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Five Organisational Profiles

  • Chapter
Russian Workers and the Socialist-Revolutionary Party through the Revolution of 1905–07

Part of the book series: Studies in Soviet History and Society ((SSHS))

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Abstract

Formerly an Iranian possession, the Caspian port of Baku was finally ceded to the Russian Tsars in 1806.1 Its population grew from a mere 15000 in 1875 to more than 334000 in 1913,2 an increase mainly attributable to the development of the oil industry with which Baku quickly became synonymous. Systematic drilling began during the 1870s: by the turn of the century the surrounding oil fields were producing more than those of the entire United States.3 This period of remarkable growth was, however, followed by a serious and prolonged contraction. Output dropped by 11 per cent between 1901 and 1903 and took a further dive in 1905. There was to be no substantial improvement before the First World War — production levels in 1913 had still not surpassed those attained during 1901, allowing Russia’s American competitors to forge ahead.4

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Notes and References

  1. For background on Baku and the Caucasus region see the following works: R. G. Suny, The Baku Commune 1917–1918 — Class and Nationality in the Russian Revolution (Princeton, 1972);

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  2. and ‘A Journeyman for the Revolution: Stalin and the Labour Movement in Baku, June 1907–May 1908’, in Soviet Studies, 23, no. 3 (1972), pp. 373–94;

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  3. G. A. Arutyunov, Rabochee dvizhenie v Zakavkaz’e v period novogo revolyutsionnogo pod’ema, 1910–1914gg (Moscow and Baku, 1963);

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  4. Filipp Makharadze, Ocherki revolyutsionnogo dvizheniya v Zakavkaz’e (Tiflis, 1927).

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  5. Arutyunov, Rabochee dvizhenie v Zakavkaz’e, pp. 34, 56; Suny, The Baku Commune, p. 7.

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  6. Suny, The Baku Commune, p. 4.

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  7. Suny, The Baku Commune, pp. 6, 50; ‘A Journeyman for the Revolution’, pp. 375–6; Lane, Roots of Russian Communism, p. 177.

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  8. Lane, Roots of Russian Communism, p. 176.

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  9. The following table is based on information in B. Ya. Stel’nik, ‘Ar’ergardnye boi Bakinskogo proletariat v 1907 godu’, in Azerbaidzhan v gody pervoi russkoi revolyutsii (sbornik statei) (Baku, 1966).

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  10. Suny, The Baku Commune, p. 10; ‘A Journeyman for the Revolution’, p. 376 (92 per cent of oil workers were not native to Baku.)

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  11. Suny, The Baku Commune, pp. 10–12, 14–16. Lane, Roots of Russian Communism, p. 178.

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  12. Suny, ‘A Journeyman for the Revolution’, p. 377.

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  13. Suny, The Baku Commune, p. 6; A. N. Guliev, Bakinskii proletariat v gody novogo revolyutsionnogo pod”ema (Baku, 1963), pp. 18–21.

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  14. Guliev, Bakinskii proletariat, p. 34.

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  15. Ibid., pp. 292–3.

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  16. Ibid., pp. 30, 33.

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  17. Guliev, Bakinskii proletariat, Suny, The Baku Commune, p. 13.

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  18. Lane, Roots of Russian Communism, p. 178. Suny, ‘A Journeyman for the Revolution’, p. 376 quotes a figure of 89.1 per cent for illiterate Azerbaijanis.

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  19. A.M. Stopani, Neftepromyshlennyi rabochii i ego byudzhet, (Moscow, 1924), pp.124–5.

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  20. The most important archival document on the early history of the PSR is: K dokladu Sakina/Materialy po 3–mu zakavkaznomu oblastnomu s”ezdu PSR 25–30 Mart 1907g, Archive 628. On the 1904 strike, see also: RR, no. 66 (May 1905), p. 14.

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  21. RR, no. 66, p. 14.

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  22. RR, no. 51, p. 24; no. 71, p. 24; no. 75, p. 20.

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  23. PI, no. 9 (May 1907), p. 12; Kdokladu Sakina, Archive 628.

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  24. PI, no. 9, p. 12; Hildermeier, Die Sozialrevolutionäre Partei p. 248 and n. 59. The Dashnaktsutyun was formed in Tiflis in 1890 to promote minority Armenian interests, especially in Turkey. Like the SRs the Dashnaks favoured individual terrorism, but did not adopt a Socialist programme until 1907 (Suny, The Baku Commune, pp. 21–24).

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  25. Materialy, Archive 628.

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  26. Kdokladu Sakina; PI, no. 9, p. 12; Protokoly 1908, pp. 32, 34.

