Social Democratic Leaflets of the Period of the Decline of the First Russian Revolution in the Upper Volga Region: January 1906 – June 3, 1907

УДК 94(470.314/317)«1905–1907»

DOI 10.28995/2073-0101-2018-1-219-235

Yuriy Yu. Ierusalimskiy

P. G. Demidov Yaroslavl State University, Yaroslavl, Russian Federation

Social Democratic Leaflets of the Period of the Decline of the First Russian Revolution in the Upper Volga Region: January 1906 – June 3, 1907

Abstract

The article studies leaflets of social democratic organizations in the Upper Volga region during the period of the decline of the first Russian revolution. The chronological framework for the study is January 1906 – June 3, 1907. The territorial framework includes the Tver, Yaroslavl, Kostroma, and Vladimir gubernias. Source base of the study is published and unpublished sources: leaflets of the Upper Volga social democratic organizations. In January 1906 the revolutionary movement in Russia was waning. The leaflets of the Upper Volga extreme left organizations echoed regional socio-political life of 1906 – mid-1907: electoral campaigns for the First and the Second State Duma, parliamentary activities of the Social Democrats in the Second Duma, strikes, peasant demonstrations, Vyborg Manifesto, dissolution of the Second State Duma, etc. The social democratic proclamations sharply criticized autocracy, Black Hundreds, liberal parties (especially Kadets), and other socialist parties, their obvious rivals for influence over the exploited masses (especially the Socialist Revolutionaries). The social democratic leaflet literature split in two factions – Bolshevik and Menshevik. During the period of the decline of the revolution, the Bolsheviks and Mensheviks evaluated the events of 1906-1907 differently. After the dissolution of the First State Duma the Bolshevik organizations pushed for an armed uprising, while the Mensheviks called for a peaceful strike. And yet, in the Upper Volga region the distinction between Bolshevik and Menshevik slogans was less pronounced than the scholarship indicate. The analysis of leaflet literature shows that in mid-July 1906 the ‘left bloc’ was reborn once again after the autumn of 1905. The proclamations of the Upper Volga social democratic organizations insisted that the RSDLP was the only true defender of popular interests. Leaflets of the Upper Volga Social Democrats dating from 1906 to 1907 are an important source for the period of the decline of the first Russian revolution.

Download the article: ierusalimskiy_doi

Keywords

Leaflets, first Russian revolution of 1905–1907, Social Democrats, Upper Volga region.

References

DRUZHININ, P. N. Revolyutsionnoe dvizhenie v Yaroslavskoi gubernii v 1905–1907 gg. [Revolutionary movement in the Yaroslavl province in 1905-1907. In Russ.]. Yaroslavl, 1955.

LEONOV, M.I. Partiya sotsialistov-revolyutsionerov v 1905-1907 gg. [Party of Socialist Revolutionaries in 1905-1907]. Moscow, 1997, 512 p.

TYUTYUKIN, S. V. Iyulskii politicheskii krizis 1906 g. v Rossii. [The July political crisis of 1906 in Russia]. Moscow, Nauka publ., 1991, 232 p.

TYUTYUKIN, S. V., SHELOHAEV, V. V. Marksisty i russkaya revolyutsiya [Marxists and the Russian Revolution]. Moscow, 1996, 240 p;

About author

Ierusalimskiy Yuriy Yr'evich, PhD in History, professor, P.G. Demidov State University, national medieval and modern history department, department head, Kursk, Russian Federation, +7–910–966–10–00, This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Submitted 13.10.2017, published:

IERUSALIMSKII, Yu. Yu. Sotsial-demokraticheskie listovki vo vremya otstupleniya pervoi rossiiskoi revolyutsii v Verkhnem Povolzh'e.Yanvar' 1906 g. – 3 iyunya 1907 g. [Social democratic leaflets of the period of the decline of the first Russian revolution in the Upper Volga region: January 1906 – June 3, 1907. In Russ.]. Vestnik arhivista / Herald of an Archivist, 2018, no. 1, pp. 219-235. doi 10.28995/2073-0101-2018-1-219-235