What is the attitude of the hitherto neutral Russian Social-Democrats towards the so-called Organizing Committee? The most famous of the Mensheviks, Plekhanov, who resolutely fought against the destruction of the party by the liquidators, did not appear at the January party

Revolutionary actions since the 19th century have failed due to objective and subjective reasons. In this, no doubt, the tsarist political police also played a role, the main method of which was direct provocation.

Let us recall, for example, the armed uprising of the Decembrists in 1825. The failure of this conspiracy was explained, in particular, by the fact that one of the officers, Rostovtsev, informed Tsar Nicholas I about the upcoming performance. The betrayal of Captain Mayboroda, a member of the Southern Society, also had an effect. Taking advantage of the information received, Nicholas I took the necessary measures, which largely predetermined the course of events on Senate Square18.

The revolutionary movement, which was gaining strength, caused considerable concern among the gendarmerie and police officials. Characteristic in this regard is the report of the chief of gendarmes Seliverstov to Alexander II on August 18, 1878, where he mentions "instigators of public unrest" 19. At this point in the report, the tsar remarked: "Who are they?" In a subsequent report, Seliverstov explained: “Your Majesty, if you please, ask - who are the instigators? I dare to report that their number has multiplied to an imperceptibly significant size and will continue to multiply until the leaders are destroyed. From this it can be seen that the chief of the gendarmes did not have much hope for the destruction of the "sedition". On September 23, 1878, he reported to the tsar: “Unfortunately, revolutionary socialism is taking on an increasing development, it is the most difficult thing to fight against it.”20 And then the pessimistic conclusion followed: “I dare to report that the insignificance of the results of the search so far achieved crushes me and my employees, because, Your Majesty, it is hard in the face of Your Sacred Person and All Russia to be so little useful for the service of the fatherland”21. At the same time, the chief of gendarmes noted that in the European part of Russia there were no longer enough places for political convicts, and he suggested transferring some of the political convicts to Sakhalin Island.

During this period, the forms and methods of work of the secret police still retained all their old features. The investigation was carried out in a simplified way, the main calculation was on the power of fear. The “III Department of His Majesty's Own Chancellery”, created by Nicholas I in 1826 and conducting searches and inquiries about “state crimes”, was a secret trial. Torture and torture were used here, as once in the "Order of Secret Affairs" of Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich. The methods of the III Branch caused angry protest and indignation of contemporaries, as evidenced by leaflets and appeals. So, in 1878, when the judicial authorities were forced to acquit the revolutionary V. I. Zasulich, one of the appeals said: “Let different political parties pursue different goals, but none of them will allow those whose entire policy is exhausted by two gloomy, long-forgotten words - "Word and deed"22. As historians later managed to establish, the author of this appeal was G.V. Plekhanov.

Every year it became more and more felt that the III Division had become an anachronism in the face of the growth of the revolutionary movement. Government circles understood this, and so did the tsar. As a result, in 1880, Section III was replaced by the Department of Police. This, however, did not change the reactionary essence of the autocratic-police regime. As before, in the search work of the police, provocation was actively used, agents were recruited. This was complemented by systematic surveillance of the "suspicious".

Among those who were under police supervision was N. G. Chernyshevsky. During the three-year period of his life in Astrakhan (1884-1887), the local police received 30 secret information about him, five copies of the notes of Nikolai Gavrilovich himself, a letter to him from one exile and a number of other documents

This traditional police technique was built into the system. A quarter of a century later, a special department of the police department, on the basis of many years of surveillance and obtained intelligence data, compiled a detailed certificate of the revolutionary activities of G. V. Plekhanov. It reflected his work in the Emancipation of Labor group, his connection with the Union of Struggle for the Emancipation of the Working Class, participation in the publication of Iskra, in the work of congresses of the RSDLP, and much more.

The system of filership was preserved throughout the history of the tsarist police, right up to the very last days of autocracy. Many years later, a deputy of the IV State Duma, a member of the CPSU since 1903, a participant in three revolutions, F. N. Samoilov, recalled what a cordon of surveillance the police surrounded him with. The "watchful eye" of the Okhrana accompanied Fyodor Nikitich everywhere. Wherever he went, he was invariably accompanied by a pair of "bodyguards" who followed him like a shadow. Even when he was at home, the police guards did not let up. And yet, despite such "attention" from the police, Samoilov, like other Bolshevik deputies, courageously and extremely resourcefully overcame police obstacles, fulfilling his duty to the people.

duty to the people. Emphasizing this, another Duma deputy, M. K. Muranov, a party member since 1904, said during the trial of members of the Duma Social Democratic faction: “Realizing that I was sent by the people to the State Duma not to sit in the Duma chair I went to places to get acquainted with the mood of the working class”24. These trips and direct open and secret meetings with the workers were truly heroic deeds, performed under the threat of hard labor and death. Highly appreciating the illegal work of the Bolshevik deputies in the Duma, V. I. Lenin wrote that their deeds “will long remain a model of the work of the deputies, which we had to diligently hide and the significance of which will now be more and more carefully considered by all conscious workers of Russia” 2.

Surveillance of the revolutionaries was carried out not only within the country, but also abroad. For a long time, Rachkovsky was in charge of Russian political investigation abroad. He managed to entangle the Russian revolutionary emigrants with a web of surveillance and provocation. In 1884, Rachkovsky was sent to work in Paris, and a year later he became the head of the Berlin and Geneva agents *. He establishes contact with the French and Swiss police, receives from them data on searches carried out on political emigrants. Then followed the failures of the revolutionaries and their arrests in Russia.

Rachkovsky's efforts were aimed at destroying revolutionary literary centers, and above all Lenin's Iskra.

The history of Iskra continues to be enriched with new discoveries even today. Thus, the historians of the GDR tracked down those who were directly involved in the publication of Iskra in Probsthaus (near Leipzig). This is the subject of the book "Lenin's Spark", published in Russian and German. It covers in detail the Leipzig period of Iskra. The book emphasizes that the publication of the newspaper was carefully conspiratorial. This made it possible to organize the publication of the first Russian revolutionary newspaper of the Leninist direction. Rachkovsky and the German police tried in vain to locate Iskra. Having lost a lot of time to clarify undercover reports, the police were never able to pay it off. The Iskra's transportation to Russia was also strictly conspiratorial. On these ships, the sailors hid the literature they sent in the holds and delivered it to their destination. The events and facts set forth in the book testify to the tense, risk-filled struggle of the party against tsarism and its police agents25.