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  27. Materialy, Archive 628; Protokoly 1908, p. 32.

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  28. See below pp. 138–9.

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  29. PI, no. 9, p. 12. A MS from Baku, dated September 1907 (Archive 553/I) cites membership figures of around 1825–1925 SRs (625 Armenians), compared with 1800 SDs (1200 Bolshevik, 600 Menshe vik). Suny, however, (‘A Journeyman for the Revolution’, p. 376), offers a figure of 2500 SDs. For the Armenian defectors to the PSR, see below pp. 138–9.

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  30. Stel’nik, ‘Ar’ergardnye boi’, p. 97.

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  31. Various documents in Archive 551, 553/I.

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  32. The Baku reporter to the third Caucasus Congress of the PSR in March 1907 mentions the existence of a ‘young group of Tatars’ (that is, Azerbaijanis): K dokladu Sakina, Archive 628. The existence of ‘Ittifag’ is mentioned by Stel’nik, ‘Ar’ergardnye boi’, p. 97 and is confirmed by archival sources: Dve Stachki, 15 September 1906, Archive 553/I.

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  33. PI, no. 9, p. 12; K dokladu Sakina, Archive 628.

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  34. ZT, no. 5 (September 1907), p. 13; Protokoly 1908, p. 32; PI, no. 7 (March 1907), pp. 14–15.

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  35. Arutyunov, Rabochie dvizhenie v Zakavkaz’e, here p. 165. Also Suny, ‘Labor and Liquidators — Revolution and the ‘Reaction’ in Baku, May 1908–April 1912’, in Slavic Review, no. 34 (1975), p. 320 and ZT, no. 19 (July 1909), p. 17.

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  36. See below, p. 135.

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  37. Quoted by Suny, The Baku Commune, pp. 45–6.

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  38. ZT, no. 17 (April 1909), p. 15; ZT, no. 19 (July 1909), p. 17. The SDs experienced a parallel decline in membership. Bolshevik numbers, for example, were estimated at 300 (maximum) for the end of 1909 (Arutyunov, Rabochee dvizhenie v Zakavkaz’e, p. 74).

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  39. For this episode see Dve Stachki, 15 September 1906, Archive 553/I. Also Suny, The Baku Commune, p. 47.

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  40. P. N. Valuev, Bol’sheviki azerbaidzhana v pervoi russkoi revolyutsii (Baku, 1963), p. 229; Protokoly 1908, p. 32; Ko vsem bakinskim rabochim, 28 Nov 1906, Archive 553/I.

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  41. See below, p. 138.

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  42. Protokoly 1908, p. 32.

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  43. For the background, see Suny, The Baku Commune, pp. 43–6; for a Soviet (Stalinist) account, see P. N. Valuev, Soveshchatel’naya kampaniya 1907–8gg. v Baku (IMEL, 1946).

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  44. For a statement of the SR position, see the (1908) leaflet Tovarishchi, Archive 553/I; also, ‘K voprosu o soveshchanii’, in Izvestiya bakins-koiorganizatsii PSR, no. 1 (18 April 1908), pp. 2–3.

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  45. Protokoly 1908, p. 32.

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  46. Suny, ‘A Journeyman for the Revolution’, p. 389 gives a figure of 19 000 votes for the Bolshevik position and only 8000 for the original Menshevik position.

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  47. Suny, The Baku Commune, p. 44.

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  48. Ibid., p. 49.

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  49. The Baku representative at the third Caucasus congress contradicts this, claiming that ‘we’ [that is, the SRs] formed the oil union and that ‘the entire business is in our hands’: K dokladu Sakina, Archive 628.

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  50. Arutyunov, Rabochee Dvizhenie v zakavkaz’e, p. 165; Stel’nik, ‘Ar’ergardnye boi bakinskogo proletariat’, p. 95.

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  51. The following information is drawn predominantly from the (Bolshevik-controlled) newspaper of the oil-workers’ union, Gudok.

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  52. Gudok, no. 10 (16 December 1907), p. 5; no. 13 (6 January 1908), pp. 5–7.

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  53. Gudok, no. 16 (27 January 1908), pp. 4–5.

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  54. Ibid.

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  55. Izvestiya bakinskoi organizatsii PSR, no. 1 (April 1908), pp. 3–4 (Archive 553/I), Gudok, no. 25 (30 March 1908), p. 4.

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  56. Gudok, no. 49 (17 January 1909), p. 6, ZT, no. 19, p. 18.

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  57. ZT, no. 19, p. 18; ZT, no. 31, p. 25.

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  58. Stel’nik, ‘Ar’ergardnye boi’, p. 95.

