The Party of Left Socialist-Revolutionaries-Internationalists ( Russian : Партия левых социалистов-революционеров-интернационалистов , romanized : Partiya levykh sotsialistov-revolyutsionerov-internatsionalistov ) was a revolutionary socialist political party formed during the Russian Revolution .
176-837: In 1917, the Socialist Revolutionary Party split between those who supported the Russian Provisional Government , established after the February Revolution and those who supported the Bolsheviks , who favoured the overthrow of the Provisional Government and the placing of political power in the hands of the Congress of Soviets . Those that continued to support the Provisional Government became known as
352-647: A Constituent Assembly to draft a Constitution, leaving the soviet councils in de facto control of the country. The Bolsheviks thus moved to hand power to the 2nd Congress of Soviets in the October Revolution . After a few weeks of deliberation, the Left SRs ultimately formed a coalition government with the Bolsheviks – the Council of People's Commissioners – from November 1917 to March 1918 while
528-537: A one-party Bolshevik dictatorship in the country, since after July 1918 the representation of other parties in the soviets became insignificant. The attempts of the weakened party in maintaining their opposition to the government was futile and many of its members ended up joining Lenin's party. Already in August, splits in the formation began to emerge; one of them, that of the Party of Narodnik Communists , ended up joining
704-788: A briefcase. The left SRs also collaborated with the Bolsheviks during Kerensky's attempts to regain control of the capital , in which they played a leading role in the street-fighting. Many representatives of the Left Socialist Revolutionary Party participated in the creation of the Red Army , in the work of the All-Russian Extraordinary Commission . Subsequently, the SR Central Committee began to dissolve local groups that they considered to be rebels, beginning with
880-768: A broad coalition against one-party Bolshevik rule and the inevitable civil war which was expected to follow, joining with representatives of moderate socialist political parties to form a group called the Committee to Save the Country and Revolution with a view to the successful launch of the multi-party Constituent Assembly and to achievement of a "democratic peace" in the ongoing war with the German empire . The October 28 (O.S.) general strike threat which put Bolshevik leaders into negotiations with other political parties did not generate an immediate agreement, however. Lenin and
1056-530: A certain euphoria for its growth – the number of affiliates had tripled in just three months - and in which greater hostility to the Central Empires and to maintaining peace with them was revealed. Spiridonova raised the provocation of the imperialist invasion to cause uprisings like those taking place in Ukraine, a position that was rejected by other delegates, who were not convinced of the disposition of
1232-545: A chance of being elected, having lost much of the old support in big cities and the front line. In these councils, the majority of the elected delegates were Bolsheviks or Left SRs. At least half of the Socialist Revolutionary delegates elected to Congress belonged to the leftist current of the party. Together, the SR delegations held a slight majority in the congress. The representatives of the Left SRs hoped that
1408-459: A change in government could be made. Kerensky learned of the plot shortly before its execution and on August 26 sought and obtained self-dissolution of the cabinet for subsequent "restructuring" and the granting of unlimited authority by the outgoing cabinet to deal with Kornilov's "treachery" as he saw fit. Kerensky proved unable to by himself to divert the movement of Kornilov's troops to the capital, however, his telegraphic advice that "Petrograd
1584-585: A coalition government with the rest of the more moderate socialist parties, those left the Government (among them, Lev Kamenev , Grigory Zinoviev , Aleksei Rykov and Viktor Nogin ). Eight members of the Left SRs eventually entered the Sovnarkom. Others also joined the Cheka —after the forced dissolution of the constituent assembly—, whose actions managed to moderate in some cases. The government agreement
1760-444: A common federation of manufacturers. Consumption had to be organized through a union of cooperatives – local self-governing consumer societies , united in a common federation. Economic life should be organized by the joint arrangements of these two associations, for which it was necessary to create special economic councils, elected from production and consumer organizations. Political and military power should have been concentrated in
1936-611: A concrete plot for a military coup was hatched for Kornilov by the Main Committee of the Union of Officers and the Republican Center and Military League, timed to coincide with the August 27 official celebration of the 6-month anniversary of the revolution. The festivities would be accompanied by street disorder, the plotters assumed, making plausible a declaration of martial law to restore order, under cloak of which
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#17327659515152112-603: A governing council, an All-Russian Executive Committee, to conduct the affairs of the railway union between conventions. A total of 40 people were elected to this All-Russian Executive Committee of the Union of Railwaymen, known by its acronym Vikzhel. Of these, just two were members of the Bolshevik Party — which remained at this juncture a radical anti-war opposition party to the Provisional Government headed by Alexander Kerensky . These were part of
2288-526: A large and important fraction, although it was not until the crisis of autumn and the October Revolution when its support extended to the entire country. During the summer of 1917, it was gaining strength among soldier committees, both inside the country and in the front. Except for Mark Natanson , at the head of the faction was a series of young leaders, from exile ( Boris Kamkov ), from Siberia ( Maria Spiridonova ) or agitation activities among
2464-411: A larger role, particularly in foreign affairs, but he soon found himself marginalised and his proposals of far-reaching agrarian reform blocked by more conservative members of the government. After the failed Bolshevik uprising of July 1917, Chernov found himself on the defensive as allegedly soft on the Bolsheviks and was excluded from the revamped coalition in August 1917. The party was now represented in
2640-565: A leading role in the measures against Kornilov and presided over the military section of the Petrograd Soviet , presided over it officially. Numerous left-wing social revolutionaries, in addition to Bolsheviks and other activists without clear affiliation, participated in the committee's activities, from which the former withdrew on several occasions in protest of the actions of the Bolsheviks. Despite opposition from its main leaders, many Left SRs eventually participated in actions against
2816-496: A left wing of 15, which included as well Left Socialist-Revolutionaries and Menshevik-Internationalists. The majority moderate faction included members of the Right Socialist Revolutionary, Menshevik , and Popular Socialist parties. As the economic crisis of 1917 expanded and the country became more radical, Vikzhel likewise shifted to the left, with Left SR A.L. Malitskii assuming the chairmanship of
2992-652: A meeting of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee on February 23, the Left Socialist Revolutionaries criticized the Bolsheviks for their repressions on trade union freedoms and voted against the signing of the treaty. None of the ninety-three party representatives in the VTsIK voted in favor of the treaty, albeit in some cases, such as that of Spiridonova, only for party discipline. This disagreement led to
3168-571: A meeting scheduled for November 4 (17) and forced a rescheduling to November 6 (19), a meeting which again failed to come to an agreement on the size and structure of the division of state offices. Parties across the spectrum were alienated by the Bolsheviks' intransigence, with representatives of the Bund and Menshevik Party expressing the view that coalition government had become impossible. Negotiations slowly slogged forward for more than two weeks, finally ending on November 15 (O.S.) (28), 1917 with
3344-571: A military dictatorship in its stead — a sentiment shared by a substantial number of radicalized workers, fearing a new campaign of state repression akin to that which followed the collapse of the 1905 uprising. In August Kornilov prepared the ground for a political offensive, visiting Petrograd and putting forward a plan to put the Petrograd Military District — previously controlled by Kerensky's Ministry of War — under his own personal authority. He also visited Moscow, upstaging
3520-653: A new central organ and gradually splintered into multiple pro-Bolshevik parties, which would all ultimately merge with the Russian Communist Party (Bolsheviks) by 1921. The Right SRs supported the Whites during the Russian Civil War of 1917–1922, but the White movement's anti-socialist leadership increasingly marginalized and ultimately purged them. A small Right SR remnant, still calling itself
3696-422: A non-Bolshevik majority. The Bolshevik Party was deeply divided over the deal negotiated by Kamenev, with top party leaders Lenin and Leon Trotsky bitterly opposed to the surrender of control to other organizations. The majority of the governing Central Committee of the Bolshevik Party favored the continuation of negotiations, however, fearing overstepping what was possible and making a move which would alienate