After the Leipzig failure, in 1902 Rachkovsky's agents made a new attempt to crush the editorial office of Iskra, which was then in Munich. They continued to cooperate with the German police. By joint efforts, a long surveillance was organized for everyone who could have anything to do with Russian revolutionary emigrants. In the end, Rachkovsky managed to get on the trail, about which he reported to the police department: “At present, I am taking appropriate measures to clarify the current composition of the editorial office and its exact location. I will find a means, acting with certainty, to liquidate this extremely dangerous organization and make it absolutely impossible to continue printing Iskra under the existing conspiratorial conditions, which make it extremely difficult to fight against it.

These calculations did not materialize. The German Social Democrats learned about the impending searches and arrests, and warned the revolutionary A. M. Kalmykova about this. She immediately informed the editors of Iskra about the police intentions. And the Iskra employees themselves have already begun to notice some alarming signs. Therefore, it was decided to urgently transfer Iskra to another place. After the well-known disputes with the “Geneva group” (Plekhanov, Axelrod), the editorial staff of Iskra moved to London in April 190226.

Such serious failures in the subversive work of the police have repeatedly occurred in the past. Russian revolutionaries have long since learned to recognize police agents seeking to infiltrate social democratic circles. So, back in the first half of the 90s, political emigrants in America were able to uncover the police agent Evalenko. Moreover, they used the money he had from the police fund to reprint the first volume of Capital.

Marx. As a result, several hundred copies of this book were secretly resent by the revolutionaries to Russia through appropriate channels.

Meanwhile, the ensuing revolution of 1905, its development threatening the autocracy, caused the mobilization of all the forces of tsarism, including, of course, the political police. We needed old tried and tested police cadres. And the authorities willingly forgot the past sins of many. Rachkovsky, already a vice-director of the police department, established contact with Gapon, tried to recruit the Socialist-Revolutionary Rutenberg into the secret police, and led the arrests of participants in the December armed uprising in Moscow.

Cooperation with foreign police was carried out by security departments from the very beginning of their organization, taking one form or another at different periods. But regardless of the changing situation, in the European border zone, the Russian police maintained constant communication and the closest relations with their foreign colleagues. This is quite convincingly evidenced by the awarding of the Prussian baron Freiger von Schelle, who provided the Russian political police with services in detaining Russian "political criminals". The head of the postal and telegraph office in Shchakovo was also awarded for his special diligence in improving relations between Russian and Austrian postal institutions *.

As for "relations between Russian and Austrian postal institutions", this does not require special comments - border secret control and perusal of postal and telegraph correspondence in addition to the same operations performed at the points of dispatch of correspondence. These "services" were especially valuable for the Russian political police and dangerous for Russian revolutionaries. Therefore, the latter, taking into account the police alliance, developed their tactics and their methods of action in the border zone and achieved significant success, recognized by the police department.

This speaks of the high political vigilance of the Russian revolutionaries. Under the conditions of that time, it was extremely important that not only professional revolutionaries, but also ordinary Social Democrats, possess the ability to recognize the enemy. And the party worked in this direction.

In counteracting the police terror, the Russian revolutionary organizations strengthened themselves in the course of the struggle and acquired the necessary experience. However, the still existing circles, the isolation of some revolutionary groups from others, the lack of ideological unity caused serious harm, making it easier for the Okhrana to penetrate revolutionary organizations.

And yet, despite the police blows, the Social Democratic organizations continued to operate and conduct revolutionary propaganda. So, in one of the seized bundles of underground literature, the police found the works of G. Plekhanov “A New Campaign Against Russian Social Democracy” and F. Engels “The Condition of the Working Class in England”, an appeal to the “All Russian Army” and a significant number of messages from St. plants and factories, which included reports, workers' speeches and other propaganda material *. This fact alone confirms the revolutionary activity of the Social Democrats, their ties with workers' organizations in spite of police persecution.

M. A. Silvin, a member of the St. Petersburg Union of Struggle for the Emancipation of the Working Class, wrote later: circles, propagandists, technicians, custodians and carriers of illegal literature, people of communication and others, Vladimir Ilyich insisted: 1) on grouping the members of the organization into regions, 2) on a strict delineation of functions, party duties of members, 3) on ending philistine visits to each other 4) to reduce to a minimum private correspondence with anyone, since lovers of writing letters, especially to the provinces, could not refrain from various, more or less transparent allusions to good acquaintances, to the development of a business, etc.

Conspiracy questions occupied a large place in our organization, and again Vladimir Ilyich paid special attention to them. He persistently and continuously warned us against philistine habits, against friendly correspondence with allusions in it to our underground activities, to the arrests of comrades, to their outstanding features and personal characteristics, of which many of us were guilty. He taught us the techniques of ciphered correspondence in dots in books. He insisted on the need to cover up traces when visiting workers' apartments, to change horse cars more often when moving around the city, to use walk-through yards, to beware of loud conversations at home because of the possibility of an unreliable neighborhood, and not to leave illegality in front of domestic servants and apartment owners. Surveillance of us became more and more intrusive and insolent, and Vladimir Ilyich also drew our attention to this.

There was no fear of provocation in our circle, we knew each other well, we knew that each of us could be completely confident. But a provocation in the circles that were in contact with us was possible, as was confirmed in the case of the dentist Mikhailov from the circle of I. V. Chernyshev; Mikhailov strenuously sought to become closer to us. But he was already being whispered about in circles as arousing doubts, and Radchenko ... categorically advised each and every one of us to avoid meeting Mikhailov ...

Vladimir Ilyich was aware, however, that the denouement was approaching. In contrast to most of us, who changed our room every six months or even more often, he was rather sedentary and lived almost all the time in Kazachy Lane. Upon his return from abroad, he changed his address two or three times over the course of three months, so that during interrogations the landladies could not establish who went to him, what things were brought and taken away by visitors, etc.

At first, the undertakings of the revolutionaries were of a simple nature. For example, in order to receive money, paid youth evenings with dances were organized. At the same time, they provided an opportunity for a legal meeting of like-minded people. One of these evenings was arranged on January 16, 1898 in the hall of the St. Petersburg City Duma in favor of the students of the Higher Women's Courses, a native of the Nizhny Novgorod province. The St. Petersburg secret police itself characterizes this evening as follows: it “was arranged only under the pretext of charity ... the entire collection, and quite a significant one, was placed at the disposal of the Union of Struggle for the Emancipation of the Working Class for one of its new organizations.” And further: "... this new organization intends to publish the first issue of some new newspaper in a very short time" *. Here is the assessment of the enemies of such a seemingly simple event. But given its practical results for the initial period of the struggle of the revolutionary Social Democracy, it was effective.

