History of the creation of the Socialist Revolutionary Party and program. Basic principles of building a new society. Social Revolutionaries and Soviet power

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 Socialist Revolutionaries failed to retain power in their hands. The revolutionary year of 1917 became a period of their triumph and the beginning of a tragedy.

The birth of a new party

In January 1902, the underground newspaper Revolutionary Russia, published abroad, notified its readers of the appearance on the political horizon of a new party, whose members called themselves social revolutionaries. It is unlikely that this event received a significant resonance in society at that moment, 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 Russian history.

Despite its publication in 1902, its creation occurred much earlier than was 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 by that time was living its last days. When it was finally liquidated by the secret police, members of the circle began to act independently and two years later they 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. This document was published in the form of a brochure only in 1900, published in the printing house of one of the foreign branches of the party that had appeared by that time.

Merger of 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 clarification 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 well-known Socialist Revolutionary Party was formed. It was headed by permanent leader Viktor Chernov (his photo is presented in the article).

The tasks that the Social Revolutionaries set for themselves

The program of the Social Revolutionary Party had a number of points that distinguished it from most of the political organizations that existed at that time. Among them were:

Education Russian state on a federal basis, in which it will consist of independent territories (federal subjects) with the right to self-determination.
Universal suffrage, extending to citizens over 20 years of age, regardless of gender, nationality or religion;
Guarantee of respect for basic civil liberties, such as freedom of conscience, speech, press, associations, unions, etc.
Free public education.
Reducing the working day to 8 hours.
Reform of the armed forces, in which they cease to be a permanent state structure.
The distinction between church and state.

In addition, the program included several more points that, in essence, repeated the demands of other political organizations that aspired to power, just like the Socialist Revolutionaries. Supreme body The party power of the social revolutionaries was the Congresses, and between them all current issues were resolved 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 only be considered as an ally and support to the proletariat, which was assigned the role of “the locomotive of the revolution.”

Social revolutionaries took a different point of view. In their opinion, the revolutionary process in Russia should begin precisely in the countryside and only then spread to cities and industrialized areas. Therefore, in the transformation of society, peasants were given almost the leading role.

As for 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 into ownership of individual owners, as the Mensheviks proposed, but was socialized and placed at the disposal of local self-government bodies. They called this path the socialization of the land.

At the same time, the law prohibited its private ownership, as well as purchase and sale. The final product was subject to distribution in accordance with established consumer standards, which were directly dependent on the amount of labor invested.

Social Revolutionaries during the First Russian Revolution

It is known that the Socialist Revolutionary Party (SRs) was very skeptical about the First Russian Revolution. According to its leaders, it was not bourgeois, since this class was not capable of leading the new society being created. The reasons for this lie in the reforms of Alexander II, who opened a broad 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 upheaval. However, 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.

Military organization of the Socialist Revolutionaries

A curious paradox is that for all its calls for a peaceful and non-violent path of transformation, the Socialist Revolutionary Party was remembered primarily for its terrorist activities, which began immediately after its creation.

Already in 1902, its military organization was created, then numbering 78 people. Its first leader was Grigory Gershuni, then at different stages this post was occupied by Yevno Azef and Boris Savinkov. It is recognized that of all the known terrorist groups of the early 20th century, this organization was the most effective. The victims of the acts committed were not only high-ranking officials of the tsarist government and representatives of law enforcement agencies, but also political opponents from other parties.

The bloody path of the SR military organization began in April 1902 with the murder of the Minister of Internal Affairs D. Sipyagin and the assassination attempt on the Chief Prosecutor of the Holy Synod K. Pobedonostsev. This was followed by a series of new terrorist attacks, the most famous of which is the murder of the Tsar's 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 activities of the Social Revolutionaries occurred in 1905-1907. According to available data, the leader of the Socialist Revolutionary Party V. Chernov and the leadership of the combat group were 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. These bloody statistics continued in subsequent years.

Events of 1917

After the February Revolution, as a political party, the Socialist Revolutionaries became the most influential public organization in Russia. Their representatives occupied key positions in many newly formed government structures, and general composition reached a million people. However, despite the rapid rise and popularity of the main provisions of its program among the Russian population, 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 all political organizations in Russia, in which he characterized the actions of Lenin’s supporters as madness and a crime. At the same time, at an internal party meeting, a coordination 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 party members had an unambiguous attitude 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 implement its policies on many issues. This caused a split and a general weakening of the organization.

Between two fires

During the Civil War, the Socialist 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 actions with the White Guards and interventionists.

Of course, none of the representatives of the main warring parties took the alliance with the Social Revolutionaries seriously, realizing that as soon as circumstances changed, yesterday’s allies could defect to the enemy camp. And there were many such examples during the war.

The defeat of the Socialist Revolutionary Party

In 1919, wanting to make fullest use of the potential that the Socialist Revolutionary Party had, Lenin’s government decided to legalize it in the territories under its control. However, this did not bring the expected result. The Social 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 Socialist Revolutionaries.

As a result, the temporary truce soon gave way to a new series of arrests, as a result of which, by the beginning of 1921, the Central Committee of the Social Revolutionary Party practically ceased to exist. Some of its members had been killed by that time (M. L. Kogan-Bernstein, I. I. Teterkin, etc.), many emigrated to Europe (V. V. Samokhin, N. S. Rusanov, as well as party leader V. M. Chernov), and the bulk were in prisons. From that time on, the Socialist Revolutionaries, as a party, ceased to represent a real political force.