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  59. Quoted in Guliev, Bakinskii proletariat, p. 49.

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  60. Biographical details in PKS.

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  61. Information on the strike is derived from ‘Sredi moryakov’ in Molot-izdanie Bakinskoi organizatsii partii sotsialistov-revolyutsionerov, no. 2 (September 1907), and ‘Morskaya zabastovka Kaspiinskoi flotii v 1907g’, in Morskaya Volna — organ bezpartiin. profess. soyuza moryakov kaspiisk. Torg. flota, no. 7 (10 September 1909), pp. 3 ff., Archive 553/I.

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  62. PKS.

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  63. See the leaflet dated 25 April 1907 in Archive 553/I.

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  64. ZT, no. 27, p. 28; no. 26, p. 23.

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  65. ZT, no. 27, p. 28.

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  66. On the later history of the union see Morskaya Volna, no. 7, pp. 3–11, 21–22 (Archive 553/I).

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  67. See n. 21 above.

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  68. Otchet A rmyanskoi organizatskii partii SR — Archive 551.

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  69. This profile is based on: ZT, no. 26 (February 1910), p. 23; no. 45, p. 23; Protokoly 1908, p. 33.

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  70. Protokoly 1908, p. 33. One of the more skilled (and loyal) SRs was Grigorii Erem’yan, a fitter and son of a mining engineer. Born in Shushe in 1889, Erem’yan completed four classes of grammar school before being expelled for participating in disturbances. During 1903–4 he was a member of the Dashnaktsutyun party in his home town, before moving to Baku. In 1907 he joined the PSR and was involved in agitational, combat and trade union work as well as contributing to the party press. After being subjected to several arrests, Erem’yan was finally removed from the scene for distributing leaflets in 1914 (PKS).

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  71. ZT, no. 26, p. 23. The Caucasus obkom donated a total of 300r. to the Armenian literature fund between July 1908 and July 1909, the majority of which would presumably have been allocated to Baku (ZT, no. 26, p. 26). There were smaller Armenian centres in Erivan, Tiflis, Aleksan-dropol and Batum.

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  72. Protokoly 1908, p. 33.

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  73. Pamyatnaya Knizhka attributes only one killing to a fighting detachment operating in Baku — the ‘execution’ of a provocateur named Petrov on 28 August 1905. There are four other killings listed for other places in the Caucasus oblast’ before 1910. See Pamyatnaya Knizhka, vol. II. The SRs were also held responsible for a ‘series of terrorist acts’ during the seamen’s strike of March–April 1907 (Stel’nik, ‘Ar’ergard-nye boi’, p. 104). Our impression is that terror in Baku was organised on an ad hoc basis, and that it was not given an especially high profile.

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  74. Protokoly 1908, p. 36.

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  75. Criminal activity of this type wreaked even greater havoc among SRs in the neighbouring North Caucasus oblast’. See Protokoly 1908, p. 37. In 1907 alone there had been 1732 recorded robberies in Transcaucasia and 1328 other ‘terrorist’ acts (Suny, The Baku Commune, p. 45).

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  76. ZT, no. 19 (July 1909), p. 17; Morskiya Volny-izdanie ispolnitel’nogo komiteta Bakinskoi organizatsii partii SR, no. 1 (February 1910), pp. 15–17. The archive contains a notice warning local SRs that someone had recently sent a letter demanding 400r. for political prisoners, using an old party stamp as ‘authorisation’ — Zayavlenie (Baku committee, undated), Archive 553/I.

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  77. The reference to the Armenian Detachments is in ZT, no. 5, p. 14.

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  78. For archival information on the Armenian organisation, see the following: ‘Otchet Armyanskoi organizatsii partii SR’, in Sovremennik no. 2 (May 1909), p. 12, Archive 551; Proclamation, dated 28 November 1909; ‘Otchet o zasedaniyakh ispolnitel’nogo komiteta’, in Morskiya Volny no. 1, p. 15, Archive 551. ZT, no. 45, p. 23. Two Armenians were among the Baku delegation to the sixth (Caucasus) oblast’ Congress in October 1909.

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  79. Although Bryansk was, strictly speaking, included in the North-West oblast’ it was, in almost all respects, quite distinct from other parts of the region. As such it will be treated separately in this study.

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  80. Protokoly 6-go oblastnogo s”ezda severo-zapadnoi oblastnoi organizatsii, PSR (12 October 1906), Archive 426.

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  81. Ezra Mendelsohn, Class Struggle in the Pale: the Formative Years of the Jewish Workers’ Movement in Tsarist Russia (Cambridge, 1970), p. 3. (Most of the following introductory remarks are based on this source.)

