Left Socialist-Revolutionaries
The Party of Left Socialist-Revolutionaries-Internationalists was a revolutionary socialist political party formed during the Russian Revolution.
In 1917, the Socialist Revolutionary Party split between those who supported the Russian Provisional Government, established after the February Revolution and those who supported the Bolsheviks, who favoured the overthrow of the Provisional Government and the placing of political power in the hands of the Congress of Soviets. Those that continued to support the Provisional Government became known as the Right SRs while those who aligned with the Bolsheviks became known as the Left Socialist-Revolutionaries or Left SRs. After the October Revolution, the Left SRs formed a coalition government with the Bolsheviks from November 1917 to March 1918, but resigned its position in government after the signing of the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk. The Central Committee of the Left SRs ultimately ordered the assassination of Wilhelm von Mirbach in an attempt to cause Russia to re-enter World War I and launched an ill-fated uprising against the Bolsheviks shortly after. Most members of the Left SRs were promptly arrested, though the majority that opposed the uprising were steadily released and allowed to retain their positions in the Soviets and bureaucracy. However, they were unable to reorganize the party, which gradually splintered into multiple pro-Bolshevik parties - all of which would merge with the Russian Communist Party by 1921.
The Left SRs were overwhelmingly underrepresented in the Russian Constituent Assembly due to outdated candidate lists which did not acknowledge the split between the Right and Left SRs.
History
Background
The left-wing faction of the Socialist Revolutionary Party began to form after the February Revolution, grouping the most radical elements of the party. The internal faction was highlighted in the First All-Russian Congress of Soviets of Workers' and Soldiers' Deputies in mid-May 1917 for its position close to that of the Bolsheviks, while the bulk of the party aligned with the Mensheviks. The left-wing socialist revolutionaries were especially strong in the Petrograd Soviet, where they opposed the continuation of the First World War – which had been defended by the centrist fraction of the party since mid-April. They were also strong in the Northern Region, Kazan, Kronstadt, Helsinki and Kharkiv.Later they became the main current in important rural provinces of the Russian interior, places where the socialist revolutionaries enjoyed the favor of the population. At the third party congress in May, they were a large and important fraction, although it was not until the crisis of autumn and the October Revolution when its support extended to the entire country. During the summer of 1917, it was gaining strength among soldier committees, both inside the country and in the front.
Except for Mark Natanson, at the head of the faction was a series of young leaders, from exile, from Siberia or agitation activities among the population. The SR leadership, on the contrary, had veteran and conservative representatives, who led the party into an alliance with the liberals. This led the party to share government power but, at the same time, jeopardized its support among the population. As the year progressed, the leadership of the SRs moved further and further away from the feelings of its followers and its base, which favoured the leftist current. The number of socialist-revolutionary organizations and committees that followed the leftist faction grew, a trend that was accentuated in the early autumn. In general, workers and soldiers agreed with the positions of the left-wing, the intelligentsia continued to support the SR party line, and the peasants and local branches were divided among them. The executive committee of the largest railway union, the Vikzhel, elected on 23 August, had a majority of Left SRs. During the congresses of the regional, national and provincial soviets held between August and November, it was the effective division of the Right SRs and the strength of those on the left that often allowed the approval of leftist motions.
The leftists declared themselves the only representatives of the party program, and proclaimed the socialist character of the revolution, demanded the end of collaboration with the bourgeoisie and the immediate socialization of land, first with their surrender to the land committees and then to the peasants themselves. They were also opposed to the continuation of the war, even if it involved signing a separate peace with the Central Powers. In industrial policy, they advocated the granting of various rights and workers' control of factories and played a prevalent role in the factory committees. Internationalists in the party wanted the extension of the revolution to other countries. They also advocated the transfer of government power to the Soviets, convinced that the provisional government did not apply the reforms they deemed necessary.
After the failed Kornilov coup, the leftist current took control of the socialist-revolutionary organization in the capital, traditionally more radical than that of other localities. Their growth within the SRs led them to hope that it would come under their control, delaying a split.
