Socialist Revolutionary Party

The Socialist Revolutionary Party, or the Party of Socialist-Revolutionaries was the largest petty-bourgeois party in Russia in the early 20th century. The party was formed by the merger of a number of Narodnik groups in Russia from the end of 1901 to the beginning of 1902. The First Congress was held in 1905 in Finnland, where its party programme was adopted. The party programme stipulated: overthrow the Tsar government and replace it with a federal democratic republic with broad autonomy; the party 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; it advocated increased acceptance of federal principles in relations between various nationalities, granting them an unconditional right to self-determination, separation of church and state, free secular education; and abolishing the standing army. In fact, the party represented the interests of the rich peasants. It denied the class differences between the proletariat and the peasantry, ignored the contradictions within the peasants, denied the leading role of the proletariat in the bourgeois democratic revolution, and rejected the proletarian revolution and the dictatorship of the proletariat.

During the revolutionary period from 1905 to 1907, the party made every compromise with the bourgeoisie, helped the Tsar to deceive workers and peasants and lured the masses away from the revolution. With the World War I, most of the party leaders adopted a social chauvinist position and supported the imperialist war.

After the February Revolution in 1917, with the participation of the broad masses of the petty-bourgeoisie in political life, the influence of the Socialist Revolutionary Party expanded, and the number of party members sharply increased. The central committee of the party carried out a policy of compromise and class reconciliation, and it actively supported the provisional bourgeois government. The party leaders, Y. F. Kerensky, N. D. Avksentiev, and V. M. Chernov, participated in the provisional government. In fact, the party, together with the Mensheviks and the Constitutional Democratic Party, served as the main pillar of the provisional bourgeois government.

During the July Days in 1917, the Socialist Revolutionary Party openly turned to the bourgeoisie. On the eve of the October Revolution, the party was divided into three groups: the left, the centerand, the right. The left-wing formed an independent party, the Left Socialist Revolutionary Party, in December 1917. The Left wing of the Socialist Revolutionary Party took part in the first Soviet government, and then withdrew because of its opposition to the signing of the “Treaty of Brest-Litovsk” between the Soviet Union and Germany. During the civil war of 1918-1920, the Socialist Revolutionary Party conducted an armed struggle against the Soviet power and carried out individual terror acts against the leaders of the Communist Party and the Soviet state. The Socialist Revolutionary Party pursued the demagogic policy of the so-called "Third Force" and acted as the main organizer of the petty-bourgeois counter-revolutionary activities in 1918. In August 1919, a part of the Socialist Revolutionary Party led by K.S. Burevoy, V.K. Volsky, N.K. Rakitnikov formed the “People'” group and began to cooperate with the Soviet power. The far-right of the party, on the contrary, formed an open alliance with the counterrevolutionary White Guards. After the end of the civil war, the Socialist Revolutionary Party reemerged as the leader of the counterrevolutionary forces in Russia. They raised the slogan of "Soviets without Communists" and organized a series of rebellions. After these rebellions were suppressed, the Socialist Revolutionary Party faced a complete collapse in 1922.