At the beginning of 1902, the Kharkov Committee of the RSDLP issued a proclamation "To Society" and an appeal "To Officers", which caused serious concern among the gendarmes and guards. The captain of the separate corps of gendarmes, who was investigating, wrote to the head of the special department of the police department: “... the named proclamations“ To society ”on the night of January 4-5 in sealed envelopes were dropped into the mailboxes located in the front doors and passed through servants and janitors. In the packages addressed to the officers, in addition to the printed proclamation, a hectographed appeal "To the officers" was also enclosed. In this way, these proclamations gained immense distribution among the inhabitants of the city of Kharkov.

True, such a procedure for distributing revolutionary materials was practiced quite rarely, since Social-Democratic leaflets and proclamations were first of all sent to factories, factories, and distributed directly to the workers. But in this case, they were specifically targeted at the intelligentsia and army officers and were distributed in 13 large cities, including St. Petersburg and Moscow.

In the 90s of the last century, the leading role in the political search was played by the Moscow security department, headed by the notorious Zubatov. His Okhrana was then in the position of the operational department of the police department. The activities of the Zubatov youths spread far beyond the center of Russia, penetrated into the territory of the south and north-west of the country, including St. Petersburg. This peculiar position of the Moscow secret police among other punitive organs of tsarism is the result of the police-detective system developed by Zubatov. It boiled down to the training of qualified and strictly covert agents, to new methods of insuring them against exposure, to combining the work of internal and external agents.

Thus, the tsarist secret police, using traditional methods of detective work, strove to gradually master more flexible methods, looking for ways to a new form of police work - broad penetration into the ranks of the labor movement. This clearly reflected the major changes that were taking place in the socio-political life of the country.

By that time, Marxism was coming to the forefront of the political life of Russia, which was quickly gaining ground in the revolutionary movement. The Moscow Okhrana sensed a formidable force in him, and began in advance to introduce their best agents into the Social Democratic organizations.

L. Serebryakova, who began to cooperate with the Okhrana back in the early 80s, was the biggest provocateur at that time. That was the period of counter-reforms of Alexander III, the oppressive political reaction of the Chief Prosecutor of the Synod Pobedonostsev, the period of disappointment and ideological searches that followed after the collapse of the People's Will illusions. It was then that Zubatov and another leader of the wanted list, Menshikov, went over to the service of tsarism; Lev Tikhomirov, a former Narodnaya Volya member and later a monarchist and Black Hundredist, defected to the reaction camp.

In the mid-1990s, Serebryakova was predominantly among the Social Democrats. During these years, the Moscow revolutionaries carried out their work under the constant threat of failure. Not a single Moscow regional organization or group could gain a foothold for more than a few months; half a year - it was already considered a lot. From the materials of the indictment at the trial of Serebryakova in 1925, it turned out that she contributed to the defeat of a number of Marxist circles and groups and numerous arrests of revolutionaries, including such prominent figures of our party as V. V. Borovsky, I. F. Dubrovinsky, A. V. Lunacharsky, P. G. Smidovich and others.

The indictment in the case of Serebryakova, which was heard in the Moscow Provincial Court, read: “... officially engaged in work only in the illegal Red Cross for Helping Political Prisoners and using this work to communicate with various revolutionary bodies, Count Serebryakova for dozens years, enjoying the trust of revolutionary workers, was aware of almost all underground work. And further: “Serebryakova’s apartment was a center of awareness and information about the revolutionary movement, and Serebryakova herself was a source of much that was necessary in underground work: literature was stored and distributed in her place, money flowed to her for political prisoners sitting in prisons, in her business meetings and conferences were arranged in the apartment, through which visiting comrades penetrated the Moscow underground organizations.

Before us is a typical provocation: a secret police officer takes part in underground work. Remaining outside the party, Serebryakova knew a lot about party workers and revolutionary organizations. Characteristically, the peak of its activities falls at a time when the Social Democratic Party had not actually been created yet. But even then, the bitter experience of failures taught the revolutionaries vigilance and strict secrecy, the main method of fighting the tsarist secret police. N. K. Krupskaya recalls that before the Second Party Congress in Moscow and other cities there were parallel Social Democratic committees that did not know about each other: “The conditions of illegal work made the first organizational steps incredibly difficult ... Inside the committees, everyone conspired from each other , and it often happened that one member of the committee carried on negotiations about which the other members had no idea.

Nadezhda Konstantinovna proudly emphasized: “... for a whole ten years Lenin carried on the difficult work of gathering the party, of uniting individual circles of revolutionaries. The matter was especially difficult, because the circles had to hide from the police, the circles were constantly arrested and disintegrated. Everything had to be done secretly, with great precautions. It seemed that the matter was hopeless, but Lenin thought well about the plan of unification ... "

In the meantime, the situation continued to remain extremely difficult. It was complicated by the fact that a certain part of the Social Democrats erroneously distinguished between the struggle against the autocracy and the struggle against the political police, underestimating the latter. The “economists” newspaper Rabochaya Thought lamented that “mercilessly persecuted by the political police, our revolutionary intelligentsia mistook the struggle against this political police for a political struggle against the autocracy”28. Lenin defined this position of the "economists" as "a magnificent disregard for the fight against the police"29. Criticizing Rabochaya Mysl, Vladimir Ilyich emphasizes that the fight against the political police "should be organized 'according to all the rules of art' by people professionally engaged in revolutionary activity."

And there were such professionals. Among them is Nikolai Ernestovich Bauman. His entire short, 32-year-old life was a revolutionary feat. A veterinarian by training, he joined the St. Petersburg Union of Struggle for the Emancipation of the Working Class. Even then, the secret police vigilantly watched him. Soon he ended up in the Peter and Paul Fortress, and then was exiled to the Vyatka province, from where he fled abroad. In forced emigration, Bauman devotes much of his strength and energy to the publication and distribution of revolutionary literature. “From the very beginning in the Iskra organization, being one of the main practical leaders of the case,”2 he has been involved in transporting the newspaper to Russia. Since the end of 1901 - the first illegal agent of "Iskra" in Moscow.

At this time, the secret police allocate their best bloodhounds to spy on him. Once, on the way to Voronezh, they tracked him down, and Bauman was arrested, transported to Kyiv, to the Lukyanovsky prison. Six months later, he organizes an exceptionally courageous escape of 10 prisoners and escapes with them himself, secretly crossing the border. Under the mandate of the Moscow party organization, Nikolai Ernestovich, under the surname Sorokin, participates in the work of the II Party Congress, and in December 1903 returns illegally to Moscow.

