Who are the Bolsheviks briefly and clearly. Russian Social Democratic Labor Party (Bolsheviks)

Russian Social Democrats loudly declared themselves in the mid-90s. XIX century Loud polemics with liberal populism. In December 1900, the first issue of the all-Russian Social Democratic newspaper Iskra was published abroad. The RSDLP program adopted at the congress consisted of 2 parts. The minimum program determined the tasks of the party at the stage of the bourgeois-democratic revolution. It provided for: in the sphere of political transformations - the overthrow of the autocracy and the establishment of a democratic republic; in terms of work - an 8-hour work day; in the peasant sector - the return of land plots to the peasants and the abolition of redemption payments. The maximum program, which defined the establishment of the dictatorship of the proletariat as the main, ultimate goal of the party, put the RSDLP in a completely special position, turning it into an extreme, extremist organization, not prone to concessions and compromises. The fact that the maximum program was adopted by the congress solemnly marked the victory of Lenin and his supporters. When elected to the Central Committee and the editorial board of the central body, the newspaper Iskra, supporters of V.I. Lenin received a majority and began to be called “Bolsheviks”, and their opponents - “Mensheviks”. Bolsheviks. Bolshevism was a continuation of the radical line in the Russian liberation movement and absorbed elements of the ideology and practice of revolutionaries of the 2nd half of the 19th century. (N.G. Chernyshevsky, P.N. Tkachev, S.G. Nechaev, “Russian Jacobins”); at the same time, he absolutized (following not so much the ideas of K. Marx, but rather K. Kautsky and G.V. Plekhanov) the experience of the Great French Revolution, primarily the period of the Jacobin dictatorship. The composition of the Bolshevik leadership was not stable: the history of Bolshevism is characterized by constant changes in Lenin’s inner circle - the only leader and ideologist recognized by all Bolsheviks. At the first stage of the formation of Bolshevism, his circle included G.M. Krzhizhanovsky, L.B. Krasin, V.A. Noskov, A.A. Bogdanov, A.V. Lunacharsky and others; Almost all of them at various times were declared insufficiently consistent Bolsheviks or “conciliators.”

Mensheviks. The most prominent figures of Menshevism were Yu.O. Martov, P.B. Akselrod, F.I. Dan, G.V. Plekhanov, A.N. Potresov, N.N. Zhordania, I.G. Tsereteli, N.S. Chkheidze, however, their tactical and organizational views at various stages of the revolutionary movement often did not coincide. The faction lacked strict organizational unity and individual leadership: the Mensheviks constantly broke up into groups that occupied different political positions and waged a bitter struggle among themselves. The Mensheviks considered the most important task of the Social Democrats to organize workers on a broad class basis. With the beginning Russo-Japanese War 1904 - 1905 The Menshevik Iskra put forward slogans of struggle for the immediate conclusion of peace and the convening of the Constituent Assembly. The basis of the tactics of the Mensheviks in the period 1905-1907. lay views on the bourgeoisie as driving force revolution, which should lead the liberation movement in the country. In their opinion, the proletariat should not strive for power, since the objective conditions for this have not yet developed. According to the Mensheviks, the revolution of 1905-1907 was bourgeois in its socio-economic content. However, unlike the Bolsheviks, the Mensheviks declared that any removal of the bourgeoisie from the revolutionary movement would lead to its weakening. In their opinion, if the revolution wins, the proletariat must support the most radical part of the bourgeoisie. The Mensheviks warned the workers against a possible attempt to seize power, which, they declared, would be a tragic mistake. The key point of the Menshevik concept of revolution was the opposition of the bourgeoisie to the peasantry. According to the Mensheviks, the peasantry, although capable of “moving forward” the revolution, will greatly complicate the achievement of victory with its spontaneous rebellion and political irresponsibility. Thus, the Mensheviks put forward the position of two “parallel revolutions” - urban and rural. The Mensheviks saw the solution to the agrarian question in the municipalization of land: they proposed to legitimize private ownership of plots belonging to peasants by transferring landowners' lands into the possession of local governments (municipalities). The Mensheviks believed that, firstly, with such a solution to the peasant question, agrarian reform could be carried out regardless of the outcome of the revolution, the solution to the issue of power and, secondly, the transfer of land to municipalities (zemstvos or newly created territorial authorities) would strengthen them materially, contributed to democratization and increasing their role in public life. The Mensheviks believed that the victory of the revolution could be achieved not only as a result of a popular uprising, the possibility of which they admitted, but also as a result of the actions of any representative institution that would take the initiative to convene a national Constituent Assembly. The second path seemed preferable to the Mensheviks.

V.I. Ulyanov-Lenin was born on April 10 (22), 1870 in Simbirsk (now Ulyanovsk) in the family of a prominent figure in public education. The formation of Vladimir Ulyanov's worldview took place under the influence of revolutionary-democratic literature, especially the works of Chernyshevsky, and communication with his older revolutionary brother. Alexander Ulyanov was executed in 1887. This had a strong influence on his younger brother's decision to become a professional revolutionary.

