The Fourth All-Russian Congress of the Party of Left Socialist-Revolutionaries (internationalists) () was held in Moscow, Soviet Russia from October 2 to 7, 1918. It would be the last party congress of the Left Socialist-Revolutionaries before their party disintegrated. At the time of the 4th party congress, the PLSR(i) was badly weakened by the backlash following their failed July 6, 1918, armed plot. The main leader of the party Maria Spiridonova was in jail at the time but addressed the gathering by a written letter.
Background In the wake of the March 3, 1918, Treaty of Brest-Litvosk, the PLSR(i) had been expanding their organization (the party membership grew from about 60,000 to about 100,000 between April and June 1918). The party was seeking to gain a majority of delegates at the July 1918 Fifth All–Russian Congress of Soviets, and through a Soviet Congress majority they would break the Brest-Litovsk treaty and launch a campaign of revolutionary warfare against Germany. But a last-minute decision from the Bolshevik side to allow representation of the Committees of Poor Peasants (Kombed) at the Soviet Congress, with the holding of a Kombed congress in Petrograd on July 3, 1918, which resolved that peasants from localities that had not been purged of kulaks would be represented by the Kombed delegates rather than local Soviet delegates, ensured a Bolshevik majority at the Soviet Congress. With no chance of gaining power in Soviet Russia through the ballots, the PLSR(i) resorted to terrorism. On July 6, 1918, the PLSR(i) staged an armed revolt, notably assassinating the German ambassador Count Wilhelm von Mirbach (hoping to provoke a resumption of the war with Germany).Geoffrey Swain. The Origins of the Russian Civil War. Routledge, 2013. p. 176
The revolt had taken much of the party organization by surprise. Some 40% of the PLSR(i) delegates at the Fifth All–Russian Congress of Soviets (which had opened on July 4, 1918) rejected the uprising. The Governorate-level Party Organizations of Saratov, Astrakhan, Penza and Tver as well as 14 Uyezd-Level Party Organizations rejected the July 6, 1918, revolt. The Saratov City Party Organization along with some PLSR(i) Central Committee members sought cooperation with the Bolsheviks, which held to a split in the PLSR(i) and the emergence of the break-away pro-Bolshevik Party of Revolutionary Communism. The Western Regional Committee of the PLSR(i) rejected the July 6, 1918, actions as an anti-Soviet move by 'adventurers' with counter-revolutionary intentions.Александр Викторович Медведев. Неонародничество и большевизм в России в годы гражданской войны: монография. Изд-во Нижегородского ун-та, 1993. p. 111 But the majority of the party organizations and members that remained in PSLR(i) stood by the party Central Committee – a First Party Council of the PSLR(i) held in early August 1918 endorsed the killing of Count Mirbach.
By October 1918 the PLSR(i) was badly weakened after the failed July 6 revolt. At the 4th party congress, it was estimated that the party had lost two-thirds of its membership since July 1918.
Delegations The 4th party congress was a numerically smaller gathering than the 3rd party congress – at the 3rd party congress there were 215 delegates with decisive vote.V. M. Lavrov. Партия Спиридоновой: (Мария Спиридонова на левоэсеровских съездах). Российская Акад. Наук, Инст. Российской Истории, 2001. pp. 91–106 Per the report of the 4th party congress credentials commission, as of October 4, 1918 there 90 delegates with decisive vote present as well as 58 delegates with advisory vote. The 90 delegates with decisive voting rights consisted of 5 representatives of the Regional Committees ('obkom' – Moscow, Western, North-Western and South-Western), 46 delegates from 26 Governorate-level organizations, 38 delegates from Uyezd- or City-level organizations and 1 representative of the Ukrainian Party of Left Socialist-Revolutionaries.Протоколы заседаний IV Всероссийского съезда ПЛСР. 2–7 октября 1918 г. 4 октября. Вечернее заседание // РГАСПИ.Ф.564.Oп.1.Д.5.Л.1- 387. p. 616
The governorate-level delegations included delegates from Cherepovets Governorate, Chernigov Governorate, Kazan Governorate, Kaluga Governorate, Kostroma Governorate, Kharkov Governorate, Kursk Governorate, Nizhny Novgorod Governorate, Novgorod Governorate, Olonets Governorate, Penza Governorate, Pskov Governorate, Ryazan Governorate, Smolensk Governorate, Tambov Governorate, Tula Governorate, Vitebsk Governorate, Vologda Governorate and Yaroslavl GovernorateV. M. Lavrov. Партия Спиридоновой: (Мария Спиридонова на левоэсеровских съездах). Российская Акад. Наук, Инст. Российской Истории, 2001. pp. 155–163
The other party delegations present included representatives from Vladimirsky Uyezd, Likhvinsky Uyezd, Nevelsky Uyezd, Petergofsky Uyezd, Voronezhsky Uyezd, Dmitriyevsky Uyezd, Mglinsky Uyezd, Moskovsky Uyezd, Yepifansky Uyezd, Vyshnevolotsky Uyezd, Dorogobuzhsky Uyezd, Ostashkovsky Uyezd, Valuysky Uyezd, Belyovsky Uyezd, Novotorzhsky Uyezd, Yekaterinodarsky Otdel, Taganrog Organization, Occupied Gomel Area, Lithuania, Livny, Bogoroditsk, Vyazniki, Kaliazin, Stary Oskol, Vitebsk, Kronstadt, Pyatigorsk, Vologda, Aleksin, Yaroslavl and the Party Organization at the Northern Railway and the Central Bureau of All Railway Organizations.
