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History of the USSR
General Overview: In 1917 Russia went through two revolutions: February 24 - 29 and October 24 - 25. The first revolution overthrew the tsarist government and replaced it with a Provisional Government of Duma members (mostly members of the Cadet party), who allowed a Contact Commission of the Petrograd Soviet to advise the government. Protests and strikes against the new government quickly grew as Russia's involvement in World War I lingered on, and the Provisional Government responded by establishing a Coalition Government with the Petrograd Soviet. This Dual Power however, created a confused bureaucratic quagmire, leading the government to inaction on urgent issues such as the widespread famine and slaughter on the front.
On October 24 - 25 the Bolshevik party led Russian workers and peasants to revolution, under the slogan of: "All power to the Soviets". On October 25 - 26, the Second All-Russia Congress of Soviets met and created the Soviet Government through the elections of a new Council of People's Commissars and Central Executive Committee. The new government resolved to begin construction on a Socialist society, but soon encountered extreme obstacles: while attempting to come to peace with all waring nations, only Germany agreed to peace (see the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk). When World War I ended, fresh off the battlefields of the Western front, the Entente powers (US, UK, France, Japan) invaded Russia from all directions, assisted by tsarist generals and provisional government politicians. A four year Civil War ravaged the country with catastrophic famine and casualties, forcing the government to adopt War Communism in order to survive. By the end of the war, a devistated Russia began to slowly rebuild with such programs as the NEP. On January 24th, 1924, Lenin died. With Lenin's death, the direction and practices of the Soviet government drastically changed.
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Russian Social Democratic Labour Party: Originally Marxian Socialists, At a party congress held in 1903, the party split, on the question of tactics, into two factions- the Majority (Bolshinstvo) and the Minority (Menshinstvo). From this sprang the names "Bolsheviki" and "Mensheviki": "members of the majority" and "members of the minority". These two wings became two separate parties, both calling themselves "Russian Social Democratic Labour Party," and both professing to be Marxians. Since the revolution of 1905 the Bolsheviki were really the minority, becoming again the majority in September, 1917.
Mensheviki: This party includes all shades of socialists who believe that society must progress by natural evolution towards socialism, and that the working-class must conquer political power first. Also a nationalistic party. This was the party of the socialists intellectuals, which means: all the means of education having been in the hands of the propertied classes, the intellectuals instinctively reacted to their training, and took the side of the propertied classes. Among their representatives in this book are: Dan, Liever, Tseretelli.
Mensheviki Internationalists: The radical wing of the Mensheviki, internationalists, and opposed to all coalition with the propertied classes yet unwilling to break loose from the conservative Mensheviki, and opposed to the dictatorship of the working-class advocated by the Bolsheviki. Trotsky was long a member of this group Among their leaders: Martov, Martinov.
Bolsheviki: Now call themselves the Communist Party, in order to emphasise their complete separation from the tradition of "moderate" or "parliamentary" socialism, which dominates the Mensheviki and the so-called Majority Socialist in all countries. The Bolsheviki proposed immediate proletarian insurrection, and seizure of the reins of Government, in order to hasten the coming of socialism by forcibly talking over industry, land, natural resources and financial institutions. This party expresses the desires chiefly of the factory workers, but also of a large section of the poor peasants.
The name "Bolshevik" can not be translated by "Maximalist". The Maximalists are a separate group. Among the leaders [of the Bolsheviki]: Lenin, Trotsky, Lunacharsky.
United Social Democrats Internationalist: Also called the Novaya Zhizn (New Life) group, from the name of the very influential newspaper which was its organ. A little group of intellectuals with a very small following among the working-class, except the personal following of Maxim Gorky, its leader. Intellectuals with almost the same programme as the Mensheviki Internationalists, except that the Novaya Zhizn group refused to be tied to either of the two great factions. Opposed the Bolsheivk tactics, but remained in the Soviet Government. Other representatives in this book: Avilov, Kramoarov.
Yedinstro: A very small and dwindling group, composed almost entirely of the personal following of Plekhanov, one of the pioneers of the Russian Social Democratic movement in the 80's, and its greatest theoretician, now an old man, Plekhanov was extremely patriotic, too conservative even for the Mensheviki. After the Bolshevik coup d'etat, Yedinstro disappeared.
