Group+2-+Growth+of+Radical+Parties

History 12

 Growth of Radical Parties in Russia group2 By: Patrick Salembier, Geneva Bazin & Emma Che

In the year 1898, Russian Marxists founded The Russian Social Democratic Party. The Russian Social Democratic Party regarded the revolution as an international movement, and expected it to take effect first in Western Europe. They very much admired the German Social Democratic party. They were also known as “westernizers”, and most of their leaders lived in Europe. They stated that Russia was less advanced than many other countries and thought the country must develop capitalism, an industrial proletariat, or a modern form of class struggle before a revolution would begin. This party viewed the urban proletariat as the true revolutionary class, and in doing so, regarded all peasantry with suspicion, ridiculed “Mir (the Peasant Commune), and loathed social revolutionaries.

 From the Russian Social Democratic Party, two new groups who called themselves the Bolsheviks, or majority men, and the Mensheviks, or minority men, were created. The main differences between the two primarily consisted of opposing opinions on matters of organization and tactics. Russian Marxists referred to each other as “hards” and “softs”. The “hards” were attracted to Lenin, leader of the Bolsheviks. The “softs”, who were first lead by Martov, were repelled by Lenin. Bolsheviks believed their party should be a small group of the revolutionary elite; a strongly centralized party. The Mensheviks wanted a larger party; one that was open to membership of sympathizers and supporters. The Bolsheviks’ central committee would determine the doctrine and control personnel at all levels of membership, while Mensheviks favoured a greater degree of influence by membership as a whole. Bolsheviks thought their party would strengthen by eliminating anyone who developed a different opinion, while Mensheviks favoured bridging over all except the most fundamental of disagreements. The Mensheviks also recommended cooperation with liberals, progressives and bourgeois democrats. They came to resemble the Marxists of Western Europe. The Bolsheviks viewed this cooperation as purely tactical and only temporary; an opinion that they did not try to conceal. The beginning of the split between the two groups began at the 1903 2 nd Congress Debate where tensions began to mount between the two leaders when Martov won the debate 28 to 23. Lenin, outraged with the verdict went on with his supporters to create the Bolsheviks. In 1917, the Bolshevik party seized power of the revolution and forced the Mensheviks to disband. Most of its members either left Russia or joined the new communist party, the Bolsheviks.

The split was formalized between the two groups in April of 1905. In August, 1903, Lenin limited the membership to a small group of active members, who would spend their time trying to organize a revolutionary party that would lead a worker’s revolution. The Bolsheviks were a party not scared to use force to gain what they wanted. For example, the funding for the party came mainly from armed robberies such as the raid on the Tiflis Post Office. During the raid, the group of armed Bolsheviks used bombs and killed several people. The raid raised 250,000 roubles for the Party. The money was used to print revolutionary literature and newspapers and to gain control of a few of the unions that were emerging in Russia’s main industrial cities. The Mensheviks strongly disapproved of it all. George Plekhanov, one of the Leaders, after hearing that the Bolsheviks were behind the robbery declared, “The whole affair is so outrageous that it is really high time for us to break off all relations with the Bolsheviks.”

At the beginning of the revolution the Mensheviks held majority because of their alliance with the Socialist Revolutionaries, and the Jewish Bund party. Leon Trotsky left the Menshevik group in 1917 to join the Bolshevik party and became one of the main revolutionary leaders of the party. Other people that played a large role in the party were Lenin and Stalin. Marxism was the communist ideology of the two parties, though the Bolsheviks later followed the ideology of Leninism. After the February revolution in 1917 Lenin returned to Russia. After being in exile, the Bolsheviks influence increased. The support of the party grew in Petrograd and in Moscow Soviets. When Lenin returned from exile he was not pleased with the direction Stalin had taken with the party and Lenin intended to bring the party back to what he thought was best. The Bolsheviks and their supporters overtook the Provisional Government and formally took control of the government.

The Bolsheviks and the Mensheviks were just two of the parties during the Russian Revolution. Another party that played a major role in the events of the revolution was the Constitutional Democratic Party of Russia. Members of this party were called Kadets due to the party’s Russian name. It was a Liberal party that promoted a constitutional monarchy and was formed by Paul Milyukov on October 12-18 during the October Revolution in 1905. Their opposing counterparts, the Octoberists, were to the Right of the Kadets on the political spectrum, and were committed to a more Conservative platform. The Kadets on the other hand, demanded universal suffrage, including women, and a constituent assembly.

During the February 1917 revolution, the Kadets formed the core of the Russian Provisional Government with five offices, similar to five members of a cabinet. They addressed many issues in Russia regarding religious and racial boundaries by introducing legislation that abolished all limitations based on religion and nationalities in Russia. Their aggressive determination was fueled by the dysfunction of the previous Duma and that they never wanted to have a non-functioning government ever again. They also partially introduced national self-determination by shifting power from Governor Generals to local representatives. In addition this they recognized Poland’s independence and many of the prominent members of the party went on to become prominent figures in Russia’s government.

The party’s position in the Provisional Government was compromised when Milukov the leader made a promise to the allied forces to continue the Great War despite opposition from the rest of the coalition. This resulted in the resignation of Milukov and a power sharing agreement with other moderate Socialist parties. The Kadets resigned from the government during the July crisis in response to the government selling arms to the Ukrainian Independence Movement, although they did participate in the coalition again under new leadership. The party was never the same. The final blow to the Kadets was when the Bolsheviks seized power on October 25-26, 1917. Many of the party ministers were arrested, and never let go despite complaints.

The Russian Social Democratic Party that split into the Bolsheviks and the Mensheviks in 1903 and the split was formalized in 1905. The Kadets or the Constitutional Democratic Party of Russia supported the Provisional Government and created a British style of government. The Mensheviks joined together with the Kadets and formed a coalition of the parties. In October 1917 the Bolsheviks over took the Provisional Government to seize power and socialism. A year after the Bolsheviks gained power of the government, the Tsar Nicholas II and his immediate family were executed on the authority of the Bolshevik Government. The Romanovs were the last imperial dynasty to rule over Russia. After Lenin’s death the Bolshevik party feel into the hands of Stalin, and five years after Lenin’s death Joseph Stalin had completed his rise to power in the Soviet Union. In 1952 Stalin declared that there was no more Mensheviks so why should there be Bolsheviks and the party became the Communist Party of the Soviet Union.

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