Russian Social Democratic Labour Party (Mensheviks)

Last updated
Russian Social Democratic Labour Party (Mensheviks)
Российская социал-демократическая рабочая партия (меньшевиков)
General SecretaryVarious
Founded1912;113 years ago (1912)
Dissolved1965;60 years ago (1965)
Split from Russian Social Democratic Labour Party
Headquarters Saint Petersburg (1912–20)
Berlin (1920–33)
Paris (1933–40)
New York City (1940–65)
Newspaper Socialist Courier
Рабочая газета (Workers' Gazette)
Ideology Menshevism
Democratic socialism
Political position Left-wing
International affiliation Vienna International (1921–23)
Labour and Socialist International (1923–40)
Colours  Red

The Russian Social Democratic Labour Party (Mensheviks), [a] later renamed the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party (United), [b] was a political party in Russia.

Contents

It emerged in 1912 as the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party was divided into two, the other group being the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party (Bolsheviks).

However, the Mensheviks and Bolsheviks had existed as factions of the original party since 1903. [1]

History

Leaders of the Menshevik Party at Norra Bantorget in Stockholm, Sweden, May 1917 (Pavel Axelrod, Julius Martov and Alexander Martinov) Mensevikii.jpg
Leaders of the Menshevik Party at Norra Bantorget in Stockholm, Sweden, May 1917 (Pavel Axelrod, Julius Martov and Alexander Martinov)

After the 1912 split, the General Jewish Labour Bund in Lithuania, Poland and Russia became a federated part of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party (Menshevik) as by this time the Mensheviks had accepted the idea of a federated party organization. [2]

August 19-26, 1917 a 'unification congress' was organized by the party in Petrograd seeking to unite different social democratic factions, at which Menshevik Defencists (Plekhanovites and Potresovites), Menshevik Internationalists (followers of Martov) and Novaya Zhizn group took part. [3] [4] [5] 220 delegates, representing 193,172 party members, took part in the proceedings. [4] At the 1917 congress, a party Central Committee consisting of Raphael Abramovich, I. Akhmatov, I. Astrov, Pavel Axelrod, B. Gurevich, E. Broido, F. Lipkin, Fyodor Dan, Henryk Ehrlich, V. Ezhov, K. G. Gogua, B. Gorev, Ivan Maisky, Julius Martov, Alexander Martinov, A. Frumson, Pinkevich, S. Semkovskii and I. Volkov was elected. [6] The name of the party was changed to 'RSDLP (United)'. [7]

After the October Revolution, differences emerged inside the party. In 1921, the party issued the "Platform of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party", calling for liquidating the political monopoly of the Communist Party, which was identified as something quite different from the dictatorship of the proletariat, privatizations of large sectors of industry and giving full voting rights to the peasantry and those treated by the Soviet government as the bourgeois class. From the beginning of 1921 after the suppression of the Kronstadt garrison revolt, the 10th Communist Party Congress and the introduction of the New Economic Policy (NEP) and ending of forcible confiscation of grain from the peasantry, the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party was forced to operate underground in Soviet Russia and openly only in exile in Europe and North America. The Foreign Delegation of the party had been established in 1920 and was at first located in Berlin (until 1933), then shifted to Paris and in 1940 moved to New York City. [8] In exile, the party consisted of small groups in Geneva, Liège, Berlin, Paris, Bern and New York City. [1] Martov and Abramovich chaired the Foreign Delegation until 1923, when it was chaired by Fyodor Dan and Abramovich. Aron Jugov was the secretary of the Foreign Delegation. [1]

In 1921, the party formed part of the Vienna International, with Martov and Abramovich being two of the organizers. At the founding Congress of the Labour and Socialist International (LSI) in 1923, eleven Menshevik delegates participated. The party was a member of the LSI from 1923–1940. [1] Abramovich represented the party in the LSI executive during this entire period, being a member of the LSI bureau until May 1939. [9] The party published Socialist Courier [10] from 1921 to 1965 (from 1 February 1921 to 1933 in Berlin, then in Paris until 1940 and in New York from then until 1965). [1]

Notes

  1. ↑ Russian:Российская социал-демократическая рабочая партия (меньшевиков), romanized:Rossijskaja social-demokratičeskaja rabočaja partija (menjševikov), IPA: [rɐˈsʲijskəjəsətsɨˌal‿dʲɪməkrɐˈtʲitɕɪskəjərɐˈbotɕɪjəˈpartʲɪjə(mʲɪnʲʂɨvʲɪˈkof)]
  2. ↑ Russian:Российская социал-демократическая рабочая партия (объединённая), romanized:Rossijskaja social-demokratičeskaja rabočaja partija (ob’jedinjonnaja), IPA: [rɐˈsʲijskəjəsətsɨˌal‿dʲɪməkrɐˈtʲitɕɪskəjərɐˈbotɕɪjəˈpartʲɪjə(ɐbjɪdʲɪˈnʲɵnːəjə)]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bolsheviks</span> Faction of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party