Years of emigration

The further history of the Socialist Revolutionaries is inextricably linked with the Russian emigration, the ranks of which were intensively replenished in the first post-revolutionary years. Having found themselves abroad after the defeat of the party, which began back in 1918, the Socialist 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 management 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 Social Revolutionaries

Which party, having found itself in exile, did not have its own press organ? Social revolutionaries were no exception. They published a number of periodicals, such as the newspapers “Revolutionary Russia”, “Modern Notes”, “For the People!” and some others. In the 1920s, they were able to be smuggled across the border illegally, and therefore the material published in them was aimed at the Russian reader. But as a result of the efforts undertaken by the Soviet intelligence services, the delivery channels were soon blocked, and all newspaper circulations began to be distributed among emigrants.

Many researchers note that in articles published in 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 theme of creating a classless society in Russia, then at the end of the 30s, they openly declared the need to return to capitalism.

Afterword

This is where the Social 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 new historical realities. Unable to withstand the struggle with a stronger political opponent in the person of the RSDLP (b), led by Lenin, they were forced to leave the historical scene forever.

However, for many years in the Soviet Union, people who had nothing to do with it were accused of belonging to the Socialist Revolutionary Party and promoting its ideology. In the atmosphere of total terror that gripped the country, the very word “Socialist Revolutionary” was used as a designation of the enemy and was applied as a label to obvious, and more often imaginary, oppositionists for their illegal condemnation.

The Socialist Revolutionary Party 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 a tragedy for the Socialist Revolutionaries. IN short term after the February Revolution, the party turned into the largest political force, reached the millionth mark in its numbers, acquired a dominant position in local governments and most public organizations, and won the elections to the Constituent Assembly. Its representatives held a number of key positions in the government. Her ideas of democratic socialism and a peaceful transition to it were attractive to the population. However, despite all this, the Social Revolutionaries were unable to retain power.

Controls

Supreme body - Congress of the Socialist-Revolutionary Party, Council of the Socialist-Revolutionary Party
Executive body - Central Committee of the Socialist Revolutionary Party

Party program

The historical and philosophical worldview of the party was substantiated by the works of Nikolai Chernyshevsky, Pyotr Lavrov, Nikolai Mikhailovsky.

The draft party program was published in May 1904 in No. 46 of Revolutionary Russia. The project, with minor changes, was approved as the party program 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 main theoretician of the party, 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 through a non-capitalist route. But the Socialist 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).

The originality of Socialist Revolutionary socialism lay in the theory of socialization of agriculture. This theory was a national feature of Socialist Revolutionary democratic socialism and was a contribution to the development of world socialist thought. The original idea of this theory was that socialism in Russia should begin to grow first of all in the countryside. The ground for it, its preliminary stage, was to be the socialization of the earth.

Socialization of land meant, firstly, the abolition of private ownership of land, but at the same time not turning it into state property, not its nationalization, but turning it into public property without the right to buy and sell. Secondly, the transfer of all land to the management of central and local bodies of people's self-government, starting from democratically organized rural and urban communities and ending with regional and central institutions. Thirdly, the use of land had to be equalizing labor, that is, to ensure the consumption norm based on the application of one’s own labor, 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 socialization of the land were the main demands of the Socialist Revolutionary minimum program. They were supposed to ensure a peaceful, evolutionary transition of Russia to socialism without any special socialist revolution. The program, in particular, talked about the establishment of a democratic republic with inalienable rights of man and citizen: freedom of conscience, speech, press, assembly, unions, strikes, inviolability of person and home, universal and equal suffrage for every citizen from 20 years of age, without distinction gender, religion and nationality, subject to a direct election system and closed voting. Broad autonomy was also required for regions and communities, both urban and rural, and possibly more wide application federal relations between individual national regions with recognition of their unconditional right to self-determination. The Socialist Revolutionaries, earlier than the Social Democrats, put forward a 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 popular legislation (referendum and initiative).

Publications (as of 1913): “Revolutionary Russia” (illegally in 1902-1905), “People's Messenger”, “Thought”, “Conscious Russia”, “Testaments”.

Party history

Pre-revolutionary period

The Socialist Revolutionary Party began with the Saratov circle, which arose in and was in connection with the group of Narodnaya Volya members of the “Flying Leaf”. When the Narodnaya Volya group was dispersed, the Saratov circle became isolated and began to act independently. He developed a program. It was printed on a hectograph under the title “Our tasks. The main provisions of the program of the socialist revolutionaries." This brochure was published by the Foreign Union of Russian Socialist Revolutionaries along with Grigorovich’s article “Socialist Revolutionaries and Social Democrats.” He moved to Moscow in the Saratov circle, was engaged in issuing proclamations and distributing foreign literature. The circle acquired a new name - the Northern Union of Socialist Revolutionaries. It was led by Andrei 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 united 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 Socialist Revolutionary Party” and the “Union of Socialist Revolutionaries” merged, and in January 1902 the newspaper “Revolutionary Russia” announced the creation of the party. The Geneva Agrarian-Socialist League joined it.

In April 1902, the Combat Organization (BO) of the Socialist Revolutionaries announced itself with a terrorist act against the Minister of Internal Affairs Dmitry Sipyagin. The BO was the most conspiratorial part of the party; its charter was written by Mikhail Gots. Over the entire history of the BO (1901-1908), over 80 people worked there. The organization was in an autonomous position within the party; 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 register, appearances, 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 was a secret police agent) were the organizers of the Socialist Revolutionary Party and the most influential members of its Central Committee.