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#17327659515153872-469: A prelevant role in the factory committees. Internationalists in the party wanted the extension of the revolution to other countries. They also advocated the transfer of government power to the Soviets , convinced that the provisional government did not apply the reforms they deemed necessary. After the failed Kornilov coup , the leftist current took control of the socialist-revolutionary organization in
4048-477: A purge of the officer corps and the expansion of special courts and capital punishment as a mechanism to restore military discipline and saw the continued existence of the moderate socialist Kerensky government as a fetter upon the implementation of this agenda. Kerensky reciprocated these feelings of mistrust, seeing in Kornilov an ambitious reactionary intent upon overthrow of the revolution and establishment of
4224-494: A short-lived government with only the most limited non-Bolshevik participation in the belief that a more representative, non-Bolshevik government was in the offing. The All-Russian Union of Railwaymen was at that time holding another national congress and it narrowly passed a vote of confidence in the Bolshevik government — a move taken by the Bolsheviks as an assertion of continued independent authority. The Bolsheviks, sensing
4400-469: A significant political and military role during the Russian Civil War , joining the green rebels and fighting both the Bolsheviks and the White Guards . They survived residually until 1923–1924. The Left Socialist Revolutionaries divided into a number of factions. The Left SR " activists ", led by Donat Cherepanov , Maria Spiridonova & Boris Kamkov , took part in armed demonstrations against
4576-466: A single course of action and the strength of the Petrograd Soviet looming ominously over his shoulder, ready to call the masses into the streets in protest once more in the event of a repressive misstep. A broad array of conservative forces, including business leaders and their All-Russian Union of Trade and Industry , gentry representatives organized in the Union of Landowners , and military officers of
4752-450: A special committee dedicated to the military emergency created by Kornilov. Vikzhel sent telegrams up and down the railway network, demanding the stoppage of "suspicious telegrams" and the rapid transmission of information about the size and destination of any troop movements by rail. Railway workers were directed to delay and halt the movement of troops by any means necessary, up to and including sidetracking, abandoning their posts, blocking
4928-475: Is completely calm and no insurrections are expected" falling upon deaf ears. On August 27, troops personally loyal to Kornilov boarded trains heading for the capital city. Although the 6-month celebration of the revolution came and went, Kornilov's plan for a military takeover moved forward, with stock prices on the Petrograd stock exchange rocketing upwards on August 28 in anticipation of a rapid victory. It
5104-567: The February Revolution , grouping the most radical elements of the party. The internal faction was highlighted in the First All-Russian Congress of Soviets of Workers' and Soldiers' Deputies in mid-May 1917 for its position close to that of the Bolsheviks , while the bulk of the party aligned with the Mensheviks . The left-wing socialist revolutionaries were especially strong in the Petrograd Soviet , where they opposed
5280-580: The Great Purge in the late 1930s (Algasov, Kamkov and Karelin were shot in 1938, while Spiridonova was executed in 1941). After the Fourth Party Congress (September–October 1918), the political and economic program of the Left Socialist Revolutionaries moved to positions close to anarchism and revolutionary syndicalism . In their opinion, industrial enterprises should be transferred to the self-government of labor collectives, united in
5456-614: The Okhrana secret police, arrested, convicted of terrorism and sentenced to life at hard labour, managing to escape, flee overseas and go into exile. Azef became the new leader of the SRCO and continued working for both the SRCO and the Okhrana, simultaneously orchestrating terrorist acts and betraying his comrades. Boris Savinkov ran many of the actual operations, notably the assassination attempt on Admiral Fyodor Dubasov . However, terrorism
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5632-601: The Petrograd Soviet would not take power by itself, but that the Congress of the Soviets would form a new socialist government that included multiple parties and separated Alexander Kerenski from power without causing a civil war. Despite its presence in the Military Revolutionary Committee, the Left SRs opposed an armed insurrection. During the Congress, in the midst of October Revolution,
5808-610: The Russian Civil War alongside some Mensheviks and other banned socialist elements. The Tambov Rebellion against the Bolsheviks was led by an SR, Aleksandr Antonov . In Ufa the SRs' Provisional All-Russian Government was formed. However, after Admiral Kolchak was installed by the Whites as "Supreme Leader" in November 1918, he expelled all Socialists from the ranks. As a result, some SRs placed their organisation behind White lines at
5984-644: The Russian Revolution of 1905 a pioneering effort was made to organize Russian railway workers into an All-Russian Union of Railwaymen. This forerunner of the 1917 labor organization by the same name conducted a strike in October 1905 which had escalated into a general strike in St. Petersburg and Moscow , paving the way for formation of the short-lived St. Petersburg Soviet of Workers' Delegates . The revolt against Tsarism soon collapsed, however, and
6160-514: The Socialist Revolutionary Party , was a major political party in the late Russian Empire , during both phases of the Russian Revolution , and in early Soviet Russia . The SRs were agrarian socialists and supporters of a democratic socialist Russian republic. The ideological heirs of the Narodniks , the SRs won a mass following among the Russian peasantry by endorsing the overthrow of
6336-585: The Sovnarkom to executive functions and leave the legislative to a new unified Executive Committee. Lenin, in need of the support of the peasantry, agreed to these conditions. The result, however, was not as satisfactory as the Left SRs announced, since the government was controlled by the All-Russian Central Executive Committee . However, the alliance of Bolsheviks and left-wing socialist revolutionaries gave them control of
6512-724: The Tsar and the redistribution of land to the peasants . The SRs boycotted the elections to the First Duma following the Revolution of 1905 alongside the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party , but chose to run in the elections to the Second Duma and received the majority of the few seats allotted to the peasantry. Following the 1907 coup , the SRs boycotted all subsequent Dumas until
6688-524: The Union of Officers and Union of Cossack Troops rapidly lost faith in the Kerensky government to find its way out of the crisis. The monarchist tradition instilled by centuries of Tsarist rule loomed strong, and a drumbeat grew among the right for an overthrow of the stumbling young republic in favor of military leadership over the nation and its economy. A consensus emerged among these rightist elements to tap General Lavr Kornilov , commander-in-chief of
6864-734: The 1890s, notably the Workers' Party of Political Liberation of Russia created by Catherine Breshkovsky and Grigory Gershuni in 1899. A primary party theorist emerged Viktor Chernov , the editor of the first party organ, Revolutsionnaya Rossiya ( Revolutionary Russia ). Later party periodicals included Znamia Truda ( Labour's Banner ), Delo Naroda ( People's Cause ) and Volia Naroda ( People's Will ). Party leaders included Grigori Gershuni, Catherine Breshkovsky, Andrei Argunov , Nikolai Avksentiev , Mikhail Gots , Mark Natanson , Rakitnikov (Maksimov), Vadim Rudnev , Nikolay Rusanov , Ilya Rubanovich and Boris Savinkov . The party's programme
7040-594: The 1890s, they attempted to broaden their appeal in order to attract the rapidly growing urban workforce to their traditionally peasant-oriented programme. The intention was to widen the concept of the people so that it encompassed all elements in society that opposed the Tsarist regime. The party was established in 1902 out of the Northern Union of Socialist Revolutionaries (founded in 1896), bringing together many local socialist revolutionary groups established in
7216-434: The Bolshevik Party stalled for two days as discord grew in the streets of Petrograd. Finally the decision was made by the Bolsheviks to enter discussions with the representatives of other parties and three days of nearly continuous negotiations at Vikzhel headquarters ensued. With Kamenev leading the Bolshevik side in these negotiations, the decision was reached for the creation of a new Council of People's Commissars featuring
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7392-510: The Bolshevik government) while the mainstream SR and their Menshevik allies walked out of the Congress. In late November, the Left SRs joined the Bolshevik government, obtaining three ministries. In the election to the Russian Constituent Assembly held two weeks after the Bolsheviks took power, the party still proved to be by far the most popular party across the country, gaining 37.6% of the popular vote as opposed to
7568-430: The Bolshevik uprising. The remaining delegates voted in favor of the decrees on peace and land – the latter very similar to the SR program -, but they refused to accept an exclusively Bolshevik government and demanded the formation of a coalition including both socialists in favor of the October Revolution and those who rejected it. They refused to join the Sovnarkom , although they did accept twenty-nine seats (compared to