The Bolsheviks, led by Vladimir Lenin, were a radical faction of the Marxist Russian Social Democratic Labour Party (RSDLP) which split with the Mensheviks at the Second Party Congress in 1903. The Bolshevik party, formally established in 1912, seized power in Russia in the October Revolution of 1917, and was later renamed the Russian Communist Party, All-Union Communist Party, and ultimately the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. Its ideology, based on Leninist and later Marxist–Leninist principles, became known as Bolshevism.

The Social Democratic Labour Party of Norway was a Norwegian political party in the 1920s. Following the Labour Party's entry into the Comintern in 1919 its right wing left the party to form the Social Democratic Labour Party in 1921. At the party convention in 1923, however, the Labour Party withdrew from Comintern, and the Communist Party of Norway was formed by the minority, who continued its affiliation with Comintern and the Soviet Union until 1991. The Social Democratic Labour Party was absorbed into the reorganised Labour Party in 1927.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Alexander Potresov</span> Russian editor and politician

Alexander Nikolayevich Potresov was a Russian social democratic politician and one of the leaders of the Menshevik faction of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party. He was one of six original editors of the newspaper Iskra, under the pen name "Starover".

In the course of the history of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party (RSDLP between 1898 and 1918), several political factions developed, as well as the major split between the Bolsheviks and the Mensheviks.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Alexander Spiridovich</span> General in the Russian Imperial Guard (1873–1952)

Alexander Ivanovich Spiridovich was a police general in the Russian Imperial Guard. He became a historian after he had left Russia.

The Social Democratic Workers' Party in Subcarpathian Rus' was a social democratic political party in Carpathian Ruthenia in Czechoslovakia. The party was founded in 1919. At the party congress in September 1922 the party adopted a party programme which acknowledged the inclusion of Carpathian Ruthenia as an autonomous region in the Czechoslovak Republic. The party obtained the support of the Gregory Žatkovich, the first governor of Subcarpathian Rus, during his tenure 1920–1921.

The Világosság Socialist Emigrant Group was a Hungarian socialist organization, founded in 1920. The centre of the organization was based in Austria, its founders were mainly former members of the Hungarian Social Democratic Party (MSZDP) who had been forced into exile after the crushing of the Hungarian Soviet Republic. The organization published the monthly Világosság ('Clarity') from 1923 to 1933 in Vienna.

Joseph Kruk was a socialist and Jewish-nationalist activist from his youth in Russia and Poland, where he played a political role between-the-wars. In 1940 he saved his life moving from Poland to Eretz Israel. Utill his death he was known in Israel as a journalist.

The Bulgarian Social Democratic Workers Party (Broad Socialists) (Bulgarian: Българска работническа социалдемократическа партия (широки социалисти), Balgarska rabotnicheska sotsialdemokraticheska partiya (shiroki sotsialisti)) was a reformist socialist political party in Bulgaria. The party emerged from a division at the Tenth Party Congress of the Bulgarian Social Democratic Workers Party held in 1903 (the other faction forming the Bulgarian Social Democratic Workers' Party (Narrow Socialists)). The 'Broad Socialist' faction had appeared inside the pre-split party around 1900, when Yanko Sakazov had started the magazine Obshto delo ('Common Action'). The Broad Socialists, analogous to the Mensheviks in the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party, argued in favour a broad social base of the party and broad class alliances.

Osip Arkadyevich Yermansky, born Yosif Arkadyevich Kogan, and known by the pseudonyms M. Borisov, A. O. Gushka, Meerovich, and P. R., was a Russian Social Democratic political figure, economic theorist, pamphleteer, and memoirist. He was one of the originators of the Soviet school of management, in particular, its psychophysiological tendency. He regarded scientific management as a syncretic, interdisciplinary system, drawing material from other scientific disciplines, such as technology, economics, psychology, and physiology.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Raphael Abramovitch</span> Russian Bundist and Socialist politician

Raphael Abramovitch Rein, best known as Raphael Abramovitch, was a Russian socialist, a member of the General Jewish Workers' Union in Lithuania, Poland and Russia (Bund), and a leader of the Menshevik wing of the Russian Social-Democratic Workers' Party (RSDRP).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Socialist Revolutionary Party</span> 1902–1921 major political party in Russia

The Party of Socialist-Revolutionaries, also known as the Socialist Revolutionary Party, was a major political party in the late Russian Empire, during both phases of the Russian Revolution, and in early Soviet Russia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Julius Martov</span> Russian politician (1873–1923)