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  82. Mendelsohn, Class Struggle in the Pale, p. 5. In Minsk the proportion was 52 per cent, in Dvinsk 44 per cent, in Vitebsk 52 per cent and in Gomel’ 55 per cent.

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  83. Ibid.

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  84. Population of figures are for 1910 and are taken from T. S. Fedor, Patterns of Urban Growth, Appendix I.

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  85. Mendelsohn, Class Struggle in the Pale, p. 25, n. 1.

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  86. Ibid., p. 6 and n. 4.

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  87. Ibid., p. 21.

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  88. Ibid., p. 21. For artisanal conditions, see the discussion on pp. 7–26.

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  89. See the article ‘Ob osobennostyakh raboty v severo-zapadnom krae’, in PI, no. 8 (April 1907), pp. 12–13.

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  90. F. M. Watters, ‘The Peasant and the Village Commune’, in The Peasant in Nineteenth-Century Russia (Stanford, CA, 1968), pp. 146–7. See also Hildermeier, Die Sozialrevolutionäre Partei, p. 238.

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  91. Some Jews evidently did respond from purely altruistic motives: ‘“Zemlya i volya! — in Jewish this sounds so strange”, one young Jew said to me. “What is the land to me, to us Jews? But in the name of the common ideal of justice I too will fight for the land”’. Jews did actually conduct propaganda work in the countryside for the PSR (‘Ob osobennostyakh’,p. 12).

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  92. See ‘Iz pisem sev-zap. O.K. k mestnym komitetam’ (dated variously from November 1906 to January 1907), in PI, no. 5 (February 1907), pp. 7–8 and ‘Iz otcheta Sev. Zapadnogo Obl. Komiteta’ (presented to North-West oblast’ congress in February 1907), PI, no. 7 (March 1907), pp. 14–15. The financial account quoted earlier is to be found on p. 13.

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  93. In the summer of 1906 for example ‘the entire body of progressive teachers’ was arrested at a congress in Minsk (‘Ob osobennostyakh’, p. 13).

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  94. Ibid. Many had first belonged to the Bund youth organisations Malyi Bund and Nadezhda.

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  95. PI, no. 8 (April 1907), p. 13. The rival parties included the Bund, Social Democrats, Social Zionists, Jewish Socialists and the Polish Socialist party.

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  96. See chapter 3 of this study.

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  97. RR, no. 31 (August 1904), p. 23.

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  98. Mendelsohn, Class Struggle in the Pale, pp. 131 ff.

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  99. ‘Ob osobennostyakh’, p. 12.

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  100. ‘Statistika terroristicheskikh aktov’ (Pamyatnaya knizhka sotsialista-re-volyutsionera).

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  101. See M. D. Zakgeim in PKS; also Pamyatnaya knizhka; and Spiridovitch, Histoire du terrorisme Russe, pp. 396, 405.

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  102. See the article ‘Anarkhizm v Rossii’, in Sotsialist-Revolyutsioner, no. 3 (1911), pp. 75–94.

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  103. ‘Anarkhizm v Rossii’, pp. 82–3; ‘Koe-chto o “Maksimalistakh”‘, PI, no. 8, pp. 3–5. The exception was Dvinsk, which was apparently free of Maximalism at least.

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  104. ‘Koe-chto o “Maksimalistakh”’, p. 4.

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  105. Ibid.

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  106. Protokoly 6-go oblastnogo s”ezda, Archive 426. The previous intolerance of SR organisations was in fact blamed for earlier problems with the Maximalists (‘Koe-chto’, p. 4).

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  107. Protokoly 7–go ocherednogo s”ezda severo-zapadnoi oblasti partii SR, Archive 426.

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  108. ‘Ob osobennostyakh’, p. 12; ‘Iz pisem sev-zap. O.K.’, p. 8.

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  109. The following statistics refer to the period around October 1906–February 1907. They are taken from these sources: Dvinsk — Rapport 1907, p. 122; Vitebsk — Otchet k oblastnomu s”ezdu (12 February 1907), Archive 426; Gomel’ — MS (October 1906) Archive 426; Rapport 1907, p. 134; for the remainder see the various reports in Archive 426 quoted below. It should be emphasised that these figures should be taken as rough (and optimistic) approximations. However, they do at least indicate the relative strengths of the various organisations in the region.

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  110. Otchet k oblastnomu s”ezdu (Archive 426).

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  111. Hildermeier, Die Sozialrevolutionäre Partei, p. 327, citing document in Archive 483.