7744-415: The Bolsheviks and led to the repression of the party. The party's determination to focus on opposing the peace treaty, a matter of secondary interest to the majority of the population at a time of great urban and rural discontent with the Bolshevik government, deprived the Left SRs of the great support with which it had counted in the spring and early summer. The government persecution of the Left SRs disrupted
7920-593: The Bolsheviks in November. The Party of Revolutionary Communism (including Mark Natanson and Andrei Kolegayev ), continued to support the Lenin government and joined his party in 1920. At the Fourth and Final Party Congress, held between October 2 and 7, 1918, the Left SRs claimed that the murder of the German ambassador had been a measure favorable to the world revolution, despite the fact that it ended their alliance with
8096-710: The Bolsheviks took political control by force, creating a "revolutionary committee" that separated the Soviet and in practice excluded the Socialist Revolutionaries from the next elections. The expulsion of the Left SRs from the Central Executive Committee meant that the few sessions of the body that followed the Fifth Congress had a ceremonial character, all opposition to the Bolsheviks having been excluded from them. During
8272-570: The Bolsheviks towards compromise and moderation proved to be short-lived, however, as the fledgling Soviet government soon manufactured a split of the All-Russian Union of Railwaymen and establishment of a rival governing Executive Committee known as Vikzhedor . Supplanted by the new Bolshevik-friendly organization, Vikzhel was ultimately dissolved in March 1918 by decree of the governing Council of People's Commissars (Sovnarkom). During
8448-690: The Bolsheviks' 24%. However, the Bolsheviks disbanded the Assembly in January 1918 and after that the SR lost political significance. The Left SRs became the coalition partner of the Bolsheviks in the Soviet government, although they resigned their positions after the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk (the peace treaty with the Central Powers that ended Russia's participation in World War I). Both wings of
8624-483: The Bolsheviks, during the Soviet Congress, in which a motion to this effect by Julius Martov had initially been unanimously approved. The Bolshevik radicals – led by Lenin and Trotsky – and the conservative faction of the Socialist Revolutionaries had been opposed to an agreement between the new government and the socialist opposition. The Left Socialist Revolutionaries, together with the moderate Bolsheviks and
8800-404: The Bolsheviks, especially their repressive and illegal measures. Still, prominent leaders defended staying in the government. Those who considered that the withdrawal of the Government had been a mistake and advocated resuming government work, a majority in the central committee, failed to convince the congress delegates, who ratified the actions taken after the approval of the peace treaty. In May
8976-609: The Bolsheviks, the coalition with the left social revolutionaries represented a way of obtaining some peasant support. While the Socialist Revolutionary Party expelled the leftists, its various currents had participated in the failed negotiations to form a socialist coalition government, imposed by the executive committee of the main railway union (the Vikzhel ). The idea of a broad socialist coalition government had received widespread support, including among
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#17327659515159152-465: The Bolsheviks, weak in the countryside, could not play. Also, the party supervised the agrarian reform approved by the Government at the end of 1917 and maintained control of both the Commissary of Agriculture and the peasant section of the VTsIK – chaired by Maria Spiridonova -, also in charge of agrarian issues. The legal reforms that supported the changes in the countryside increased support for
9328-643: The Bolshoi to explain the actions decided by the central committee to her delegates, remained locked up in the Kremlin until the end of November. The two party newspapers, Znamia trudá ( Banner of Work ) and Golos trudovogo krestianstva ( The Voice of the Working Peasantry ) were shut down the day after Mirbach's death. On July 9, the Fifth Congress of Soviets resumed its sessions, without
9504-443: The Central Committee of the Socialist Revolutionary Party ordered its members to leave the Military Revolutionary Committee , the center of the "Bolshevik adventure", having previously ordered the withdrawal of delegates from Congress. Part of the party's left wing remained in Congress and refused to leave the Military Committee. They were expelled by the SR Central Committee the next day, along with all those considered complicit in
9680-472: The Central Committee was established and based in Prague . The party was a member of the Labour and Socialist International between 1923 and 1940. Vikzhel The All-Russian Executive Committee of the Union of Railwaymen ( Russian: Всероссийский исполнительный комитет железнодорожного профсоюза), commonly known in English by its Cyrillic acronym, Vikzhel , was the governing body of an industrial union established in revolutionary Russia during
9856-422: The Cheka. Four of them joined the body's advisory board, a number that grew over time to almost equal that of the Bolsheviks. The socialist revolutionary Peter Aleksandrovich, lieutenant of Felix Dzerzhinski , obtained great power in the Cheka, imposing unanimous votes in the troikas' that judged the most serious cases of counterrevolutionary activity, which in practice gave the veto over the death sentences. Until
10032-478: The Constituent Assembly by force in January 1918. The Left SRs left their coalition with the Bolsheviks in March 1918 in protest against the signing of the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk . An uprising against the Bolsheviks by the leadership of the Left SRs in July 1918 resulted in the immediate arrest of most of the party's members. Most of the Left SRs who opposed the uprising were gradually freed and allowed to keep their government positions, but were unable to organize
10208-407: The Deputy Commissariat of State Property, Prosh Proshian that of Post and Telegraph, Trutovski that of Local Government and Izmailovich that of Housing. The Bolsheviks, however, maintained the most powerful ministries, those that controlled the armed forces, finances, and politics Despite having seven commissioners and vice-commissioners compared to the eleven Bolsheviks, the distribution of power in
10384-471: The Left SRs ended their confrontations with the Government in order to focus on opposing the counterrevolutionary threat of the White Armies . With the subsequent red victory, the socialist revolutionaries resumed their opposition activities in the late 1920s. The remains of the party were removed by the arrests carried out during the Kronstadt rebellion , that the party had supported. A number of Left Socialist Revolutionaries, such as Alexander Antonov , played
10560-407: The Left SRs in its last congress was more ambiguous due to the new decree from Lenin of August 18 in which it was declared that the committees should only confront the more than well-to-do peasants and not the average peasants. Although the practical consequences of this decree were very few, the tolerance of the committees by the Left SR congress, generally rejected in the countryside, ended up ruining
10736-441: The Left SRs ultimately ordered the assassination of Wilhelm von Mirbach in an attempt to cause Russia to re-enter World War I and launched an ill-fated uprising against the Bolsheviks shortly after. Most members of the Left SRs were promptly arrested , though the majority that opposed the uprising were steadily released and allowed to retain their positions in the Soviets and bureaucracy . However, they were unable to reorganize
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#173276595151510912-417: The Left Social Revolutionaries. Where the party concentrated on opposing requisitions and " Committees of Poor Peasants ", generally maintained peasant support, even after the July crisis, where they concentrated on opposing the Brest-Litovsk peace. Although some sectors of the party reacted to the repression in the countryside by demanding the separation of the Soviets of the peasant deputies from those of
11088-403: The Menshevik left, had played a crucial role in the negotiations thanks to their prominent presence in the Vikzhel that had imposed them. Their initial refusal to join the Government with the Bolsheviks was due to their desire to assume the role of mediator between the Bolsheviks and the socialists opposed to the October Revolution. After the failure of the coalition negotiations and the approval of
11264-523: The Ministry of Justice because of their opposition to terror , with the intention of stopping it, and they obtained this portfolio for Isaac Steinberg . The objective of the Left SRs in partnering with the Bolsheviks was to moderate their actions, as well as participate in the revolutionary process that was coming. The Left SRs formed a coalition with the Bolsheviks in the Council of People's Commissars in late 1917 when, after Lenin's ultimatum to moderate Bolshevik leaders to abandon their attempts to achieve
11440-432: The Narodnik–populist school of thought about social change in Russia was revived and substantially modified by a group of writers and activists known as neonarodniki (neo-populists), particularly Viktor Chernov . Their main innovation was a renewed dialogue with Marxism and integration of some of the key Marxist concepts into their thinking and practice. In this way, with the economic spurt and industrialisation in Russia in
