The Socialist Alternative to Bolshevik Russia: The Socialist Revolutionary Party, 1921-39

191 Pages·2010·4.18 MB·English

by  Elizabeth White

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The Socialist Alternative to
Bolshevik Russia
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t
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u The Socialist Revolutionary (SR) Party, which had been the largest and most
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u popularpartyinRussiain1917,didnotaftertheOctoberRevolutionjustdisappear
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“ ” –
9 intothe dustbinofhistory ,asTrotskyhoped,but ledbyitsleadershipinexilein
2 the 1920s and 1930s – continued to observe and comment on developments in
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0 Russia.
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0 Inemigration,theSRPartyoftenputforwardpolicyproposalsonawiderangeof
at topics: policies which, based on a shrewd understanding of the real situation in

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e Russia, o ered realistic alternatives to the policies being pursued by the Marxist
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t fi fi
n Bolshevik regime. This book lls a gap in examining one of the most signi cant
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C Russian political parties, and is based on extensive original analysis of SR Party
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materials, shows how it operated, how it formulated and disseminated its ideas,
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N whattheseideaswere,andhowtheParty’sideasdevelopedinresponsetochanging
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I circumstancesinRussiaandEuropemorewidely.FarfrombeingagrarianSlavophile
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F romantics, as they are often portrayed, this book shows the SRs were energetic
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I European modernisers who contributed vigorously to the leading debates of their
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y day,andhowtheSRvisionofapopulist,socialistregimefailedtomaterialiseasstate
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d control,dictatorshipandthecollectivisationofagriculturetookhold.
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a
o ElizabethWhiteisLecturerinInternationalHistoryattheUniversityofUlster.
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BASEES/Routledge Series on Russian and
East European Studies
Serieseditor:
RichardSakwa,DepartmentofPoliticsandInternationalRelations,UniversityofKent
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JulianCooper,CentreforRussianandEastEuropeanStudies,UniversityofBirmingham
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RosalindMarsh,DepartmentofEuropeanStudiesandModernLanguages,UniversityofBath
DavidMoon,DepartmentofHistory,UniversityofDurham
2 HilaryPilkington,DepartmentofSociology,UniversityofWarwick
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0 GrahamTimmins,DepartmentofPolitics,UniversityofStirling
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t StephenWhite,DepartmentofPolitics,UniversityofGlasgow
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u FoundingEditorialCommitteeMember:
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A GeorgeBlazyca,CentreforContemporaryEuropeanStudies,UniversityofPaisley
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68. TheSocialistAlternativeto
55. TelevisionandCultureinPutin’s BolshevikRussia
Russia:RemoteControl TheSocialistRevolutionaryParty,1921–1939
StephenHutchingsandNataliaRulyova ElizabethWhite
The Socialist Alternative to
Bolshevik Russia
The Socialist Revolutionary Party,
–
1921 1939
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2 Elizabeth White
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t Firstpublished2011
s byRoutledge
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g 2ParkSquare,MiltonPark,Abingdon,Oxon,OX144RN
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A Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada
9 byRoutledge
2 711ThirdAvenue,NewYork,NY10017
5
0 RoutledgeisanimprintoftheTaylor&FrancisGroup,aninformabusiness
:
5
0 This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2010
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a
] To purchase your own copy of this or any of Taylor & Francis or Routledge’s
e collection of thousands of eBooks please go to www.eBookstore.tandf.co.uk
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t
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e ©2011ElizabethWhite
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T All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or
E utilisedinanyformorbyanyelectronic,mechanical,orothermeans,now
N knownorhereafterinvented,includingphotocopyingandrecording,orin
B anyinformationstorageorretrievalsystem,withoutpermissioninwriting
I
L fromthepublishers.
F
N BritishLibraryCataloguinginPublicationData
I AcataloguerecordforthisbookisavailablefromtheBritishLibrary
[
y LibraryofCongressCataloginginPublicationData
b
d White,Elizabeth.
e ThesocialistalternativetoBolshevikRussia:theSocialistRevolutionaryParty,
d 1921–1939/ElizabethWhite.
a
o p.cm.--(BASEES/RoutledgeseriesonRussianandEastEuropean
nl studies;68)
w Includesbibliographicalreferencesandindex.
o 1. Partiia sotsialistov-revoliutsionerov- -History. 2. Socialist parties--Soviet
