The political sphere of the Socialist-Revolutionaries. Socialist-Revolutionary Party: who are they? Their goals and program. Origins and creation
It is known that in the period following the overthrow of the monarchy, the most influential political force in Russia was the Socialist-Revolutionary Party (SR), which numbered about a million of its followers. However, despite the fact that its representatives occupied a number of prominent positions in the government of the country, and the program was supported by the majority of citizens, the Social Revolutionaries did not manage to keep power in their hands. The revolutionary year of 1917 was the period of their triumph and the beginning of tragedy.
The birth of a new party
In January 1902, the underground newspaper Revolutionary Russia, published abroad, informed its readers about the appearance on the political horizon of a new party, whose members call themselves social revolutionaries. It is unlikely that this event received at that moment a significant resonance in society, since at that time, structures similar to it often appeared and disappeared. Nevertheless, the creation of the Socialist-Revolutionary Party was a significant milestone in national history.
Despite the publication of 1902, its creation occurred much earlier than announced in the newspaper. Eight years earlier, an illegal revolutionary circle had formed in Saratov, which had close ties with the local branch of the Narodnaya Volya party, which was living out its last days by that time. When it was finally liquidated by the Okhrana, the members of the circle began to act independently and two years later developed their own program.
Initially, it was distributed in the form of leaflets printed on a hectograph - a very primitive printing device, which, nevertheless, made it possible to make the required number of prints. In the form of a brochure, this document saw the light only in 1900, published in the printing house of one of the foreign branches of the party that had appeared by that time.
Merging together the two branches of the party
In 1897, members of the Saratov circle, led by Andrei Argunov, moved to Moscow and in a new place began to call their organization the Northern Union of Socialist Revolutionaries. They had to introduce this geographical specification into the name, since similar organizations, whose members also called themselves socialist revolutionaries, had appeared by that time in Odessa, Kharkov, Poltava and a number of other cities. They, in turn, became known as the Southern Union. In 1904, these two branches of an essentially single organization merged, as a result of which the Socialist-Revolutionary Party, well known to everyone, was formed. It was headed by the permanent leader Viktor Chernov (his photo is presented in the article).
The tasks that the Socialist-Revolutionaries set themselves
The program of the Social Revolutionary Party had a number of points that distinguished it from most of the then existing political organizations. Among them were:
- The formation of the Russian state on a federal basis, in which it will consist of independent territories (subjects of the federation) that have the right to self-determination.
- Universal suffrage, extending to citizens who have reached the age of 20, regardless of gender, nationality and religious affiliation;
- Guaranteed respect for fundamental civil liberties such as freedom of conscience, speech, press, association, unions, etc.
- Free public education.
- Reducing the working day to 8 hours.
- The reform of the armed forces, in which they cease to be a permanent state structure.
- Separation of church and state.
In addition, the program included a few more points, repeating, in essence, the requirements of other political organizations that aspired to power, as well as the Socialist-Revolutionaries. The highest organ of party power of the social revolutionaries was the Congresses, and between them all the current issues were decided by the Soviets. The main slogan of the party was the call "Land and freedom!"
Features of the agrarian policy of the Socialist-Revolutionaries
Of all the political parties that existed at that time, the Socialist-Revolutionaries stood out for their attitude towards solving the agrarian question and towards the peasantry as a whole. This class, the most numerous in pre-revolutionary Russia, was, in the opinion of all social democrats, including the Bolsheviks, so backward and devoid of political activity that it could be considered only as an ally and help to the proletariat, which was assigned the role of "locomotive of the revolution."
The Social Revolutionaries took a different view. In their opinion, the revolutionary process in Russia should begin precisely in the countryside and only then spread to the cities and industrialized regions. Therefore, in the transformation of society, the peasants were given almost the leading role.
As for the land policy, here the Socialist-Revolutionaries proposed their own path, different from others. According to their party program, all agricultural land was not subject to nationalization, as the Bolsheviks called for, and not to distribution to individual owners, as the Mensheviks proposed, but to be socialized and transferred to the disposal of local self-government bodies. This way they called the socialization of the land.
At the same time, its private possession, as well as the purchase and sale, were legally prohibited. The final product was subject to distribution, in accordance with established consumer norms, which were directly dependent on the amount of labor invested.
Socialist-Revolutionaries during the First Russian Revolution
It is known that the party of socialist revolutionaries (Socialist-Revolutionaries) was very skeptical about the First Russian Revolution. In the opinion of its leaders, it was not bourgeois, since this class was not able to lead the new society that was being created. The reasons for this lie in the reforms of Alexander II, who opened a wide path for the development of capitalism. They did not consider it socialist either, but came up with a new term - "social revolution".
In general, the theorists of the social revolutionary party believed that the transition to socialism should be carried out in a peaceful, reformist way, without any social upheavals. Nevertheless, a significant number of Socialist-Revolutionaries took an active part in the battles of the First Russian Revolution. For example, their role in the uprising on the battleship Potemkin is well known.
Fighting organization of the Socialist-Revolutionaries
A curious paradox lies in the fact that with all its calls for a peaceful and non-violent path of transformation, the Socialist-Revolutionary Party was remembered primarily for its terrorist activities that began immediately after its creation.
Already in 1902, its combat organization was created, which then numbered 78 people. Its first leader was Grigory Gershuni, then at different stages this post was occupied by Evno Azef and Boris Savinkov. It is recognized that of all the known terrorist formations of the early 20th century, this organization was the most effective. The victims of the committed acts were not only high-ranking officials of the tsarist government and representatives of law enforcement agencies, but also political opponents from among other parties.
The bloody path of the militant organization of the Social Revolutionaries was started in April 1902 by the assassination of the Minister of the Interior D. Sipyagin and the attempt on the life of the Chief Prosecutor of the Holy Synod K. Pobedonostsev. This was followed by a series of new attacks, the most famous of which is the murder of the tsarist minister V. Plehve, carried out in 1904 by Yegor Sazonov, and the uncle of Nicholas II, Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich, committed in 1905 by Ivan Kalyaev.