11616-411: The October Revolution. From the party's point of view, the Assembly should limit itself to little more than endorsing the workers and peasants government created in the revolution and in no case would it be allowed to oppose the government of the Soviets, being threatened with dissolution if this happened. Their candidate to preside over the Assembly, Maria Spiridonova , also supported by the Bolsheviks,
11792-423: The Right SRs boycotted the Soviets and denounced the Revolution as an illegal coup . The SRs obtained a majority in the subsequent elections to the Russian Constituent Assembly , with most of the party's seats going to the Right faction. Citing outdated voter-rolls which did not acknowledge the party split, and the Assembly's conflicts with the Congress of Soviets, the Bolshevik-Left SR government moved to dissolve
11968-441: The Right SRs while those who aligned with the Bolsheviks became known as the Left Socialist-Revolutionaries or Left SRs ( Russian : левые эсеры , romanized : leviye esery ). After the October Revolution , the Left SRs formed a coalition government with the Bolsheviks from November 1917 to March 1918, but resigned its position in government after the signing of the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk . The Central Committee of
12144-461: The Russian army for the role of plenipotentiary leader of the Russian nation. Moreover, Kornilov's public status among middle class society was momentarily high, enhanced by the short-lived military successes of the army's June offensive, with which he was credited. Kornilov was dismissive of the February revolution and its move towards increased civilian control of the military and the creeping of political activity into army ranks. He sought instead
12320-442: The SR party were ultimately suppressed by the Bolsheviks through imprisoning some of its leaders and forcing others to emigrate. A few Left SRs like Yakov Grigorevich Blumkin joined the Communist Party . Dissatisfied with the large concessions granted to Imperial Germany by the Bolsheviks in the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk, two Chekists who were left SRs assassinated the German ambassador to Russia, Count Wilhelm Mirbach early in
12496-406: The SRCO failed and it was suspended in 1911. Gershuni had defended Azef from exile in Zürich until his death there. The Azef scandal contributed to a profound revision of SR tactics that was already underway. As a result, it renounced assassinations (" individual terror ") as a means of political protest. With the start of World War I , the party was divided on the issue of Russia's participation in
12672-577: The SRs to return to an active political role. Party leaders, including Chernov, returned to Russia. They played a major role in the formation and leadership of the soviets, albeit in most cases playing second fiddle to the Mensheviks. One member, Alexander Kerensky , joined the Russian Provisional Government in March 1917 as Minister of Justice, eventually becoming the head of a coalition socialist-liberal government in July 1917, although his connection with
12848-538: The Social Revolutionary delegates; condemned the Left SR actions as an attempt to seize power, supported the repressive actions of the government and ordered the expulsion of Left SRs from the soviets. The central committee, which had not adequately informed its groups of the change of strategy and the possible consequences of the use of terrorism, left them ill-prepared to face its consequences. Lenin took
13024-460: The Socialist Revolutionary Party, continued to operate in exile from 1923 to 1940 as a member of the Labour and Socialist International . The party's ideology was built upon the philosophical foundation of Russia's Narodnik – populist movement of the 1860s–1870s and its worldview developed primarily by Alexander Herzen and Pyotr Lavrov . After a period of decline and marginalisation in the 1880s,
13200-570: The Socialist Revolutionary troops and the Central Committee to leave the building, where Dzerzhinski was abandoned. The main nucleus of the pro-Bolshevik troops were the Latvian units stationed in the capital. The murder triggered the immediate and harsh repression of the political formation; several hundred of its members were arrested and some executed, although many of its leaders managed to escape. Spiridonova, detained when she went to
13376-642: The Soviet regime in Russian agriculture and during their months in government the Left SRs managed to unite their populist program with the peasant desires for land. These measures concentrated the efforts of the party once disputes by the Constituent Assembly, dissolved by the Government, had ended. The populists also supported the resurgence of communes , despite the Bolshevik opposition. The new "Fundamental Law of Land Socialization" —which abolished private land ownership, handed it over to those who worked it and favored cooperatives—, enacted on 9, it
13552-405: The afternoon on 6 July. Following the assassination, the left SRs attempted a " Third Russian Revolution " against the Bolsheviks on 6–7 July, but it failed and led to the arrest, imprisonment, exile and execution of party leaders and members. In response, some SRs turned to violence. A former SR, Fanny Kaplan , tried to assassinate Lenin on 30 August. Many SRs fought for the Whites or Greens in
13728-521: The ambassador as a pretext for defeating the last opposition party. Immediately, military measures began to destroy the centers held by the Socialist Revolutionaries, whose delegates to the Fifth Congress were arrested at the Bolshoi Theater that same afternoon. The central committee had not communicated to the hundreds of delegates its intention to assassinate the German representative and they were arrested unaware of what had happened. The party
13904-450: The capital, traditionally more radical than that of other localities. Their growth within the SRs led them to hope that it would come under their control, delaying a split. In October 1917, the Left Socialist Revolutionaries joined the new Petrograd Military Revolutionary Committee , formed with the aim of accelerating the revolution and at the same time moderating actions of the Bolsheviks; One of its members, Pavel Lazimir , who had played
14080-505: The censorship of press in the CEC, the socialist revolutionaries resigned from the CMR, although they remained there. For its part, continuing the talks to join the new government, the Left SRs demanded the union of the executive committee of the Soviets of Workers and Soldiers with that of the Soviets of Peasants, of which it hoped to gain control in the imminent second congress, in addition to limit
14256-461: The central committee was inclined to sign the peace treaty. The Left SR's opposition to the conditions imposed by the empires made them support Trotsky 's proposal to abandon the war without signing the peace. Determined internationalists, during the talks they had been convinced that the revolution would spread throughout Europe and that workers' representatives of the Empires would take the reins of
14432-407: The cities the opposition of the middle classes continued and workers' disillusionment arose due to the food crisis. Along with differences over land ownership, the main dissent between the two allied parties was due to the use of terror as a political instrument. Steinberg, as People's Commissar of Justice, was in favor of applying harsh measures against the opposition, but always legally; Lenin, on
14608-663: The congress. On July 6, the German Ambassador Wilhelm von Mirbach was assassinated by Yakov Blumkin and Nikolai Andreev , on the orders of the Left SR Central Committee. Initially the Bolsheviks reacted in disbelief, doubting the authorship of the crime. Felix Dzerzhinski himself, sent to the Moscow headquarters of the Cheka in search of the assassins, was arrested by the Left SR central committee, gathered there, when he believed that
14784-612: The continuation of the First World War – which had been defended by the centrist fraction of the party since mid-April. They were also strong in the Northern Region , Kazan , Kronstadt , Helsinki and Kharkiv . Later they became the main current in important rural provinces of the Russian interior, places where the socialist revolutionaries enjoyed the favor of the population. At the third party congress in May, they were
14960-464: The contrary, was willing to use state terror to consolidate the revolution. Contrary to the activity of the Cheka , founded five days before the entry of Steinberg into the government , the Left SRs eventually decided to participate in the body – to try to control it. Steinberg tried to subordinate it to the revolutionary court, which dealt with the cases related to counterrevolutionary activity. But efforts to control Cheka's activity failed, as Lenin gave
15136-534: The convocation of the Russian Constituent Assembly instead of immediately confiscating the land from the landowners and redistributing it to the peasants. Left SRs and Bolsheviks referred to the mainstream SR party as the "Right SR" party whereas mainstream SRs referred to the party as just "SR" and reserved the term "Right SR" for the right-wing faction of the party led by Catherine Breshkovsky and Avksentiev. The primary issues motivating
15312-453: The country, marked by daily reports of peasant lawlessness in the countryside, worker strikes in the cities, moves toward national separation in Finland and Ukraine , collapse of military discipline at the war front, chaos and violence in the streets, and a collapse of the economic system. Prime Minister Kerensky proved powerless to stave this escalating crisis, with his cabinet disunited on
