boil with life and live in the burning and thrill of the minute"). The defeat of the revolution, and most importantly, the disclosure of betrayal E.F. Azef Chernov experienced it as a personal tragedy, although he continued to preach the need for individual terror. Having emigrated in 1908, Chernov lived in France and Italy, developing the theoretical questions of socialism, and practically moving away from party affairs until 1914. During the First World War, he opposed the defensists, participated in the Zimmerwald (1915) and Kienthal (1916) international conferences of internationalists. After the February Revolution of 1917 he returned to Russia. Realizing the nature of the bourgeois-democratic revolution, Chernov considered it necessary to support the Provisional Government and in May-August 1917 was agriculture minister, but, having failed in the struggle for agrarian legislation, Chernov retired. He acted as an unconditional opponent of the October Revolution. In 1918 he was elected chairman of the Constituent Assembly, which refused to discuss the agenda imposed by the Bolsheviks, and therefore dispersed by force. Having left for Samara, he headed the congress of members of the Constituent Assembly. After seizing power A.V. Kolchak opposed him, was arrested, but soon released by the Czechs. In 1919 they wrote. IN AND. Lenin letter: "Your communist regime is a lie - it has long degenerated into bureaucracy at the top, into a new corvée, into forced hard labor below. Your "Soviet power" is entirely a lie - poorly covered arbitrariness of one party ..." In 1920, Chernov illegally left the country, lived in Estonia, Latvia, Czechoslovakia, France. With the outbreak of World War II, Chernov took part in the resistance movement. In 1940 he left for the USA. He left behind a huge archive, memoirs ("Notes of a Socialist-Revolutionary" and "Before the Storm").
Used materials of the book: Shikman A.P. Figures of national history. Biographical guide. Moscow, 1997