The peak of the terrorist activity of the Social Revolutionaries falls on 1905-1907. According to reports, the leader of the Socialist-Revolutionary Party V. Chernov and the leadership of the combat group are responsible for committing 223 terrorist attacks during this period alone, as a result of which 7 generals, 33 governors, 2 ministers and the Moscow governor-general were killed. This bloody statistics was continued in subsequent years.
Events of 1917
After the February Revolution, as a political party, the Social Revolutionaries became the most influential public organization in Russia. Their representatives occupied key positions in many newly formed government structures, and the total composition reached a million people. However, despite the rapid rise and popularity of the main provisions of their program among the population of Russia, the Socialist-Revolutionary Party soon lost political leadership, and the Bolsheviks seized power in the country.
Immediately after the October coup, the leader of the Socialist-Revolutionary Party V. Chernov, together with members of the Central Committee, addressed an appeal to all political organizations in Russia, in which he described the actions of Lenin's supporters as madness and a crime. At the same time, at an intra-party meeting, a coordinating committee was created to organize the fight against the usurpers of power. It was headed by the prominent Socialist-Revolutionary Abram Gots.
However, not all members of the party reacted unequivocally to what was happening, and representatives of its left wing expressed support for the Bolsheviks. From that time on, the Left Socialist-Revolutionary Party tried to put its policy into practice on many issues. This caused a split and a general weakening of the organization.
Between two fires
During the years of the Civil War, the Social Revolutionaries tried to fight both the Reds and the Whites, alternately entering into an alliance with one or the other. The leader of the Socialist-Revolutionary Party, who at the beginning of the war declared that the Bolsheviks were the lesser of two evils, very soon began to point out the need for joint action with the White Guards and interventionists.
Of course, none of the representatives of the main opposing sides took the alliance with the Social Revolutionaries seriously, realizing that as soon as circumstances change, yesterday's allies could defect to the camp of opponents. And there were many such examples during the war.
Defeat of the Socialist-Revolutionary Party
In 1919, wanting to make the most of the potential that the Socialist-Revolutionary Party had in itself, Lenin's government decided to legalize it in the territories under its control. However, this did not bring the expected result. The Socialist-Revolutionaries did not stop their attacks on the Bolshevik leadership and the methods of struggle resorted to by the party they led. Even the danger posed by their common enemy could not reconcile the Bolsheviks and the Socialist-Revolutionaries.
As a result, the temporary truce was soon replaced by a new strip of arrests, as a result of which, by the beginning of 1921, the Central Committee of the Social Revolutionary Party had practically ceased to exist. Some of its members had been killed by that time (M. L. Kogan-Bernshtein, I. I. Teterkin, and others), many emigrated to Europe (V. V. Samokhin, N. S. Rusanov, and also party leader V. M. Chernov), and the bulk were in prisons. From that time on, the Socialist-Revolutionaries, as a party, ceased to be a real political force.
Years of emigration
The further history of the Social Revolutionaries is inextricably linked with the Russian emigration, whose ranks were intensively replenished in the first post-revolutionary years. Once abroad after the defeat of the party, which began as early as 1918, the Social Revolutionaries were met there by their fellow party members, who settled in Europe and created a foreign department there long before the revolution.
After the party was banned in Russia, all its surviving and free members were forced to emigrate. They settled mainly in Paris, Berlin, Stockholm and Prague. The general leadership of the activities of foreign cells was carried out by the former head of the party, Viktor Chernov, who left Russia in 1920.
Newspapers published by the Socialist-Revolutionaries
Which party, once in exile, did not have its own printed organ? The Social Revolutionaries were no exception. They issued a number of periodicals, such as the newspapers "Revolutionary Russia", "Modern Notes", "For the People!" and some others. In the 1920s, they managed to be smuggled across the border illegally, and therefore the material published in them was oriented towards the Russian reader. But as a result of the efforts made by the Soviet secret services, the delivery channels were soon blocked, and all newspaper circulations began to be distributed among the emigrants.
Many researchers note that in the articles published in the Socialist-Revolutionary newspapers, not only the rhetoric, but also the general ideological orientation changed from year to year. If at first the party leaders stood mainly in their previous positions, exaggerating the same topic of creating a classless society in Russia, then at the end of the 30s, they openly declared the need to return to capitalism.
Afterword
On this, the Socialist-Revolutionaries (party) practically completed their activities. The year 1917 went down in history as the most successful period of their activity, which soon gave way to unsuccessful attempts to find their place in the new historical realities. Unable to withstand the struggle with a stronger political opponent in the face of the RSDLP (b), headed by Lenin, they were forced to leave the historical stage forever.
However, in the Soviet Union, for many years, people who had nothing to do with it were accused of belonging to the Socialist-Revolutionary Party and propagating its ideology. In an atmosphere of total terror that gripped the country, the very word "SR" was used as a designation of the enemy and was hung as a label on obvious, and more often imaginary oppositionists for their illegal condemnation.
Everyone knows that as a result of the October Revolution and the Civil War that followed, the Bolshevik Party came to power in Russia, which, with various fluctuations in its general line, remained in leadership almost until the collapse of the USSR (1991). The official historiography of the Soviet years inspired the population with the idea that it was this force that enjoyed the greatest support of the masses, while all other political organizations, in one way or another, sought to revive capitalism. This is not entirely true. For example, the Socialist-Revolutionary Party stood on an uncompromising platform, in comparison with which the position of the Bolsheviks sometimes looked relatively peaceful. At the same time, the social revolutionaries criticized the "fighting detachment of the proletariat" headed by Lenin for usurping power and oppressing democracy. So what kind of party was this?