D
Union--History.3.SovietUnion--Politicsandgovernment--1917–1936.
I.Title.
JN6598.S65W45 2010
324.247’02--dc22
2010012399
ISBN 0-203-84244-8 Master e-book ISBN
ISBN13:978-0-415-43584-0(hbk)
ISBN13:978-0-203-84244-7(ebk)
Contents
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t Acknowledgements viii
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u Introduction:TheSocialistAlternativetoBolshevikRussia:
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9 TheSocialistRevolutionaryPartyinEmigration,
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5 1921 1939 1
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t 1 SRsasRussianRevolutionaries 7
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]
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r 2 TheSocialistRevolutionaryPartyinPrague:
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n ‘ ’
e The KingdomoftheSRs 19
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E 3 TheSovietUnionduringNEP:TheCommuneandtheCooperative 39
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L 4 TheBolshevikRegime,SovietSocietyand
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N SRPoliticalTactics 57
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b 5 TheSocialistLeagueoftheNewEast 79
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a 6 TheSRsandStalin sGreatTurn 96
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7 TheCollectivisationofAgriculture 112
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8 The1930sandtheRoadtoWar 128
Conclusion 141
Notes 149
Bibliography 172
Index 178
Acknowledgements
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t ThisbookaroseoutofmyPhDthesis,whichIcompletedattheCentreforRussianandEast
s
u European Studies at the University of Birmingham. I had wanted to look at the Russian
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u emigration in Czechoslovakia between the wars, and Professor Gerry Smith who had
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9 supervisedmeatOxfordformyM.StinSlavonicStudiessuggestedIlookattheSRParty
2 there as no one had done that yet. I thought I knew about the SRs—utopian agrarian
5 ’
0 socialists who had made such a mess of things in 1917 and then left Russia in history s
:
5 dustbin.Ioriginallyconceivedofjustlookingatthemasatestcaseofhowémigrépolitical
0
t groupsoperate,ratherthanevaluatingtheirideasfortheirownsake.AsIstudiedthemmore
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] though,Ibecamemoreconvincedoftheinterestandsignificancethattheirideasheld,and
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tr moreawareofthevitalroletheyplayedinRussianpoliticallifeandthoughtevenafter1917.
n
e My PhD research altered its focus then, and this book has altered the focus even more.
C
T Thoughtheémigrécontextisstressedandoneoftheaimsofthebookhasbeentoshowthat
E émigré politics are a worthy topic of study, this book tries to look at the SRs within the
N
wider history of the Russian revolutionary movement from the late Imperial period to
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I Stalin’s‘RevolutionfromAbove’.
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F IwouldliketothankmysupervisorDrJeremySmithoftheCentreforRussianandEast
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I EuropeanStudiesattheUniversityofBirmingham.Iwouldalsoliketothankthefollowing
[
y scholarswhoreadandofferedvaluableadviceandinsightsonsectionsofthiswork:Serguei
b
d Glebov, Melanie Ilic, Manfred Hildermeier, David Moon, Teodor Shanin, Michael
de Melancon, Geoffrey Swain, Ian Thatcher and the anonymous reviewers of The Russian
a
o Review and Revolutionary Russia. I am grateful to Alexander Novikov of Saratov State
l
n UniversityforhisgenerosityinsharingdocumentsregardingVictorChernovandinhelping
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ff ff
o myorientationaroundtheRussianarchives.Iamverygratefultoallthesta atthedi erent
D
archivesIworkedinduringmyresearch,thatis,theStateArchiveoftheRussianFederation
ff
in Moscow, the International Institute for Social History, Amsterdam, the Bakhmete
Collection, Columbia University, New York, and the Masaryk Institute in Prague.
ff
I would also like to thank the sta of the Slavonic Library in Prague, the Emigration
ReadingRoomattheRussianStateLibrary,andinBirmingham,NigelHardwarefromthe
BaykovLibraryforhelpintrackingdownbooks.Forgeneralorientation,readinglistsand
useful contactsIamindebted to Richard DaviesoftheRussian Archive atthe Brotherton
LibraryinLeeds,HannoImmonenandVictorFic.IwouldliketothankProfessorGerald
SmithofNewCollege,OxfordforhisoriginalsuggestionthatIlookattheSRsinPrague.It
fi
wasagreatsuggestion,andIhopethisworkisa ttingtributetoit.
Acknowledgements ix
‘
MaterialfromChapter3waspreviouslypublishedas TheÉmigréSocialistRevolutionary
PartyandtheRussianPeasantryduringNEP’,RevolutionaryRussia,vol18,no1,June2005,
– ‘
pp. 47 70. Material from Chapter 5 was previously published as The Socialist
Revolutionary Party, Ukraine, and Russian National Identity’, The Russian Review, 66,
–
October 2007, pp. 2 20. Iwouldlike to thank both journals for permission to republish
thiswork.
Finally,IwouldliketothankmygoodfriendNeilPorteouswhogavemeahometolive
and work in at Birmingham which made writing the PhD possible, and my beautiful son
GianlucaMeneghettiwhosearrivalintothisworldin2007almostmadewritingthebook
impossible.
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