In October 1917, the Left Socialist Revolutionaries joined the new Petrograd Military Revolutionary Committee, formed with the aim of accelerating the revolution and at the same time moderating actions of the Bolsheviks; One of its members, Pavel Lazimir, who had played a leading role in the measures against Kornilov and presided over the military section of the Petrograd Soviet, presided over it officially. Numerous left-wing social revolutionaries, in addition to Bolsheviks and other activists without clear affiliation, participated in the committee's activities, from which the former withdrew on several occasions in protest of the actions of the Bolsheviks. Despite opposition from its main leaders, many Left SRs eventually participated in actions against the discredited Provisional Government before the Second All-Russian Congress of Soviets of Workers' and Soldiers' Deputies, in which they called for the transfer of government power to the Soviets. The moderate Bolshevik current, headed by Lev Kamenev and Grigory Zinoviev, counted on the collaboration of the Left SRs to form a majority in the constituent assembly.
Split with the Socialist Revolutionary Party
The final Left SR split was due to the party's attitude towards the Second All-Russian Congress of Soviets of Workers' and Soldiers' Deputies. At the beginning, the SRs opposed the convocation of the new congress, fearing that it would be dominated by the extremists. After seeing that it had the support of much of the populace, the party changed its stance to support the congress, but only stood for delegate elections where it believed it had a chance of being elected, having lost much of the old support in big cities and the front line. In these councils, the majority of the elected delegates were Bolsheviks or Left SRs. At least half of the Socialist Revolutionary delegates elected to Congress belonged to the leftist current of the party. Together, the SR delegations held a slight majority in the congress.The representatives of the Left SRs hoped that the Petrograd Soviet would not take power by itself, but that the Congress of the Soviets would form a new socialist government that included multiple parties and separated Alexander Kerenski from power without causing a civil war. Despite its presence in the Military Revolutionary Committee, the Left SRs opposed an armed insurrection.
During the Congress, in the midst of October Revolution, the Central Committee of the Socialist Revolutionary Party ordered its members to leave the Military Revolutionary Committee, the center of the "Bolshevik adventure", having previously ordered the withdrawal of delegates from Congress. Part of the party's left wing remained in Congress and refused to leave the Military Committee. They were expelled by the SR Central Committee the next day, along with all those considered complicit in the Bolshevik uprising. The remaining delegates voted in favor of the decrees on peace and land – the latter very similar to the SR program -, but they refused to accept an exclusively Bolshevik government and demanded the formation of a coalition including both socialists in favor of the October Revolution and those who rejected it. They refused to join the Sovnarkom, although they did accept twenty-nine seats in the new All-Russian Central Executive Committee that emerged from the congress. Remaining outside the new government they were convinced that they could favor the creation of a coalition between socialists.
During the rebellion, the Left SRs had maintained a similar position to that of the Bolsheviks, participating in agitation in favor of the dissolution of the Russian Provisional Government, the transfer of power to the soviets and chairing the Petrograd Military Revolutionary Committee. Opposed to the Bolshevik seizure of power up until the last moment, they reluctantly supported it, worried about the possibility of the Provisional Government's return or the unleashing of a counterrevolution. Their votes, together with those of the Bolsheviks, had been crucial in approving the overthrow of the Provisional Government and the seizure of power in Congress The Left Socialist Revolutionaries entered the Council of People's Commissars, leading the people's commissariats of agriculture, property, justice, post offices and telegraphs, local government, and Algasov received the post of People's Commissar without a briefcase. The left SRs also collaborated with the Bolsheviks during Kerensky's attempts to regain control of the capital, in which they played a leading role in the street-fighting. Many representatives of the Left Socialist Revolutionary Party participated in the creation of the Red Army, in the work of the All-Russian Extraordinary Commission.
Subsequently, the SR Central Committee began to dissolve local groups that they considered to be rebels, beginning with the largest in the country, that of the capital, with around forty-five thousand members. Although the true extent of the split unleashed by the PSR Central Committee is unknown, it is considered to have been remarkable and deprived the Socialist Revolutionaries of most of its radical elements and most of its support among the soldiers, while the intelligentsia remained mainly in the old party and the peasantry was divided between the two formations. In geographical terms, the new party formed by those expelled from the Socialist Revolutionary Party gained control of nearly half a dozen provinces, mainly in Ukraine and the Urals, parts of the capital and other isolated rural areas in the country. Their first conference as a separate group, held in November 1917, brought together representatives of ninety-nine groups.