One against all
Of course, after many artistic images created by the masters of "socialist realistic art", the party of socialist revolutionaries looked ominously in the eyes of the Soviet people. The Socialist-Revolutionaries were remembered when the story was about the murder of Uritsky in 1918, the Kronstadt uprising (mutiny) and other facts unpleasant for the communists. It seemed to everyone that they were "pouring water on the mill" of the counter-revolution, they were striving to strangle Soviet power and physically eliminate the Bolshevik leaders. At the same time, it was somehow forgotten that this organization waged a powerful underground struggle against the “tsarist satraps”, carried out an unthinkable number of terrorist acts during the period of two Russian revolutions, and during the Civil War caused a lot of trouble to the White movement. Such ambiguity led to the fact that the Socialist-Revolutionary Party turned out to be hostile to almost all the warring parties, entering into temporary alliances with them and terminating them in the name of achieving their own independent goal. What was it? It is impossible to understand this without familiarizing yourself with the party program.
Origins and creation
It is believed that the creation of the Socialist-Revolutionary Party took place in 1902. This is true in a sense, but not entirely. In 1894, the Saratov Narodnaya Volya Society (underground, of course) developed its own program, which was somewhat more radical than before. It took a couple of years to develop a program, send it abroad, publish it, print leaflets, deliver them to Russia and other manipulations related to the appearance of a new force in the political firmament. At the same time, a small circle at first was headed by a certain Argunov, who renamed it, calling it the "Union of Socialist Revolutionaries." The first measure of the new party was the creation of branches and the establishment of a stable relationship with them, which seems quite logical. Branches were created in the largest cities of the empire - Kharkov, Odessa, Voronezh, Poltava, Penza and, of course, in the capital, St. Petersburg. The process of party building was crowned by the appearance of a printed organ. The program was published on the pages of the Revolutionary Russia newspaper. This leaflet announced that the creation of the Socialist-Revolutionary Party had become a fait accompli. It was in 1902.
Goals
Any political force acts on the basis of a program. This document, adopted by the majority of the founding congress, declares the goals and methods, allies and opponents, the main and those obstacles to be overcome. In addition, the principles of governance, governing bodies and terms of membership are specified. The Socialist-Revolutionaries formulated the tasks of the party as follows:
1. Establishment in Russia of a free and democratic state with a federal structure.
2. Giving all citizens equal suffrage.
4. The right to free education.
5. The abolition of the armed forces as a permanent state structure.
6. Eight-hour working day.
7. Separation of state and church.
There were a few more points, but on the whole they largely repeated the slogans of the Mensheviks, Bolsheviks and other organizations, just as eager to seize power as the Socialist-Revolutionaries. The party program declared the same values and aspirations.
The commonality of the structure was also manifested in the hierarchical ladder described by the charter. The form of government of the Socialist-Revolutionary Party included two levels. Congresses and Soviets (during the inter-congress period) made strategic decisions that were carried out by the Central Committee, which was considered the executive body.
Socialist-Revolutionaries and the agrarian question
At the end of the 19th century, Russia was a predominantly agrarian country, in which the peasantry made up the majority of the population. The class in particular, and the Social Democrats in general, were considered politically backward, prone to private property instincts, and assigned the poorest part of it only the role of the closest ally of the proletariat, the locomotive of the revolution. The Socialist-Revolutionaries looked at this question somewhat differently. The party program provided for the socialization of the land. At the same time, it was not about its nationalization, that is, its transfer to state ownership, but also not its distribution to the working people. In general, according to the Socialist-Revolutionaries, true democracy should have come not from the city to the countryside, but vice versa. Therefore, private ownership of agricultural resources should be abolished, their sale and purchase prohibited and transferred to local governments, which will distribute all the "good" according to consumer standards. Collectively, this was called the "socialization" of the land.
Peasants
It is interesting that, declaring the village a source of socialism, she was rather cautious about its inhabitants themselves. Peasants have never really been particularly politically literate. The leaders and ordinary members of the organization did not know what to expect, the life of the villagers was alien to them. The Socialist-Revolutionaries were “heartbroken” for the oppressed people and, as often happens, believed that they knew how to make them happy, better than themselves. Their participation in the soviets that arose during the First Russian Revolution increased their influence both among the peasants and among the workers. As for the proletariat, there was a critical attitude towards it. In general, the working mass was considered amorphous, and much effort had to be made to rally it.
Terror
The Socialist-Revolutionary Party in Russia gained fame already in the year of its creation. The Minister of Internal Affairs Sipyagin was shot dead by Stepan Balmashev, and G. Girshuni, who led the military wing of the organization, organized this murder. Then there were many terrorist attacks (the most famous of them are the successful assassination attempts on S. A. Romanov, the uncle of Nicholas II, and Minister Plehve). After the revolution, the Left Socialist-Revolutionary Party continued the murderous list, many Bolshevik leaders, with whom there were significant disagreements, became its victims. In the ability to organize individual terrorist attacks and reprisals against individual opponents, no political party could compete with the AKP. The Socialist-Revolutionaries really eliminated the head of the Petrograd Cheka, Uritsky. As for the assassination attempt committed at the Michelson plant, this story is vague, but their involvement cannot be completely ruled out. However, in terms of the scale of mass terror, they were far from the Bolsheviks. However, perhaps if they came to power ...
Azef
The personality is legendary. Yevno Azef led the military organization and, as was irrefutably proven, collaborated with the detective department of the Russian Empire. And most importantly, in both of these structures, which are so different in goals and tasks, they were very pleased with him. Azef organized a number of terrorist attacks against representatives of the tsarist administration, but at the same time handed over a huge number of militants to the Okhrana. Only in 1908 did the Socialist-Revolutionaries expose him. What party would tolerate such a traitor in its ranks? The Central Committee pronounced the verdict - death. Azef was already almost in the hands of his former comrades, but he was able to deceive them and run away. How he succeeded is not entirely clear, but the fact remains: until 1918, he lived and died not from poison, a noose or a bullet, but from a kidney disease that he “earned” in a Berlin prison.