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  112. Both the information above and that which follows is taken from the following reports in Archive 426: Otvety Minskogo komiteta PSR (February 1907); Otchet k oblastnomu s”ezdu (Vitebsk); Otvety pinskogo komiteta (February 1907); otvety … (Novozybkov, February 1907); Otchet smolenskogo komiteta (February 1907); MS: Dvinskaya org-tsiya (October 1906) and MSS for Gomel’, Belostok, Vil’no (October 1906). See also Rapport 1907, pp. 120–41.

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  113. Rossiya: Polnoe geograficheskoe opisanie vol. IX, p. 573.

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  114. ‘Ob osobennostyakh’, p. 12.

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  115. See n. 109 above.

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  116. Vtoroi Sovet PSR (October 1906), Archive 489.

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  117. Minsk: Otvety na zaprosy Ts.K; Dvinsk: 6 January 1907; Vil’no: Otvety, PI, no. 5, pp. 8–9; Minsk: Rapport 1907, p. 136.

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  118. Seen. 109 above.

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  119. Protokoly 7-go ocherednogo, Archive 426.

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  120. Ibid.

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  121. Otchet Vitebskoi organisatsii (Autumn 1907?), Archive 426.

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  122. Doklad o polozhenii i deyatel’nosti Dvinskogo Komiteta PSR (19 November 1907), Archive 426.

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  123. Background information is taken from the following: Brokgaus-Efron (ed.), Entsiklopedicheskii slovar’, 1900, vol. VIII, pp. 815–18; vol. XXXVI, pp. 508–9; Entsiklopedicheskii slovar’ Russkogo Bibliogra-ficheskogo Instituta Granat, Moscow 1910–1948 vol. VII, cols 34–5; vol. XVII, col. 120; O. Yu. Shmidt (ed.), Bol’shaya Sovetskaya entsiklopedia (1st edn), Moscow, 1926–48, vol. VII, cols. 743–53; vol. XXXVII, col. 828.

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  124. M. Balabanov, ‘Promyshlennost’ V 1904–7gg’, in Obshchestvennoe dvizhenie v Rossii, vol. IV, pt. 1, p. 114.

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  125. RR, no. 38 (December 1903), p. 15; no. 37 (December 1903), p. 24; no. 42 (March 1904), p. 21.

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  126. RR, no. 69 (June 1905), p. 19.

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  127. RR, no. 70 (July 1905), p. 18.

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  128. RR, no. 74 (September 1905), p. 16. See also Izveshchenie o Demonstratsii, Archive 321.

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  129. Archive 321. Unfortunately no record seems to have survived of the organisation’s activities during the last quarter of 1905.

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  130. Politicheskaya katorga i ssylka.

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  131. See, ‘Severo-zapadnaya oblast’ — ob osobennostyakh raboty v sev-zap. krae’, in PI, no. 8 (April 1907), p. 12.

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  132. MS, Bryansk report (October 1906), Archive 426; Rapport 1907, pp. 129–30.

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  133. PI, no. 8, p. 12.

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  134. Ibid.

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  135. PI, no. 8, p. 13.

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  136. Hildermeier, Die Sozialrevolutionäre Partei, p. 138.

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  137. ‘Koe-chto o “maksimalistakh” (pis’mo iz Smolenska)’, in PI, no. 8, pp. 3–5 (here p. 4).

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  138. See archive reference in Hildermeier, Die Sozialrevolutionäre Partei, p. 139 n. 54.

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  139. For an expression of this argument see V. Chernov, ‘K kharakteristike Maksimalizma’, in Sotsialist-Revolyutsioner, no. 1 (1910), pp. 178–9.

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  140. Balabanov, ‘Promyshlennost’ v 1904–7gg’, p. 114.

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  141. PI, no. 8, p. 4.

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  142. In Bryansk, the Anarchists allegedly ceased work when their leader was killed after an unsuccessful expropriation (in the summer of 1907). By that time the Maximalists too were said to be weak (see report in Trud, no. 17 (October 1907), p. 14, Archive 472. In Bezhetsa, however, a (Maximalist?) group, practising economic terror and private expropriations was causing the local SRs concern as late as December 1907, but there were ‘almost no’ Anarchist and Maximalists at the Raditsa factory (for source of reference see n. 22).

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  143. Protokoly konferentsii predstavitelei Bezhetskogo, Bryanskogo Paravoznoi Raditsy i Privokzal’noi Slobody — rabochikh soyuzov PSR (23 December 1907), Archive 426.

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  144. 9e Yanvarya; k rabochim i krest’yanam, Archive 321. The outcome of the elections here is unknown.