(who had been one of the leaders of the PLSR(i) faction at the 3rd and 4th convocations of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee), when presenting the credentials commission report, argued that in spite of the extraordinary conditions the PLSR(i) was undergoing only 3 delegate mandates had been questioned and out of those two mandates were later recognized. Per Spiridonova she had received a report from the 4th party congress credentials committee dated October 6, 1918 which had recognized 107 delegates with decisive voting rights.
Reports from the party organizations Bakkal held the opening address at the 4th party congress. A party congress presidium consisting of Bakkal, and Yacov Bogachev was elected. Then the gathering would listen to accounts from delegates about the context of the party in their respective areas. These accounts largely detailed difficulties faced by local party organizations in the aftermath of the July 6, 1918 uprising;
GovernorateDelegate account at the 4th PLSR(i) congressAstrakhan GovernorateManuilov, a PLSR(i) member from the Astrakhan Governorate who happened to be on a business trip to Moscow, addressed the gathering. He stated that the PLSR(i) organization in Astrakhan Governorate had been unaware of the convocation to the party congress. Manuilov stated that PLSR(i) had continued to operate legally and head some departments of the Astrakhan Governorate Executive Committee of Soviets, although there situation was tense following the assassination of Count Mirbach. He claimed that the peasantry supported PLSR(i) whilst the workers supported the Bolsheviks.Cherepovets GovernorateA delegate from Cherepovets Governorate (name unknown) stated that PLSR(i) had been arrested in the Governorate after the July 6 uprising. As of October 1918 some 200 party members remained in the Governorate. The Cherepovets City Party Organization and the Cherepovetsky Uyezd Party Organization had become clandestine organizations, whilst the party retained a legal faction in the Cherepovets Governorate Soviet. The Kirillovsky Uyezd Party Organization and the Belozersky Uyezd Party Organization operated in a semi-legal fashion. In other uyezds there was no organized presence of the party.Kaluga GovernorateAlexandrov, a delegate from Kaluga Governorate, described party work in the governorate as 'decent'. On September 22, 1918 a PLSR(i) party conference was held, which had reaffirmed the line of armed struggle against the Bolsheviks. PLSR(i) meetings were being dispersed by force. Parallel legal and underground party organizations were set up. A peasants uprising took place in Zhizdrinsky Uyezd in the aftermath of the July 6 uprising. Alexandrov stated that the peasantry remained populist, not Marxist.Kostroma GovernorateA delegate from Kostroma Governorate (name unknown) stated that before July 6 uprising 20 out of 44 members of Governorate Soviet belonged to PLSR(i), but after the July 6 uprising they were expelled from the soviet. He stated that the party was organizationally weak in Kostroma Governorate.Kursk Governorate, a delegate from the Kursk Governorate, stated that before the July 6 uprising the PLSR(i) held 17 out of 45 seats in the Kursk Governorate Executive Committee of Soviets, and that the party had 2 out of 4 seats in its Presidium. The Bolsheviks and PLSR(i) had agreed on alternating the post of chairman. In the majority of the uyezd executive committees were either under the control of the PLSR(i) or with a strong presence of the party. This situation had, however, weakened the party organizational work as much energy was invested into work within the executive committees of Soviet governance. In the aftermath of the July 6 uprising the PLSR(i) representatives were expelled from the Kursk Governorate Executive Committee. Some leaders of the party were arrested whilst others went underground.
The Kursky Uyezd Land Congress took place in August 1918, with a significant majority of PLSR(i) members among the delegates. After the Land Congress the Bolsheviks ordered the arrest of the PLSR(i) majority faction in the Kursky Uyezd Executive Committee of Soviets. Furthermore on August 22, 1918 the Kursky Uyezd Congress of Soviets convened, at which PLSR(i) held a majority of delegates. The gathering was dispersed by the Bolsheviks. Other Uyezd-level Congresses of Soviets were PLSR(i) held a majority of delegates were Korochansky Uyezd, Dmitriyevsky Uyezd and Lgovsky Uyezd. At the Korochansky Uyezd Congress of Soviets the gathering was about to issue a greeting to the jailed PLSR(i) leader Spiridonova when the meeting was broken up by force and attendees arrested (Baryshnikov stated that he himself had managed to escape arrest).