Savinkov
The Socialist-Revolutionary Party attracted many adventurers in spirit who were looking for a point of application for their criminal talents. One of them was who began his political career as a liberal, and then joined the terrorists. He joined the Social Revolutionary Party a year after its creation, was Azef's first deputy, took part in the preparation of many terrorist attacks, including the most resonant ones, was sentenced to death, fled. After the October Revolution, he fought against Bolshevism. He claimed supreme power in Russia, collaborated with Denikin, was familiar with Churchill and Pilsudski. Savinkov committed suicide following his arrest by the Cheka in 1924.
Gershuni
Grigory Andreevich Gershuni was one of the most active members of the militant wing of the Socialist-Revolutionary Party. He directly supervised the execution of terrorist acts against Minister Sipyagin, the attempted assassination of the governor of Kharkov Obolensky and many other actions designed to achieve public well-being. He acted everywhere - from Ufa and Samara to Geneva - organizing and coordinating the activities of local underground circles. He was arrested, but Gershuni managed to avoid severe punishment, as he, in violation of party ethics, stubbornly denied his involvement in a conspiratorial structure. Nevertheless, there was a failure in Kyiv, and in 1904 a sentence followed: exile. The escape led Grigory Andreevich to the Parisian emigration, where he soon died. This was a true artist of terror. The main disappointment of his life was the betrayal of Azef.
Party in the Civil War
The Bolshevikization of the Soviets, implanted, according to the Socialist-Revolutionaries, artificially, and carried out by dishonest methods, led to the withdrawal of representatives of the party from them. Further activity was sporadic. The Social Revolutionaries entered into temporary alliances with either the Whites or the Reds, and both sides understood that it was dictated only by momentary political interests. Having received a majority in the party, it was unable to consolidate its success. In 1919, the Bolsheviks, given the value of the terrorist experience of the organization, decided to legalize its activities in the territories they controlled, but this step did not affect the intensity of anti-Soviet speeches. However, the Socialist-Revolutionaries at times declared a moratorium on speeches, supporting one of the fighting parties. In 1922, the members of the AKP were finally "exposed" as enemies of the revolution, and their complete eradication began throughout the territory of Soviet Russia.
In exile
The foreign delegation of the AKP arose long before the actual defeat of the party, in 1918. This structure was not approved by the central committee, but, nevertheless, existed in Stockholm. After the actual ban on activities in Russia, almost all the surviving and remaining free members of the party ended up in emigration. They concentrated mainly in Prague, Berlin and Paris. Viktor Chernov, who fled abroad in 1920, headed the work of foreign cells. In addition to Revolutionary Russia, other periodicals were published in exile (For the People!, Sovremennye Zapiski), which reflected the main idea that gripped the former underground workers who had recently fought against the exploiters. By the end of the 1930s, they realized the need to restore capitalism.
End of the Socialist-Revolutionary Party
The struggle of the Chekists with the surviving Socialist-Revolutionaries has become the subject of many fiction novels and films. In general, the picture of these works corresponded to reality, although it was presented distortedly. In fact, by the mid-1920s, the Socialist-Revolutionary movement was a political corpse, completely harmless to the Bolsheviks. Inside Soviet Russia, the Social Revolutionaries (former) were mercilessly caught, and sometimes social revolutionary views were even attributed to people who had never shared them. Successfully carried out operations to lure especially odious party members to the USSR were intended rather to justify the coming repressions, presented as another exposure of underground anti-Soviet organizations. Trotskyists, Zinovievites, Bukharinites, Martovites and other former Bolsheviks, who suddenly became objectionable, soon replaced the Socialist-Revolutionaries in the dock. But that's a different story...
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MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND SCIENCE
RUSSIAN FEDERATION
Federal State Budgetary Educational Institution of Higher Professional Education
MOSCOW STATE MACHINE-BUILDING UNIVERSITY "MAMI"
Department of History and Political Science
"Party of Social Revolutionaries"
Lyndin A.O
Scientific adviser: Associate Professor, Ph.D. Kharlamova T.I
Moscow - 2012
FROMcontent
Introduction
1. The emergence of the Socialist-Revolutionary Party, the governing bodies, the Party Program
2. The role of the Socialist-Revolutionary Party in three revolutions
Pre-revolutionary period
The period of the first Russian revolution
After the February Revolution
After the October Revolution
Conclusion
List of sources, literature, Internet resources
test questions
Introduction
When was the Socialist-Revolutionary Party founded? What policies did the party leaders pursue? What role did the Socialist-Revolutionary Party play in the history of Russia? How did the revolutions affect it, weakened it or made it stronger? What was the fate of the party during the period of its existence?
How did she reach her power, her peak, and her fall? Why did people support her?
What a contribution the Socialist-Revolutionary Party has made to history. There are various literary materials, articles, abstracts. Even after many years, historians analyze the game and discover something new from that time. What contribution did the Socialist-Revolutionary Party make to the history of Russia?
Objectives of this work:
Show the foundation of the Socialist-Revolutionary Party;
Determine the role of the Socialist-Revolutionary Party in politics;
Learn about the influence of the Socialist-Revolutionary Party on the revolutionary process;
To characterize the party and its contribution to history, several books have been read and analyzed, the main source of information is: A reader on the history of Russia by A.S. .I. Kharlamova).
“The Party of Socialist-Revolutionaries (Socialist-Revolutionaries) took shape in 1902 on the basis of the union of circles. The illegal newspaper "Revolutionary Russia" became the mouthpiece of the party. The Socialist-Revolutionaries considered the peasants their social support, but the composition of the party was predominantly intellectual. The leader and ideologist of the Social Revolutionaries was V.M. Chernov.”
