Communism -- Soviet Union; Soviet Union -- History -- Revolution, 1917-1921
2a. _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 own
weapon—economic organisation. Typical of the _Group:_ Lianozov,
Konovalov.
3. _Populist Socialists,_ or _Trudoviki_ (Labour Group). Numerically a
small party, composed of cautious intellectuals, the leaders of the
Cooperative 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.
4. _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.
a. _Mensheviki._ This party includes all shades of Socialists who
believe that society must progress by natural evolution toward
Socialism, and that the working-class must conquer political power
first. Also a nationalistic party. This was the party of the Socialist
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, Lieber, Tseretelli.
b. _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. Trotzky was long a member of this group.
Among their leaders: Martov, Martinov.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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