15488-505: The coup's forces began to melt away. Delayed troops riding the rails were isolated and surrounded, the situation explained and illegal orders repudiated, and new vows of loyalty sworn to the revolutionary government. With V.I. Ul'ianov (Lenin) and the Bolsheviks seized power in Petrograd and Moscow on October 25 (O.S.) (November 7), 1917, Vikzhel asserted itself as a rival nexus of power. As historian E. H. Carr observed: "From
15664-466: The creation of a new exclusively socialist government that included all currents and parties, including the Right SRs. However, the refusal of the Right SRs to participate and the pressure of its most extreme supporters made the party abandon this cause and agree to negotiate with the Bolsheviks its entry into the revolutionary government, even if the rest of the socialist formations did not enter it. For
15840-517: The crushing of the revolt. According to a letter from a leader of the Left Socialist Revolutionaries Maria Spiridonova , the murder of Mirbach was a personal initiative of several leaders of the Socialist Revolutionaries, and there was no rebellion, and all further actions of the Left Socialist Revolutionaries were "self-defense". However, it was beneficial for the Bolsheviks to use the assassination of
16016-435: The day after the Bolshevik victory, at the second and last session of the 2nd All-Russian Congress of Soviets. It was there that Lev Kamenev announced the appointment of a new all-Bolshevik Council of People's Commissars (Sovnarkom) to head the country's executive and political functions. This information was met by a representative of Vikzhel who upon remonstration was allowed to read a written statement of Vikzhel in which
16192-603: The defectors from the PSR as Maximalists disagreed with the SRs' strategy of a two-stage revolution as advocated by Chernov, the first stage being popular-democratic and the second labour-socialist. To Maximalists, this seemed like the RSDLP distinction between bourgeois-democratic and proletarian-socialist stages of revolution. Maximalism stood for immediate socialist revolution. Meanwhile, the Popular Socialists disagreed with
16368-479: The discredited Provisional Government before the Second All-Russian Congress of Soviets of Workers' and Soldiers' Deputies , in which they called for the transfer of government power to the Soviets. The moderate Bolshevik current, headed by Lev Kamenev and Grigory Zinoviev , counted on the collaboration of the Left SRs to form a majority in the constituent assembly. The final Left SR split
16544-438: The dissolution of the Russian Provisional Government , the transfer of power to the soviets and chairing the Military Revolutionary Committee. Opposed to the Bolshevik seizure of power up until the last moment, they reluctantly supported it, worried about the possibility of the Provisional Government's return or the unleashing of a counterrevolution. Their votes, together with those of the Bolsheviks, had been crucial in approving
16720-476: The end of the month and the Left SRs could not count on the support of the former dissidents in their confrontation with the government in Congress. Seeking to secure a majority in the congress, on June 14 Lenin ordered the expulsion of the Mensheviks and the Right SRs from the All-Russian Central Executive Committee (VTsIK) to undermine their chances of getting delegates. Despite pre-congress estimates that
16896-400: The end of workers' control of the factories and the reappearance of the bourgeois managers, who they considered endangered the socialist transformation. For the Left SRs, food requisitions in the countryside did not solve the supply problems of the cities, but instead endangered the Soviet system of government. They weakened the Bolsheviks in the countryside while strengthening rural support for
17072-419: The expulsion of Social Revolutionaries and Mensheviks (14 June), economic and political centralization, the creation of a professional Army with tsarist officers, the restoration of the death penalty (May 21) and the sharpening of terror made the Left SRs an implacable enemy of the Bolsheviks. The substitution of the elected soviets led in their opinion to bureaucratization and a new tyranny. They also condemned
17248-531: The fall of 1917. Favoring a multi-party government, Vikzhel managed to leverage its position of strength through threat of a general transportation strike to force the Bolsheviks to add other socialist political parties to the previously all-Bolshevik government — a power play culminated by the provision of three ministerial portfolios to representatives of the Left Socialist Revolutionary Party . Vikzhel's limited success in pushing
17424-502: The fall of the Tsar in the February Revolution of March 1917. Controversially, the party leadership endorsed the Russian Provisional Government and participated in multiple coalitions with liberal and social-democratic parties, while a radical faction within the SRs rejected the Provisional Government's authority in favor of the Congress of Soviets and began to drift towards the Bolsheviks . These divisions would ultimately result in
17600-409: The first definition, small-holding subsistence farmers who do not employ wage labour are – as owners of their land – members of the petty bourgeoisie, whereas on the second definition, they can be grouped with all who provide rather than purchase labour-power, and hence with the proletariat as part of the labouring class. Chernov considered the proletariat as vanguard and the peasantry as the main body of
17776-439: The first time, the Left SRs supported the Bolshevik position against that of the Right SRs and managed to defeat the rightist's motions to debate land management. But the leftists became increasingly dependent on Lenin's party and lost their political power base by approving the union of the soviets, as the peasant section was now subordinated to that of the workers and soldiers, controlled by the Bolsheviks. In exchange for accepting
17952-407: The following demands: The new party held its first congress in early December and elected a central committee of fifteen members and five deputies. The conference was attended by one hundred and sixteen delegates from ninety-nine local organizations that had abandoned Socialist Revolutionary Party. The leadership was dominated by the more moderate current of the party. At first the Left SRs defended
18128-410: The front ranks of this effort, rapidly unionizing themselves as the All-Russian Union of Railwaymen at a convention held in Moscow on April 6, 1917 (O.S.) . The 200 delegates to this gathering decided to establish themselves as a single industry-wide industrial union rather than as an alliance of specialized craft unions organizing workers based upon their specific tasks. A decentralized structure
18304-461: The government by Nikolai Avksentiev, a defensist, as Minister of the Interior. This weakening of the party's position intensified the growing divide within it between supporters of the pluralistic Constituent Assembly, and those inclined toward more resolute, unilateral action. In August 1917, Maria Spiridonova advocated scuttling the Constituent Assembly and forming an SR-only government, but she
18480-665: The government of Tsar Nicholas II pushed back with a December 14 (O.S.) decree allowing railway lines to be placed under martial law . The lengthy decree provided for the summary arrest of workers failing to following the orders of railway authorities, backed by jail terms of up to three months and fines of up to 500 rubles without trial. Gatherings of railway workers were prohibited, with strikers subject to immediate dismissal and possible arrest. So-called "punitive expeditions" aboard armored trains were quickly dispatched to take action against organized strikers. Some 150 railway strikers and bystanders were killed in massacres following
18656-442: The government was very unfavorable to the Left SRs. According to Leonard Shapiro , the alliance between Bolsheviks and left socialist revolutionaries "was to prove a shortlived and uneasy coalition, but it pacified Vikzhel, gave the Bolsheviks the appearance of peasant support, and no doubt also served to allay dormant apprehensions among the recent dissidents within the bolshevik party". The alliance lasted until mid-March 1918, when
18832-459: The granting of three seats on Sovnarkom to members of the Left SR party. Somewhat surprisingly, this one-sided coalition of just two parties proved sufficient for Vikzhel's purposes, a concession sweetened with the granting of the post of People's Commissar of Communications to a former member of Vikzhel himself. Vikzhel seems to have put its faith in the forthcoming Constituent Assembly, elections for which has been held, and were willing to forgive
19008-471: The hands of political councils elected by the working people on a territorial basis. The Ukrainian Left Socialist Revolutionaries (led by Yakov Brown ) believed that along with economic and political councils, councils on ethnic issues should be elected by representatives of various ethnic communities of workers – Jews , Ukrainians , Russians , Greeks , etc., which, in their opinion, would be especially relevant for multinational Ukraine. Each person received
19184-533: The imposition of martial law. More than 59,000 railway workers were ultimately terminated from their jobs as a result of the repression in 1906 and 1907, although many of these ultimately regained employment elsewhere in the Russian railroad industry following defeat of the revolution. The Russian railway union was thus effectively crushed. Following the overthrow of Tsarism in the February Revolution of 1917, workers found no governmental obstacles to their self-organization into labor unions . Railway workers were in
