The Darkest hour of the Russian Empire 2
Chapter Zero: Introduction
Part II: Political life of the Empire
New political regime was a shock for the Russian citizens, and, actually, for the whole Europe. Political intrigues became a part of everyday life. Russian Empire had 8 political parties in the Parliament. All these factions had its own policies and targets. Together with the Emperor members of the Parliament had to do the great work to resurrect Russia after the Great War.
State Duma of the Russian Empire
Octobrists
Ivan Goremykin & Alexander Guchkov
Ideology: Social-Conservative
Political views: Limited democracy, state capitalism, strong foreign policy
Supported by: Most of the population, mainly by the army
Leader: Ivan Goremykin (current prime minister) / Alexander Guchkov (chairman)
Targets: To continue official course of the Empire without any changes
Official name of this party is "Union of the 7th of October" - named after the day of first Russian constitutional manifesto (in 1905). This party is strongly centrist, in Russian press they often called "liberal monarchists" - and that's right, Octobrists don't want to change anything at the moment - elected Parliament and Prime minister together with enough powerful Emperor is the best variant of regime for them. This party was founded in 1905 by Guchkov, and during the Great War it was ruling. At the moment Octobrists are the strongest faction of the Duma (together with Conservative Monarchist they have about 60% of seats).
Kadets (Constitutional Democrats)
Pavel Milyukov
Ideology: Market Liberal
Political views: Full democracy, freedom of press, more power to Parliament, laissez-fair capitalism
Supported by: University officials, students, liberals, some capitalists
Leader: Pavel Milyukov
Targets: To make the Russian Empire more liberal with continuation of "50-50" policy
Kadets (KD or Constitutional Democrats) are considered to be the strongest opposition party, and the last elections proved that - Milyukov's party got 116 seats in Duma (2nd result). They popularity is obvious - Kadets, officially founded in 1905, always had a strong support of liberal-thinking society and "westerners" (so-called "zapadniki"). Nowadays Constitutional Democrats want to make the economy completely free, get rid of press censorship and official state religion, make the Parliament more powerful and so one - classical liberal list. But Kadets are not so simple - they agree with Octobrists in two points - militarism and imperial foreign policy. Constitutional Democrats are not pacifists like their "colleagues" from Liberal-Democratic party, and they aren't so focused on social needs, so they are often criticized to be "capitalist party".
Conservative Monarchists
Professor Andrey Vyazigin
Ideology: Paternal Autocrats
Political views: Limited autocracy, state capitalism, state religion, focus on internal security
Supported by: Conservatives, army, peasants, clergy
Leader: Andrey Vyazigin
Targets: To give more power to the Tsar, restore the economy with direct control of capitalists, support Russian Army and Orthodox Church
KM, or Conservative Monarchists, is a right-oriented monarchist party, which is now in a coalition with the Octobrists. By the way, leader of the party, Vyazigin (professor of the St. Petersburg Imperial University) doesn't like Octobrists and their policy. He says that Octobrists are not cold and not hot - they try to mix democracy with tsarism, which is impossible in his opinion. So, the coalition with them is not a warm and peaceful one. KM party thinks that Parliamentary system of 1905-1914 (state-controlled elections, not-elected Prime ministers, not-elected Senate) was better than the current one, but they agree with the Constitution and don't want to return autocratic times. Also, they are supported by the Orthodox Church and have strong position amongst the army authorities. So, they are traditional monarchists and don't have any radical political views (like chauvinistic SRN, for example).
Liberal-Democratic Party
Nikolay Timashev
Ideology: Social Liberal
Political views: Human rights, social policy, freedom of press and religion, free society
Supported by: Ultra-liberals, nationalist factions (Galizia, Finland, Poland)
Leader: Nikolay Timashev
Targets: A lot more power to the Parliament, make the ministers appointed by the Parliament, freedom as an absolute value, free economy, social guarantees and free trade-unions
This party is probably the most radical from the liberal right parties. Their target is a "crowned republic" like UK and Sweden, when the monarch doesn't have any real power. While their political program is similar to KD's, their social and economical policy is completely different. Liberal-Democratic Party is against the current political situation, its leader, young and ambitious Timashev, diagrees with "50-50", he wants "80-20" policy for the Parliament. He wants to make all key people of the state elected - governors, ministers, senators and so on. This party is supported also by regional national movements in some non-Russian provinces like Tsardom of Poland or Grand Duchy of Finland, because of the party's points is autonomy to all Imperial States. At the moment this party is in the shadow of stronger KD, but they have a great potential for the next elections.
