Socialist-Revolutionary Party

The Socialist-Revolutionary Party (the PSR, the SRs, or Esers; Партия социалистов-революционеров (ПСР), эсеры in Russian) was a Russian political party active in the early 20th century.

History

Prior to the 1917 Revolution

The Socialist-Revolutionary Party was established in 1901, bringing together numerous local socialist-revolutionary groups which had been established in the 1890s, most notably Workers' Party of Political Liberation of Russia created by Catherine Breshkovsky and Grigory Gershuni in 1899. Victor Chernov, the editor of the first party organ, Revolutsionaia Rossiia (Revolutionary Russia), emerged as the primary party theorist. Later party periodicals included Znamia Truda (Labor's Banner), Delo Naroda (People's Cause), and Volia Naroda (People's Will). Gershuni, Breshkovsky, AA Argunov, ND Avksentiev, MR Gots, Mark Natanson, NI Rakitnikov (Maksimov), NS Rusanov, IA Rubanovich, and Boris Savinkov were among the party's leaders.

The programme of the PSR was in the democratic socialist mold and garnered much support amongst Russia's rural peasantry who in particular supported their programme of land-socialisation as opposed to the Bolshevik programme of land-nationalisation. Their policy platform differed from that of the Social Democrats — both Bolshevik and Menshevik — in that it was not Marxist; the SRs believed that the peasantry, not the industrial proletariat, would be the revolutionary class in Russia.

The PSR grew directly out of the narodnik or Russian populist movement. With the economic spurt in Russia of the 1890s, they attempted to broaden their appeal in order to attract the rapidly growing urban workforce to their traditionally peasant orientated programme. The intention was to widen the concept of the 'people' so that it encompassed all elements in the society that were opposed to the Tsarist regime.

The PSR 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.

Terrorism, both political and agrarian, was central to the PSR's strategy for revolution. The "SR Combat Organization", responsible for assassinating government officials, was led by Gershuni and operated separately from the party so as not to jeopardize its political actions. SRCO agents assassinated two Ministers of the Interior, Dmitry Sipyagin and V. K. 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 the Okhranka secret police, arrested and tried for terrorism. Azef became the new leader of the SRCO, and continued working for both the SRCO and the Okhranka, simultaneously orchestrating terrorist acts and betraying his comrades. Boris Savinkov ran many of the actual operations, notably the assassination of Admiral Dubasov.

In late 1908, a Russian Menshevik and amateur spy hunter Vladimir Burtsev suggested that Azef may be a police spy. The party's Central Committee was outraged and set up a tribunal to try Burtsev for slander. When Azef was confronted with the evidence at the trial and was caught lying, 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 organization, already weakened in the wake of the revolution's defeat in 1907, collapsed or became inactive. Savinkov's attempt to rebuild the SRCO proved unsuccessful and it was suspended in 1911.

1917 Revolution

The Russian Revolution of February, 1917, made it possible for the SRs to play a greater political role, with one of their members Alexander Kerensky joining the liberal 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" . The primary issues motivating the split were the war and the redistribution of land. The Left SRs, led by Maria Spiridonova, 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 the convocation of the Russian Constituent Assembly instead of immediately confiscating the land from the landowners and redistributing it to the peasants.

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.

After the 1917 Revolution

The SRs faded after the Bolshevik October Revolution, although in the election to the 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 the Soviet Union, Count Wilhelm Mirbach. In 1918 they attempted a revolt, 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.

Notes

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 rightwing faction of the party which was led by Breshkovsky and Avksentev. Following this pattern, Soviet authorities called the trial of the SR Central Committee in 1922 the "Trial of the Right SRs". Russian emigres and most Western historians used the term "SR" to describe the mainstream party while Soviet historians used the term "Right SR" until the fall of Communism in the USSR.

References

Anna Geifman. Entangled in Terror: The Azef Affair and the Russian Revolution, Wilmington, Scholarly Resources Inc., 2000, 247 pp. ISBN 0842026517 ISBN 0842026509
Manfred Hildermeier. The Russian Socialist Revolutionary Party Before the First World War, 1978, 2000.
Hannu Immonen. The Agrarian Program of the Russian Socialist Revolutionary Party, 1900–1911, 1988
Michael Melancon. The Socialist Revolutionaries and the Russian Anti-War Movement, 1914–1917, 1990 (also various articles by the same author)
Maureen Perrie. The Agrarian Policy of the Russian Socialist-Revolutionary Party from its Origins through the Revolution of 1905–07, 1976.
Oliver Radkey. The Agrarian Foes of Bolshevism: Promise and Default of the Russian Socialist Revolutionaries, February to October 1917, 1958.
Oliver Radkey. The Sickle Under the Hammer: The Russian Socialist Revolutionaries in the Early Months of Soviet Rule, 1963.
Christopher Rice. Russian Workers and the Socialist Revolutionary Party Through the Revolution of 1905–07, 1988
Nurit Schleifman. Undercover Agents in the Russian Revolutionary Movement, SR Party 1902–1914, 1988
MI Leonov and KN Morozov (works in Russian)

External links

Political parties of the Russian Revolution | 1901 establishments