Question by mrh881: What is the difference between the Social democrats and social revolutionaries in Russia?
I understand that these were the two biggest revolutionary organizations in Russia prior to the revolutions, but my question is what is the difference in their ideologies and the way that they conducted their revolutionary activities. Also, if possible, could the main leaders and proponents of these two be named.
Thank you in advance!!
Answers and Views:
Answer by Werebear 5000
I’m assuming you’re referring to the Bolsheviks, which were only one faction of the Russian Social Democratic Labor Party. The other was the Mensheviks, who were fairly similar to the Socialist Revolutionaries.
Bolshevik leaders included Lenin, Trotsky, Kamenev, Zinoviev, Kalinin, Stalin, and Lunacharsky.
Socialist Revolutionary leaders included Kerensky, Gotz, Chernov, and Tereshchenko.
If you mean the Mensheviks, their leader was Martov.
Now onto their platforms. The Bolsheviks were a truly revolutionary organization, not just a party. They wanted quick and radical change through an armed revolution, like the one Marx had predicted decades earlier. The new society created by this revolution would be socialist, with exaltation of the workers and peasants.
The Socialist Revolutionaries claimed to want communism at some point, but the believed that, in keeping with orthodox Marxist tradition, there must be a capitalist phase before communism can occur. As Russia up to that point had been feudalist, the Socialist Revolutionaries wanted to implement capitalism, and not through revolution, but through normal government operations.
Another thing, the Bolsheviks wanted Russia to leave WWI (which they were losing badly) immediately. The Socialist Revolutionaries wanted to continue the war, arguing that while it may have started as a war of imperialism, it had become a war of defense.
edit
forgot to put how they conducted their revolutionary activities. here goes:
The Socialist Revolutionaries had been very popular in the early years of the Provisional Government (which had been ruling since the czar abdicated) and so they were given control over it. Once in control, they didn’t really have to be revolutionary anymore, as long as they kept power. So, in order to keep power in spite of their waning popularity, they began to delay elections indefinitely. Certain newspapers were silenced, and the government tried to assert totalitarian control, as the czar had. They might have gotten away with it, but they had very little power by the time they got desperate.
The Bolsheviks simply wanted to have a massive popular revolt, and they achieved that in November 1917. Up until then, they were halfway between a political party and a revolutionary organization. Many of its leaders (including Lenin) were still hiding in western Europe when the czar abdicated, but once the atmosphere became slightly more democratic, they adapted. They appealed to workers, peasants, and soldiers, who were very large groups, and so they gained much support.
Another thing I forgot to mention, the Bolsheviks wanted all power to the soviets, which were one of the few government bodies which had remained truly democratic.
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