Here he assists the Moscow Committee of the Party, organizes the Northern Bureau of the Central Committee and organizes the work of an underground printing house. Since there was no suitable premises for the printing house, Bauman arranges it in his illegal apartment. Revolutionary materials were printed by his wife and the Ivanovo-Voznesensk worker Kudryashev. Soon the Okhrana again attacked the trail of the revolutionary, followed by arrest and imprisonment in the Taganskaya prison.

In the coming 1905, the political struggle in the country reached a great intensity. The revolutionary onslaught on the foundations of the autocracy unfolded more and more widely, the movement of the whole people grew every day. Tsarism used the most cruel repressions against him. Trepov, Governor-General of St. Petersburg, showed particular zeal in this. IN AND. Lenin then wrote: “Trepov is taking revenge. The Cossacks are running amok. The fighting intensifies. The police openly organize Black Hundreds.* At the same time, Bolshevik propaganda was actively developed among the workers. She also entered the army. “Proclamations calling on the army to go over to the side of the people are distributed even to patrols “protecting” St. Petersburg,”2 Vladimir Ilyich noted.

The Moscow Committee of the Party organizes a demonstration of workers to the Taganskaya prison for the release of political prisoners. Bauman, who had just been released from prison on bail, leads the workers' procession. And this day, October 18, 1905, was the last day of his life. When the demonstration went to Nemetskaya Street (now Baumanskaya), Nikolai Ernestovich noticed a crowd of workers in the distance. He tried to involve them in the demonstration. At that moment, an agent of the Okhrana Mikhalchuk attacked him and dealt a mortal blow. It was an open murder in front of hundreds of outraged people. The police feared an outburst of popular anger and went so far as to allow the funeral procession on 20 October. It turned into a 300,000-strong revolutionary demonstration against tsarism. And yet, when the demonstrators were returning from Bauman's funeral, they were opened fire on by the guardsmen of tsarism who had settled in the Manezh.

The villainous murder of Bauman, an outstanding figure of the Bolshevik Party, and his nationwide funeral, which sounded like an alarm, played a significant role in the development of events in 1905. This massacre aroused protest and anger throughout the country and became a call for further, even more decisive struggle.

The Bolshevik Party has always nurtured and prepared highly qualified cadres of professional revolutionaries, theoretically prepared, knowing the technique of conspiracy, able to fight against provocations and surveillance. They could successfully resist the police agents and, moreover, managed to protect important areas of party work from the penetration of provocateurs.

Vivid examples of this can be endlessly drawn from the revolutionary activities of V. I. Lenin, N. K. Krupskaya, E. D. Stasova, Ya. M. Sverdlov, S. A. Ter-Petrosyan (Kamo) and other Bolsheviks.

In the troubled years of 1905-1907, the party faced the acute question of the strictest observance of all the rules of secrecy. Not only the success of the cause, but also the fate of the revolutionaries themselves depended on this. The classic example of the most effective, deeply thought-out and multifaceted party conspiracy in this period was the illegal activities of V. I. Lenin. The coverage of the conspiratorial methods used by Vladimir Ilyich would require a special study. We will confine ourselves here to only a few facts connected with the life and work of the leader during the difficult days of the first Russian revolution. For this, let us turn to V. I. Lenin's "Biographical Chronicle"*.

On December 4 (17), 1905, having discovered the surveillance of the metropolitan police, V. I. Lenin and N. K. Krupskaya left the apartment of P. G. Voronin and on the night of December 5 (18) Vladimir Ilyich was already at the apartment of O. K . Witmer. And between 5 and 10 (18 and 23) December, he moves to the apartment of V. D. Bonch-Bruevich on 2nd Rozhdestvenskaya Street. (now 2nd Soviet). But having learned about the arrest of some members of the Petersburg Soviet and fearing a police raid, Lenin, together with Bonch-Bruevich, leaves for. another apartment. Here Vladimir Ilyich also did not linger. On the recommendation of L. B. Krasin, he spends several nights in the apartment of a member of the Combat Organization of the Bolshevik PC I. I. Pavlov. Then he repeatedly spends the night with V. V. Vorovsky on Karavannaya Street, 28/66.

In mid-January 1906, due to increased surveillance by Okhrana agents, Lenin left another apartment on Nadezhdinskaya Street. To confuse them, he changes three cabs on the way and stops at P. P. Rumyantsev’s, and spends the night in O. K. Witmer’s apartment and other places.

In January-February, Lenin repeatedly came to spend the night at the apartment of N. M. Knipovich. Once he noticed that he was being followed and immediately, without entering the apartment (in the house No. 5 on Panteleymonovskaya Street), he left for Finland, in Kuokkala (now Repino).

Under these difficult conditions, Lenin actively carried on revolutionary work. In the first half of March, he arrives in Moscow and participates in a meeting of the Moscow District Committee of the RSDLP at a safe house in Kudrinsky per. (now Uprising Square), 3; discussed the issue of the election campaign for elections to the State Duma. A little later, Vladimir Ilyich goes to another secret apartment (B. Devyatinsky per.) and participates in a meeting of the Moscow Combat Organization and the Moscow military-technical bureau, where the results of the first year of the revolution and armed struggle were summed up. One day, he comes to the building at 3/1 Teatralny Proezd, to the premises of the Museum for the Promotion of Labor (now 4 Marx Avenue), to participate in the continuation of the meeting of the Moscow party organization's activists. But the meeting did not take place: the police appeared in the building. Lenin manages to avoid arrest. Then he leaves for St. Petersburg and, under the name of Dr. Weber, lives for some time in Helsingfors with Finnish students. And in May 1906, under the name of Karpova, he spoke at a rally of three thousand people in the Panina People's House, dedicated to the activities of the State Duma. The meeting adopted a resolution proposed by Lenin. The following month, under the same surname, he spoke in the hall of the Tenishevsky school with a report and a concluding speech on the agrarian question.

In the summer of that year, Lenin often worked at the apartment of K. F. Neslukhovsky, an inspector and teacher at the cadet infantry school. The apartment was located within the walls of the school (Malaya Grebetskaya, 9/5), so it was reliable in a conspiratorial respect.

And for all this time - not a single case of failure. This clearly showed the "handwriting" of Lenin - an experienced conspirator, a brave revolutionary.

The police terror then fell upon the working class and the Bolshevik party with particular force. Numerous documents testify to the efforts of the Okhrana to track down and arrest Lenin. Hiding from the police, from the end of the summer of 1906 to November 1907, Vladimir Ilyich lived illegally in Finland, in Kuokkala.