Special attention in A.S. Orlov's reader and in the textbook of the Department of History and Political Science, edited by T.I.
1 . The emergence of the Socialist-Revolutionary Party
The Party of Socialist Revolutionaries was created on the basis of pre-existing populist organizations and occupied one of the leading places in the system of Russian political parties. The formation of the party was quite lengthy; its founding congress, which approved the program and charter, took place at the turn of 1905-1906. It was the largest of the socialist parties. The leader and ideologist of the Social Revolutionaries was V. M. Chernov. The fate of the Socialist-Revolutionaries was the most dramatic than in other parties. The year 1917 was a triumph and a tragedy for the party. In a short time after the February Revolution, the party turned into the largest political force, reached the million mark in terms of its membership, acquired a dominant position in local self-government bodies and most public organizations, and won elections to the Constituent Assembly. Its representatives have high positions in the government. People were attracted to it by the democratic socialism that the party preached. However, despite all the power of the party, the Socialist-Revolutionaries could not hold on to power.
Controls: The Socialist-Revolutionaries had several governing bodies: 1. The highest body was the Congress of the Party of Socialist-Revolutionaries, the Council of the Party of Socialist-Revolutionaries.
2. The executive body is the Central Committee of the Party of Socialist-Revolutionaries.
Party program: Like every party, the Socialist-Revolutionaries needed a program, an idea that would make it clear to the people that this party was better and more modern than the others. The draft program of the Social Revolutionaries was published at the very beginning of the creation of the party in May 1904. After that, the program, with minor changes, was approved at the first congress in early January 1906. This program remained the main document of the party throughout its existence.
“The program of the Socialist-Revolutionaries was built according to the template of the programs of other then socialist parties. It contained four main blocks. The first was devoted to the analysis of the world system of capitalism, the second - to the international socialist movement opposing it, the third gave a description of the peculiar conditions for the development of socialism in Russia, the fourth outlined the specific program of this movement.
The main author of the program was the main theorist of the party, Viktor Chernov, the Social Revolutionaries were supporters of democratic socialism, that is, economic and political democracy, where there should have been organizations such as trade unions, cooperative unions, and a democratic state, where there should have been a parliament and self-government bodies. The theory of the Socialist-Revolutionaries was the socialization of agriculture.
The 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 turning it into state property. Secondly, the transfer of all land to the control of central and local organs of people's self-government, beginning with democratically organized rural and urban communities and ending with regional and central institutions. Thirdly, the use of land was supposed to be equalizing 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 the most important prerequisite for socialism. She proposed to ensure the peaceful transition of Russia to socialism. The program also spoke about the establishment of a democratic republic with human and civil rights: freedom of conscience, speech, press, equal suffrage without distinction of nationality, religion and gender.
2 . The role of the Socialist-Revolutionary Party in three revolutions
prerevolutionaryionic period
There were few Socialist-Revolutionary parties, one of the very first parties arose in 1894. in the Saratov circle, in connection with the group of Narodnaya Volya "Flying Leaf". There were also populist-socialist groups and circles in such cities as: Petersburg, Penza, Voronezh, Odessa and others. In 1902 The terrorist party (BO) of the Socialist-Revolutionaries committed a terrorist act against the Minister of the Interior Dmitry Sipyagin. There were over 80 people in the party, they were given a task for the next terrorist act and indicated the desired deadline for its execution.
The period of the first Russian revolution
SR party revolution public
The bourgeois revolution of 1905-1907 was primarily concerned with the agrarian question. But the Socialist-Revolutionaries did not consider it bourgeois and socialist, calling it "social." The main driving force in the revolution was the peasants, the proletariat and the working intelligentsia. The Socialist-Revolutionaries said that the transition to socialism must be accomplished peacefully. During the period of revolution, party agitation and propaganda intensifies. The fighting party of the Social Revolutionaries committed terrorist acts. In the autumn of 1906, the militant organization was disbanded and replaced by flying combat units, which led to even more terrorist attacks. The Social Revolutionaries actively participated in the organization of professional political unions. During the revolution, the composition of the party changed significantly. The overwhelming majority of its members were now workers and peasants. Also in 1905-1906, the right wing left the party, and the left wing dissociated itself. The revolution had the largest number of acts in the entire history of the Socialist-Revolutionary Party.
After the February Revolution
The Socialist-Revolutionary Party actively participated in the political life of the country after the February Revolution of 1917, formed a bloc with the Menshevik defencists and was the largest party of that 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 Socialist-Revolutionaries entered the coalition Provisional Government, the members of the Socialist-Revolutionary Party were: Alexander Kerensky (Minister of Justice of the Provisional Government, Minister of War, later Prime Minister); Viktor Chernov - Minister of Agriculture; Nikolai Avksentiev - Minister of the Interior, Chairman of the Pre-Parliament.
After the October Revolution
In the appeal of the Central Committee of the AKP "To the entire revolutionary democracy of Russia", issued on October 25, 1917, the attempt of the Bolsheviks to seize state power by armed force was called "insane". The Socialist-Revolutionary faction left the Second Congress of Soviets of Workers' and Soldiers' Deputies, declaring that the seizure of power by the Bolsheviks was a crime against the motherland and the revolution. To coordinate the actions of the anti-Bolshevik democratic forces, the Committee for the Salvation of the Motherland and the Revolution was created, headed by Abram Gotz. However, the Left SRs supported the Bolsheviks and became part of the Council of People's Commissars. The IV Congress of the Socialist-Revolutionary Party, which was held in Petrograd from November 26 to December 5, 1917, confirmed the decisions of the Central Committee on the exclusion from the party of the Left Socialist-Revolutionary Internationalists, as well as those party members who were part of the Soviet government. At the same time, the congress condemned the policy pursued by the Central Committee of a coalition of all anti-Bolshevik forces and approved the decision of the Central Committee to expel the extreme right SR-defencists from the party. The Social Revolutionaries won the majority in the elections to the All-Russian Constituent Assembly. They played an active role in the Union for the Defense of the Constituent Assembly, headed by Vasily Filippovsky. At a meeting of the Central Committee of the AKP, held on January 3, 1918, it was rejected, "as an untimely and unreliable act," an armed uprising on the day of the opening of the Constituent Assembly, proposed by the military commission of the party. The Socialist-Revolutionary leader Viktor Chernov was elected chairman of the Constituent Assembly, which opened on January 5, 1918 and worked for only one day. After the dissolution of the Constituent Assembly, the struggle for the immediate resumption of its work was proclaimed the top priority of the party.