In December 1887, for participating in student unrest, Ulyanov was expelled from Kazan University, arrested and deported. Four years later, he passed the exams as an external student at the Faculty of Law of St. Petersburg University.

Ulyanov spent the end of the 80s under police supervision in the village of Kokushkino, Kazan province, then moved to Kazan, and later to the Samara province. In 1893, V. Ulyanov moved from Samara to St. Petersburg - the center of the Social Democratic movement in Russia. Having established contact with a group of St. Petersburg Social Democrats, he gained authority in it and became its leader.

From the very beginning revolutionary activities V. Ulyanov took an active part in completing the ideological defeat of populism. The ideologists of populism then responded to the successes of the Social Democratic movement with an open campaign against it.

V. Ulyanov spoke out against the leaders of populism, whose criticism was, at the same time, the starting point for presenting his own views, his substantiation of the Marxist concept of socio-economic development of Russia and the relationship of class forces determined by this development.

In 1896 - 1899 V. Ulyanov completed work on the major work “The Development of Capitalism in Russia.” In it, he crushed the populist views on the community and so-called folk production (home crafts, peasant artels), and also demonstrated the inconsistency of the populists’ main position on the artificiality of capitalism in Russia.

The ideological struggle of the 90s among the democratic intelligentsia ended in the victory of Marxism.

However, there were also differences among Marxists. Representatives of the so-called legal Marxism are economist and sociologist P.B. Struve, M.I. Tugan-Baranovsky and others spoke in the legal press criticizing populism, contrasting it with Marxism. But the nature of this criticism differed from the views of the revolutionary Marxists led by V. Ulyanov.

Revolutionary Marxists, rejecting the socialism of the populists, put forward proletarian socialism in its place. Legal Marxists leaned toward bourgeois liberalism. They saw capitalism as an absolute good.

V. Ulyanov’s group adopted the name “Union of Struggle for the Liberation of the Working Class” at the end of 1895. In subsequent years, Social Democratic organizations emerged in Moscow and Tula; Rostov-on-Don, Ivanovo-Voznesensk, industrial centers Ukraine, Transcaucasia and other cities. Social Democrats increasingly participated in the strike struggle, which increased significantly.

In December 1895 and January 1896 large group leaders and activists of the Union of Struggle for the Liberation of the Working Class, led by V. Ulyanov, were arrested. At the beginning of 1897 they were sent into exile in Eastern Siberia.

A major event in the Russian labor movement was the first congress of the Russian Social Democratic Labor Party. It took place on March 1-3 (13-15), 1898 in Minsk. Representatives of the “Unions of Struggle”, social democratic organizations of St. Petersburg, Moscow, Kyiv, Yekaterinoslav, and the Western Territory took part in the work of the congress.

The congress itself practically did not create any party. However important had the very fact of proclamation of the party and its revolutionary goals. Social-democratic organizations were left without a common program and charter, without a single leadership (the Central Committee elected by the congress was immediately destroyed), without a really tangible connection with each other.

Until the beginning of 1900, V. Ulyanov remained in exile. At this moment, his main task was to create a revolutionary Marxist organization of an illegal type. He considered the immediate task in this direction to be the publication of an all-Russian newspaper of revolutionary Marxists.

Upon returning from exile, V. Ulyanov concentrated his main efforts on implementing his plan. For this purpose, he established contacts with Social Democratic organizations in a number of Russian cities, and then went abroad.

On December 11, 1900, the 1st issue of the all-Russian newspaper was published in Leipzig, which became the ideological and organizational center of the Social Democratic movement. The newspaper was called “Iskra.” Its motto was the words from the Decembrists’ response to Pushkin: “From a spark a flame will ignite.” The editors of the newspaper were V. Ulyanov, Yu. Martov, A. Potresov (representatives of Russian social democratic organizations), as well as members of the “Emancipation of Labor” group - G. Plekhanov, P. Axelrod, V. Zasulich. Iskra was not only a herald of Marxist ideas, but also an organizer of revolutionary social democracy.

In the first years of the newspaper’s existence, V. Ulyanov assigned the main role to the struggle on its pages with the Socialist Revolutionary Party (SRs). The Socialist Revolutionary program was a mixture of populist views with certain provisions of Marxism. They denied the role of revolutionary theory and the need for the dictatorship of the proletariat. Like the liberal populists, the Social Revolutionaries idealized the peasant community, choosing terrorism as their tactics.

In July - August 1903, the Second Congress of the Russian Social Democratic Labor Party (RSDLP) took place. The party program developed by the editors of the newspaper Iskra was adopted at the congress. This was the only program of the workers’ party in the world at that time, which put forward the struggle for the dictatorship of the proletariat as its main task.

The program of the RSDLP defined the ultimate goal - the socialist revolution, and also indicated the immediate task of the party in the impending bourgeois-democratic revolution: the overthrow of the autocracy, its replacement with a democratic republic, the introduction of an 8-hour working day, the elimination of the remnants of serfdom. The RSDLP program proclaimed the nation's right to self-determination.

At the congress in intense struggle An organizational issue was discussed. V. Ulyanov defended the principle of a monolithic party. He considered it necessary for each party member to directly participate in the work of one of the party organizations. In his opinion, only a party consisting of active, conscious fighters, united by strict discipline, could actually become the combat headquarters of the proletariat.

