Main Political and Ideological Views of the SRs: Formation and Character

Abstract

The article examines the key components of the political doctrine of the Socialist-Revolutionary Party, which represented the populist trend in Russian socialism in the late 19th - first quarter of the 20th centuries. The diversity of ideological and philosophical directions in the ranks of the Socialist-Revolutionary Party is shown, which ensured internal democracy, but hampered the process of consolidation and centralization of the party. The stage of formation of party programmatic, long and sharply debatable, is characterized. The features of the nature of the programmatic views of the Socialist-Revolutionary Party on the main socially significant points, including state-legal and agrarian ones, are revealed. The classical populist attitude of the Socialist-Revolutionaries to the issue of the social structure and stratification of Russia is noted — with the recognition as a progressive class of the entire “working people”, including workers, the working peasantry and the working (socialist-minded) intelligentsia. The Socialist-Revolutionary Party was assessed as an organization that adhered to the principles of democracy and pluralism in its political practice.