onmicrofilm The SocialistRevolutionary Party Archive collection of the PartiiaSocialistov-Revoliutsionerov 5EIVIA5HBOAM fi1iROP1361.1 oliPtT 'EMI) Tbm Pth0CBO E 11APT151- CORIAA VICTOR% PEBOAKRIOHEPOITh International Institute of Social History (IISH) IDC The Socialist Revolutionary Party The archives of the Socialist Revolutionary Party (SR) are now for the first time available in convenient, fully-indexed microfilm format from IDC Publishers. This collection, held by the International Institute of Social History (IISH), Amsterdam, contains minutes of party congresses and documents of local party organizations in Russia and Western Europe, original correspondence, leaflets and proclamations, documents of and about Socialist International, Russian Ochranka and many other organizations. This microform collection is without any doubt anindispensable research tool in the field of social history and Slavic studies. History of the Socialist Revolutionary Moscow and brother-in-law of Tsar Karlsruhe. Upon returning to Russia in Party Nicolas H. Meanwhile,a left-wing 1899 he moved in circles connected Partiia Socialistov-Revoliutsionerov (in spin-off, the Maximalists, pursued a with the birth of the SR in 1901. When Russian, abbreviated to ceserys) terrorist campaign against the state even Gershuni, a principal advocate of occupies a special place in Russian more intense than that of the SR. In terrorism within the SR was arrested for history. Together with that of the 1905 the main party advocated the the murder of Minister Sipiagin in 1902, Mensheviks and the anarchists, this formation of a Constituent Assembly Azev became the head of the party's history belongs to the victims to the left and supported universal suffrage. Combat organization. He was a prime of the Bolsheviks. Nevertheless, it did not renounce mover behind the assassination of Minister Pleve in 1904. Rumours of an The SR was formed in 1901 as the increasing number of agents result of the unification of various provocateurs within the Party led the groups of neo-populist tendency formed The main events of SR history: historian Burtsev toexpose Azev as a in the 1890s within Russia, and among Winter 1901/ 1902: Formation of the double agent in 1908. Azev fled to expatriates abroad. In its early years it Partiia Socialistov-Revoliutsioncrov. Berlin, fearing liquidation at the hands was a small, heterogeneous party,with 1905: The SR becomes the largest of either activists or police and died of an émigré leadership and underground revolutionary party in Russia (with natural causes in 1918. The Azev affair membership of 50.000). membership in Russia. After 'Bloody led to the abandonment of actual Sunday' of the first Russian revolution, February-November 1917: Three ministers terrorist activities, although such tactics 1905-1907, it expanded into a mass in Provisional government, including Alexandr Kerensky (the last prime minister remained part of the official party line. movement. before the October revolution). In the short period of relative freedom November 1917: Membership of one Between two revolutions between 1905 and 1907, the SR million, more than half of seats in the exhibited all the characteristics which in Constituent Assembly (against the In 1917 the PSR played an important 1917 drove it into disaster, although it Bolsheviks 25% poll). Victor Chemov role in the chaotic 8 months from the initially came close to achieving its becomes President of the Constituent February revolution (March 8 new Assembly, programme. Being a mass movement, calendar) to the October revolution the SR was never transformed into a 1922: The first show trial in the USSR in (November 6 new calendar). In this which 34 SR people are tried for treason. solid political machine. Rather, the Fifteen are sentenced to death (later period the Provisional government was party operated under the constant threat commuted to prison terms). The existence reorganised 4 times. The first of division because it was often crippled of the SR in Russia essentially comes to its govermnent started with considerable by irresolvable internal conflicts. In end with this trial. PSR support and membership, the forth 1906 a right wing group, the Popular 1923: Party congress in Prague. ended with isolated Alexander Kerensky Socialists, did indeed splinter off and as the only PSR member of his last became the advocates for a moderate cabinet. Important PSR figures who policy of cooperation with the reformist terrorism as a means for achieving these operated in the first Provisional Tsarist regime. Some followers for goals. It was only when it seemed lobe government besides Kerenslcy (then example, entered the second Duma (the making headway in reaching its aims Minister of War) were Chernov as Russian