The political parties of Russia in 1917 were the aggregate of the main political parties and organizations that existed in Russia in 1917. Immediately after the February Revolution, the defeat of the right–wing monarchist parties and political groups takes place, the struggle between the socialist parties (Socialist Revolutionaries, Mensheviks, Bolsheviks) and liberals (Constitutional Democrats) on the one hand, and the struggle between moderate socialists (Mensheviks, right–wing Socialist Revolutionaries, centrist Socialist Revolutionaries) and radicals (Bolsheviks, left–wing Socialist Revolutionaries, anarchists).
Synopsis The February revolution sharply intensifies political life in Russia, many parties, party factions and associations are formed, the total number of which reaches 50 by November 1917. A number of small factions appeared that did not play a significant role in the events: the Menshevik Internationalists (Left Mensheviks), the Socialist Revolutionary Maximalists, the Russian Socialist Workers' Party of Internationalists, the Social Democratic faction "Unity" headed by Plekhanov and others. Of the significant changes in the party system in 1917, the following occurred: The final elimination of the right–wing monarchist parties from political life; by the fall of 1917, the liberal Constitutional Democratic Party became the most "rightist", gravitating towards the idea of a constitutional monarchy on the British model; The split of the Russian Social Democratic Labor Party into Menshevik and Bolshevik factions by November 1917 becomes final due to sharp ideological contradictions; The Social Democratic faction of the "Interdistrictites", which insisted on overcoming this split, became part of the Bolsheviks in August 1917; By the fall of 1917, there was a split in the Socialist Revolutionary Party into Left, Center and Right.
Defeat of the right–wing monarchist movements Right–wing parties were persecuted almost immediately after the February Revolution. Already on March 5, 1917, the executive committee of the Petrograd Soviet prohibits the publication of Black Hundred newspapers, including Russkoe Znamya and Novoye Vremya. Also on March 5, the Provisional Government establishes an Extraordinary Commission of Inquiry, before which, in addition to the highest tsarist officials and generals, also the leaders of the right–wing parties appeared.
The main Black Hundred organization, the Union of the Russian People, was already in a protracted crisis from 1907 to 1910, splitting into several parts. After the February Revolution, the organization curtailed its activities, disbanding its departments and destroying its archives. One of the leaders of the organization, Alexander Dubrovin, was arrested during the revolution. According to some sources, the Main Council of the organization in Petrograd was defeated during the events.
The organizations "Russian People's Union Named After Mikhail Archangel" and "Russian Assembly" also ceased their activities. The oldest Black Hundred organization, the Union of Russian People, actually ceased its activity in 1910–1911. The Russian Monarchist Party was banned, its leader Keltsev was placed under house arrest for several months.
The estate noble organization "United Nobility", which back in January 1917 declared about the "inviolability of the foundations of autocracy and readiness to serve it with faith and truth", after the February Revolution, sharply changed its rhetoric. The Permanent Council of the organization sends telegrams to the localities calling for "quiet work and the maintenance of order", on March 9, 1917, adopts a resolution: "The nobility must direct all forces to promote the now unified legitimate government". Similar resolutions are adopted by the meetings of the leaders and deputies of the nobility of the Samara Province on March 5, the Moscow Province on March 13.
However, the further political activity of the noble organizations is already beginning to provoke a strong rejection of the new government. Particularly strong hostility was caused by the attempts of the nobles to infiltrate various committees in the villages, which aroused the hostility of the communal peasants. In August 1917, the Ministry of Finance made a request to the Ministry of Justice to terminate the activities of noble estate institutions due to the inability to finance them. In September, the Ministry of Justice announced the alleged abolition of all estates in general, and the nobility in particular, the provincial leaders of the nobility were asked to "submit the files to the archives in advance".
Even a number of grand dukes recognize the provisional government. On March 9, 11 and 12, telegrams from the Grand Dukes Nikolai Nikolaevich, Alexander Mikhailovich, Boris Vladimirovich, Sergei Mikhailovich, Georgy Mikhailovich and Prince Alexander of Oldenburg arrive in the name of the Prime Minister Prince Lvov.
The reaction of the Russian Orthodox Church to the revolution was complex. The last years of the monarchy's existence turned the highest hierarchs of the Church negatively towards the personality of Grigory Rasputin. Bishop of Tauride and Simferopol Theophan and Metropolitan of Saint Petersburg and Ladoga Anthony speak negatively about Rasputin. Schiarchimandrite Gavriil (Zyryanov), the elder of the Seven Desert, even spoke about Rasputin like this: "Kill him like a spider – forty sins will be forgiven".