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  145. Ko vsem Bryanskim rabochim (May 1907), Archive 321; see also comments of Bryansk delegate at seventh oblast’ congress — Protokoly 7-go ocherednogo s”ezda severo-zapadnoi oblasti partii SR (July 1907), Archive 426.

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  146. Zasedanie kollektiv a Bryanskoi organizatsii SR (24 June 1907), Archive 321.

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  147. Trud, no. 17, pp. 14–15, Archive 472.

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  148. See MS from Bryansk dated 7.10.07, Archive 426.

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  149. Protokoly konferentsii (23 December 1907), Archive 426.

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  150. The last archival record of any of the Bryansk organisations occurs in March 1908, when the Raditsa workers’ union issued a proclamation calling for the factory to be saved from closure (Archive 321). See also Protokoly 1908, p. 54.

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  151. Rossiya: Polnoe geograficheskoe opisanie, vol. XIV, p. 176; Bol’shaya sovetskaya entsiklopedia, vol. L, pp. 545–7.

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  152. Rossiya, vol. XIV, p. 176.

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  153. Rashin, Formirovanie, p. 356.

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  154. Before 1894, goods to the value of 13m. roubles had passed annually through Sevastopol’ ; after 1894 this figure dropped to 2.5m. roubles per annum (Rossiya, vol XIV, p. 176).

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  155. Brokgauz and Efron, Entsiklopedicheskiislovar’, vol. LVII, pp. 293–4.

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  156. Information on the early history of the party is drawn from two archival documents: Delegate’s report to the second party congress (Sevastopol’), Archive 488; and Kratkii ocherk rabochei organizatsii Sevastopol’s-kogo Komiteta PSR so Noyabrii 1905g do fevralya 1907 goda, Archive 488.

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  157. leaflets were distributed between November 1905 and February 1906.

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  158. For details see below p. 163.

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  159. Delegate’s report, Archive 488.

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  160. For the above see: Delegate’s report; Kratkii ocherk’, and Answers to questions put by the orgbureau at the time of the (second) party congress, all in Archive 488. For a résumé see, Rapport 1907, pp. 165–8.

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  161. Kratkii ocherk, Answers to questions … (no. 3).

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  162. Kratkii ocherk.

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  163. The accounts were located in the ‘Workers’ Organisation’ sections of Archive 488 and Archive 792. Abbreviated accounts (with interruptions) exist for the period 15 December 1905 to 30 May 1906. The complete accounts for October to December 1906 and March to July 1907 form the basis of Table 28, p. 331.

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  164. These (highly approximate) estimates are based on an average individual donation of 20 kopeks per month (the membership contribution demanded by the Kiev SR organisation before 1905). Calculations made on that basis turned out to be fairly reliable in the (admittedly few) cases where they could be tested for the 1905–7 period (at the Nevskii shipbuilding and Aleksandrovskii mechanical factories in Petersburg for example and the Bezhetsa engineering works in Bryansk).

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  165. See table 5.7 in my study of St. Petersburg, chapter 5 p. 119

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  166. The Sevastopol’ detachment probably relied more than most on the participation of soldiers and sailors. Workers were also involved, however, though we have no breakdown of numbers.

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  167. Delegate’s report, Archive 488.

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  168. See ‘Statistika terroristicheskikh aktov’, in Pamyatnaya Knizhka.

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  169. The full details are in Spiridovitch, Histoire du terrorisme Russe, pp. 367–9.

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  170. ‘Statistika terroristicheskikh aktov’.

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  171. Izveshchenie vnov organizovannoi boevoi druzhiny (1907), Archive 488; ‘Statistika terroristicheskikh aktov’.

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  172. Izveshchenie po povodu otkolovshikhsya druzhinnikov (June 1907), Archive 488; Rabochii listok, no. 1 (11 August 1907), Archive 488.

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  173. Otchety Sevastopol’skogo Komiteta PSR, Archive 488.

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  174. Sevastopol’skaya Gorodskaya Konferentsiya (May 1907); see also MS (Sevastopol’ Committee), both in Archive 488.

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  175. MS Archive 488; Hildermeier, Die Sozialrevolutionäre Partei, p. 275 and n. 21.

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  176. Provokatorskii manifest’ i nashi zadachi (June 1907), Archive 488.

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  177. The full story is told in Hildermeier, Die Sozialrevolutionäre Partei, pp.171–2.

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  178. Protokoly pyatogo soveta partii (Stenograficheskii otchet), session 2, p. 8, Archive 792.

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  179. The SRs took 54 of the 77 seats in the town duma: Delo Naroda, no. 110 (26July 1917), p.4.

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  180. Radkey, Agrarian Foes of Bolshevism, p. 243, n. 14.