The period of the first Russian revolution 1905-1907

During the revolution of 1905-1907 there was a peak in the terrorist activities of the Socialist Revolutionaries. During this period, 233 terrorist attacks were carried out (among others, 2 ministers, 33 governors, in particular, the Tsar’s uncle, and 7 generals were killed), from 1902 to 1911 - 216 assassination attempts.

After the February Revolution

The Socialist Revolutionary Party actively participated in the political life of the country after the February Revolution of 1917, bloced with the Menshevik-defencists and was the largest party of this period. By the summer of 1917, the party had about 1 million people, 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. These issues were: the Brest-Litovsk Peace Treaty and agrarian policy, primarily the surplus appropriation system and the Brest Committees. On July 6, 1918, the leaders of the Left Socialist Revolutionaries who were present at the V Congress of Soviets in Moscow were arrested. (See Left Socialist Revolutionary uprisings (1918)).

At the beginning of 1919, the Moscow Bureau of the AKP, and then a conference of Socialist Revolutionary organizations operating on the territory of Soviet Russia, spoke out against any agreements with both the Bolsheviks and "bourgeois reaction". At the same time, it was recognized that the danger on the right was greater, and therefore it was decided to abandon the armed struggle against Soviet power. However, a group of Socialist 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 Socialist Revolutionaries did not stop sharply criticizing the Bolshevik regime and the persecution of the party was resumed: the publication of “Delo of the People” was banned, and a number of active party members were arrested. Nevertheless, the plenum of the Central Committee of the AKP, held in April 1919, based on the fact that the party does not have the strength to wage an armed struggle on two fronts at once, called for it not to resume it against the Bolsheviks for now. The Plenum condemned the participation of party representatives in the Ufa State Conference, the Directory, in the regional governments of Siberia, the Urals and Crimea, as well as in the Iasi Conference of Russian anti-Bolshevik forces (November 1918), spoke out against foreign intervention, saying that it would only be an expression "selfish imperialist interests" governments of the intervening countries. At the same time, it was emphasized that there should be no agreements with the Bolsheviks. The IX Party Council, held in Moscow or near Moscow in June 1919, confirmed the decision of the party to abandon the 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 combat readiness the forces of democracy, so that if the Bolsheviks did not voluntarily abandon their policy, they would be eliminated 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 permissible even with undemocratic 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 recognizing Soviet power and uniting under its leadership to fight counter-revolution. This group began to publish its weekly magazine “People”, and is therefore 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 it left the party and adopted the name “Minority of the Socialist Revolutionary Party”.

At the beginning of January 1923, the bureau of the Petrograd Provincial Committee of the RCP (b) allowed the “initiative group” of Socialist Revolutionaries, under the secret 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”, the All-Russian Congress of former ordinary members of the Socialist Revolutionary Party was held in Moscow, which deprived the former leadership of the party of their powers 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 Party's Central Bureau 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 of Justice in the first post-October government, Steinberg, managed to escape. The rest were arrested many times, were in exile for many years, and in the years “ Great Terror"were shot. A member of the Central Committee of the Left Socialist Revolutionaries, Maria Spiridonova was shot according to the verdict passed on September 8, 1941, on the basis of a resolution of the State Defense Committee, without initiating a criminal case or conducting preliminary or 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 Socialist Revolutionary 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 Foreign Delegation of the AKP. Despite the fact that the leadership of the AKP had an extremely negative attitude towards the presence of significant Socialist Revolutionary emigration, quite a lot of prominent figures of the AKP ended up abroad, including V. M. Chernov, N. D. Avksentyev, E. K. Breshko-Breshkovskaya , M. V. Vishnyak, V. M. Zenzinov, E. E. Lazarev, O. S. Minor and others.

The centers of Socialist Revolutionary emigration were Paris, Berlin and Prague. The first congress of foreign organizations of the AKP took place in 1923, and the second in 1928. Since 1920, the party's periodicals began to be published abroad. A huge role in establishing this business was played by Viktor Chernov, who left Russia in September 1920. First in Reval (now Tallinn, Estonia), and then in Berlin, Chernov organized the publication of the magazine “Revolutionary Russia” (the name repeated the title of the central body of the party in 1901-1905 years). The first issue of Revolutionary Russia was published in December 1920. The magazine was published in Yuryev (now Tartu), Berlin, and Prague.

In addition to “Revolutionary Russia,” the Socialist Revolutionaries published several other publications in exile. In 1921, three issues of the magazine “For the People!” were published in Revel. (officially it was not considered a party one and was called the “worker-peasant-Red Army magazine”), political and cultural magazines “The Will of Russia” (Prague, 1922-1932), “Modern Notes” (Paris, 1920-1940) and others, including including in foreign languages. In the first half of the 1920s, most of these publications were focused on Russia, where most of the circulation was illegally delivered. From the mid-1920s, the ties of the Foreign Delegation of the AKP with Russia weakened, and the Socialist Revolutionary press began to spread mainly among the emigrants. In the second half of the 1930s. The Socialist Revolutionaries, in the most significant of the emigrant literary magazines, Sovremennye Zapiski, called on Soviet Russia “back to capitalism.”