Rasputin, starting in 1912, actively intervened in the activities of the Holy Synod and in the process of appointing bishops, in particular, removing his former supporter, Bishop Hermogenes of Saratov and Tsaritsyno (according to some sources, the conflict even reached a fight) and, conversely, bringing Metropolitan Macarius of Moscow, Metropolitan of Petrograd and Ladoga Pitirim, Archbishop of Tobolsk and Siberia Varnava closer. After the resignation in 1915 of the Chief Prosecutor of the Synod, Vladimir Sabler, the new chief prosecutor, Alexander Samarin, also soon resigned due to a conflict with Rasputin.
Metropolitan Pitirim, having a reputation as a "Rrasputinets", was arrested during the February Revolution and deprived of his see, Metropolitans Macarius and Varnava were dismissed by the Synod's decree.
On March 7, 1917, changes were made to the text of the state oath for persons of Christian confessions; the oath included a commitment to "serve the Provisional Government". On March 9, the reference to the king was removed from the traditional formula "For Faith, King and Fatherland".
On March 9, the Synod issued a message "To the Faithful Children of the Orthodox Russian Church on the Current Events", which also recognized the Provisional Government. General Anton Denikin, in his memoirs, described this message as "sanctioning the coup d'etat". In general, the Church comes to the point of view that since Nicholas II abdicated the throne, and Grand Duke Mikhail Alexandrovich recognized the Provisional Government, then the Church should also recognize it. On the tenth of March, the clergy of the Russian Orthodox Church themselves took an oath of allegiance to the Provisional Government and subsequently took part in the same oath of allegiance to the ranks of the army and navy.
On March 11, 1917, the clergy of the Russian Orthodox Church established a form of oath for members of the Provisional Government, who were sworn in on March 15. The formula of the solemn promise included the oath "... before Almighty God and my conscience to serve the people of the Russian State with faith and righteousness ... with all the measures provided to me to suppress any attempts, directly or indirectly aimed at restoring the old order ... to take all measures to convene as soon as possible ... of the Constituent Assembly, to transfer to its hands the fullness of power".
However, on the other hand, such a "swearing–in" confused both part of the flock and a certain part of the clergy, who viewed the situation in the country as an "interregnum". Researcher Mikhail Babkin cites, as a characteristic, a letter to the Holy Synod of a group of persons who signed themselves as "Orthodox Christians" and asked to explain to them "what to do with the old oath and with the one that will be forced to take? What kind of oath should be dearer to God, the first, al the second?". On the whole, the position of the Church to some extent knocked the ground out from under the feet of the monarchist movements, depriving them of ideological support.
On April 27, 1917, the Provisional Government dissolves the old structure of the Synod, seeking to cleanse it of the "Rasputinists". Only Archbishop Sergiy of Finland and Vyborg remained from the old staff. The Church sees in the fall of the monarchy a reason to move from the synodal system to the patriarchal one. In April, the Russian Orthodox Church began to prepare for the Local Council, which began its work in August 1917; in August, the post of Chief Prosecutor of the Synod was abolished. In February 1918, the synodal structure was finally liquidated. In general, contemporaries perceived the Local Council as a church analogue of the Constituent Assembly.
For the first time, the Church raised the question of convening a Local Council during the 1905 revolution. Nicholas II agreed to the convocation of the council and authorized the formation of the Pre–Council Presence, which operated in January – December 1906. However, in 1907 the decision to convene the council was "postponed". In 1912, the Synod again convened the Pre–Council Meeting, but the Tsar did not authorize the convocation of the council.
Socialist Revolutionary Party in 1917
In the spring of 1917, the most influential socialist party was the Socialist Revolutionaries, who until 1917 were engaged in active terrorist activities against the autocracy. This party adhered to the theory of "peasant socialism", which believed that in Russia, as in an agrarian country, "socialism" should grow primarily from the village with its communal traditions. The Socialist Revolutionary slogan "socialization of agriculture" corresponded to the aspirations of the bulk of the peasantry, awaiting a "black redistribution" of the landlord's land.
In the period 1909–1916, the Socialist Revolutionary Party fell into decay as a result of its defeat by the tsarist police. One of the most powerful blows to the party was the activities of the police provocateur Azef, exposed in 1908, who was even able to become the leader of the Socialist Revolutionary Fighting Organization and one of the organizers of such a high–profile terrorist attack as the elimination of Grand Duke Sergey Alexandrovich. However, the February Revolution turns the Socialist Revolutionaries into one of the main political parties in the country. The Socialist Revolutionary newspaper Delo Naroda has a circulation of 300,000 copies. In total, in 1917, up to a hundred Socialist Revolutionary publications were published.
By the beginning of the summer of 1917, the number of Socialist Revolutionaries reached 800 thousand people, by the end – up to 1 million people. 436 local organizations are being formed, located in 62 provinces, as well as on the fronts and fleets. However, in the entire history of the party, only four of its congresses were held; in 1917, the party did not adopt a permanent charter; since 1906, the Temporary Organizational Charter, as amended, continues to operate. In 1909, the party decided to introduce a mandatory payment of membership fees, but this decision never became generally accepted.