However, even here it was unsettled. In June (July) 1907, the Police Department issues and distributes a circular with a list of persons to be searched for and arrested. In this list, under No. 2611, “Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov (pseudonym Lenin)” appears. Order: “Arrest, search, transfer to the disposal of the judge barely” the dowager 27 account. St. Petersburg". In turn, the judicial investigator of this section sends an order to the Vyborg governor to take measures to ensure that a search for Lenin is immediately undertaken in Vyborg and throughout the province.

Taking into account the situation, the Bolshevik center decides to move V. I. Lenin abroad to organize the publication of the central organ of the party there - the newspaper "Proletary".

Pursued by agents of the tsarist secret police, Vladimir Ilyich leaves on December 8 (21) for Helsingfors, from there by train to Abo (Turka). From Abo it is transported to Stockholm. In order to avoid arrest, he makes part of this journey on foot. It was an extremely difficult and dangerous journey - on a sleigh on the ice of the Gulf of Bothnia, and then on foot on the snow-covered ice. During the transition from the island of Lille-Melo to the island of Nago, the ice began to fall through ... But there was no other way, since the land Finnish-Swedish border was blocked by the gendarmerie and the police.

Only an unbending will and an irresistible desire to achieve the goal allowed Lenin to endure all the hardships of illegal life in Russia, to evade police persecution.

N. K. Krupskaya, in 1895-1896. a member of the St. Petersburg Union of Struggle for the Emancipation of the Working Class, later recalled how V. I. Lenin paid attention to conspiracy in this organization. “Of our entire group,” she wrote, “Vladimir Ilyich was best versed in conspiracy: he knew the passageways, knew how to swindle spies superbly, taught us how to write in chemistry in books, how to write with dots, put conventional signs, came up with all sorts of nicknames. In general, he felt a good Narodnaya Volya training. It was not for nothing that he spoke with such respect of the old Narodnaya Volya Mikhailov, who received the nickname Dvornik for his secret restraint.

From the members of our St. Petersburg group, Ilyich also demanded the abandonment of the usual pastime of the intelligentsia in those days: visiting each other, non-business conversations, “chattering”, as we used to say then. Here Ilyich had certain revolutionary traditions. I remember how Lidia Mikhailovna Knipovich, an old Narodnaya Volya, once scolded me for going to the theater with a man with whom I worked together in a circle. And Ilyich scolded our young audience for visiting each other. Zinaida Pavlovna Krzhizhanovskaya recalls: she went with her friend Yakubova to Ilyich, who lives nearby, went in without any business, did not find her at home. And in the evening, at twelve o'clock already, someone calls them. It turns out that Ilyich came - he had just arrived from behind the Nevsky Zastava, tired, with a kind of sick look. He began to ask anxiously what had happened, why they had come, and when he heard that there was no business, that they had simply come in, he grumbled angrily: “Not particularly clever,” and left. Zinaida Pavlovna tells how they were taken aback.

In 1901, Krupskaya emigrated abroad and worked as a newspaper editorial secretary. "Iskra", "Forward", "Proletary". She participated in the work of almost all party congresses. The very position of Nadezhda Konstantinovna - the person closest to Lenin - put her at the center of the attention of the secret police. During the work of the party school in Longjumeau, police agents had special assignments to keep an eye on Krupskaya, who organized secret correspondence among school students. The school at Longjumeau was an exceptionally important undertaking of the party, which had far-reaching political consequences. And then the police department suffered a complete fiasco. The provocateurs never managed to reveal the real plans connected with the graduates of the school in Longjumeau. The displayed political vigilance was a model for the entire party.

The secret party activity of E. D. Stasova, an agent of Iskra, an employee of the party center, was multifaceted. She was in charge of illegal correspondence, all the secret techniques of the Petersburg Committee. Considering her experience, in August 1905 the Party sent her to Geneva as a representative for technical affairs. In 1910, Elena Dmitrievna was recruited to work in the Central Committee, again on matters of technology, and later on, in preparation for the Prague Conference, which was also closely connected with questions of secrecy. E. D. Stasova was one of the most qualified and experienced workers in this particularly complex and responsible area. Her duties included not only the functions of the secretary of the Central Committee, but also ciphers, conducting passport files on the illegal movement of comrades across the border - all that was the content of party technology. Concerning passport matters, Lenin in one of his letters specifically refers to Elena Dmitrievna*.

The Special Branch of the Police Department made numerous attempts to uncover her activities, but to no avail. High vigilance, a clear order in work, and the very working environment created by Stasova (Absolute, Varvara Ivanovna, Delta), excluded the possibility of a breakthrough in conspiracy.

During the arrests, as well as during gendarmerie interrogations, Elena Dmitrievna showed unbending restraint, categorically refused to answer the question about her "guilt" and resolutely rejected the investigator's demands for additional explanations. She was greatly helped by Lenin's recommendations, set out in a letter to her on January 19, 1905.2 This letter became a directive for all members of the party.

Ya. M. Sverdlov, a member of the CPSU since 1901, was a brilliant organizer, propagandist, one of the leading figures in our party and state. Before the revolution, he spent about 12 years in prison, and was arrested 14 times.

Arrests, investigative interrogations, which required enormous effort, and imprisonment itself, day after day, year after year, undermined the health of the revolutionary.

Many years of "relationships" with the police developed in Sverdlov the qualities of a subtle conspirator, an excellent connoisseur of the psychology of the class enemy. These qualities proved invaluable at all stages of his revolutionary activity. He quickly and accurately recognized provocateurs and guards. It is no coincidence that V. I. Lenin said that Yakov Mikhailovich is “the most chiselled type of professional revolutionary”

In May 1913, Sverdlov was exiled to the Turukhansk region. He spent about a month in a Krasnoyarsk prison, then was taken to the village of Monastyrskoye, and from there to a remote, remote corner of Kureika, north of the Arctic Circle. And even here, Yakov Mikhailovich was under the constant attention of the police, who feared his escape. The director of the police department, the vice-director and other gendarmerie and police officials repeatedly warned the local authorities about special vigilance in relation to the sick, but dangerous prisoner.

And after the victory of the February Revolution, the bourgeois Provisional Government, inciting its detective agents against the leaders of the Bolsheviks, kept Sverdlov at gunpoint, especially in the July days, during the work of the Sixth Party Congress. At this time, as is known, all the forces of the restored Okhrana, military units and special officer detachments that remained under the control of the government were thrown to crack down on the Bolsheviks. They were looking for V. M. Lenin, members of the Central Committee. Using his rich experience as a conspirator, Yakov Mikhailovich, being at the head of the secretariat of the Central Committee, helped Vladimir Ilyich securely hide in the underground, and he himself organized the work of the apparatus of the Central Committee in such a way that government bloodhounds could not fulfill the tasks given to them.