Notes

Literature

Pavlenkov F. F. Encyclopedic Dictionary. St. Petersburg, 1913 (5th ed.).
Eltsin B. M.(ed.) Political Dictionary. M.; L.: Krasnaya Nov, 1924 (2nd ed.).
Supplement to the Encyclopedic Dictionary // In reprint of the 5th edition " Encyclopedic Dictionary"F. Pavlenkova, 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. Socialist Revolutionary Party: from petty-bourgeois revolutionism to counter-revolution: Historical essay / K. V. Gusev. M.: Mysl, 1975. - 383 p.
Gusev K.V. Knights of Terror. M.: Luch, 1992.
Party of Socialist Revolutionaries after the October Revolution of 1917: Documents from the archives of P.S.-R. / Collected and provided 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 pp.
Leonov M. I. Socialist Revolutionary Party in 1905 - 1907. - M.: ROSSPEN, 1997. - 512 p. - ISBN 5-86004-118-7
Morozov K. N. Socialist Revolutionary Party in 1907-1914. / K. N. Morozov. M.: ROSSPEN, 1998. - 624 p.
Morozov K. N. The trial of the socialist revolutionaries and the 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. University, 2007.
Programs of the main Russian parties: 1. People's Socialists. 2. Social Democratic Labor Party. 3. Socialist revolutionaries. 4. People's Freedom Party. 5. Octobrist Party (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) About Russian parties, b) Bolsheviks and Mensheviks. - [M.], . - 64 s.
Chernomordik S. Social Revolutionaries: (Party of Socialist Revolutionaries). - Kh.: Proletary, 1929. - 61 p. - (What parties were there in Russia)
Shulyatikov V. M. A dying party. "Workers' Banner". March 1908, No. I.

The Social Revolutionary Party (AKP) is a political force that united all the previously disparate forces of the opposition who sought to overthrow the government. Today there is a widespread myth that the AKP are terrorists, radicals who have chosen blood and murder as their method of struggle. This misconception arose because new strength included many representatives of populism who actually chose radical methods political struggle. However, the AKP did not consist entirely of ardent nationalists and terrorists; its structure also included moderate members. Many of them even occupied prominent political positions and were famous and respected people. However, the “Combat Organization” still existed 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 Socialist Revolutionary leaders held such views. Many of them wanted to fight for power through legal constitutional means. It is the leaders of the Socialist Revolutionaries who will become the main characters of our article. But first, let's talk about when the party officially appeared and who was part 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 a continuation of their struggle. They formed the backbone of the first combat organization of the party.
Already in the mid-90s. In the 19th century, Socialist 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 arisen in almost all major cities. These are Odessa, Minsk, St. 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 this that the entire party is judged as “bloody.” In fact, such a formation existed, but it was autonomous from the Central Committee and was often not subordinate to it. For the sake of fairness, let’s say that many party leaders also did not share these methods of warfare: there were the 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 this was done by the “populists”, who by the beginning of the 20th century joined the AKP. In 1902, the “Combat Organization” first showed itself as an independent organization - the Minister of Internal Affairs D.S. Sipyagin was killed. A series of murders of other prominent political figures, governors, etc. soon followed. The leaders of the Socialist Revolutionaries could not influence their bloody brainchild, which put forward the slogan: “Terror as the path to a bright future.” It is noteworthy that one of the main leaders of the “Combat Organization” was the double agent Azef. He simultaneously organized Act of terrorism, chose the next victims, and on the other hand, was a secret agent of the secret police, “leaked” prominent performers to the special services, weaved intrigues in the party, and prevented the death of the emperor himself.

Leaders of the "Combat 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 intricacies 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. There was harmony and respect for each other. Azef himself understood perfectly well that authoritarian methods alone could not keep the BO in submission; he allowed the activists to determine their internal life themselves. Its other active figures - Boris Savinkov, I. Schweitzer, E. Sozonov - did everything to ensure that the organization was a single family. In 1904, another finance minister, V.K. Plehve, was killed. After this, the BO Charter was adopted, but it was never implemented. According to B. Savinkov’s recollections, 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 the terror, and Azef himself became a supporter of the political legitimate struggle. In the future, of course, there were attempts to revive her with the aim of killing the emperor himself, but Azef always neutralized them until his exposure and escape.

Driving political force of the AKP

The Social Revolutionaries in the impending revolution placed emphasis on the peasantry. This is understandable: it was the agrarians who made up the majority of the inhabitants of Russia, and it was they who endured centuries of oppression. Viktor Chernov thought so too. By the way, until the first Russian revolution of 1905, serfdom actually remained in Russia in a modified format. Only the reforms of P. A. Stolypin freed the most hardworking forces from the hated community, thereby creating a powerful impetus for socio-economic development.
The Social Revolutionaries 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 bourgeois revolution, in their opinion, is not necessary at all, because in Russia the majority of the inhabitants of the empire are peasants, not workers.
The Socialist Revolutionaries proclaimed the phrase “Land and Freedom” as their political slogan.

