P. L. Lavrov's Concept of the Party

Abstract

INTENSIFICATION of revolutionary activity in twentieth-century tsarist Russia expressed itself in the formation of the great parties of the revolution: the Social Democratic and Social Revolutionary parties.1 It had long been recognized that an organized party was needed to lead an aroused people against the governmental power, and many revolutionaries in Russia looked to the parties which had been formed in western Europe during the nineteenth century to provide models for party activity. A number of secret parties were first established in Russia during the days of the Decembrists. It was Lenin who developed the party into a disciplined force for the revolutionary elite, but it was Patr Lavrovich Lavrov (1823-1900) who was the most prolific of the earlier contributors to the theory of the revolutionary party.2 Lavrov informed a generation of the Russian intelligentsia that its objective must be the creation of a united party, disciplined enough to lead the people in a successful revolution.