The VIII Council of the AKP, which took place in Moscow from May 7 to May 16, 1918, called the elimination of the Bolshevik dictatorship the "next and urgent" task of all democracy. The council warned party members against conspiratorial tactics in the fight against Bolshevism, but declared that the party would render all possible assistance to the mass movement of democracy, aimed at replacing "commissar power with real people's power." In early June 1918, the Socialist-Revolutionaries, relying on the support of the rebels of the Czechoslovak Corps, formed in Samara a Committee of Members of the Constituent Assembly chaired by Vladimir Volsky. The People's Army of KOMUCH was created. After that, the "Right Social Revolutionaries" were expelled from the Soviets of all levels on June 14, 1918 by the decision of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee. It is important to note that for all the events, the Socialist-Revolutionary leaders did not realize what danger their political competitors posed to them - the Bolsheviks, who had embarked on the armed overthrow of the provisional government. The SRs had to pay a heavy price for this mistake.
Conclusion
A review of sources, literature, Internet sites allows us to draw the following conclusions:
The Socialist-Revolutionary Party has played an important role in the history of our country. She attracted many people because she preached democracy, one of the most important political regimes that exists in Russia to this day.
They fought for freedom of speech, the press, they tried to remove the difference between religions, which is so important in the modern world.
The Social Revolutionaries sought socialism, and this is one of the main merits of the party. By implementing such programs as the socialization of the land, they raised Russia to a new level.
The Socialist-Revolutionary Party tried to elevate the country and improve the standard of living in it, which was exactly what Russia lacked at that time.
They were bolder and more democratic than the other parties. They were the first to put forward the demand for a federal structure of the Russian state.
The beginning of the 20th century is a difficult and important period in the history of Russia. Knowledge of this period reveals to us historical moments that we did not know about, but which everyone should know about. So, summing up the activities of the Socialist-Revolutionary Party, we can say that they, like other parties, wanted to come to power in a revolutionary way, but in the end, the Bolsheviks took their place.
Sourceand, literature, Internet resources
Socialist-Revolutionary Program // Orlov A.S. Reader on the history of Russia from ancient times to the present day. - M.: PBOYuL, 2012, pp. 122-145.
History of Russia: textbook. // A.S. Orlov, V.A. Georgiev, N.G. Georgieva, T.A. Sivokhin - 3rd ed. M.: TK Velby, Publishing House Prospekt, 2008. pp. 292-311. pp.328-339.
History of Russia in 4 parts. Part 3 / under the total. ed. Kharlamova T.I. - M.: MSTU MAMI, 2011, p.33-85.
History, SR Party // http://bse.sci-lib.com/
SR Party // http://referat.ru/referats/
Socialist-Revolutionaries, governing bodies // ru.wikipedia.org/wiki.Socialist-Revolutionaries, governing bodies, party program, party history, etc.
Dobrovolsky A.V. Siberia in the strategy and tactics of the Central Committee of the Socialist-Revolutionary Party (1917-1922) // http://zaimka.ru.
test questions
1) In what year was the Socialist-Revolutionary Party created?
2) Name the governing bodies of the party.
3) What are the main provisions of the party program?
4) After what revolution did the Socialist-Revolutionary Party become the largest political force?
5) Tell us about the position of the party after the February Revolution.
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Representatives of the intelligentsia have become that social base, on the basis of which in the late XIX - early XX centuries . radical political parties formed: Social Democrats and Socialist-Revolutionaries. They took shape before the liberal opposition parties, as they recognized the possibility of using illegal methods of struggle, and the liberals sought to act within the existing political system.
The first social democratic parties began to emerge in the 1880s and 1890s. in the national regions of Russia: Finland, Poland, Armenia. In the mid-1990s, Unions of Struggle for the Emancipation of the Working Class were formed in St. Petersburg, Moscow and other cities. They made contact with the striking workers, but their activities were interrupted by the police. An attempt to create a Russian Social Democratic Labor Party at the congress of 1898 was not successful. Neither the program nor the charter was adopted. Congress delegates were arrested.
A new attempt to unite in a political organization was made by G.V. Plekhanov, Yu.O. Zederbaum (L. Martov), V.I. Ulyanov (Lenin), and others. Since 1900, they began to publish an illegal political newspaper Iskra abroad. It united disparate circles and organizations. In 1903, at a congress in London, a program and charter were adopted that formalized the formation of the Russian Social Democratic Labor Party (RSDLP). The program provided for two stages of the revolution. On the first minimum program implementation of bourgeois-democratic demands: liquidation of the autocracy, the introduction of an 8-hour working day and democratic freedoms. On the second - maximum program implementation socialist revolution and the establishment of the dictatorship of the proletariat.
However, ideological and organizational differences split the party into Bolsheviks (supporters of Lenin) and Mensheviks (supporters of L. Martov). Bolsheviks sought turn the party into a narrow organization of professional revolutionaries. The introduction of the idea of the dictatorship of the proletariat into the program set them apart from other socio-democratic currents. In the understanding of the Bolsheviks, the dictatorship of the proletariat meant the establishment of the political power of the workers in order to build socialism and, in the future, a classless society. Mensheviks they did not consider Russia ready for a socialist revolution, opposed the dictatorship of the proletariat and assumed the possibility of cooperation with all opposition forces. Despite the split, the RSDLP set a course for inciting the workers' and peasants' movement and preparing for the revolution.