Official appearance

The process of forming an official political party was long. The reason was that the leaders of the Social Revolutionaries had different views both on the ultimate goal of the party and on the use of methods for achieving its goals. In addition, there were actually two independent forces: “Southern Party of Socialist Revolutionaries” and “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 took place from December 29, 1905 to January 4, 1906 in Finland. Then it was not an independent country, but an autonomy within Russian Empire. Unlike the future Bolsheviks, who created their RSDLP party abroad, the Socialist Revolutionaries were formed within Russia. Viktor Chernov became the leader of the united party.
In Finland, the AKP approved its program, temporary charter, and summed up the results of its movement. The official formation of the party was facilitated by the Manifesto of October 17, 1905. He officially proclaimed the State Duma, which was formed through elections. The leaders of the Socialist Revolutionaries did not want to remain on the sidelines - they also began an official legal struggle. Extensive propaganda work is carried out, official printed publications are published, and new members are actively recruited. By 1907, the “Combat Organization” was dissolved. After this, the leaders of the Social Revolutionaries do not control their former militants and terrorists, their activities become decentralized, and their numbers grow. But with the dissolution of the military wing, on the contrary, there is an increase in terrorist attacks - there are 223 of them in total. The loudest of them is considered to be 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 Social Revolutionaries” was not used 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 Social Revolutionaries are the maximalists. They broke away from the main forces in 1906. The maximalists insisted on the continuation of agrarian terror, i.e. the overthrow of power revolutionary methods. The minimalists insisted on fighting through legal, democratic means. Interestingly, the RSDLP party was divided into Mensheviks and Bolsheviks in almost the same way. Maria Spiridonova became the leader of the Left Social Revolutionaries. It is noteworthy that they subsequently merged with the Bolsheviks, while the minimalists merged with other forces, and the leader V. Chernov himself was a member of the Provisional Government.

Woman leader

The Social Revolutionaries inherited the traditions of the Narodniks, whose prominent figures for some time were women. At one time, after the arrest of the main leaders of the People's Will, 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 connected with the name of another woman Narodnaya Volya - Sofia Perovskaya. Therefore, no one was against it when Maria Spiridonova became the head of the Left Socialist Revolutionaries. Next - a little about Maria’s activities.

Spiridonova's popularity

Maria Spiridonova is a symbol of the First Russian Revolution; many prominent figures, poets, and writers worked on her sacred image. Maria did not do anything 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 the adviser to the governor, Gabriel Luzhenovsky. He “offended” before Russian revolutionaries during 1905. Luzhenovsky brutally suppressed any revolutionary protests in his province; he was the leader of the Tambov Black Hundreds, a nationalist party that defended monarchical traditional values. The assassination attempt for Maria Spiridonova ended unsuccessfully: she was brutally beaten by Cossacks and police. Perhaps she was even raped, but this information is unofficial. Particularly zealous offenders of Maria - policeman Zhdanov and 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 outcry about her case spread throughout the pages of the foreign press, which even in those years loved to talk about human rights in countries not under their control.
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 campaign: her every gesture, every word she said at the trial was described in the newspapers, letters to her family and friends from prison were published. One of the most prominent lawyers of that time came to her defense: Nikolai Teslenko, a member of the Central Committee of Cadets, who headed the Union of Lawyers of Russia. Spiridonova's photograph was distributed throughout the empire - it was one of the most popular photographs of that time. There is evidence that Tambov peasants prayed for her in a special chapel erected in the name of Mary of Egypt. All articles about Maria were republished; every student considered it an honor to have her card in his pocket, along with his student ID. The system of power could not withstand the public outcry: Mary’s death penalty was abolished, changing the punishment to lifelong hard labor. In 1917, Spiridonova joined the Bolsheviks.

Other Left SR leaders

Speaking about the leaders of the Socialist Revolutionaries, it is necessary to mention several more prominent figures of this party. The first is Boris Kamkov (real name Katz).

One of the founders of the AK Party. Born in 1885 in Bessarabia. The son of a Jewish zemstvo doctor, he participated in the revolutionary movement in Chisinau and 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 wanted the defeat of Russian troops in the imperialist war. He was a member of the editorial board 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 the continuation of the war. Convinced that he would not be able to resist the policies of the AKP, Kamkov, together with Maria Spiridonova and Mark Nathanson, initiated the creation of a faction of the Left Socialist Revolutionaries. 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 a rapprochement with Lenin and Trotsky. The Bolsheviks decided to leave the Pre-Parliament, calling on the Left Socialist Revolutionaries to follow 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 fall 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 and declared that all parties should be included in the new Council of People's Commissars. Actively opposed Treaty of Brest-Litovsk, although back in the summer he declared the inadmissibility of continuing the war. In July 1918, Left Socialist Revolutionary movements began against the Bolsheviks, in which Kamkov took part. From January 1920, a series of arrests and exiles began, but he never abandoned his allegiance to the AKP, despite the fact that he once actively supported the Bolsheviks. It was only with the beginning of the Trotskyist purges that Stalin was executed on August 29, 1938. Rehabilitated by the Russian Prosecutor's Office in 1992.

Another prominent theorist of the left Socialist Revolutionaries is Steinberg Isaac Zakharovich. At first, like others, he was a supporter of the rapprochement of the Bolsheviks and the Left Socialist Revolutionaries. He was even the 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 Socialist Revolutionary uprising, Isaac 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 Socialist Revolutionaries, he emigrated abroad, where he carried out 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 Left Socialist Revolutionary Party. These were the new “leftists” who did not want to join the Bolsheviks, but also did not join the centrists from the Constituent Assembly. In 1918, the party openly opposed the Bolsheviks, but Nathanson remained faithful to the alliance with them, breaking away from the Left Social Revolutionaries. A new movement was organized - the Party of Revolutionary Communism, of which Nathanson 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.