Among the brave Bolsheviks who showed particular ingenuity in the fight against the tsarist secret police was Kamo (Ter-Petrosyan), a member of the party since 1901. revolutionary struggle, the destruction of provocateurs, desperate escapes from prisons - all this is the real content of the life of a fearless revolutionary.

The Bolshevik-Leninist Kamo was characterized by high emotionality and unshakable endurance, firmness of spirit. In the fight against the police, he with equal success became a Tiflis kinto and a Georgian prince, a laborer and a brilliant officer, a Turkish merchant Shevki-bek and a militant bomber, "mentally ill." Kamo is talented in many ways and therefore, with inimitable courage, he acted in front of the police, successfully avoiding failures. M. Gorky rightly called him the artist of the revolution.

The exploits of Kamo became a legend. In 1904, police colonel Tyapkin telegraphed to the head of the special department of the police department, Vasiliev, “Political prisoner Simon Arshakov Ter-Petrosyan boldly escaped from the Batumi prison ... I have the honor to request an all-imperial search” *. The authorities attached special importance to Kamo's escape, considering it extremely dangerous in the current situation.

June 13, 1907 Kamo and his comrades make a daring raid on one of the royal banks. As a result of the operation, a substantial amount of 250 thousand rubles was received for party purposes.

Once, when purchasing weapons in Germany for Caucasian party organizations, a provocateur betrayed him to the German authorities. Kamo was imprisoned in the Moabite prison. Both in prison and at trial, Kamo passed under the surname Mirsky. But there was a danger that he would be identified and handed over to the tsarist authorities, and then - inevitable death. In such a situation, Kamo chooses the most sure and at the same time extremely difficult way of self-defense - feigning violent insanity. As punishment, he is thrown naked into solitary confinement with sub-zero temperatures. He endures this torture.

By categorically rejecting the charge of possession of explosives brought against him, Kamo plays the role of a madman so accurately and "skillfully" that the German medical experts were forced to conclude that it was necessary to postpone the trial scheduled for early 1908.

Later, in a letter to a friend, Kamo wrote: “There is such a Russian word - rage. You know? I did not understand what it means - rage? But then, in front of the doctors, I was furious - I think so now. Rage is a very good word! I like it terribly. Angry, rage! Is it true that there was such a Russian god - Yarilo ?! ".

In order to finally verify the reliability of the disease, German psychiatrists applied the inquisitorial method to him: they burned the thigh with a red-hot iron, and the nauseating smoke of the burnt meat filled the ward. But Kamo remained silent. This behavior of the defendant was absolutely unbelievable for the prison doctors, and they made the judicial authorities aware of the undoubted illness of the prisoner.

However, this did not save Kamo. Nevertheless, he was extradited to the Russian authorities and sent to Tiflis. A military court was to be held here with the only possible sentence - death.

But the whole story of Kamo was so unusual, and the threat to his life so real, that loud voices of protest began to be heard in Europe. The League for the Defense of Human Rights in Paris sent, for example, a special appeal to the chairman of the State Duma, Guchkov. Under these conditions, the tsarist military court was forced to admit that the defendant had signs of insanity. The court case was suspended, the defendant was transferred to the prison hospital.

And soon new suffering and torment. Morbidity checks followed again. Kamo's letter to his aunt E. A. Bakhchieva sounds sad and touching: “The prosecutor ordered: “Start”. A large needle was stuck in the back under the shoulder blade and an electric current was applied. The pain was unbearable, the whole back burned, the strong smell of scorched meat made him sick. The prosecutor did not believe the doctors, he did the experiments himself, and I looked into his eyes with a meaningless look and laughed with an idiotic laugh. The prosecutor spat, scolded and left”30.

Kamo's fate was sealed. Tsarism did not let go of its victims.

However, Kamo and the judicial defense sought to drag out the court case as much as possible, since an amnesty was expected in connection with the 300th anniversary of the Romanov dynasty. The amnesty took place: the death penalty was replaced by 20 years of hard labor. Then the incredible happens. Imprisoned Kamo, with the help of the Tiflis party organization, makes a desperate escape and hides for some time in the house ... of the Tiflis police chief.

And the whole subsequent life of Kamo is a high example of the heroic service of the revolution. Four times he was sentenced to death, endured all the trials, but did not bow his head before the enemy. V. I. Lenin wrote about Kamo: “I know one comrade thoroughly, as a man of absolutely exceptional devotion, courage and energy ...” 1

The Bolshevik Party was tempered in a constant battle with tsarism, put forward new and new heroes.

Meanwhile, the criminal work of the provocateurs wrested many brave fighters from the ranks of the party, "bringing them to penal servitude and hastening the death of many of them"2. These Leninist words should be considered. Hard labor and death are the result of a provocation. And it is difficult to say which of these punishments was easier. After all, tsarism created conditions in hard labor that led to inevitable death.

This, in particular, is evidenced by the book published in Paris in 1912 "Through the "wheel" to freedom" by the former convict A. Wessel-Vinogradov. Its content was later set forth in the journal "Katorga and exile"3. The author describes the life and work of revolutionary convicts on the construction of the Amur wheel road between Khabarovsk and Blagoveshchensk, the so-called "wheel". She was talked about in all prisons of Russia - from Butyrki to the Alexander Central, and these stories, the author notes, are truthful and accurate, like a protocol. On the "wheel" there were no norms, no law, no rules, but there was arbitrariness. Beatings, shackles, a punishment cell were the constant lot of convict builders. In the harsh Trans-Baikal climate, they lived in leaky and dirty tents and slept on the ground. .The wind and rain freely penetrated the lalatki. In torn, worn shirts, many barefoot, convicts dug ditches, carried sand, logs, stone. Such work, which took place in a cloud of midges, in knee-deep water, could not stand even the strongest.

And late in the evening, after work, insanely tired convicts were lined up in front of a wooden cross and, as if in mockery, they were forced to sing “Save, Lord” and “To the Blessed Emperor”.

To prevent escapes and riots, the guards introduced a sophisticated control system. All working convicts were divided into "dozens" - one political for nine criminals, with mutual responsibility in case of escape and subsequent severe punishment. Therefore, nine people closely watched the tenth. For an attempt to escape, the remaining nine were given a severe flogging - 40 strokes each. And those caught after an unsuccessful escape were driven through the ranks and beaten to death.