The opposite point of view was expressed by Martov. He proposed to open access to the party to everyone, to those who consider themselves social democrats and agree to provide regular assistance to the party.

As a result of heated discussions, the first paragraph of the RSDLP charter, which contained a definition of party membership, was adopted by Martov.

But by the end of the congress, the balance of forces changed in favor of Ulyanov’s supporters. During the elections of the party's governing bodies, they received a majority at the congress.

This is where they came from historical name- Bolsheviks, as opposed to Mensheviks.

Written in hot pursuit in 1918-1919. At this time, in the Bolshevik Party there was not even an incipient tendency to rewrite the history of the revolution. In addition, Sukhanov, being a Menshevik internationalist and supporting Martov, was “equidistant” from the Bolshevik leaders. This makes his notes a fairly objective source from the point of view of the formal analysis below.

The Notes consist of seven books describing events in chronological order. A list of about 25 Bolsheviks was taken and their “citation index” was calculated, that is, the number of times each leader was mentioned in each book. A summary table of those who were mentioned more than three times is given at the end of the post. And for starters, the top 10 Bolsheviks according to all notes:

1. Lenin 729
2. Trotsky 401
3. Kamenev 178
4. Lunacharsky 165
5. Zinoviev 74
6. Raskolnikov 37
7. Shlyapnikov 27
8. Uritsky 21
9. Antonov-Ovseenko 19
10. Stalin 13

Chronological breakdown of books, with comments:

Book I. The First Days February revolution. (February 21 - March 2)
Shlyapnikov 11
Molotov 3
Lenin 2
Trotsky, Stalin - 1 each

Lenin, Trotsky and Zinoviev are in exile, Kamenev and Stalin are in exile. The first place, naturally, comes to the nominal leader of the Petrograd Bolsheviks, Shlyapnikov, and the “number two” of those Bolsheviks that the Tsarist secret police left at large is the young Molotov.

Book II. Kamenev and Stalin returned from exile. (March 3 - April 3)
Kamenev 43
Lenin 13
Shlyapnikov, Uritsky - 9 each
Stalin 5

Stalin's "finest hour", it is mentioned as many as 5 times, and the only time it is firmly included in the top five, in fifth place. Kamenev takes the place of leader.

Book III. Lenin's arrival and April theses. (April 3 - May 5)
Lenin 340
Kamenev 31
Trotsky 25
Zinoviev 10
Shlyapnikov 4

Lenin arrived, and immediately everyone else was far behind. At the very end of the book, Trotsky arrives, and even this is enough for him to enter the top three with 25 mentions. This is twice as much as Stalin in all 7 books, and in this book he is not mentioned even once.

Book IV. Arrival of Trotsky. (6 May - 8 July)
Lenin 199
Trotsky 140
Lunacharsky 130
Kamenev 40
Zinoviev, Raskolnikov - 30 each

Trotsky is already second after Lenin, almost comparable to him. In third place is another inter-district resident, Lunacharsky. Raskolnikov is noticeable as the leader of the Kronstadtites. And the future leader of the peoples was mentioned 4 times, losing to Uritsky and sharing 9-10 place with Nogin in my incomplete list.

Book V. July Days (July 8 - September 1)
Lenin 31
Trotsky 27
Kamenev 17
Lunacharsky 16
Zinoviev 11

The Bolsheviks were arrested, the main character was Kornilov, mentioned more than 400 times. Stalin is mentioned 2 times.

Book VI. After the Kornilov revolution and before October. (1 Sep - 22 Oct)
Trotsky 102
Lenin 46
Kamenev 21
Zinoviev 7
Lunacharsky 6

Lenin goes underground, Trotsky becomes the main Bolshevik during the preparation of the coup. Stalin is not mentioned even once.

BookVII. October Revolution. (23 Oct - 1 November)
Trotsky 105
Lenin 98
Kamenev 26
Antonov-Ovseenko 19
Zinoviev 16
Lunacharsky 13

October revolution. Lenin comes out of hiding and practically equals the number of mentions with Trotsky. Antonov-Ovseyenko takes fourth place (remember famous quote from Stalin) Other active organizers of the October revolution also appear: Podvoisky - 6, Sverdlov - 5, Dybenko - 5, Krylenko - 3. Stalin is mentioned only once, as the People's Commissar in general list newly minted people's commissars.

It's funny that if you sum up the results of Lenin and Trotsky from the fourth to the seventh books, then both of them will have exactly 374 mentions. Friendly draw. If you really want it and, out of sporting interest, include a piece of the third book, where Trotsky appears, then he will probably get a little more. Which, however, doesn’t matter.

The calculated list of Bolsheviks may have been incomplete. For example, Nogin’s good results were a surprise; he got on the list quite by accident. Someone else of the rank of Shlyapnikov, Molotov or Raskolnikov could have been missed. Of the six Bolsheviks from Lenin’s will, the young Kiev resident Pyatakov is never mentioned, and the Muscovite Bukharin is mentioned only 4 times. This is not surprising: the book mainly describes events in Petrograd.