Social Revolutionaries: 1917

After the high-profile terrorist attacks of 1906-1909. The Social Revolutionaries are considered the main threat to the empire. Real police raids begin against them. The February Revolution revived the party, and the idea of “peasant socialism” found a response in the hearts of people, since many wanted the redistribution of landowners’ lands. By the end of the summer of 1917, the number of the party reached 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 registration of its members lead to strong differences in political views. Some of its illiterate members did not even see the difference between the AKP and the RSDLP and considered the Socialist Revolutionaries and the Bolsheviks to be one party. There were frequent cases of transition from one political force to another. Also, entire villages, factories, factories joined the party. AKP leaders noted that many of the so-called March Socialist-Revolutionaries join the party solely for the purpose of career growth. This was confirmed by their massive departure after the Bolsheviks came to power on October 25, 1917. Almost all of the March Socialist-Revolutionaries went over to the Bolsheviks by the beginning of 1918.
By the fall of 1917, the Socialist Revolutionaries split into three parties: 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.).

The Social Revolutionary Party (AKP) is a political force that united all the previously disparate forces of the opposition who sought to overthrow the government. Today there is a widespread myth that the AKP are terrorists, radicals who have chosen blood and murder as their method of struggle. This misconception arose because many representatives of populism entered the new force and actually chose radical methods of political struggle. However, the AKP did not consist entirely of ardent nationalists and terrorists; its structure also included moderate members. Many of them even occupied prominent political positions and were famous and respected people. However, the “Combat Organization” still existed 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 Socialist Revolutionary leaders held such views. Many of them wanted to fight for power through legal constitutional means. It is the leaders of the Socialist Revolutionaries who will become the main characters of our article. But first, let's talk about when the party officially appeared and who was part of it.

The emergence of the AKP in the political arena

Already in the mid-90s. In the 19th century, Socialist 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 arisen in almost all major cities. These are Odessa, Minsk, St. Petersburg, Tambov, Kharkov, Poltava, Moscow. The first leader of the party was A. Argunov.

"Combat Organization"

The idea of terror was not new in Russian history: the 19th century was accompanied by mass murders of prominent political figures. Then this was done by the “populists”, who by the beginning of the 20th century joined the AKP. In 1902, the “Combat Organization” first showed itself as an independent organization - the Minister of Internal Affairs D.S. Sipyagin was killed. A series of murders of other prominent political figures, governors, etc. soon followed. The leaders of the Socialist Revolutionaries could not influence their bloody brainchild, which put forward the slogan: “Terror as the path to a bright future.” It is noteworthy that one of the main leaders of the “Combat Organization” was the double agent Azef. He simultaneously organized terrorist attacks, chose the next victims, and on the other hand, was a secret agent of the secret police, “leaked” prominent performers to the special services, weaved intrigues in the party, and prevented the death of the emperor himself.

Leaders of the "Combat Organization"

Driving political force of the AKP

The Social Revolutionaries 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 a bourgeois revolution, in their opinion, was not necessary at all, because in Russia the majority of the inhabitants of the empire were peasants, not workers.

The Socialist Revolutionaries proclaimed the phrase “Land and Freedom” as their political slogan.

Official appearance

In Finland, the AKP approved its program, temporary charter, and summed up the results of its movement. The official formation of the party was facilitated by the Manifesto of October 17, 1905. He officially proclaimed the State Duma, which was formed through elections. The leaders of the Socialist Revolutionaries did not want to remain on the sidelines - they also began an official legal struggle. Extensive propaganda work is carried out, official printed publications are published, and new members are actively recruited. By 1907, the “Combat Organization” was dissolved. After this, the leaders of the Social Revolutionaries do not control their former militants and terrorists, their activities become decentralized, and their numbers grow. But with the dissolution of the military wing, on the contrary, there is an increase in terrorist attacks - there are 223 of them in total. The loudest of them is considered to be 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 Social Revolutionaries” was not used 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 Social Revolutionaries are the maximalists. They broke away from the main forces in 1906. The maximalists insisted on the continuation of agrarian terror, that is, the overthrow of power by revolutionary methods. The minimalists insisted on fighting through legal, democratic means. Interestingly, the RSDLP party was divided into Mensheviks and Bolsheviks in almost the same way. Maria Spiridonova became the leader of the Left Social Revolutionaries. It is noteworthy that they subsequently merged with the Bolsheviks, while the minimalists merged with other forces, and the leader V. Chernov himself was a member of the Provisional Government.

Woman leader

The Social Revolutionaries inherited the traditions of the Narodniks, whose prominent figures for some time were women. At one time, after the arrest of the main leaders of the People's Will, 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 Narodnaya Volya - Sofia Perovskaya. Therefore, no one was against it when Maria Spiridonova became the head of the Left Socialist Revolutionaries. Next - a little about Maria’s activities.

Spiridonova's popularity

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 campaign: her every gesture, every word she said at the trial was described in the newspapers, letters to her family and friends from prison were published. One of the most prominent lawyers of that time came to her defense: Nikolai Teslenko, a member of the Central Committee of Cadets, who headed the Union of Lawyers of Russia. Spiridonova's photograph was distributed throughout the empire - it was one of the most popular photographs of that time. There is evidence that Tambov peasants prayed for her in a special chapel erected in the name of Mary of Egypt. All articles about Maria were republished; every student considered it an honor to have her card in his pocket, along with his student ID. The system of power could not withstand the public outcry: Mary’s death penalty was abolished, changing the punishment to lifelong hard labor. In 1917, Spiridonova joined the Bolsheviks.