Yuliy Osipovich Tsederbaum, better known as Julius Martov, was a Russian revolutionary, politician, and a leader of the Mensheviks, a faction of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party (RSDLP). A close associate of Vladimir Lenin prior to 1903, Martov broke with him following the RSDLP's ideological schism, after which Lenin led the opposing faction, the Bolsheviks. Martov opposed Lenin's plan for a party restricted to professional revolutionaries, and called for a mass party modelled after Western European social democratic parties.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mensheviks</span> Faction of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party

The Mensheviks were a faction of the Marxist Russian Social Democratic Labour Party (RSDLP) which split with Vladimir Lenin's Bolshevik faction at the Second Party Congress in 1903. Mensheviks held more moderate and reformist views as compared to the Bolsheviks, and were led by figures including Julius Martov and Pavel Axelrod.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">2nd Congress of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party</span> 1903 party congress

The 2nd Congress of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party was held from July 30 to August 23 1903, starting in Brussels, Belgium and ending in London, England. Probably as a result of diplomatic pressure from the Russian Embassy, Belgian police had forced the delegates to leave the country on August 6. The congress finalized the creation of the Marxist party in Russia proclaimed at the 1st Congress of the RSDLP. This congress brought the first split within the party, between the Bolshevik faction led by Lenin, and the Menshevik faction led by Martov.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Russian Social Democratic Labour Party</span> 1898–1912 political party in the Russian Empire

The Russian Social Democratic Labour Party (RSDLP), also known as the Russian Social Democratic Workers' Party (RSDWP) or as the Russian Social Democratic Party (RSDP), was a socialist political party founded in 1898 in Minsk.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">1st Congress of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party</span> Secret meeting in Minsk 1898

The 1st Congress of the RSDLP was held between 13 March – 15 March 1898 in Minsk, Russian Empire in secrecy. The venue was a house belonging to Rumyantsev, a railway worker on the outskirts of Minsk. The cover story was that they were celebrating the nameday of Rumyantsev's wife. A stove was kept burning in the next room in case secret papers had to be burnt.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lydia Dan</span>

Lydia Osipovna Dan was a Menshevik revolutionary leader and active participant in the revolutionary movement of Russia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Russian United Social Democratic Party</span> Political party in Russia

The Russian United Social Democratic Party was a short-lived Russian center-left political party led by Mikhail Gorbachev, the former president of the USSR. The party included representatives on an individual basis:

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Social Democratic Party of Russia (1990)</span> Political party in Russia

The Social Democratic Party of the Russian Federation was a social democratic organization in modern Russia, founded in May 1990. SDPR was one of the first new parties created in the USSR. LDPSU was registered a little earlier - in April. SDPR has become the first new party, not only created, but also registered in Russia - registered by the Ministry of Justice of the RSFSR March 14, 1991, registration number 27.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 Kowalski, Werner. Geschichte der sozialistischen arbeiter-internationale: 1923 - 19 . Berlin: Dt. Verl. d. Wissenschaften, 1985. pp. 336–337.
  2. ↑ Johnpoll, Bernard K. The Politics of Futility; The General Jewish Workers Bund of Poland, 1917-1943. Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press, 1967. p. 35.
  3. ↑ Дмитрий Агеевич Чугаев, ed. (1961). Революционное движение в России в сентябре 1917 г: общенациональный кризис. Изд-во Академии наук СССР. p. 548. OCLC   215235598.
  4. 1 2 Борьба партии большевиков за армию в социалистической революции: сборник документов. Изд-во Политической литературы. 1977. p. 507. OCLC   123230668.
  5. ↑ Novoe v zhizni, nauke, tekhnike: Serii︠a︡: Istorii︠a︡. Izdatelʹstvo "Znanie". 1987. p. 57.
  6. ↑ Brovkin, Vladimir. N. (1991). The Mensheviks after October: socialist opposition and the rise of the Bolshevik dictatorship. Ithaca: Cornell University Press. p. 302. ISBN   978-0-8014-9976-0 . Retrieved 10 November 2009.
  7. ↑ История России : Пособие для поступающих в вузы : ХХ век. Издательский дом "Питер". p. 62. ISBN   9785469005629.
  8. ↑ Liebich, André: From the other shore: Russian social democracy after 1921. Cambridge, Massachusetts, London 1997.
  9. ↑ Kowalski, Werner. Geschichte der sozialistischen arbeiter-internationale: 1923 - 19 . Berlin: Dt. Verl. d. Wissenschaften, 1985. p. 294.
  10. ↑ Andre Liebich (1987). "Marxism and Totalitarianism: Rudolf Hilferding and the Mensheviks" (PDF). wilsoncenter.org. The Wilson Center. Retrieved June 20, 2018.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.