Why did the Bolsheviks win? Because they gave Russian civilization and people new project development. They created a new reality, which was in the interests of the majority of the worker and peasant population of Russia. “Old Russia” represented by the nobles, liberal intelligentsia, bourgeoisie and capitalists committed suicide - thinking that it was destroying the Russian autocracy.

The Bolsheviks did not intend to revive the old project: both the state and society. On the contrary, they offered people a new reality, a completely different world (civilization), which was fundamentally different from the old world that died before their eyes. The Bolsheviks made excellent use of the brief moment in which “old Russia” died (it was killed by the Westernizers-Februaryists), and the temporary Februaryists were unable to offer the people anything except the power of capitalists, bourgeois owners and increased dependence on the West. Moreover, without the sacred royal power, which for a long time hid the flaws of the old world. A conceptual, ideological void was formed. Russia had to perish, torn apart by Western and Eastern “predators” into spheres of influence, semi-colonies and “independent” bantustans, or make a leap into the future.

Moreover, the Bolsheviks themselves did not expect that there would be a revolution in Russia, and even in a country, in their opinion, not ready for socialist revolution. Lenin wrote: “The endless template for them (traditional Marxists. - Author) is the one that they learned by heart during the development of Western European social democracy and which is that we have not matured to socialism, that we do not have, how Various learned gentlemen of them express the objective economic prerequisites for socialism. And it does not occur to anyone to ask themselves: could the people, having encountered a revolutionary situation such as it developed in the first imperialist war, under the influence of the hopelessness of their situation, rush into such a struggle, which at least opened up for them any chances of conquest for themselves not in at all normal conditions for the further growth of civilization"?

That is, the Bolsheviks used the historical chance to try to create a new better world on the ruins of the old one. Wherein old world collapsed as if under a weight objective reasons, sharpened the Romanov empire for centuries, and the subversive activities of the heterogeneous “fifth column”, where main role played by Western liberals, the bourgeoisie and capitalists led by the Freemasons (the support of the West also played a role). It is clear that the Bolsheviks also sought to destroy the old world, but before February they were such a weak, small and marginal force that they themselves noted that there would be no revolution in Russia. Their leaders and activists were hiding abroad, or in prison, or in exile. Their structures were destroyed or went deep underground, having virtually no influence on society, compared to such powerful parties as the Cadets or Socialist Revolutionaries. Only February opened a “window of opportunity” for the Bolsheviks. The February Westernizers, in an effort to seize the desired power, themselves killed the “old Russia”, destroyed all the foundations of statehood, started the great Russian Troubles and paved a loophole for the Bolsheviks.

And the Bolsheviks found everything that Russian civilization and the Russian superethnos needed to create a new project and reality, where the majority would “live well”, and not just small layers of the “chosen few”. The Bolsheviks had a bright image of a possible and desirable world. They had an idea, an iron will, energy and faith in their victory. That's why the people supported them and they won.

Main milestones of the Great October Socialist Revolution

It is worth noting that Lenin’s ideas about the need to take power, expressed by him in the “April Theses,” caused misunderstanding among the Bolsheviks. His demands to deepen the revolution, to move towards the dictatorship of the proletariat were then incomprehensible to his comrades-in-arms and frightened them. Lenin found himself in the minority. However, he turned out to be the most far-sighted. Within a few months, the situation in the country changed in the most dramatic way; the Februaryists undermined all the foundations of power and the state, and unleashed unrest in the country. Now the majority was for the uprising. The VI Congress of the RSDLP (late July - early August 1917) headed for an armed uprising.

On October 23, a meeting of the Central Committee of the RSDLP(b) (Bolshevik Party) was held in Petrograd in a secret atmosphere. Party leader Vladimir Lenin achieved the adoption of a resolution on the need for an early armed uprising in order to seize power in the country with 10 votes in favor and 2 against (Lev Kamenev and Grigory Zinoviev). Kamenev and Zinoviev hoped that under these conditions the Bolsheviks could gain power by mine, from the Constituent Assembly. On October 25, on the initiative of the Chairman of the Petrograd Council Leon Trotsky, the Military Revolutionary Committee (MRC) was created, which became one of the centers for preparing the uprising. The committee was controlled by the Bolsheviks and the Left Socialist Revolutionaries. It was established quite legally, under the pretext of protecting Petrograd from the advancing Germans and Kornilov rebels. The Council appealed to the soldiers of the capital's garrison, the Red Guards and the Kronstadt sailors to join it.

Meanwhile the country continued to fall apart and decay. Thus, on October 23, the so-called “Chechen Committee for the Conquest of the Revolution” was formed in Grozny. He proclaimed himself the main authority in the Grozny and Vedeno districts, formed his own Chechen bank, food committees and introduced a mandatory Sharia court. The criminal situation in Russia, where liberal-bourgeois “democracy” won, was extremely difficult. On October 28, the newspaper “Russian Vedomosti” (No. 236) reported on the atrocities committed by soldiers on railways, and complaints about them from railway workers. In Kremenchug, Voronezh and Lipetsk, soldiers robbed freight trains and passengers' luggage, and attacked the passengers themselves. In Voronezh and Bologoye they also destroyed the carriages themselves, knocking out windows and breaking roofs. “It’s impossible to work,” the railway workers complained. In Belgorod, the pogrom spread to the city, where deserters and local residents who joined them destroyed grocery stores and rich houses.