Parliament) in 1907. that, for a short period between October Minister of Agriculture and Pereverzev and December 1905, the party as minister of Justice. Savinkov became Assistant Minister of the Army in the Terror suspended terrorist actions. When the Tsarist reforms didn't meet their second coalition government, a The SR resumed the terrorist tactics of expectations. the SR resumed terrorist remarkable carrier for one time terrorist their predecessors such as the activities and boycotted the first Duma who been involved in the assassination "Narodnaia volia" (Will of the People). elections. of Pleve. Savinkov played also a central Their Combat organization assassinated role in the Korniloff affair, which a number of important officials, maybe more that anything else prepared including two particularly reactionary Agent provocateur the way for the Bolsheviks, by ministers of the interior, Sipiagin in Probably the deepest disappointment to alienating both the population of 1902 and Pleve in 1904, and, early in the party was the exposure of Evno. F. Petrograd and the army from 1905, Grand Duke Serge, commanding Azev as an agent provocateur. Azev had provisional government. officer of the military region around been recruited in 1892 as a student in Over one million members Many archival documents of SR are to 1938 the archive arrived from Belgrade. A clear indication of the importance of be found in the Western depositories as In April 1939 the collection was shipped the SR was its membership in 1917. It is well. The most important of them are to England to escape a possible German estimated that over one million people the International Institute of Social attack on the Netherlands. The archive belonged to the Party. At the elections History (llSH) in Amsterdam and at the was returned to Amsterdam in 1946. of the Constituent Assembly in Hoover institutionon War Revolution and Peace in Stanford, USA. November 1917, the SR won 440 out of Structure of the archival collection 700 deputy seats and gained more than The Archival collection consists of two 50% of the popular vote, whereas the The archival collection of the HSH groups of documents: the populist Bolsheviks elected 168 deputies and The Amsterdam archive remains the legacy narodnichestvo (including the polled only 25% of the popular vote. best source for information concerning `Fonds Lavrov'), and the SR archive. Chernov became president of this the party's history. When the SRwas Constituent Assembly. However, in The documents concerning founded, the personal library of Petr L. what can be considered as the second narodnichestvo 1870-1900 comprise Lavrov (1823-1900), the theoretician of and definitive Bolshevik coup, the correspondence (primarily of the narodnichestvo, was given the status Soviet government abandoned the Petr L. Lavrov with Grigorij Z. Eliseev, of party library. Likewise, the 'Fonds Constituent Assembly on 5 January German A. Lopatin, Lev A. Tikhomirov Lavrov' became part of the party 1918. Since no effective opposition and others), manuscripts and memoirs archive. We may assume that the party could be organized against the (of V.K. Debogory-Mokrievich, archivewas located in Paris, certainly Bolsheviks, they ruled alone, albeit in a Petr L. Lavrov, Nikolai K. Sudzhilovsky during the period 1907-1914. From the country tormented by civil war. and others), leaflets, documents of Following their break with the Nestnik Narodnoi Voli' and of the Bolsheviks in March 1918, the Left `Gruppa Staryhh Narodovol'tsev' and Socialist Revolutionaries instigated an others. abortive uprising in Moscow in July. At The SR archive is by far the largest part about the same time and partly as a of the collection. The party archive response to this action, BorisSavinkov before 1917 comprises different incited a rebellion in the centre of categories of material: documents from European Russia, capturing and holding the regional and local committees in for two weeks the town of Yaroslavl on Russia, minutes of partycongresses and the Volga. These efforts collapsed, conferences, correspondence between however. True to their tradition, the SR the Central Committee and the turned to terrorism, assassinating Organization Abroad, documents of several prominent Bolsheviks, including local groups in Western Europe, (mostly the Head of Petrograd Cheka. Earlier, in of the period 1908-1909), proclamations July 1918, a member of the Left SR had and files on agitation, instructions to sparked a diplomatic crisis by killing members of the second Duma 1907, the German ambassador, an act which correspondence by and other documents provoked terrible reprisals. From 1917 of and about party leaders suchas to 1921 the Bolsheviks slowly increased M. Chernov, K. Breshko-Breshkovskaia,