Waiting for the people's revolution [Martov and Chernov in revolutionary Russia, 1917-1923*

Abstract

Jane Burbank, Waiting for the people's revolution: Martov and Chernov in revolutionary Russia, 1917-1923. In the chaotic and decisive years after the October Revolution, Iu. O. Martov and V. Chernov, leaders of the Menshevik and Socialist Revolutionary parties, were unwilling to give their full support either to the Bolsheviks or to popular rebellions against the new government. This article explains their cautious and ultimately self-destructive positions as a consequence of the contradictions between their theories of revolution and their observations of mass behavior after 1917. In particular, the revolutionary years shook the confidence of the democratic left in the national values of workers and peasants. Fearful of rebellions against the fragile state, yet repulsed by the authoritarian tactics of the Bolsheviks, Martov and Chernov could find no militant position consistent with their ideological commitments and retreated to their traditional, non-violent stance of moral criticism.