Deserters fleeing from the front with their hands in their hands not only went home, but also replenished and created gangs (sometimes entire “armies”), which became one of the threats to the existence of Russia. Only the Bolsheviks will eventually be able to suppress this “green” danger and anarchy in general. They will have to solve the problem of suppressing the criminal revolution, which began in Russia with the “light” hand of the Februaryist revolutionaries.

On October 31, a garrison meeting (representatives of the regiments stationed in the city) was held in Petrograd, the majority of the participants in which spoke out in favor of supporting an armed uprising against the Provisional Government if it occurred under the leadership of the Petrograd Soviet. On November 3, representatives of the regiments recognized the Petrograd Soviet as the only legitimate authority. At the same time, the Military Revolutionary Committee began to appoint its own commissars to military units, replacing the commissars of the Provisional Government with them. On the night of November 4, representatives of the Military Revolutionary Committee announced to the commander of the Petrograd Military District, Georgy Polkovnikov, the appointment of their commissars to the district headquarters. Polkovnikov initially refused to cooperate with them, and only on November 5 agreed to a compromise - the creation of an advisory body at headquarters to coordinate actions with the Military Revolutionary Committee, which never worked in practice.

On November 5, the Military Revolutionary Committee issued an order granting its commissars the right to veto orders from commanders of military units. Also on this day, the garrison of the Peter and Paul Fortress went over to the side of the Bolsheviks, which was “propagated” personally by one of the Bolshevik leaders and the de facto leader of the Revolutionary Committee, Leon Trotsky (formally the Military Revolutionary Committee was headed by the left Socialist Revolutionary Pavel Lazimir). The fortress garrison immediately captured the nearby Kronverk Arsenal and began distributing weapons to Red Guard units.

On the night of November 5, the head of the Provisional Government, Alexander Kerensky, ordered the chief of staff of the Petrograd Military District, General Yakov Bagratuni, to send an ultimatum to the Petrograd Soviet: either the Council recalls its commissars, or the military authorities will use force. On the same day, Bagratuni ordered the cadets of military schools in Petrograd, students of ensign schools and other units to arrive at Palace Square.

On November 6 (October 24), open armed struggle began between the Military Revolutionary Committee and the Provisional Government. The Provisional Government issued an order to arrest the circulation of the Bolshevik newspaper Rabochiy Put (formerly closed Pravda), printed in the Trud printing house. Policemen and cadets went there and began to arrest the circulation. Having learned about this, the leaders of the Military Revolutionary Committee contacted the Red Guard detachments and committees of military units. “The Petrograd Soviet is in direct danger,” said the Military Revolutionary Committee’s appeal, “at night the counter-revolutionary conspirators tried to summon cadets and shock battalions from the surrounding area to Petrograd. The newspapers “Soldier” and “Rabochy Put” are closed. The regiment is hereby ordered to be placed on combat readiness. Wait for further orders. Any delay and confusion will be considered a betrayal of the revolution.” By order of the Revolutionary Committee, a company of soldiers under its control arrived at the Trud printing house and ousted the cadets. Printing of "The Work Path" was resumed.

The Provisional Government decided to strengthen its own security, but to protect the Winter Palace within 24 hours it was possible to attract only about 100 war invalids from among the St. George Knights (many, including the detachment commander, on prosthetics), artillery cadets and a company of the women's shock battalion. It is worth noting that the Provisional Government and Kerensky themselves did everything to prevent the Bolsheviks from encountering serious armed resistance. They were afraid like fire of the “right” - the cadets, the Kornilovites, the generals, the Cossacks - those forces that could overthrow them and establish a military dictatorship. Therefore, by October, all forces that could provide real resistance to the Bolsheviks were suppressed. Kerensky was afraid to create officer units and bring Cossack regiments into the capital. And the generals, army officers and Cossacks hated Kerensky, who destroyed the army and led to the failure of Kornilov’s speech. On the other hand, Kerensky’s half-hearted attempts to get rid of the most unreliable parts of the Petrograd garrison only led to them drifting “to the left” and going over to the side of the Bolsheviks. At the same time, the temporary workers were carried away by the formation of national formations - Czechoslovak, Polish, Ukrainian, which would later play vital role in starting the Civil War.

By this time, a meeting of the Central Committee of the RSDLP(b) had already taken place, at which a decision was made to begin an armed uprising. Kerensky went for support to the meeting of the Provisional Council that took place on the same day. Russian Republic(Pre-Parliament, an advisory body under the Provisional Government), asking for his support. But the Pre-Parliament refused to grant Kerensky emergency powers to suppress the incipient uprising, adopting a resolution criticizing the actions of the Provisional Government.