Escapes were made relatively rarely, it was the daredevils who still retained their vitality, or those sentenced to eternal hard labor and completely devoid of hopes of liberation. In addition, the conditions for escape were extremely difficult: the nearest residential areas were 100-120 versts away. And yet, the history of tsarist hard labor knows many examples of heroic escapes even from such places as the "wheel".

Yes, the “wheel” was truly a road soaked in blood. Until 1905, criminal convicts were driven along it, and then political ones.

The composition of the "population" of prisons and penal servitude usually reflected the social way of life outside their walls and watchtowers, testified to the intensifying class struggle. Surveys carried out at that time show that the largest number of political prisoners were Social Democrats. This confirmed that the main blow of tsarism was directed precisely against them - the most dangerous enemy of the autocracy.

Noteworthy are some statistical data that do not claim to be complete and accurate, but on the whole correctly represent the "population", say, of the Moscow central transit prison - "Butyrok". The value of this information lies in the fact that it was collected here by direct questioning of temporary residents, subsequently sent to various places of detention. The author of these materials - Yadov - analyzed the composition of political prisoners for 1907-1909. and published the data after the revolution.' During the indicated period, 6705 convict exiles, administrative exiles and persons under investigation visited Butyrki.

It is characteristic that the penal servitude of these years was mainly "working", in contrast to the "intelligent" penal servitude of 1880-1890. Of the registered convicts, there were 374 workers, 143 peasants, 115 soldiers and sailors, and 101 persons of intelligent professions. These figures completely refute the assertions of bourgeois falsifiers that the revolution of 1905 was supposedly "made by intellectuals."

It is also noteworthy that half of all convicts at that time were convicted for participation in an armed uprising and agrarian unrest.

All these figures and facts, far from complete, vividly characterize the rampant tsarist reaction, thereby confirming Lenin's words that the Russian autocratic laws were generous with hard labor 2.

The revolutionary movement in Russia grew in breadth and depth. From small revolutionary groups and circles to the creation of an ideologically united party of the working class, from individual attacks on the foundations of tsarism to systematic political and armed struggle - this is the path traversed by the Russian revolutionaries in the period under review. Under the constant blows of tsarism, the party steadily waged a struggle against the autocracy and its terrorist police apparatus, under incredibly difficult conditions, retained its organizations, centers and became the leading force of the working masses of Russia.

SOCIAL PORTRAIT OF A RUSSIAN REVOLUTIONARY.

Victory will be born only in a vigorous and hot impulse, in passionate love for one's native country, courage and energy. unknown depths and brings them to sunny clarity.

M.V. Lomonosov.

The first Russian revolutionaries were nobles - the first in Russia to raise an armed uprising in 1825 against the tsarist autocracy. Over seventy future Decembrists studied at educational institutions in St. In 1814, soon after the return of the guards from foreign campaigns to St. Petersburg, early pre-Decembrist organizations arose: artels of officers of the General Staff (Holy Artel). On February 9, 1816, at meetings in the officer barracks of the Semenovsky regiment, the first secret society, the Union of Salvation, was created Since the second half of 1818, the Duma and a number of administrations of the Union of Welfare have been operating in St. Petersburg. At one of the meetings of the administration, it was decided that it was necessary to fight for the establishment of a republic in Russia. life guards of the Semenovsky regiment, led to the self-dissolution of the organization zation. In 1821, the Northern Society was founded, which was headed by staunch supporters of decisive action (K.F. Ryleev, E.P. Obolensky, A.A. Bestuzhev). The joint performance of the Northern and Southern Societies was planned for 1826, but the dynastic crisis that arose after the death of Emperor Alexander 1 prompted the Decembrists to speak ahead of time. The Decembrists intended to prevent the Senate from taking the oath to the new sovereign by force of arms and force him to announce the overthrow of the autocracy and the convening of the Constituent Assembly.

After the defeat of the uprising, 579 people were involved in the investigation and trial, of which 79% were military men. On July 13, 1826, K.F. Ryleev, P.G. Ryumin, P.I. Pestel. On the same day, a rite of civil execution was performed on 97 Decembrists sentenced to hard labor and exile (this rite was performed on 15 naval officers in Kronstadt).

Under the influence of the Revolution of 1848 in France, revolutionary sentiments ripened among the progressive youth, circles of like-minded people formed, at which the problems of the peasant revolution in Russia were discussed. One of these groups was the Petrashevsky group, which also consisted mainly of noblemen who were arrested and tried at the end of 1849.

The Decembrists were replaced in 1859-61 by a movement with the idea of ​​peasant democracy and utopian socialism. The revolutionary democrats considered the peasantry to be the only revolutionary force, they believed that Russia, after the abolition of serfdom through a revolution, bypassing capitalism, would come through the peasant community to socialism. These ideas penetrated into different strata of society and their carriers were the Kolokol newspaper and the Sovremennik magazine.

"The Bell" is a newspaper published from 1857-1867 by A.I. Herzen and N.L. Ogaryov (nobles) in London, then in Geneva, coming out 1-2 times a month. She opposed the autocracy, condemned the anti-people character of the "peasant reform" of 1861.

The Sovremennik magazine was founded by Pushkin A.S. in 1836 and was published until 1866. The history of this magazine is a vivid example of the transition of revolutionary ideas from the nobility to raznochintsy, people from different classes. So in 1838-46 the editors of the magazine included: P.A. A.A. Kraevsky, V.F. Odoevsky, P.A. Pletnev (nobles), 1847-66 N.A. Nekrasov, I, I, Panaev (nobles), the leading critic was V. G. Belinsky (son county doctor). The staff of the magazine were N.G. 1861). In 1862, the publication of Sovremennik was suspended for 8 months, and its ideological leader Chernyshevsky N.G. arrested. In 1863, it was resumed under the actual leadership of Nekrasov, Saltykov-Shchedrin. In the situation of censorship intensified after the defeat of the Polish uprising (1863-64), the circulation of Sovremennik was reduced to 4.2 thousand copies. In June 1866, after the assassination of D.V. .Karakozov on Emperor Alexander 2, the magazine was closed. However, the ideas that the magazine promoted formed a new movement - populism (1861-1895).