Other Left SR leaders

Speaking about the leaders of the Socialist Revolutionaries, it is necessary to mention several more prominent figures of this party. The first is Boris Kamkov (real name Katz).

One of the founders of the AK Party. Born in 1885 in Bessarabia. The son of a Jewish zemstvo doctor, he participated in the revolutionary movement in Chisinau and 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 wanted the defeat of Russian troops in the imperialist war. He was a member of the editorial board 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 the continuation of the war. Convinced that he would not be able to resist the policies of the AKP, Kamkov, together with Maria Spiridonova and Mark Nathanson, initiated the creation of a faction of the Left Socialist Revolutionaries. 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 a rapprochement with Lenin and Trotsky. The Bolsheviks decided to leave the Pre-Parliament, calling on the Left Socialist Revolutionaries to follow 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 fall 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 and declared that all parties should be included in the new Council of People's Commissars. He actively opposed the Brest Peace Treaty, although back in the summer he declared the inadmissibility of continuing the war. In July 1918, Left Socialist Revolutionary movements began against the Bolsheviks, in which Kamkov took part. From January 1920, a series of arrests and exiles began, but he never abandoned his allegiance to the AKP, despite the fact that he once actively supported the Bolsheviks. It was only with the beginning of the Trotskyist purges that Stalin was executed on August 29, 1938. Rehabilitated by the Russian Prosecutor's Office in 1992.

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 Left Socialist Revolutionary Party. These were the new “leftists” who did not want to join the Bolsheviks, but also did not join the centrists from the Constituent Assembly. In 1918, the party openly opposed the Bolsheviks, but Nathanson remained faithful to the alliance with them, breaking away from the Left Social Revolutionaries. A new movement was organized - the Party of Revolutionary Communism, of which Nathanson 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.

Social Revolutionaries: 1917

The rapid growth of the party, the lack of a clear structure, membership fees, and registration of its members lead to strong differences in political views. Some of its illiterate members did not even see the difference between the AKP and the RSDLP and considered the Socialist Revolutionaries and the Bolsheviks to be one party. There were frequent cases of transition from one political force to another. Also, entire villages, factories, factories joined the party. AKP leaders noted that many of the so-called March Socialist-Revolutionaries join the party solely for the purpose of career growth. This was confirmed by their massive departure after the Bolsheviks came to power on October 25, 1917. Almost all of the March Socialist-Revolutionaries went over to the Bolsheviks by the beginning of 1918.

By the fall of 1917, the Socialist Revolutionaries split into three parties: 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.).

At the beginning of the 20th century, in the colorful kaleidoscope of internal political events in Russia, a special place was occupied by the Socialist Revolutionary Party, or, as they are commonly called, the Socialist Revolutionaries. Despite the fact that by 1917 they numbered more than a million people, they failed to implement their ideas. Subsequently, many Social Revolutionary leaders ended their days in exile, and those who did not want to leave Russia fell under the merciless wheel

Development of a theoretical basis

Viktor Chernov, leader of the Socialist Revolutionary Party, was the author of the program, first published in 1907 in the newspaper Revolutionary Russia. It is based on the theories of a number of classics of Russian and foreign socialist thought. As a working document, unchanged throughout the entire period of the party's existence, this program was adopted at the first party congress, held in 1906.

Historically, the Socialist Revolutionaries were followers of the populists and, like them, preached the country’s transition to socialism through peaceful means, bypassing the capitalist period of development. In their program, they put forward the prospect of building a society of democratic socialism, in which the leading role was given to workers' trade unions and cooperative organizations. Its leadership was carried out by parliament and local governments.

Basic principles of building a new society

Socialist Revolutionary leaders at the beginning of the 20th century believed that the future society should be based on the basis of the socialization of agriculture. In their opinion, its construction will begin precisely in the village and will include, first of all, the prohibition of private ownership of land, but not its nationalization, but only its transfer to public ownership, excluding the right to buy and sell. It should be managed by local councils built on a democratic basis, and remuneration will be made strictly in accordance with the real contribution of each employee or the entire team.

The leaders of the Socialist Revolutionaries considered democracy and political freedom in all its forms to be the main condition for building the future. As for the state structure of Russia, members of the AKP were supporters of the federal form. Also, one of the most important requirements was the proportional representation of all segments of the population in elected bodies of power and direct popular legislation.

Party creation

The first party cell of the Socialist Revolutionaries was formed in 1894 in Saratov and was in close connection with the local group of Narodnaya Volya. When they were liquidated, the socialist revolutionaries began independent activities. It consisted mainly in developing its own program and producing printed leaflets and brochures. The work of this circle was led by the leader of the Socialist Revolutionary Party (SRs) of those years, A. Argunov.

Over the years, their movement acquired significant scope, and by the end of the nineties, its cells appeared in many large cities of the country. The beginning of a new century was marked by many structural changes as part of the party. Its independent branches were formed, such as the “Southern Socialist Revolutionary Party” and the “Union of Socialist Revolutionaries” created in the northern regions of Russia. Over time they merged with central organization, creating a powerful structure capable of solving national problems. During these years, the leader (of the Social Revolutionaries) was V. Chernov.