The Revolutionary Committee then addressed an appeal “To the population of Petrograd,” which stated that the Petrograd Soviet took upon itself “the protection of the revolutionary order from the attacks of counter-revolutionary pogromists.” An open confrontation began. The Provisional Government ordered the construction of bridges across the Neva to cut off the Red Guards in the northern half of the city from the Winter Palace. But the cadets sent to carry out the order managed to open only the Nikolaevsky Bridge (to Vasilyevsky Island) and hold the Palace Bridge (next to the Winter Palace) for some time. Already on the Liteiny Bridge they were met and disarmed by the Red Guards. Also late in the evening, detachments of Red Guards began to take control of the stations. The last one, Varshavsky, was occupied by 8 am on November 7th.

Around midnight, Bolshevik leader Vladimir Lenin left the safe house and arrived in Smolny. He did not yet know that the enemy was not ready for resistance at all, so he changed his appearance, shaving his mustache and beard so that he would not be recognized. On November 7 (October 25) at 2 a.m., a detachment of armed soldiers and sailors, on behalf of the Military Revolutionary Committee, occupied the telegraph office and the Petrograd Telegraph Agency. Telegrams were immediately sent to Kronstadt and Helsingfors (Helsinki) demanding that warships with detachments of sailors be brought to Petrograd. Detachments of Red Guards, meanwhile, occupied all the new main points of the city and by the morning controlled the printing house of the Birzhevye Vedomosti newspaper, the Astoria Hotel, a power plant and a telephone exchange. The cadets guarding them were disarmed. At 9:30 a.m. a detachment of sailors occupied the State Bank. Soon the police department received a message that the Winter Palace was isolated and its telephone network was turned off. An attempt by a small detachment of cadets led by Provisional Government Commissioner Vladimir Stankevich to recapture the telephone exchange ended in failure, and the cadets of the ensign school (about 2,000 bayonets) called by Kerensky to Petrograd could not reach the outskirts of the capital, since the Baltic Station was already occupied by the rebels. The cruiser "Aurora" approached the Nikolaevsky Bridge, the bridge itself was recaptured from the cadets and closed again. Already early morning Sailors from Kronstadt began to arrive in the city on transports and landed on Vasilyevsky Island. They were covered by the cruiser Aurora, the battleship Zarya Svobody and two destroyers.

On the night of November 7, Kerensky moved between the headquarters of the Petrograd Military District, trying to bring up new units from there, and the Winter Palace, where a meeting of the Provisional Government was taking place. The commander of the military district, Georgy Polkovnikov, read a report to Kerensky, in which he assessed the situation as “critical” and informed that “the government does not have any troops at its disposal.” Then Kerensky removed Polkovnikov from office for indecisiveness and personally appealed to the 1st, 4th and 14th Cossack regiments to take part in the defense of “revolutionary democracy.” But most of the Cossacks showed “unconsciousness” and did not leave the barracks, and only about 200 Cossacks arrived at the Winter Palace.

By 11 a.m. on November 7, Kerensky, in a car of the American embassy and under the American flag, accompanied by several officers, left Petrograd for Pskov, where the headquarters of the Northern Front was located. Later, a legend would appear that Kerensky fled from the Winter Palace dressed in a woman’s dress, which was a complete fabrication. Kerensky left Minister of Trade and Industry Alexander Konovalov to act as head of government.

The day of November 7 was spent by the rebels to disperse the Pre-Parliament, which was meeting in the Mariinsky Palace not far from the already occupied Astoria. By noon, the building was cordoned off by revolutionary soldiers. From 12:30 p.m. soldiers began to enter, demanding that the delegates disperse. A prominent politician, Minister of Foreign Affairs in the first composition of the Provisional Government, Pavel Milyukov, later described the inglorious end of this institution: “No attempt was made to stop the group of members from reacting to events. This affected general consciousness the impotence of this ephemeral institution and the impossibility for it, after the resolution adopted the day before, to take any kind of joint action.”

The capture of the Winter Palace itself began at about 9 pm with a blank shot from the Peter and Paul Fortress, followed by a blank shot from the cruiser Aurora. Detachments of revolutionary sailors and Red Guards actually simply entered the Winter Palace from the Hermitage. By two o'clock in the morning the Provisional Government was arrested, the cadets, women and disabled people defending the palace partly fled before the assault, and partly laid down their arms. Already in the USSR, artists created a beautiful myth about the storming of the Winter Palace. But there was no need to storm the Winter Palace; the temporary workers from the Provisional Government were so tired of everyone that practically no one defended them.

Creation of the Soviet government

The uprising coincided with the Second All-Russian Congress of Soviets, which opened on November 7 at 22:40. in the building of the Smolny Institute. Deputies from among the right Socialist Revolutionaries, Mensheviks and Bundists, having learned about the beginning of the coup, left the congress in protest. But by leaving they could not disrupt the quorum, and the Left Socialist Revolutionaries, some of the Mensheviks and anarchists and delegates from national groups supported the actions of the Bolsheviks. As a result, Martov’s position on the need to create a government in which there would be representatives of all socialist parties and democratic groups was not supported. The words of the Bolshevik leader Vladimir Lenin - “The revolution, the need for which the Bolsheviks have been talking about for so long, has come true!” - caused an ovation at the congress. Based on the victorious uprising, the Congress issued the appeal “To workers, soldiers and peasants!” proclaimed the transfer of power to the Soviets.

