The Democratic Conference and the Pre-Parliament in Russia, 1917: Class, Nationality, and the Building of a Postimperial Community

Ivan Sablin

doi:10.1017/nps.2021.73

Abstract

AbstractThe article offers a detailed analysis of the debates at the All-Russian Democratic Conference and in the Provisional Council of the Russian Republic (the Pre-Parliament), which followed the proclamation of the republic on September 1, 1917, and predated the Bolshevik-led insurgency on October 25. The two assemblies were supposed to help resolve the multilayered political, economic, and military crises of the First World War and the Revolution by consolidating a Russian postimperial political community and establishing a solid government. The debates demonstrated that grievances and antagonism, which were articulated in terms of class and nationality, made the idea of a broad nationalist coalition unpopular, since it would halt agrarian and other reforms and continue the negligence of non-Russian groups. Furthermore, those who still called for all-Russian national or civic unity split on the issue of community-building. The top-down, homogenizing and bottom-up, composite approaches proved irreconcilable and precluded a compromise between non-socialist and moderate socialist groups. The two assemblies hence failed to ensure a peaceful continuation of the postimperial transformation and did not lead to a broad coalition against right and left radicalism. The divisions, which were articulated in the two assemblies, translated into the main rifts of the Russian Civil War.

Highlights

The First World War and the Russian Revolution brought about major economic and public security crises, which aggravated over the course of 1917
The article offers a detailed analysis of the debates at the All-Russian Democratic Conference and in the Provisional Council of the Russian Republic, which followed the proclamation of the republic on September 1, 1917, and predated the Bolshevik-led insurgency on October 25
While some political groups advocated exclusionary community-building based on class or nationality, many speakers at the Democratic Conference and in the Pre-Parliament continued to articulate their visions of an inclusionary Russian political community

Summary

Introduction

The First World War and the Russian Revolution brought about major economic and public security crises, which aggravated over the course of 1917. The Democratic Conference, which was convened in the aftermath of the Kornilov Affair, was supposed to give the “democracy” (demokratiia), which at the time was used as an umbrella term for socialist parties and groups, revolutionary organizations, and non-propertied classes in general (Kolonitskii 1998),1 a leading role in postimperial state- and community-building.

Results

Conclusion