Parties in Revolutionary Russia (1905-1917)
Party: date founded | Founder/leader | Supporters
* Ideology/Goal |
Influence in revolution
“Russia’s Duma was created in a wave of violent attacks against imperial officials and public upheaval, which culminated in a national strike in October 1905 known as Russian Revolution of 1905, paving the way for Russia’s first parliament. With the nation’s infrastructure all but paralyzed, Emperor Nicholas II signed a historic manifesto of October 17, 1905, promising civil rights to the population and creating the Russia’s first parliament.” (Wikipedia. “Duma.”) |
Union of Liberation (Russian: Союз Освобождения, English transliteration: Soyuz Osvobozhdeniya) | liberal political group founded in St. Petersburg, Russia in 1903 | Zemstvo, professionals (professors, lawyers, writers, doctors, engineers), industrial and commercial class & moderate radicals
Program (OCT 1904: end autocracy; establish constitutional government; economic & social reform) goal Þthe replacement of the absolutism of the Tsar with a constitutional monarchy. Its other goals included an equal, secret and direct vote for all Russian citizens and the self-determination of different nationalities (such as the Poles) that lived in the Russian State. |
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Party: date founded | Founder/leader | Supporters
* Ideology/Goal |
Influence in revolution |
Octobrist Party (Union of October 17) | Guchov = Muscovite industrialist | Conservative liberalism
Opposed to arbitrariness of the autocracy; generally content with the October Manifesto. Hopes would lead to political system with ‘rule of law’ Strong supporters of monarchy, as a symbol of national unity and as center of political authority. Oppose constituent assembly, which they believed would be a break with tradition. For rights of workers to form unions and to strike for economic issues. |
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Kadets (Constitutional Democratic Party)
October 12-18, 1905 at the height of the Russian Revolution of 1905. |
Historian Pavel Miliukov was the party’s leader throughout its existence.
Konstantin Kavelin‘s and Boris Chicherin‘s writings formed the theoretical basis of the party’s platform. Prominent members: |
Liberal Left of the “Octobrists” Demand universal suffrage (even women’s suffrage) and a Constituent Assembly that would determine the country’s form of government. |
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Party: date founded | Founder/leader | Supporters
* Ideology/Goal |
Influence in revolution |
Trudoviks (Laborers) | Moderate Labor party The Trudoviks = breakaway Party of Socialist Revolutionaries (SR) faction they defied the SR’s stance by standing in the 1st Duma. | This agrarian socialist party was one of hundreds of small workers circles that sprang up around Russia in the aftermath of the 1905 Revolution.
While the 1905 revolution did not remove the Tsar, it certainly curtailed his power — but not to the extent of the democratic, liberal society for which the Russian masses longed for. As a result, the party survived but remained small. The Trudoviks are best known for winning seats in the State Duma, a national assembly created by Tsar Nicholas II in the aftermath of the 1905 Revolution . The seats they won were mainly in the 1st and 2nd assemblies, in 1906 and 1907 where they gained over 100 seats.
Alexander Kerensky, later prime minister of Russia under the Provisional Government in 1917, was elected to the Fourth Duma as a Trudovik in 1912. |
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Socialist-Revolutionary Party (SRs): 1901
Grew directly out of the narodnik or Russian populist movement. |
Victor Chernov, the editor of the first party organ=primary party theorist. | Rural peasantry
Supported program of land-socialization (divide land among peasants) as opposed to the Bolshevik program of land-nationalisation (collectivization in state management). Believed Þpeasantry, not the industrial proletariat, would be the revolutionary class in Russia. (not Marxist) |
Terrorism, both political and agrarian, was central to the SR’s strategy for revolution. SR agents assassinated two Ministers of the Interior, Dmitry Sipyagin and V. K. von Plehve, Grand Duke Sergei Aleksandrovich,
SR played an active role in the Russian Revolution of 1905, and in the Moscow and St. Petersburg Soviets. Although the party officially boycotted the first State Duma in 1906, 34 SRs were elected, while 37 were elected to the second Duma in 1907; the party boycotted both the third and fourth Dumas in 1907–1917. The Russian Revolution – February 1917ÞSRs play a greater political role, with one of their members Alexander Kerensky joining the Provisional Government in March 1917, and eventually becoming the head of a coalition socialist-liberal government in July 1917. In mid-late 1917 the SRs split between those who supported the Provisional Government and those who supported the Bolsheviks and favoured a communist revolution. Those who supported the Bolsheviks became known as Left Socialist-Revolutionaries (Left SRs) and in effect split from the main party, which retained the name “SR” [1]. The primary issues motivating the split were the war and the redistribution of land. At the Second Congress of Soviets on October 25, 1917, when the Bolsheviks proclaimed the deposition of the Provisional government, the split within the SR party became final. The Left SR stayed at the Congress and were elected to the permanent VTsIK executive (although at first they refused to join the Bolshevik government) while the mainstream SR and their Menshevik allies walked out of the Congress. In late November, the Left SR joined the Bolshevik government. The SRs faded after the Bolsheviks‘ October Revolution. However, in the election to the Russian Constituent Assembly they proved to be the most popular party across the country, gaining 57% of the popular vote as opposed to the Bolsheviks’ 25%. However, the Bolsheviks disbanded the Assembly and thereafter the SRs became of less political significance. The Left SR party became the coalition partner of the Bolsheviks in the Soviet Government, although they resigned their positions after the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk was signed. A few Left-SRs like Yakov Grigorevich Blumkin joined the Communist Party. Dissatisfied with the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk, some left-SRs assassinated the German ambassador to Russia, Count Wilhelm Mirbach. In 1918 they attempted a Third Russian Revolution, which failed, leading to the arrest, imprisonment, exile, and execution of party leaders and members. In response, some SRs turned once again to violence. A former SR, Fanya Kaplan, tried to assassinate Lenin on August 30, 1918. Many SRs fought for the Whites and Greens in the Russian Civil War alongside some Mensheviks and other banned moderate socialist elements. The largest rebellion against the Bolsheviks was led by an SR, Alexander Antonov. Some left-SRs however, became full members of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. |
Party: date founded | Founder/leader | Supporters
* Ideology/Goal |
Influence in revolution |
Russian Social-Democratic Labor Party (1898) | Formed to unite the various revolutionary organizations into one party. The RSDLP later split into Bolshevik and Menshevik factions, with the Bolsheviks eventually becoming the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. |
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