The victorious Bolsheviks immediately began legislative activity. The first laws were the so-called “Decree on Peace” - a call to all warring countries and peoples to immediately begin negotiations on the conclusion of universal peace without annexations and indemnities, to abolish secret diplomacy, to publish secret treaties of the tsarist and Provisional governments; and the “Decree on Land” - landowners’ land was subject to confiscation and transfer for cultivation to peasants, but at the same time all lands, forests, waters and mineral resources were nationalized. Private ownership of land was abolished free of charge. These decrees were approved by the Congress of Soviets on November 8 (October 26).

The Congress of Soviets formed the first so-called “workers' and peasants' government” - the Council of People's Commissars, headed by Vladimir Lenin. The government included Bolsheviks and Left Socialist Revolutionaries. People's Commissar Foreign Affairs became L. D. Trotsky, Commissioner of Internal Affairs - A. I. Rykov, Commissioner of Education - Lunacharsky, Finance - Skvortsov-Stepanov, National Affairs - Stalin, etc. The Committee on Naval Affairs included Antonov- Ovseenko, Krylenko and Dybenko. Supreme body The All-Russian Central Executive Committee (VTsIK), headed by Chairman Lev Kamenev (in two weeks he will be replaced by Yakov Sverdlov), became Soviet power.

Already on November 8, the resolution of the Military Revolutionary Committee also closed the first “counter-revolutionary and bourgeois” newspapers - “Birzhevye Vedomosti”, the cadet “Rech”, the Menshevik “Den” and some others. The “Decree on the Press,” published on November 9, stated that only press organs that “call for open resistance or disobedience to the Workers’ and Peasants’ Government” and “sowing confusion through clearly slanderous distortion of facts” are subject to closure. Pointed to temporary nature newspapers are closed until the situation returns to normal. On November 10, a new, so-called “workers’” militia was formed. November 11 Council People's Commissars adopted a decree on an 8-hour working day and the regulation “On Workers’ Control,” which was introduced at all enterprises that had hired workers (enterprise owners were obliged to comply with the requirements of “worker’s control bodies”).

Having declared its creation at the Minsk congress of 1898, five years later it underwent a crisis, which became the reason for its division into two opposing groups. The leader of one of which was V.I. Lenin, and the other was Yu. O. Martov. This happened at the Second Party Congress, which began in Brussels and then continued in London. It was then that the small letter “b” enclosed in brackets appeared in the abbreviation of its most numerous wing.

Legal activity or terrorism?

The cause of the discord was differences in the approach to resolving key issues related to organizing the struggle against the monarchical system that existed in the country. Both Lenin and his opponent agreed that the proletarian revolution should be a worldwide process, which would begin in the most economically developed countries, and after that it could continue in other countries, including Russia.

The disagreement was that each of them had different ideas about the methods political struggle aimed at preparing Russia for participation in the world revolution. Martov's supporters advocated exclusively for legal forms of political activity, while Leninists were supporters of terror.

Political Marketing Genius

As a result of the vote, adherents of the underground struggle won, and this was the reason for the division of the party. It was then that Lenin called his supporters Bolsheviks, and Martov agreed to call his followers Mensheviks. This, of course, was his fundamental mistake. Over the years, the idea of ​​the Bolshevik Party as something powerful and large has strengthened in the minds of the masses, while the Mensheviks are something small and very dubious.

In those years, the modern term “commercial brand” did not yet exist, but this was precisely the name of the group, brilliantly invented by Lenin, which later became the leader in the market of parties in Russia that were warring with each other. His talent as a political marketer was also expressed in the fact that, using simple and intelligible slogans, he was able to “sell” to the broad masses the ideas of equality and fraternity that had been lying dormant since the time of the French Revolution. Of course, the extremely expressive symbols he invented - a five-pointed star, a sickle and a hammer, as well as the red corporate color that united everyone - were also a successful find.

Political struggle against the backdrop of the events of 1905

As a result of different approaches to methods of political activity, the Bolsheviks and Mensheviks were so divided that Martov’s followers refused to participate in the next party Third Congress of the RSDLP, held in 1905 in London. Nevertheless, many of them became active participants in the First Russian Revolution.

For example, their role in the events that unfolded on the battleship Potemkin is known. However, after the suppression of the unrest, the Menshevik leader Martov had a reason to speak out about the armed struggle as an empty and futile matter. In this opinion, he was supported by another of the founders of the RSDLP, G.V. Plekhanov.

During the Russo-Japanese War, the Bolsheviks made every effort to undermine Russia's military potential and, as a result, its defeat. They saw this as a way to create an environment most favorable for the subsequent revolution. In contrast, the Menshevik Party, although it condemned the war, categorically rejected the idea that freedom in the country could be the result of foreign intervention, especially from such an economically underdeveloped state at that time as Japan.

Debates at the Stockholm Congress

In 1906, the next congress of the RSDLP was held in Stockholm, at which the leaders of both opposing party groups, realizing the need for joint action, tried to determine ways to mutual rapprochement. In general, they succeeded, but nevertheless, according to one of the critical issues were on the agenda, no agreement was reached.