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  181. Rapport 1907, p. 142. For the boundaries and other details, see Map 6.

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  182. Portal, R., ‘The Industrialization of Russia’, p. 806; Lenin, V. I., The Development of Capitalism in Russia, (London, 1977), pp. 490–3.

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  183. Portal, ‘The Industrialization of Russia’, pp. 829–31, 858.

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  184. Figures for 1910: T. S. Fedor, Patterns of Urban Growth.

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  185. Portal, ‘The Industrialization of Russia’, p. 829 gives a figure of 105 factories, 13 of which were state-owned. My own calculations suggest that this is an underestimate and that the number of enterprises was closer to 150.

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  186. R. E. Zelnik, ‘The Peasant and the Factory’, in W. S. Vucinich (ed.), The Peasant in Nineteenth Century Russia, pp. 160–1.

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  187. Some details of the post-reform arrangements can be found in the essays by F. S. Gorovoi, N. D. Alenchikova and Ya. B. Rabinovich, in Iz istorii rabochego klassa Urala (sbornikstatei) (Perm’, 1961).

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  188. Portal, ‘The Industrialization of Russia’, p. 830.

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  189. The following description of the Izhevsk factory is based on A. A. Aleksandrov, ‘Sostav i polozhenie rabochikh na Izhevskom i Votkinskom zavodakh (1894–1904gg)’ in Iz istorii rabochego klassa Urala (sbornik statei) (Perm’, 1961), pp. 252–61.

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  190. F. S. Gorovoi, ‘Vliyanie reformy 1861 goda na formirovanie rabochego klassa Urala’, in Iz istorii, p. 165.

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  191. See, for example, ‘Rabochaya li partiya sotsialisty-revolyutsionery?’ in Bor’ba (Motovilikha), no. 1 (April 10 1907), Archive 478, p. 12; Bor’ba (Motovilikha), no. 3 (15 May 1907), pp. 1–2; no. 4 (9 June 1907), pp. 1,2. At the same time as emphasising the virtues of its land programme, the third oblast’ congress of the PSR adopted a resolution in favour of including factory socialisation in the minimum programme of the party. This was a response to the ‘special position’ of the Urals population, being at the same time factory workers and peasant land-holders, and to the decline of private industry in particular and industry in general.

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  192. There was a joint SR-SD group in Ufa in 1899, for example. See: 1905 — Revolyutsionnye sobytiya 1905g.v.g. Ufe i Ural’skikh zavodakh, p. 17 (Ufa, 1925).

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  193. See Programma Ural’skogo soyuza Sotsial’-Demokratov i sotsialistov-revolyutsionerov, in Archive 474, which contains eighteen flysheets, published by the Union between 1901 and 1903.

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  194. See below, pp. 173–4, 174–5.

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  195. For the SR role in the ‘Alapaev republic’ of 1905 see ZT, no. 10–11 (February–March 1908), p. 23.

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  196. The voting went 8 votes to 5 and a minority resolution was also published: ‘Postanovleniya III s”ezda Oblastnoi Ural’skoi organizatsii PSR’, PI, no. 1 (October 1906), pp. 22–3.

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  197. The SRs took 60 per cent of the vote at Izhevsk and won 1000 votes at Katav-Ivanovsk. In Ufa the party took 7 seats in the workers’ curia and had one elector. They had two representatives in Perm’ and only one in Vyatka. In Ekaterinburg the SDs won an outright victory. This information has been assembled from a variety of archival documents.

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  198. Of twenty-three Urals activists surveyed in PKS, ten were arrested between June and November 1907.

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  199. See below, p. 170.

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  200. Protokoly 1908, p. 136.

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  201. Protokoly 1909, Archive 792, session 3, pp. 2 ff.

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  202. Rapport 1910, p. 18; Rapport 1914, p. 12.

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  203. Archive 478.

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  204. Otchet Permskogo komiteta PSR s vesnoi 1906 g. do vesnoi 1907 g., Archive 478.

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  205. See below.

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  206. Protokoly 1909, Archive 792, session 3, p. 2.

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  207. See accounts in Bor’ba, no. 2 (May 1907), Archive 478.

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  208. Bor’ba, no. 2. See also ZT, no. 7 (October 1907), p. 14.

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  209. The following is based on information in ZT, no. 7, p. 14, and a report on Nadezhdin rail factory in ZT, no. 8 (December 1907), p. 15. According to an early Soviet source, L’bov first linked up with a group of Maximalists from Petersburg who had arrived in Perm’ early in 1906. They split in the summer of 1907 and L’bov began to act independently again. Apparently, some of the terrorists from these gangs were tried by military courts in 1909. See A. Beloborodov, ‘Iz istorii partizanskogo dvizheniya na Urale (1906–09 gg)’, in Krasnaya Letopis’, no. 1 (1926), pp. 92 ff.

