5 - The party and the League

Summary

By the end of the 1890s, attempts at the unification of the various Socialist-Revolutionary circles in Russia had resulted in two major groupings: the ‘Union of Socialist-Revolutionaries’ (or ‘Northern Union’), which was founded by Argunov in Saratov in 1896, and in 1897 transferred its headquarters to Moscow; and the ‘Party of Socialist-Revolutionaries’ (or ‘Southern Party’), which was formed at Voronezh in 1897. In the course of 1901, the ‘Northern Union’ and the ‘Southern Party’ combined to form a united ‘Party of Socialist-Revolutionaries’. Other, smaller Socialist-Revolutionary groupings in Russia, such as Gershuni's predominantly Jewish ‘Workers’ party for the political liberation of Russia' and the independent Saratov circles, also adhered to the new party at this period.

The discordant emigration, however, proved less amenable to unification than the Russian organisations. Towards the end of 1901 Gershuni went abroad, fully empowered by the leadership of the united party, whose headquarters were now in Saratov, to enter into negotiations with the émigrés. Some, including Chernov and Mikhail Gots, were highly enthusiastic about the formation of a united party, and Chernov and Gots undertook the publication abroad of Revolyutsionnaya Rossiya, the Union's newspaper, whose secret press in Tomsk had recently been seized by the Tsarist police, Revolyutsionnnaya Rossiya was to become the official organ of the united party. Other émigrés were somewhat more sceptical concerning the stability of the newly-formed party, and some had reservations concerning its programme.