Social-Democratic Party
Alexander Kerensky
Ideology: Social Democratic
Political views: Human rights, freedom of trade, more rights to workers, more state control of economy
Supported by: Well-paid workers, farmers, craftsmen
Leader: Alexander Kerensky
Targets: More social rights and guarantees, state-defended trade unions, labor laws
Kerensky's party is for "crowned republic" too, and targets of SD are really similar to the targets of LDP, but Social Democrats are left. That means that their main electorate is workers and craftsmen (but only well-paid, because SD don't agitate for nationalization and "class equality"). Earlier that party was known as "Trudoviks" ("Labor party"). Nowadays it's the strongest left-wing faction in the Parliament, but SD has only 3.6% of seats, so their votes don't have any real power. Has bad relations to both liberals (KD, LDP) and socialists (SR, MN). So, this party stands alone for now.
Union of the Russian people
Vladimir Purishkevich
Ideology: Fascism
Political views: Dominant Russian nation, Tsarism autocracy, Orthodox state, Anti-Jew laws
Supported by: Reactionary aristocrats and army officials
Leader: Vladimir Purishkevich
Targets: All power to the Tsar, ban all left and liberal parties (MN, SR, SD, LDP), create Anti-Jew law codex, make Orthodox church the state religion
The most notorious party of Russia - a fascist faction called "Union of the Russian people". Members of this party, led by extremely charismatic anti-Semitic politician Purishkevich, believe that Autrocratic Russia is the only path to glory of the nation. These marginals are not officially supported by the Imperial Government and ruling Octobrist parties, because their ideas are too radical - SRN wants to bring back the times of anti-Semitic pogroms, total press censorship and banned leftist parties. This faction has some popularity mainly because of Purishkevich's talent - leader of SRN is a brilliant speaker. Union of the Russian people has contacts with similar foreign parties - for example, with Italian fascists or German Freikor groups.
Socialist-Revolutionary Party
Viktor Chernov
Ideology: Left-Wing Radical
Political views: Radical socialism, all power to the Parliament, half-nationalization of economy, state-protected trade unions and workers coalitions
Supported by: Low-paid workers, students
Leader: Viktor Chernov
Targets: To make Russia more socialistic, to nationalize the main industrial centers, to make the Emperor's power formal.
SRs has a long history, beginning in the XIX century. Many years Socialist-Revolutionary party was banned, and made a lot of terrible terroristic acts to fight for their rights. But in 1905 after the Imperial Manifesto this party became legal, and its leader Viktor Chernov returned to Russia. During the Great War SRs were for war and victory, not like anti-war Bolsheviks, and that fact made them quite popular amongst workers and soldiers of the Imperial Army. Today, its main task is to take as many seats in the Duma as possible, because the elections gave them only 13 of them. Chernov's plans include something like "socialist empire", of course with just formal Tsar as the Head of State.
Mensheviks
Irakli Tsereteli
Ideology: Socialist
Political views: Socialism, state central-planned economy, rights of all nations, workers and peasants rights, full nationalization
Supported by: Low-paid workers, peasants
Leader: Irakli Tsereteli
Targets: Full nationalization and ban of right parties like SRN and KM, more basis on agriculture and peasants, support of the autonomization of non-Russian regions
Mensheviks are a leftist socialist party, which originally comes from RSDRP party. "Mensheviks" means "minority" (because they protected interests of peasants in RSDRP), while their opponents "Bolsheviks" meant "majority" (their interests were based on the workers). Nowadays, Bolsheviks don't have any support and officially banned, while the Mensheviks with their theory of "peasant socialism" have 5 seats in the State Duma. They focus on socialism, nationalization of the industry and agriculture - but actually they don't have any support from the peasants themselves - peasants usually vote for SO, CM, SRN and SD. Anyway, their current leader, Georgian-born Irakli Tsereteli, is an ambitious and charismatic person, and he has some plans about party program - for example, he wants to become an autonomist left party to gain support from Poland, Georgia or Finland (like LDP). At the moment they have no power in the Duma having less than 1%.
To be continued
Waiting for your comments
Next update: December, 18