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  210. Protokoly 1909, Archive 792, session 3, p. 2.

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  211. Ibid.

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  212. Iz otcheta Ekaterinburgskogo okruzhn. kom. Ural’noi organizatsii PSR (February–October 1906), Archive 480.

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  213. ZT, no. 7 (October 1907), p. 14.

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  214. Rossiya, vol. v, p. 557.

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  215. Rapport 1907, pp. 143–8; Otvety (second congress), Vyatka, Archive 486.

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  216. Report to fourth oblast’ congress in ZT, no. 7, p. 14.

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  217. Protokoly 1909, Archive 792, session 3, p. 2.

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  218. See biography of S. N. Krasnoperov in PKS. Krasnoperov was the son of a priest and a fitter at the factory. Having attended student circles in Vyatka from 1902 to 1904, at the age of seventeen he joined the Izhevsk PSR, where he remained until his arrest in 1907.

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  219. Izhevskaya zavodskaya organizatsiya in PI, no. 10 (September 1907), p. 15; Rapport 1907, p. 145; biography of F. I. Shipitsyn in PKS. Shipitsyn, a former SD became a member of the Izhevsk SR committee in August 1906, at the age of thirty-three, and was an elector to the second Duma.

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  220. Assistance mainly in the form of personnel support. For example, E. A. Deryabina-Kondorskaya, a teacher from Vyatka province conducted agitation and propaganda at Izhevsk in 1907 having previously worked in Vyatka town. Likewise P. P. Suvorova-Varaksina (PKS).

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  221. See oblast’ report dated 30 October 1907 in Archive 486.

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  222. Accounts for Izhevsk (and Votkinsk, see n 221 below) in Archive 548.

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  223. Protokoly 1908, p. 39; Protokoly 1909, Archive 792, session 3, p. 2; D. I. Gorbunov was an SR on the Izhevsk committee in 1908–9 (aged seventeen) and a member of the Votkinsk group (PKS).

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  224. Rossiya, vol. v, p. 524.

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  225. Rapport 1907, p. 145.

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  226. Oblast’ report (30 October 1907), Archive 486.

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  227. Protokoly 1909.

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  228. Rossiya, vol. V, pp. 458–60.

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  229. 1905-Revolyutsionnye Sobytiya 1905g., p. 8; Statistika terroristicheskikh aktov. Sokolovskii was killed (?) by a worker, Bubetov.

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  230. See the biography of P. P. Myl’nikov, an SR joiner in the railway workshops (PKS).

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  231. Ufa workers’ union accounts for 1906 can be found in Sotsialist’: organ Ufimskogo rabochego Soyuza, no. 1 (January 1907), Archive 682.

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  232. Rapport 1907, p. 146. Otvety (second congress), Archive 486; ‘Smert’tovarishcha’ (notice in Sotsialisf), Archive 682.

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  233. Urals oblast’ report (30 October 1907), Archive 486.

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  234. Protokoly 1908, p. 39.

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  235. Protokoly 1909, Archive 792.

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  236. 1905 Revolyutsionnye sobytiya 1905 g., pp. 19–34.

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  237. For information on the Zlatoust organisation during this period, see the financial accounts in Archive 480 and Doklad Zlatoustavshego delegata na II-m partiinom s”ezde, Archive 480; and Rapport 1907, p. 146.

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  238. Doklad Zlatoustavshego and accounts, Archive 480; Satkinskaya rabochaya organizatsiya (September 1906–June 1907), also Archive 480.

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  239. ZT, no. 7 (October 1907), p. 14; Zlatoust committee (Summer 1907?), Archive 480.

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  240. Protokoly 1908, pp. 39, 40. The Zlatoust armed detachment continued to be active — two provocateurs were killed in 1908 and a police inspector in December 1907. See also the biography of S. I. Perevalov (PKS), a fitter at the Zlatoust factory and a member of the committee from 1905–8. In February the police arrested him after discovering two bombs in his possession.

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  241. Protokol Zlatoustovskoi okruzhskoi konferentsii (19 November 1908), Archive 480.

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  242. Protokoly 1909, Archive 792, session 3, pt 2.

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© 1988 Christopher Rice

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Rice, C. (1988). Five Organisational Profiles. In: Russian Workers and the Socialist-Revolutionary Party through the Revolution of 1905–07. Studies in Soviet History and Society. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-19252-6_7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-19252-6_7

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