Russian Social Democratic Labour Party

Prehistory

Given the political oppression to socialist ideas from the West in the Russian Empire could spread only sporadically. Nevertheless, attempts have been made by various groups since the 1870s, to form organizations that saw themselves as social democratic, occupied themselves with literature by Karl Marx and other socialist theorists and supported spontaneous strikes. The first of these completely new for Russia organizations was the South Russian Workers' Union, which was founded in Odessa in 1875 by Yevgeny Zaslavsky ( 1844-1878 ) and dissolved by the tsarist police arrest of most members. 1878, in Saint Petersburg the North Bund of Russian workers, who in 1880 also dispersed by the police.

1883 founded Georgi Plekhanov, Pavel Axelrod, Zasulitch and others in Geneva, the "Group for the Emancipation of Labour ", the goal sat down to systematically disseminate Western socialist literature in Russia. Plekhanov had close ties to Friedrich Engels, and was co-founder of the Second International. At the same time the Bulgarian Dimitar Blagoev founded (1856-1924, later co-founder of Social Democracy in Bulgaria) in Saint Petersburg the organization " For a party of Russian Social Democrats ", the widespread social democratic newspapers until their destruction in 1887. From 1885 until its dissolution by the police in 1888 had the " St. Petersburg Workers' Association", who made hundreds of workers with social democratic ideas familiar. The " Workers' Association St. Petersburg " was the first stronger social democratic organization with about 20 neighborhood groups that organized the first May Day rally in Russia on May 1, 1891 on the outskirts of the city. However, police spies were there, so that the organization was dissolved a year later by mass arrests of the police. 1895 was established " for the liberation of the working class struggle covenant" in Saint Petersburg, to whom Vladimir Lenin ( 1870-1924 ) belonged. Despite the arrest of 40 members, including Lenin, it was not possible this time the police to crush the organization. This meant that in many other cities, small groups of social -democratic workers, following the example of Saint Petersburg also founded fighting organizations, which, however, in most cases, the police arrests were not as successful withstand and therefore disappeared. In 1897 founded the " General Jewish Labour Union of Lithuania, Poland and Russia." In the Ukrainian city of Kiev was built at the same time the Social-Democratic workers' newspaper, whose editorial built up a network of individual workers and small groups.

Party's founding

1898 met in Minsk total of nine people, representing six organizations that saw themselves as socially democratic. These were the " fighting organizations " from St. Petersburg, Moscow, Kiev and Jekaterinoslaw, the " General Jewish Workers' Union, and the editorial staff of the Kiev newspaper workers. These nine representatives of six small organizations decided to form the Social Democratic Party of Russia ( RSDLP ), declared themselves the First Congress and elected a three-member Central Committee, which consists of Boris Eidelman ( 1867-1939 ), Arkadi Kremer ( 1865-1935 ) and Stepan Radchenko (1869-1911) was.

The news of the "founding of the RSDLP ", which was basically just a bold statement of nine people, spread throughout Russia and resulted in dozens of newspapers, committees and groups emerged that considered themselves to be local concentrations of the RSDLP. Workers with social democratic setting had adopted in the vast Russian Empire until 1898, to stand with their views alone; when they found out, however, that a party has been established, they wanted to belong to it, and ensure that these RSDLP is represented locally and is known among the workers. Many of the resulting groupings were not very stable, many were released by the police.

Since 1900, the illegally issued newspaper Iskra developed ( The Spark), the Lenin and the "Group for the Emancipation of Labour " to Plekhanov cooperate, to the discussion forum of social democracy, in its editorial also serious differences of opinion between more revolutionary set Socialists to Lenin and the moderate "Economists" by Julius Martov (1873-1923) and Georgi Plekhanov occurred.

The Second Party Congress in 1903

1903 Russia had 26 organizations that delegates to the Second Congress of the RSDLP posted, which took place in Brussels and London. The party had 5,000 members at this time. The meeting began in secret on 30 July 1903 in Brussels. However, they had to be moved to London after a short time because the police asked the delegates to leave Belgium.

Programmatic sense, both wings of the party were, however, agree that you saw himself as a Marxist party, which wanted to establish a dictatorship of the proletariat after a revolution of industrial workers, which should lead to a classless society. The problem was that, according to Marx's historical materialism against the proletarian only would have done a bourgeois revolution that would eliminate the remnants of feudalism. The wealthy bourgeoisie was numerically very weak in the Tsarist Empire of the turn of the century, however, and not at all set against the regime. The RSDLP thus found himself in the paradoxical situation that the bourgeoisie, they actually looked at as a class enemy to keep the stirrup. The farmers, who made up the vast majority of the population of agricultural land in Russia, the party interested ideologically seen only in the second. The farmers wanted to deal with the return of the so-called " cut pieces ", the land that the village communities had lost since the abolition of serfdom by enclosures that favor. So the decree on land was later implemented after the October Revolution.

Revolution of 1905-1907

In the first and bloodily suppressed Russian Revolution 1905-1907 the RSDLP was trying to win a leadership role among the insurgent workers. She succeeded in some big cities of Russia.

Development up to the October Revolution of 1917

At the Congress of Soviets immediately after the victory of the October Revolution of 7 November 1917 ( according to the old Russian calendar October 25 ) was Swerdlow Group Chairman of the RSDLP (B ), and was a member of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee ( GZEK ) selected. Shortly after, he was elected to succeed Leo Kamenev as Chairman of the GZEK. While Swerdlow as " executive secretary of the Central Committee " the party organization led and as Chairman of the GZEK was the head of state of Soviet Russia, Lenin practiced as Chairman of the Council of People's Commissars, the function of the government and had politically the highest authority within the RSDLP (B ), although he was officially only a Central Committee member. In the debate over the dissolution of the Constituent Assembly in January 1918 and the signing of the Treaty of Brest- Litovsk in March 1918, Lenin and Sverdlov were of the same position in dealing with intra-party critics.

Renamed in 1918

Swell

• Social Democratic Party
• Socialist Party
• Historic Party ( Russia)
• Communist Party of the Soviet Union
• Policy (Russian Empire )
• History of the labor movement
• Established in 1898