It turned out to be a formulation that determined the possibility of its members belonging to the party. Lenin insisted on the concrete participation of each party member in the work of one or another primary organization. The Mensheviks did not consider this necessary; only assistance to the common cause was sufficient.

Behind the external and seemingly insignificant discrepancy in wording was hidden a deep meaning. If Lenin’s concept presupposed the creation of a combat structure that had a strict hierarchy, then the Menshevik leader reduced everything to an ordinary intellectual talking shop. As a result of the vote, the Leninist version was included in the party charter, which became another victory for the Bolsheviks.

Is robbery acceptable in the name of a brighter future?

Formally, after the Stockholm Congress, the Bolsheviks and Mensheviks came to an agreement, but nevertheless hidden contradictions continued to remain. One of them was ways to replenish the party treasury. This issue received particular relevance due to the fact that the defeat of the armed uprising of 1905 forced many party members to emigrate abroad and there was an urgent need for money for their maintenance.

In connection with this, the Bolsheviks intensified their notorious expropriations of values, which were, simply put, robberies that brought them necessary funds. The Mensheviks considered this unacceptable and condemned it, but nevertheless they took the money very willingly.

L. D. Trotsky also added a considerable amount of fuel to the fire of discord, publishing the newspaper Pravda in Vienna and publishing openly anti-Leninist articles in it. Such publications, which regularly appeared on the pages of the main printed organ of the pariah, only aggravated mutual hostility, which especially manifested itself during the conference in August 1912.

Another escalation of contradictions

With the outbreak of the First World War, the joint party of Bolsheviks and Mensheviks entered a period of even more acute internal contradictions. The programs that its two wings put on were radically different from each other.

If the Leninists were ready to achieve the overthrow of the monarchy at the cost of defeat in the war and the accompanying national tragedy, then the Menshevik leader Martov, although he condemned the war, considered it the duty of the army to defend the sovereignty of Russia to the end.

His supporters also advocated a cessation of hostilities and a mutual withdrawal of troops “without annexations or indemnities.” The situation that developed after this, in their opinion, could be favorable for the start of a world revolution.

In a colorful kaleidoscope political life In those years, representatives of a wide variety of parties defended their points of view. Cadets, Mensheviks, Socialist Revolutionaries, as well as representatives of other movements, replaced each other on the stands of spontaneously occurring rallies, trying to win over the masses to their side. Sometimes it was possible to do this by one or the other.

Political credo of the Mensheviks

The main provisions of the Menshevik policy boiled down to the following theses:

a) since the necessary preconditions have not developed in the country, seizing power at this stage is useless, only opposition struggle is advisable;

b) the victory of the proletarian revolution in Russia is possible only in the distant future, after its implementation in the countries Western Europe and USA;

c) in the fight against autocracy it is necessary to rely on the support of the liberal bourgeoisie, since its role in this process is extremely important;

d) since the peasantry in Russia, although numerous, is a backward class in its development, one cannot rely on it, and can only be used as an auxiliary force;

d) main driving force revolution must be the proletariat;

f) the struggle can only be carried out through legal means, with a complete renunciation of terrorism.

The Mensheviks who became an independent political force

It should be admitted that neither the Bolsheviks nor the Mensheviks took part in the process of overthrowing the tsarist regime, and the bourgeois revolution took them, so to speak, by surprise. Despite the fact that it was the result of the political struggle, which they considered as a minimum program, both of them at first showed obvious confusion. The Mensheviks were the first to overcome it. As a result, 1917 became the stage at which they emerged as an independent political force.

Loss of political initiative by the Mensheviks

Despite the temporary rise, on the eve of the October revolution the Menshevik Party lost many of its prominent representatives, who left its ranks due to the vagueness of the program and the extreme indecisiveness of the leadership. The process of political migration reached particular intensity in the fall of 1917, when such authoritative Mensheviks as Y. Larin, L. Trotsky and G. Plekhanov joined the Leninist wing of the RSDLP.

In October 1917, supporters of the Leninist wing of the party carried out a coup d'etat. The Mensheviks characterized this as a usurpation of power and sharply condemned it, but they could no longer influence the course of events. They were clearly among the losers. To top off the troubles, the Bolsheviks dispersed the constituent Assembly. When did the events that took place in the country result in Civil War, then the right-wing Mensheviks, led by F.N. Potresov, V.N. Rozanov and V.O. Levitsky, joined the enemies of the new government.

Former comrades who became enemies

After strengthening the Bolshevik positions achieved during the fight against the White Guard movement and foreign intervention, have begun mass repression in relation to persons who previously belonged to the anti-Leninist Menshevik wing of the RSDLP. Beginning in 1919, so-called purges were carried out in many cities across the country, as a result of which former party members classified as hostile elements were isolated and, in some cases, shot.

Many former Mensheviks had to seek refuge abroad, as in tsarist times. Those of them who were able to adapt to the new conditions and even occupy prominent positions in the structures of the new government were constantly faced with the threat of reprisals for the political mistakes of past years.