Socialist Revolutionary Party: Called Essaires from the initials of their name. Originally the revolutionary party of the peasants, the party of Fighting Organisations- the Terrorists. After the March Revolution, it was joined by many who had never been socialists. At that time it stood for the abolition of private property in land only, the owners to be compensated in some fashion. Finally the increasing revolutionary feeling of peasants compelled the Essaires to abandon the "compensation" clause, and led to the younger and more fiery intellectuals breaking off from the main party in the fall of 1917 and forming a new party, the Left Socialist Revolutionary Party. The Essaires, who were afterwards always called by the radical groups "Right Socialist Revolutionaries," adopted the political attitude of the Mensheviki, and worked together with them. They finally came to represent the wealthier peasants, the intellectuals, and the politically uneducated populations of remote rural districts. Among them there was, however, a wider difference of shades of political and economic opinion than among the Mensheviki. Among their leaders mentioned in these pages: Avkesntiev, Gotz, Kerensky, Tchernov, "Babuschka" Breshkovskaya.
Left Socialist Revolutionaries: Although theoretically sharing the Bolshevik programme of dictatorship of the working-class, at first were reluctant to follow the ruthless Bolshevik tactics. However, the Left Socialist Revolutionaries remained in the Soviet Government, sharing the Cabinet portfolios, especially that of Agriculture. They withdrew from the government several times, but always returned. As the peasants left the ranks of the Essaires in increasing numbers they joined the Left Socialist Revolutionary Party, which became the great peasant party supporting the Soviet Government, standing for confiscation without compensation of the great landed estates, and their disposition by the peasants themselves. Among the leaders: Spiridonova, Karelin, Kamkov, Kalagayev.
Maximalists: An off-shoot of the Socialist Revolutionary Party in the revolution of 1905, when it was a powerful peasant movement, demanding the immediate application of the maximum socialist programme. Now an insignificant group of peasant anarchists.
Populist Socialists, or Trudoviki: (Labour Group) Numerically a small party, composed of cautious intellectuals, the leaders of the co-operative societies, and conservative peasants. Professing to be socialists, the Populists really supported the interests of the petty bourgeoisie- clerks, shopkeepers, etc. By direct descent, inheritors of the compromising tradition of the Labour group in the Fourth Imperial Duma, which was composed largely of peasant representatives. Kerensky was the leader of the Trudoviki in the Imperial Duma when the revolution of March, 1917, broke out. The Populist Socialists are a nationalistic party. Their representatives in this book are: Peshekhanov, Tchaikovsky.
Cadets: So-called from the initials of its name, Constitutional Democrats. Its official name is "Party of the People's Freedom." Under the Tsar composed of Liberals from the propertied classes, the Cadets were the great party of political reform, roughly corresponding the Progressive Party in America. When the revolution broke out in March, 1917, the Cadets formed the first Provisional Government. The Cadet Ministry was overthrown in April because it declared itself in favour of Allied imperialistic aims, including the imperialistic aims of the Tsar's Government. As the revolution became more and more a social economic revolution, the Cadets grew more and more conservative. Its representatives in this book are: Miliukov, Vinaver, Shatsky.
Group of Public Men: After the Cadets had become unpopular through their relations with the Kornilov counter-revolution, the Group of Public Men was formed in Moscow. Delegates from the Group of Public Men were given portfolios in the last Kerensky Cabinet. The Group declared itself non-partisan, although its intellectual leaders were men like Rodzianko and Shulgin. It was composed of the more "modern" bankers, merchants and manufacturers, who were intelligent enough to realise that the Soviets must be fought by their won weapon- economic organisation. Typical of the Group: Lianozov, Knonovalov.
Monarchists: of various shades, Octoborists, etc. These once-powerful factions no longer existed openly; they either worked underground, or their members joined the Cadets, as the Cadets came by degrees to stand for their political programme. Representatives in this book, Rodzianko, Shulgin.
845 Мщлфдщм фмую Ьщысщц Кгыышф
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