19360-638: The largest and best organized union in Russia by the fall of 1917. One of the most historically significant episodes involving Vikzhel occurred during the Kornilov affair of August 1917. The spontaneous street riots known as the July Days had fizzled and been suppressed, leading to a public discrediting of the Bolshevik Party that had belatedly supported such direct action and a turn in public opinion towards firm central government. A sense of despair filled
19536-473: The largest in the country, that of the capital, with around forty-five thousand members. Although the true extent of the split unleashed by the PSR Central Committee is unknown, it is considered to have been remarkable and deprived the Socialist Revolutionaries of most of its radical elements and most of its support among the soldiers, while the intelligentsia remained mainly in the old party and
19712-430: The largest railway union, the Vikzhel , elected on 23 August, had a majority of Left SRs. During the congresses of the regional, national and provincial soviets held between August and November, it was the effective division of the Right SRs and the strength of those on the left that often allowed the approval of leftist motions. The leftists declared themselves the only representatives of the party program, and proclaimed
19888-511: The last-minute doubts of the Left SR commissioners, the Assembly was dissolved the next day (19). Both the party's bases and its delegates to the Third Congress of Soviets , generally approved the action. For the Left SRs, the Assembly had lost its original function because the measures expected of it had already been enacted by the Sovnarkom. In this Third Congress of Soviets , which brought together soldiers and workers with peasants for
20064-567: The leaders were arrested again; in 1920 part of the party was able to re-establish itself until May 1921. Periods of relative tolerance alternated with more habitual periods of persecution by the Cheka and clandestine activity. Their relative influence among the workers and peasants in Ukraine in 1919 did not endanger the government, so they were allowed to continue their activity. In October 1919 and again in May 1920 (after another brief legalization),
20240-759: The leadership of the Soviet Union. The " legalist " movement, led by Isaac Steinberg , advocated public criticism of the Bolsheviks and the struggle against them only by peaceful means. In the years 1922–1923, the legalist movement united with the Socialist-Revolutionary-Maximalist groups and the Socialist-Revolutionary "People's" group in the Association of Left Narodism . The leaders who survived this stage, either in prison or in internal exile, fell victims to
20416-515: The left socialist revolutionaries withdrew from the government in protest at the signing of the Brest-Litovsk Treaty . Despite initially defending the convocation of the Russian Constituent Assembly , the number of its delegates to it was low. Partly their low presence on the Socialist Revolutionary lists was due to the youth and lack of experience of many of its future members, which made them seem unsuitable candidates to represent
20592-484: The left socialist revolutionaries would eventually have nearly as many delegates as the Bolsheviks, the Bolsheviks sent enough delegates with suspicious credentials to secure a large majority in congress, wiping out the hopes of modifying government policy in congress. In this environment, the Third Party Congress took place, between June 28 and July 1, a congress that showed greater unity in the party and
20768-401: The leftist current. The number of socialist-revolutionary organizations and committees that followed the leftist faction grew, a trend that was accentuated in the early autumn. In general, workers and soldiers agreed with the positions of the left-wing, the intelligentsia continued to support the SR party line, and the peasants and local branches were divided among them. The executive committee of
20944-534: The loss of control of the body during the July revolt, the Left SRs avoided the execution of political prisoners. Even after his brethren joined the organization, Steinberg continued to try to subordinate the CheKa to his Commissariat, and reported their abuses. The main disagreement with the Bolsheviks arose during the peace negotiations with the Central Empires that ended in the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk . At
21120-411: The moment of the October revolution Vikzhel took over the administration of the railways on its own account and acted as an independent power. In short, it played the role of a mammoth factory committee exercising 'workers' control.' It recognized no political authority, and no interest other than the professional interest of the railwayman." The two sides came into direct conflict for the first time on
21296-418: The month of July, the Bolsheviks forcibly dissolved the soviets in which the Left SRs had a majority, while expelling the Socialist Revolutionaries where they were a minority and did not agree to reject the actions of their central committee. The party joined the other socialist collectives persecuted by the government; for many historians, it is July 1918 that is considered the milestone of the final formation of
21472-499: The murder of the German Commander in Ukraine, Hermann von Eichhorn and other minor actions, disrupted by the authorities. The current favorable to Spiridonova advocated a peasant uprising against the Bolsheviks, the abolition of the Sovnarkom and the transfer of government power to a democratically elected VTsIK , the end of the Cheka , the poor peasant committees and requisitions in the countryside. In early 1919, some of
21648-496: The new government. The Bolshevik authorities, struggling to maintain control of the city of Petrograd and still engaged in a fight to win control in Moscow, stood powerless to contest Vikzhel's ultimatum. Pressured by a threat of a general strike on the railroads, the Bolsheviks grudgingly entered into negotiations with other socialist parties with the object of establishing a multi-party government in accordance with Vikzel's demands. For its part Vikzhel attempted to help establish
21824-402: The opportunity to get rid of the Left SRs as a political rival. In Petrograd , after short but hard fighting, the local headquarters of the Socialist Revolutionaries were seized; Those arrested were gradually released, after no connection to the events in Moscow was found, despite the initial fear of the Bolsheviks. At the nearby Kronstadt naval base, where the influence of the Left SRs was great,
22000-407: The organization on September 15 (O.S.) . Vikzhel remained far from lockstep with the waxing Bolshevik forces, however, with the union remaining committed to the essentially syndicalist principles of decentralization and workers' control in contrast to the hard centralism touted by the Bolsheviks. Vikzhel rapidly developed amidst the chaos into which the country had descended, establishing itself as
22176-570: The organization the power to inform the Commissioners of its actions once already carried out, without the need for prior permission. In practice, the Cheka was subordinate only to the Sovnarkom, where the Bolshevik majority could approve its actions without the Left SRs being able to impede it. After the dissolution of the Constituent Assembly , the Bolshevik Party finally agreed to admit the left socialist revolutionaries into
22352-410: The organization within only a few months. The general meaning of the interventions in the last congress was dejected, unlike those of the previous one. The party was in crisis, both due to the government persecution and internal divisions. Originally opposed to the poor peasant committees created by decree on June 11 to help with the requisitioning of food and to fuel the class struggle in the countryside,
22528-564: The overthrow of the Provisional Government and the seizure of power in Congress The Left Socialist Revolutionaries entered the Council of People's Commissars , leading the people's commissariats of agriculture ( Kolegaev ), property ( Karelin ), justice ( Steinberg ), post offices and telegraphs ( Proshian ), local government ( Trutovsky ), and Algasov received the post of People's Commissar without
22704-618: The party splitting over the course of the summer of 1917 into the Right and Left SRs . Meanwhile, Alexander Kerensky , one of the leaders of the February Revolution and the second and last head of the Provisional Government (July–November 1917) was a nominal member of the SR party but in practice acted independently of its decisions. By November 1917, the Provisional Government had been widely discredited by its failure to withdraw from World War I , implement land reform or convene
22880-591: The party was tenuous. He had served in the Duma with the social democratic Trudoviks , breakaway SRs that defied the party's refusal to participate in the Duma. After the fall of the first coalition in April–May 1917 and the reshuffling of the Provisional Government, the party played a larger role. Its key government official at the time was Chernov who joined the government as Minister of Agriculture. Chernov also tried to play
23056-424: The party's core constituency of urban factory workers. Although power sharing negotiations were to be continued, the decision was made to harden the negotiating posture in an effort to drive out moderate elements from the discussions. Opponents of this hard line were threatened with expulsion for violation of party discipline if their resistance did not cease. Vikzhel was again stalled by the Bolsheviks, who dodged
23232-441: The party's proposal to socialise the land (i.e. turn it over to collective peasant ownership) and instead wanted to nationalise it (i.e. turn it over to the state). They also wanted landowners to be compensated while the PSR rejected indemnities. Many SRs held a mixture of these positions. In late 1908, a Russian Narodnik and amateur spy hunter Vladimir Burtsev suggested that Azef might be a police spy. The party's Central Committee