The founders of populism were Herzen A.I. and N.G. Chernyshevsky. The populists were supporters of the overthrow of the autocracy through a peasant revolution and the establishment of socialism, the basis of which they saw in the peasant community. They considered the peasants and the intelligentsia to be the main revolutionary force, did not believe in the possibility of developing capitalism in Russia, and consequently, the working class. They considered capitalism to be a decline and regression. By the end of the 60s and the beginning of the 70s, the ideas of Bakunin M.A.-, Lavrov P.L. were most widespread among the populists. - from the families of a landowner, Tkachev P.N. - from the family of a small landed nobleman. In 1875, the "All-Russian Social Revolutionary Organization" arose in Moscow, whose members tried to establish revolutionary propaganda among the workers of Moscow and some other cities; sued in the "process of 50". This organization included: Gots M.R. (from a wealthy merchant family), Alekseev P.A. (from a worker's family). In 1876, a new populist organization was created, which received the name "Land and Freedom" in 1878. Its main figures were mainly from the nobility (Plekhanov G. V., Mikhailov A.D., Kravchinsky S.M., Figner V.N., Perovskaya S.L., Zasulich V.I.), it also included the tradesmen - Natanson M.A., Aptekman O. V., Rysakov N.I., and the peasants - Zhelyabov A.I., Mikhailov T.M., from the family of the clergyman Kibalchich N.I. ", the reason for the collapse was due to disagreements on issues of political struggle and individual terror. In the 80s, he took the direction of the liberal populists - Krivenko N.I. (worker), Yuzhakov S.N. (nobleman). They embarked on the path of fitting in with the tsarist government.

In 1901, as a result of the unification of populist circles and groups, a petty-bourgeois party of socialists, revolutionary socialists, arose. The main means of combating the autocracy put forward-terror. The Socialist-Revolutionaries were ideological opponents of Marxism. The party included: Kerensky A.F. - the son of a parish priest, nobles - Avksentiev N.D., Chernov V.M., Figner V.N., Spiridonova M.A., Kakhovskaya I.K. ., Oganovsky N.P. -born in the family of a General Staff officer. Muravyov M.A., Mayorov I.A. - from a peasant, Natanson M.A. - from the middle class, Gots A.R. - came from a wealthy merchant family.

In 1903, at the second congress of the RSDLP, a split occurred into two currents, the Mensheviks and the Bolsheviks. I2Menshevikia0 opposed the revolutionary program and the Leninist organizational foundations of the party, the alliance of the working class with the peasantry. They considered the socialist revolution in Russia impossible, denied the dictatorship of the proletariat. The leaders of the Mensheviks were from the nobles-G.V. Plekhanov, Potresov, A.N. A., Martynov A.S., Kolontai, from the colonel's family.

Bolshevism is a current of political thought and a political party that arose in 1903 in Russia as a result of the struggle of Russian Marxist revolutionaries, led by Lenin, to create a truly revolutionary party. At the second congress of the RSDLP (1903), the revolutionary Marxists, who received the majority of votes in the elections to the central institutions of the party, were called Bolsheviks. Bolshevism arose on the basis of the theory of Marxism, under imperialism, when the center of the world revolutionary movement moved to Russia. The party included: Nogin V.P., Molotov V.M. - from families of clerks, Nevsky V.I., Lashevich M.M. - from a merchant family, Muranov Ksenofontov I.K. - from peasants, Milyutin V.P. - from a family of a rural teacher, Menzhinsky V.R., Lenin V.I. - nobles, Lunacharsky A.V. - father, real state councilor, Levitsky V.O., Krylenko N.V. - from the families of an employee, Latsis M.I. - from the family of a laborer , Krestinsky N.N. - from the family of a gymnasium teacher, Kirov S.M. - from the family of a forester, Zinoviev G.E. - father of a dairy farm, Dzerzhinsky F.E. - from a small noble family, Gorky (Peshkov A.M. .) -father cabinet maker, mother from the middle class.

The bourgeois reforms of 1860-70, which opened the way for the development of capitalism, but did not completely eliminate the remnants of feudal serfdom, caused socio-economic contradictions that led to the revolution of 1905-1907. During this revolution, political movements and parties were finally formed. of Russian liberalism: Union of October 17 (Octobrists), Party of Legal Order, Commercial and Industrial Party, Party of Constitutional Democrats (Kadets), Party of Democratic Reforms. ", which united the Black Hundreds. The nobility politically rallied into the organization of the United Nobility headed by A.A. Bobrinsky.

"Union of October 17th" - the Octobrists, the political party of the big landowners and the bourgeoisie in Russia; actually formed in November 1905, after the publication of the tsarist manifesto on October 17. The party took shape in the fall of 1906. The Octobrists supported the autocracy on all issues of domestic and foreign policy. In 1917 they were part of the Provisional Government. After the victory of the October Revolution, they actively fought against Soviet power. The party included: Lvov V.N. - a nobleman, Guchkov A.I. - from a merchant family, Rodzianko M.V. - a nobleman, a large landowner.

The Constitutional-Democratic Party of Cadets-Kadets, the main party of the bourgeoisie in Russia. Formed in October 1905. The Cadets sought to preserve tsarism in the form of a constitutional monarchy. They tried to attract the peasantry to their side. The party included: Novgorodtsev P.I. - merchant of the 2nd guild, Nikitin A.M. priest's family, Nabokov - hereditary nobleman, Manuilov A.A. - nobleman, Lvov G.E. - prince, large landowner, Kutler N.N. - from a family of noble landowners, Kornilov A.A. - hereditary nobleman, Golovin F. A.-hereditary nobleman Milyukov P.N.-was born in the family of an art school teacher.

Thus, by the revolutionary events of 1917, the revolutionary movement in Russia was formed into the main parties: Socialist-Revolutionaries, Bolsheviks, Mensheviks, Cadets and Octobrists. The Bolshevik Party turned out to be the most numerous. Its ideas found the greatest response among the people, which helped it win in October 1917. Members of the Octobrist, Cadets, Menshevik parties, who were part of the Provisional Government, were unable during their reign to make fundamental changes in improving people's lives and retain power in October 1917.

The revolutionary ideas that were born in the environment of a wealthy, educated noble society, after the Patriotic War of 1812, were caused by the contrast between patriatism and selflessness of the Russian people and their slavish position in everyday life, complete lack of rights before the landowners. The desire to transform, improve and equalize the living conditions of all strata of Russian society is here the main motive of all revolutionaries. Unfortunately, Russian revolutionaries of all times are characterized by a positive attitude towards terror. Terror Terror was recognized as an effective method of transforming society, although history has proven the opposite, terror

infects terror. Thus, the Decembrists considered it possible to execute the autocrat in the event of their victory, and were executed after the suppression of the uprising. found support in Russian society, the mutual terror of the Civil War ended with the terror of 1937.

For almost a century, the social portrait of the Russian revolutionary has changed from brilliant representatives of the advanced nobility to raznochintsy, workers and peasants. As the education of various strata of Russian society grew, the ideas of democracy, justice, and equality penetrated into them.