Terror as a path to a “bright future”

One of the most important components of the party was their “Combat Organization”, which first announced itself in 1902. The first victim was the Minister of Internal Affairs. From then on, the revolutionary path to a “bright future” was generously stained with the blood of political opponents. The terrorists, although they were members of the AKP, were in a completely autonomous and independent position.

The Central Committee, pointing to the next victim, only named the expected terms of execution of the sentence, leaving the militants complete organizational freedom of action. The leaders of this deeply secret part of the party were Gershuni and the subsequently exposed provocateur, Secret agent secret police Azef.

The attitude of the Social Revolutionaries to the events of 1905

When the outbreak broke out in the country, the leaders of the Socialist Revolutionaries were very skeptical about it. In their opinion, it was neither bourgeois nor socialist, but was a kind of intermediate link between them. The transition to socialism, they argued, should be carried out gradually in a peaceful way, and it driving force can only become a union of the peasantry, which was given a leading position, as well as the proletariat and the working intelligentsia. The supreme legislative body, according to the Social Revolutionaries, was to become the Constituent Assembly. They chose the phrase “Land and Freedom” as their political slogan.

From 1904 to 1907, the party carried out extensive propaganda and agitation work. A number of legal printed publications, which helps attract even more members to their ranks. The dissolution of the terrorist group “Combat Organization” dates back to the same period. Since that time, the activities of militants have become decentralized, their number has increased significantly, and at the same time political killings have become more frequent. The loudest of them in those years was the explosion of the carriage of the Moscow mayor, committed by I. Kalyaev. In total, during this period there were 233 terrorist attacks.

Disagreements within the party

During these same years, the process of separation of independent structures from the party began, forming independent political organizations. This subsequently led to the fragmentation of forces and ultimately caused the collapse. Even within the ranks of the Central Committee, serious disagreements arose. So, for example, the famous leader of the Social Revolutionaries of 1905, Savinkov, proposed, despite the tsar’s manifesto, which gave citizens certain freedoms, to strengthen terror, and another prominent party figure, Azef, insisted on ending it.

When did the first one begin? World War, the so-called international trend emerged in the party leadership, supported primarily by representatives of the left wing.

It is characteristic that the leader of the Left Socialist Revolutionaries, Maria Spiridonova, later joined the Bolsheviks. During the February Revolution, the Socialist Revolutionaries, having entered into a single bloc with the Menshevik defencists, became the largest party of that time. They had numerous representation in the Provisional Government. Many Socialist Revolutionary leaders received leadership positions in it. It is enough to name such names as A. Kerensky, V. Chernov, N. Avksentyev and others.

Fight against the Bolsheviks

Already in October 1917, the Socialist Revolutionaries entered into a tough confrontation with the Bolsheviks. In their appeal to the people of Russia, they called the recent armed seizure of power madness and a crime. The delegation of Socialist Revolutionaries left the meeting of people's deputies in protest. They even organized the Committee for the Salvation of the Motherland and the Revolution, which was headed by the famous leader of the Socialist Revolutionary Party (SR) of that period, Abram Gots.

In the All-Russian elections, the Socialist Revolutionaries received a majority of votes, and the permanent leader of the Socialist Revolutionary Party at the beginning of the 20th century, Viktor Chernov, was elected chairman. The Party Council identified the fight against Bolshevism as a priority and urgent, which was implemented in the years Civil War.

However, a certain indecision in their actions was the reason for their defeat and arrests. Especially many members of the AKP ended up behind bars in 1919. As a result of internal party disagreements, the disunity of its ranks continued. An example is the creation in Ukraine of its own independent party of Socialist Revolutionaries.

End of AKP activities

At the beginning of 1920, the Central Committee of the Party ceased its activities, and a year later a trial took place in which many of its members were convicted of “anti-people activities.” A prominent leader of the Socialist Revolutionary Party (SRs) in those years was Vladimir Richter. He was arrested a little later than his comrades.

According to the court verdict, he was shot as a particularly dangerous enemy of the people. In 1923, the Socialist Revolutionary Party practically ceased to exist in our country. For some time, only its members who were in exile continued their activities.

History of the creation of the Socialist Revolutionary Party and program. Basic principles of building a new society. Social Revolutionaries and Soviet power

The birth of a new party

Merger of two branches of the party

The tasks that the Social Revolutionaries set for themselves

Features of the agrarian policy of the Socialist Revolutionaries

Social Revolutionaries during the First Russian Revolution

Military organization of the Socialist Revolutionaries

Events of 1917

Between two fires

The defeat of the Socialist Revolutionary Party

Years of emigration

Newspapers published by the Social Revolutionaries

Afterword

Controls

Party program

Party history

Pre-revolutionary period

The period of the first Russian revolution 1905-1907

After the February Revolution

Emigration

see also

Notes

Literature

The emergence of the AKP in the political arena

"Combat Organization"

Leaders of the "Combat Organization"

Driving political force of the AKP

Official appearance

Disagreements

Woman leader

Spiridonova's popularity

Other Left SR leaders

Social Revolutionaries: 1917

The emergence of the AKP in the political arena

"Combat Organization"

Leaders of the "Combat Organization"

Driving political force of the AKP

Official appearance

Disagreements

Woman leader

Spiridonova's popularity

Other Left SR leaders

Social Revolutionaries: 1917

Development of a theoretical basis

Basic principles of building a new society

Party creation

Terror as a path to a “bright future”

The attitude of the Social Revolutionaries to the events of 1905

Disagreements within the party

Fight against the Bolsheviks

End of AKP activities