23408-432: The party, which gradually splintered into multiple pro-Bolshevik parties – all of which would merge with the Russian Communist Party (Bolsheviks) by 1921. The Left SRs were overwhelmingly underrepresented in the Russian Constituent Assembly due to outdated voter rolls which did not acknowledge the split between the Right and Left SRs. The left-wing faction of the Socialist Revolutionary Party began to form after
23584-422: The party. The Left SRs wanted to approve extensive political and social changes in the assembly, but had no intention of submitting to parliamentary procedures to achieve its revolutionary objectives, as was the case with the Bolsheviks. Even the most moderate of the Left SR leaders were only willing to tolerate the existence of the Assembly as long as they did not oppose the new system of government that emerged from
23760-497: The peace negotiations. They argued that the signing of the peace was both a betrayal of the international revolution and a surrender to the bourgeoisie, both national and foreign. During the Fourth Congress of Soviets, the representatives of the Left SRs opposed, in vain, the ratification of the peace treaty. It was defended by the Bolshevik majority but rejected by a minority, who received the name Left Communists . After
23936-607: The peasantry and they also had support among the workers of the cities. After their withdrawal from the Government, guerrilla actions in the Baltic and Ukraine against the occupying troops of the Central Empires intensified, while devising terrorist attacks against senior German officials. The party helped to organize a popular, mainly peasant, uprising against the invading empires. At the Second Party Congress, held from April 17 to 25 in Moscow, Prosh Proshian described
24112-502: The peasantry was divided between the two formations. In geographical terms, the new party formed by those expelled from the Socialist Revolutionary Party gained control of nearly half a dozen provinces, mainly in Ukraine and the Urals , parts of the capital and other isolated rural areas in the country. Their first conference as a separate group, held in November 1917, brought together representatives of ninety-nine groups. The Left SRs made
24288-429: The population ( Prosh Proshian ). The SR leadership, on the contrary, had veteran and conservative representatives, who led the party into an alliance with the liberals. This led the party to share government power but, at the same time, jeopardized its support among the population. As the year progressed, the leadership of the SRs moved further and further away from the feelings of its followers and its base, which favoured
24464-506: The population to rise up against the occupiers. Opposition to maintaining the treaty, however, was in a majority among the delegates and the central committee weighed in on carrying out terrorist actions against the German representatives. In this tense atmosphere began the Fifth Congress of Soviets on July 4. The Left SRs, being in the minority (about 353 (30%) deputies, to the Bolsheviks' 773 (66%) deputies), still openly opposed their former Bolshevik allies, for which they were expelled from
24640-457: The pursuit of peace through cooperation with socialist parties in both military blocs. This led them to participate in the Zimmerwald and Kienthal conferences with Bolshevik emigres led by Lenin. This fact was later used against Chernov and his followers by their right-wing opponents as alleged evidence of their lack of patriotism and Bolshevik sympathies. The February Revolution allowed
24816-416: The rapprochement between the party and the Bolsheviks in some respects until the departure for peace with the Central Empires. Their withdrawal from the Sovnarkom did not, however, entail a total break with the Bolsheviks. The Left SRs continued to participate in numerous government agencies, including the Cheka. Other participants, like former Justice Commissioner Isaac Steinberg , were much more critical of
24992-404: The ratification of the treaty, the representatives of the left-communists – who had abstained in the final vote – and the Socialist Revolutionaries – who had voted against ratification – resigned from the government , withdrew from the Council of People's Commissars and announced the termination of their agreement with the Bolsheviks. The governing coalition had lasted just over two months. In
25168-401: The relationship between Bolsheviks and Socialist Revolutionaries was markedly worsened by the actions of the Bolsheviks in domestic politics, which joined the disagreements on foreign policy. The signing of the peace treaty, rejected by the Left SRs, the campaign to divide the peasantry and loot from the countryside to supply the cities, the final takeover of the soviets by the Bolsheviks with
25344-649: The resignation of the Socialist Revolutionary Commissioners on March 19, 1918, during the Fourth Congress of Soviets . The Socialist Revolutionaries rejected the treaty, but their departure from the government did not mean a complete break with the Bolsheviks as both parties continued to collaborate in other councils and in the Commissariats. The socialist revolutionary leadership was actually very divided: almost half of
25520-582: The revolutionary army. The party played an active role in the 1905 Russian Revolution and in the Moscow and Saint 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 also boycotted both the third Duma (1907–1912) and fourth Duma (1912–1917). In this period, party membership drastically declined and most of its leaders emigrated from Russia. A distinctive feature of party tactics until about 1909
25696-431: The right of way, and dismantling track. Combined with the mobilization of soldiers and formation of Red Guards units of armed factory workers in the city of Petrograd, the delaying actions of the Russian railway workers to block troop movements — coordinated by Vikzhel — proved decisive. By the evening of August 29 the inadequacy of Kornilov's forces in the face of a newly united opposition had become apparent to all, and
25872-790: The right to freely "enroll" in any community of their choice – ethnicity was considered by the Left Socialist Revolutionaries to be a matter of free self-determination of a person, the result of his personal choice, and not a question of blood. The ethnic councils of workers, forming, as it were, the third chamber of power of councils, were to deal with the development of culture, schools, institutions, educational systems in local languages, etc. Socialist Revolutionary Party The Party of Socialist-Revolutionaries (the SRs , СР , or Esers , эсеры , esery ; Russian : Па́ртия социали́стов-революционе́ров , romanized : Pártiya sotsialístov-revolyutsionérov , ПСР , PSR ), also known as
26048-534: The service of the Red Guards and the Cheka. Following Lenin's and Stalin's instructions, a trial of SRs was held in Moscow in 1922 , which led to protests by Eugene V. Debs , Karl Kautsky , and Albert Einstein among others. Most of the defendants were found guilty, but they did not plead guilty like the defendants in the later show trials in the Soviet Union in the late 1920s and the 1930s. The party continued its activities in exile. A Foreign Delegation of
26224-412: The sixty-seven of the Bolsheviks and twenty of other minor groups) in the new All-Russian Central Executive Committee that emerged from the congress. Remaining outside the new government they were convinced that they could favor the creation of a coalition between socialists. During the rebellion, the Left SRs had maintained a position equal to that of the Bolsheviks, participating in agitation in favor of
26400-586: The socialist character of the revolution, demanded the end of collaboration with the bourgeoisie and the immediate socialization of land, first with their surrender to the land committees and then to the peasants themselves. They were also opposed to the continuation of the war, even if it involved signing a separate peace with the Central Powers . In industrial policy, they advocated the granting of various rights ( union organizing , living wages , eight-hour days ) and workers' control of factories and played
26576-407: The socialist revolutionaries were not involved. The intention of the party was not, however, to seize power and overthrow the Bolsheviks, but to force a confrontation with Germany, destroying the results of Brest-Litovsk. Fearful of the German imperialist reaction, Lenin declared, on the contrary, that the murder was part of an attempt by the Left SRs to destroy the government of the soviets and ordered
26752-443: The soldiers and workers, the central committee preferred to press the Bolsheviks demanding the convocation of a new congress of the unified soviets, hoping to subject the government's policy to harsh criticism therein. The leaders of the Left SRs also hoped to gain the support of the left-communists , at odds with Lenin for his capitulation to the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk . The schism in the Bolshevik leadership, however, had settled by
26928-476: The splintered Second Congress of Peasant Soviets. This had been called by mutual agreement between the Bolsheviks and left-wing socialist revolutionaries, to eliminate the Right SR leadership that still dominated the executive committee of the peasant soviets and that rejected the October Revolution. During their conversations with the Bolsheviks that ended their entry into the Government, they demanded control of
27104-494: The split were participation in the war and the timing of land redistribution. At the Second All-Russian Congress of Soviets on 25 October, when the Bolsheviks proclaimed the deposition of the Provisional government in Petrograd , the split within the SR party became final. The Left SR stayed at the Congress and were elected to the permanent All-Russian Central Executive Committee executive (while initially refusing to join