Program: They were self-determination of nations. Russia - democratic republic. Dictatorship of the proletariat. Working issue: 8-hour working day, cancellation of fines and overtime. Agrarian issue: return of cuts, cancellation of redemption payments, nationalization (Lenin) / municipalization (Martov). Support for students. Revolutionary methods, a penchant for terror, "steal the loot."
Party of Socialist Revolutionaries(Socialist-Revolutionaries) formed in 1902 based on associations of neo-populist circles. The mouthpiece of the party was the illegal newspaper "Revolutionary Russia". His Socialist-Revolutionaries considered the peasants to be the social support, but compound party was predominantly intellectual. The leader and ideologist of the Social Revolutionaries was V.M. Chernov. Their program provided for the expropriation of capitalist property and the reorganization of society on a collective, socialist basis, the introduction of an 8-hour working day and democratic freedoms. The main idea of the Socialist-Revolutionaries was " land socialization", i.e. the destruction of private ownership of land, its transfer to the peasants and the division between them according to the labor norm. The Socialist-Revolutionaries chose terror as their tactics of struggle. Through the terror of the Socialist-Revolutionaries tried to start a revolution and intimidate the government.
The program of the Socialist-Revolutionary Party put forward a broad list of democratic reforms: freedom of conscience, speech, press, assembly and association, freedom of movement, inviolability of person and home; compulsory and equal for all general and secular education at public expense; the complete separation of church and state and the declaration of religion as a private matter for everyone; the destruction of the army and its replacement by the people's militia.
Separate provisions of the program concerned the future political structure of Russia. It was envisaged to establish democratic republic with wide autonomy of the regions and communities; recognition of the right of nations to self-determination; direct popular legislation; election, turnover and jurisdiction of all officials; universal and equal suffrage for every citizen not younger than 20 years old by secret ballot.
AT the economic part of the Socialist-Revolutionary program, it was planned to solve the working issue: protection of the spiritual and physical forces of the working class, the introduction of an 8-hour working day, the establishment of a minimum wage, the creation of a factory inspectorate at each enterprise, elected by the workers and monitoring working conditions and the implementation of legislation, freedom of trade unions, etc.
Assessing Russia as an agrarian country dominated by a peasant population, the Social Revolutionaries recognized that the main issue of the coming revolution would be agrarian question. They saw his solution not in nationalization of the whole land after the revolution, and in its socialization, that is, in withdrawing it from commodity circulation and turning it from the private property of individuals or groups into the public domain. However the leveling principle of land use was in direct conflict with reality, since, based on the consumer norm, it was impossible to determine the actual needs for land in different parts of the country, since the needs of peasant farms were different. In reality, there was no equality in the technical equipment of peasant farms.
The Social Revolutionaries were sure that their socialization was built on the psychology of the peasantry, on its long traditions., and it was a guarantee of the development of the peasant movement along the socialist path. With all the utopian costs and deviations towards reformism, the program of the Socialist-Revolutionary Party was of a revolutionary-democratic, anti-landlord, anti-autocratic character, and the "socialization of the land" was an undoubted discovery of the Socialist-Revolutionaries, primarily V.M. Chernov, in the field of revolutionary democratic agrarian reforms. Their implementation would open the way to the development of a farming peasant economy.
The tactics of the Socialist-Revolutionary parties reflected the mood of the petty-bourgeois strata; instability, hesitation, inconsistency. They are actively supported terror which differentiated them from other parties.
Today, we are forced to look back at the politics of a hundred years ago, because in today's Russia, the sprouts of politics that barely appeared in the early 1990s were already trampled down in the 2000s. At the beginning of the 20th century, the Socialist-Revolutionaries were the most popular party, their program with local self-government, the management of enterprises by trade unions, and broad national autonomy has not become outdated even today.
In the elections to the Constituent Assembly (perhaps the most free elections in the entire history of Russia) in 1917, the Socialist-Revolutionaries received 58%. This figure reflected the real support of the people for their program of transformation of Russia. It is generally accepted that the Socialist Revolutionary Party enjoyed support mainly among the peasantry (which by 1917 made up about 75% of the Russian population). However, the results of the elections to the Constituent Assembly show that the Social Revolutionaries won practically in all provincial capitals and county towns. The Bolsheviks, Cadets and Mensheviks showed good results only in Moscow and Petrograd, and also on the fronts.
Thus, the Social Revolutionaries represented the vast majority of the so-called. "grassroots Russia". Hence their political identity - socialism without Marxism, the country's special leftist path. While their opponents - the Bolsheviks, Mensheviks and Cadets - derived their programs from European ideologies.
Below we present the program of the Socialist-Revolutionaries adopted at the First Party Congress in December 1905. By 1917, the SRs were divided into three factions - right, left and centrists, they were distinguished by differences in tactics (for example, the right SRs were in favor of fighting to the end on the fronts of the First World War, and the left SRs were against it), but in strategy they were all maintained unity. That is, this program, adopted in 1905, was a guide to action for all three of their factions.
History does not know the subjunctive direction, and it is difficult to predict with accuracy what would have happened to Russia if the Social Revolutionaries had held power at the end of 1917. But based on their program, it can be assumed that in the country, along with democracy and an orientation towards socialism in politics and economics, a strong solidarist and syndicalist trend would also arise. In some ways, it would be similar to early Italian fascism and to the republican rule of the left in Spain in the 1930s (and, in modern currents, to Latin American Bolivarianism).
However, this is all guesswork. Today, we can only study the political legacy of the Socialist-Revolutionaries and think about how, having transformed it, to adapt it to the realities of the beginning of the 21st century. After all, even a century later, Russia still remained a left-wing and at the same time politically backward country.