27280-473: The spring of 1918, generally carried out in a peaceful and orderly manner. Although the result did not dramatically increase the amount of land per farmer, it fulfilled the old peasant desire to drive out landowners and redistribute their land. In early 1918, The main strength of the Bolshevik-controlled regime was due to the peasant support achieved by its socialist-revolutionary allies, while in
27456-422: The spring the Left SR's influence grew, as support for the Bolsheviks fell. Between April and June, the party grew from some sixty thousand members to one hundred thousand. The socialist revolutionaries rejected the dictatorship of the proletariat and advocated a government controlled by both the working classes and the intellectuals. Their law of socialization of the land had won them a great amount of support with
27632-400: The strength of the party in rural Russia. Many of its members gave up for joining the Bolshevik party. Some members of the central committee were tried and sentenced to imprisonment on November 27; some of them, like Spiridonova, received a pardon a few days later. The most radical current of the party, around Kamkov and Irina Kakhovskaya , formed a clandestine terrorist group that carried out
27808-588: The summer of 1917. Inclined towards syndicalism and standing as one of the most radical Russian unions of the period, Vikzhel played a decisive role in stymying the attempted Kornilov coup in August 1917. At the time of the October Revolution Vikzhel was the largest and best organized union in Russia. Simultaneously but independent of the Bolshevik Party's seizure of state power, Vikzhel would seize control of Russia's railways in
27984-453: The tepid reception given to the arrival of government ministers to a formal state conference with a carefully orchestrated railway ceremony featuring a military honor guard, saber-wielding Turkmen guards, and a military band. An uneasy political dance followed between Kerensky and Kornilov, in which each attempted to use the other to bolster his own claim as supreme leader of a future Russian government. Late in August (Old Style calendar)
28160-442: The union expressed its "negative attitude to the seizure of power by any one political party" and called for the formation of "a revolutionary socialist government responsible to the plenipotentiary organ of the whole revolutionary democracy." Moreover, Vikzhel threatened that it and it alone would assume control of the country's railways and threatened to cut off supplies to the city of Petrograd should efforts at repression be made by
28336-425: The union of the congresses, the left socialist revolutionaries had achieved the Bolshevik acceptance of the socialization of land (instead of the expropriation that the Bolsheviks proposed and would later carry out), which the new Unified Congress approved by 376 votes out of 533. In the field, the Left SRs played a crucial role in extending the authority of the new Soviet Government through the " volost " soviets that
28512-613: The war. Most SR activists and leaders, particularly those remaining in Russia, chose to support the Tsarist government mobilisation against Germany. Together with the like-minded members of the Menshevik Party, they became known as oborontsy ("defensists"). Many younger defensists living in exile joined the French Army as Russia's closest ally in the war. A smaller group, the internationalists, which included Chernov, favoured
28688-464: Was democratic and socialist – it garnered much support among Russia's rural peasantry , who in particular supported their programme of land-socialization as opposed to the Bolshevik programme of land-nationalization – division of land into peasant tenants rather than collectivization into state management. The party's policy platform differed from that of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party (RSDLP) – both Bolshevik and Menshevik – in that it
28864-550: Was agreed upon, which had the benefit of fostering local initiative but at the expense of united national action. The organizational conference set July 15, 1917 (O.S.) as the date for a formal First All-Russian Congress of Railwaymen to perfect its organizational form. Some 500 delegates assembled in Moscow on July 15 for the convocation of the First Congress, with the left wing of the Socialist Revolutionary Party in clear numerical domination. This gathering elected
29040-411: Was also populist-inspired (see Decree on Land ). Lenin accepted it as inevitable. Between the approval in the Congress of Soviets and the ratification by the VTsIK , which emerged from the Congress, the Bolsheviks managed to include important clauses such as the priority of collective farms or the state concession of property that upset the Left SRs. The law produced a gigantic change in land ownership in
29216-647: Was controversial for the party from the beginning. At its 2nd Congress in Imatra in 1906, the controversy over terrorism was one of the main reasons for the split between the SR Maximalists and the Popular Socialists . The Maximalists endorsed not only attacks on political and government targets, but also economic terror (i.e. attacks on landowners, factory owners and so on) whereas the Popular Socialists rejected all terrorism. Other issues also divided
29392-462: Was defeated by the SR leader, Victor Chernov by 244 votes to 153. Following the Assembly's rejection of the government motion (the "Declaration of the Rights of Working and Exploited Peoples"), that included the legislation approved until then by the Sovnarkom and limited its activity to establishing the bases for a socialist transformation, the Bolshevik and Left SR deputies left the session. Despite
29568-424: Was due to the party's attitude towards the Second All-Russian Congress of Soviets of Workers' and Soldiers' Deputies . At the beginning, the SRs opposed the convocation of the new congress, fearing that it would be dominated by the extremists. After seeing that it had the support of much of the populace, the party changed its stance to support the congress, but only stood for delegate elections where it believed it had
29744-489: Was here that Vikzhel played its historic role. On August 27, in conjunction with the celebration of the revolution, the Petrograd Soviet issued an emergency appeal to soldiers, telegraph operators, and railway workers to come to the defense of the revolution, declaring that orders of the military high command were to be ignored and the movement of counterrevolutionary troops stymied. That same day Vikzhel established
29920-427: Was immediately denounced as counter-revolutionary and determined to lead the country to war with Germany, and the population was called to arms against him. Attempts to take the centers into the hands of the Left SRs in Moscow, however, could not begin firmly on that night due to a lack of troops, and finally began at noon the following day, with the use of artillery against the Cheka headquarters. The bombardment caused
30096-461: Was initially led by Gershuni and operated separately from the party so as not to jeopardise its political actions. SRCO agents assassinated two Ministers of the Interior, Dmitry Sipyagin and Vyacheslav von Plehve , Grand Duke Sergei Aleksandrovich , the Governor of Ufa N. M. Bogdanovich and many other high-ranking officials. In 1903, Gershuni was betrayed by his deputy, Yevno Azef , an agent of
30272-449: Was its heavy reliance on assassinations of individual government officials. These tactics were inherited from SRs' predecessor in the populist movement, Narodnaya Volya (“People's Will”), a conspiratorial organisation of the 1880s. They were intended to embolden the "masses" and intimidate ("terrorise") the Tsarist government into political concessions . The SR Combat Organisation (SRCO), responsible for assassinating government officials,
30448-503: Was not officially Marxist (though some of its ideologues considered themselves such). The SRs agreed with Marx's analysis of capitalism, but not with his proposed solution. The SRs believed that both the labouring peasantry as well as the industrial proletariat were revolutionary classes in Russia. Whereas RSDLP defined class membership in terms of ownership of the means of production, Chernov and other SR theorists defined class membership in terms of extraction of surplus value from labour. On
30624-411: Was not supported by Chernov and his followers. This spurred the formation a small breakaway faction of the SR party known as the "Left SRs". The Left SRs were willing to temporarily cooperate with the Bolsheviks. The Left SRs believed that Russia should withdraw immediately from World War I and they were frustrated that the Provisional Government wanted to postpone addressing the land question until after
30800-425: Was outraged and set up a tribunal to try Burtsev for slander. At the trial, Azef was confronted with evidence and was caught lying, therefore he fled and left the party in disarray. The party's Central Committee, most of whose members had close ties to Azef, felt obliged to resign. Many regional organisations, already weakened by the revolution's defeat in 1907, collapsed or became inactive. Savinkov's attempt to rebuild
30976-592: Was reached on 28, the day on which the executive councils of the two council organizations were unified. Three days later, the Agriculture Ministry passed into the hands of the left-wing socialist revolutionary Andrei Kolegayev and Left SR deputy commissioners were appointed in other government posts. Finally and after new and hard negotiations, the Left SRs obtained the Justice Ministry for Isaac Steinberg (25). For his part, Karelin obtained
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