A. In the political and legal field:
Recognition of the following human and civil rights as inalienable:
Complete freedom of conscience, speech, press, assembly and association; freedom of movement, choice of occupation and collective refusal to work (freedom to strike); inviolability of person and home; universal and equal suffrage for every citizen not younger than 20 years of age, without distinction of sex, religion and nationality, subject to a direct system of elections and closed voting, - a democratic republic established on these principles with broad autonomy of regions and communities, both urban and rural ; the greatest possible use of federal relations between individual nationalities, the recognition of their unconditional right to self-determination;
proportional representation; direct popular legislation (referendum and initiative); election, turnover at any time and jurisdiction of all officials, including deputies and judges; free trial; the introduction of the native language in all local, public and state institutions; the establishment of compulsory, equal for all general secular education at the expense of the state; in areas with a mixed population, the right of each nationality to a share in the budget, allocated for cultural and educational purposes, proportional to its number, and to dispose of these funds on the basis of self-government; the complete separation of church and state and the declaration of religion as a private matter for everyone; the destruction of the standing army and its replacement by the people's militia.
B. In the national economic area:
1) In matters of state economy and financial policy, the Party will campaign for the introduction of a progressive tax on income and inheritance, with complete exemption from petty income tax below a certain norm; for the abolition of indirect taxes (excluding the imposition of luxury goods), protective duties, and all taxes in general that fall on labor.
2) In matters of labor legislation, P.S.R. sets as its goal the protection of the spiritual and physical forces of the working class in town and countryside and the increase of its capacity for further struggle for socialism, to the general interests of which all the narrowly practical, direct and professional interests of the individual working strata must be subordinated.
In these aspects the Party will defend: the greatest possible reduction of working time within the limits of surplus labour; the establishment of a legislative maximum of working hours in accordance with the norms indicated by scientific hygiene (in the near future - an 8-hour norm for most industries and, accordingly, less in more dangerous and harmful to health); establishment of minimum wages by agreement between self-government bodies and trade unions of workers; state insurance in all its forms (against accidents, against unemployment, in case of old age and illness, etc.) at the expense of the state and owners and on the basis of self-government of the insured; legislative labor protection in all branches of production and trade, in accordance with the requirements of scientific hygiene, under the supervision of a factory inspectorate elected by workers (normal working conditions, hygiene of premises, prohibition of overtime work, work of minors under 16 years of age, restriction of work of minors, prohibition of female and child labor in certain branches of production and at certain periods, sufficient uninterrupted weekly rest, etc.); professional organizations of workers and their progressively expanding participation in the establishment within it of the organization of labor in industrial establishments.
3) In matters of reorganization of land relations P.S.R. seeks to rely, in the interests of socialism and the struggle against bourgeois property principles, on the communal and labor views, traditions and forms of life of the Russian peasantry, in particular on the belief widespread among them that the land belongs to no one and that only labor gives the right to use it. In accordance with its general views on the tasks of the revolution in the countryside, the Party will stand for the socialization of the land, i.e. for withdrawing it from commodity circulation and turning it from private property of individuals or groups into public property on the following basis: all lands come under the control of central and local bodies of people's self-government, starting from democratically organized classless rural and urban communities and ending with regional and central institutions ( resettlement and resettlement, management of the reserve land fund, etc.); the use of land must be equalizing labor, i.e. to provide a consumer norm on the basis of the application of one's own labor, either individually or in partnership; rent, through special taxation, should be directed to public needs; the use of lands and lands of non-local significance (extensive forests, fishing grounds, etc.) is regulated by correspondingly broader self-government bodies; the bowels of the earth remain with the state; the land turns into public property without redemption; the victims of this property coup are only entitled to public support for the time necessary to adapt to the new conditions of personal existence.
4) In matters of communal, municipal and zemstvo economy, the party will stand for the development of all kinds of public services and enterprises (free medical care, zemstvo-agronomic and food organizations; organization by zemstvo and regional self-government bodies, with the help of national funds, broad credit for the development of labor economy, mainly on a cooperative basis; communalization of water supply, lighting, means of communication, etc.), for granting urban and rural communities the broadest rights to tax real estate and to expropriate them, especially in the interests of meeting the housing needs of the working population ; for communal, zemstvo, as well as state policies that favor the development of cooperatives on strictly democratic labor principles.
5) In general, to all measures aimed at the socialization of certain branches of the national economy, even within the boundaries of the bourgeois state, P.S.R. it will adopt a positive attitude insofar as the democratization of the political system and the balance of social forces, as well as the very nature of the corresponding measures, will provide sufficient guarantees against increasing the dependence of the working class on the ruling bureaucracy in this way. Thus P.S.R. warns the working class against that "state socialism" which is partly a system of half-measures to lull the working class, and partly a kind of state capitalism, concentrating various branches of production and trade in the hands of the ruling bureaucracy for its fiscal and political purposes.
The Party of Socialist-Revolutionaries, waging a direct revolutionary struggle against the existing regime, agitates for the convocation of a Constituent Assembly on the above-mentioned democratic principles for the elimination of the autocratic regime and the reorganization of all modern systems in the spirit of establishing free popular government, the necessary personal freedoms and protecting the interests of labor. It will both uphold its program of this reorganization in the Constituent Assembly and strive to carry it out directly in the revolutionary period.
More in the Interpreter's Blog about the political struggle in Russia at the beginning of the 20th century:
In 1903, the Okhrana defeated the combat organization of the Socialist-Revolutionaries. But it was immediately replaced by new groups of terrorists, among which the Klitchoglu brigade was the most dangerous. She was preparing an assassination attempt on the Minister of the Interior Plehve. In 1904, the Okhrana agent Azef betrayed the group. Plehve was killed anyway, and Klitchoglu died a natural death in 1926.
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