In connection with the revolutionary events of 1905, about fifty political parties were formed in Russia, both small-town and large, with a network of cells throughout the country. They can be attributed to three areas - the radical revolutionary-democratic, liberal-opposition and monarchist conservative parties of Russia. The latter will mainly be discussed in this article.
Party creation process
Historically, the design of a variety of political parties occurs with precise systematicity. The first to form opposition left parties. During the revolution of 1905, that is, a little later than the signing of the October Manifesto, numerous centrist parties formed, uniting, for the most part, the intelligentsia.
And finally, already in response to the Manifesto, the right appeared - the monarchist and conservative parties of Russia. An interesting fact: all these parties disappeared from the historical stages in the reverse order: the February revolution swept the right, then the October Revolution abolished the centrists. Moreover, most of the left parties merged with the Bolsheviks or self-dissolved in the 20s, when the trial trials of their leaders began.
List and leaders
The conservative party - not one - was destined to survive the year 1917. They were all born at different times, and died almost simultaneously. The conservative party "Russian Assembly" existed longer than all the others, because it was created earlier - in 1900. It will be described in more detail below.
The conservative party "Union of the Russian People" was founded in 1905, the leaders - Dubrovin and since 1912 - Markov. The "Union of Russian People" existed from 1905 to 1911, then until 1917 it was purely formal. V. A. Gringmouth in the same 1905 founded the Russian Monarchist Party, which later became the "Russian Monarchical Union."
The noble aristocrats also had their own conservative party - the "United Nobility", created in 1906. The famous Russian People’s Union named after Mikhail Archangel was led by V. M. Purishkevich. The national-conservative party "All-Russian National Union" disappeared in 1912, it was led by Balashov and Shulgin.
The moderate-right party ceased to exist in 1910. The "All-Russian Dubrovin Union of the Russian People" managed to form only in 1912. Later, the conservative party “Patriotic Union of the Fatherland” was created by the leaders Orlov and Skvortsov in 1915. A. I. Guchkov assembled his “Union on October 17th” in 1906 (those same Octobrists). Here are some of the main conservative parties in Russia in the early 20th century.
"Russian meeting"
St. Petersburg became the birthplace of RS - "Russian Assembly" in November 1900. The poet V.L. Velichko, in a narrow circle, lamented that he was constantly haunted by vague but clearly visionary visions of how some dark forces were capturing Russia. He proposed to create a kind of community of Russian people who are ready to confront future adversity. This is how the PC party began - beautifully and patriotically. Already in January 1901 the RS charter was ready and the leadership was elected. As the historian A.D. Stepanov put it at the first meeting, the Black-Hundred movement was born.
So far, this has not sounded as threatening as, say, after eighteen to twenty years. The charter was approved by Senator Durnovo and sealed with warm words full of bright hope. Initially, the meetings of the RS were similar to the literary and art club of the Slavophile style.
Intelligents, officials, clergy and landowners gathered there. Cultural and educational goals were put at the forefront. However, after the revolution of 1905, thanks to its activities, the RS ceased to be similar to other conservative parties in Russia at the beginning of the 20th century. She became a brightly right-monarchist.
Activities
Initially, RS arranged a discussion of reports and arranged thematic evenings. Meetings took place on Fridays and were dedicated to political and social issues. Literary Mondays were also popular. All “Fridays” were first dealt with by V.V. Komarov, but they became popular and influential in the fall of 1902, when V.L. Velichko headed them.
Since 1901, in addition to Mondays and Fridays, separate meetings have begun (here it is worth noting the activity of the Outskirts department, chaired by Professor A. M. Zolotaryov, later this department became an independent organization of the Russian Outskirts Society). Since 1903, under the direction of N. A. Engelhardt, "literary Tuesdays" became increasingly popular.
Already in 1901, the "Russian Assembly" numbered more than a thousand people, and in 1902 - six hundred more. Political activity was reduced to the fact that, starting in 1904, the tsar was periodically given petitions and loyal addresses, deputations were organized in the palace, and propaganda was carried out in the periodical press.
At various times, deputies were decorated with their presence by the princes Golitsyn and Volkonsky, Count Apraksin, Archpriest Bogolyubov, as well as no less famous people - Engelhardt, Zolotarev, Mordvinov, Leontiev, Puryshev, Bulatov, Nikolsky. The sovereign received the RS delegations with enthusiasm. Conservative political parties, Nicholas II, one might say, loved and trusted them.
RS and revolutionary turmoil
In 1905 and 1906, the Russian Assembly did nothing special, and nothing happened to it, except for the post-revolutionary circular, which was forbidden to be members of the tsarist army in any political communities. Then the liberal and conservative parties lost many of their members, and the founder, A. M. Zolotarev, left the RS.
In February 1906, the RS organized the All-Russian Congress in St. Petersburg. In fact, the Russian Assembly party became only by 1907, when the program of the conservative party was adopted and amendments were made to the charter. Now the RS could elect and be elected to the State Duma and the State Council.
The motto of the program was: "Orthodoxy, Autocracy, Nationality." Not a single monarchist congress "Russian Assembly" has missed. However, an independent political faction was created very soon. The First and Second Duma did not give RS chances, so the party decided not to put forward candidates, on the contrary - to vote for the extreme left (such a trick against the Octobrists and Cadets). The political position at the Third and Fourth Duma clearly did not recommend that its deputies block with the centrists (Octobrists) and even with moderate right-wing nationalist parties.
Splits
Until the end of 1908, passions raged in the monarchist camp, the results of which were splits of many organizations. For example, the conflict between Purishkevich and Dubrovin split the Union of the Russian People, after which the Union of the Archangel Michael appeared. Opinions in the RS are also divided. The party was harassed by quarrels, withdrawals and death, but especially the bureaucratic carrion.
By 1914, the leaders of the RS decided on the absolute depoliticization of the party, seeing in the educational and cultural orientation the right way to resolve conflicts. However, the war deepened all the breaks in relations, since the Markovites were for an immediate conclusion of peace with Germany, and the supporters of Purishkevich - on the contrary, they needed a war to a victorious end. As a result, by the February Revolution, the “Russian Assembly” had outlived itself and turned into a small circle of the Slavophile trend.
NRC
The Union of the Russian People is another organization representing conservative parties. The table shows how passionarity was at the beginning of the twentieth century - all kinds of societies, communities multiplied, like mushrooms in the autumn rain. The NRC Party began to operate in 1905. Its program and activity stood entirely on chauvinistic and even more anti-Semitic ideas of a monarchist sense.
Orthodox radicalism especially distinguished the views of its members. The NRC was actively opposed to any kind of revolution and parliamentarism, advocated for the inseparability and unity of Russia, and advocated the joint actions of the authorities and the people, which would be an advisory body under the sovereign. This organization, of course, was banned immediately after the end of the February Revolution, and recently, in 2005, they tried to recreate it.
Historical background
Russian nationalism has never been alone in the world. The nineteenth century is universally marked by nationalist movements. In Russia, active political activity could only appear during the state crisis, after the defeat in the war with the Japanese and the cascade of revolutions. The tsar only then decided to support the initiative of right-wing public groups.
First, the above-considered elite organization “Russian Assembly” appeared, which had nothing in common with the people, and its activities did not find a sufficient response from the intelligentsia. Naturally, such an organization could not resist the revolution. As, however, other political parties - liberal, conservative. The people no longer needed the right, but the left, revolutionary organizations.
The "Union of Russian People" united in its ranks only the highest nobility, idealized the pre-Petrine era and recognized only the peasantry, merchants and nobility, and did not recognize the cosmopolitan intelligentsia either as a class or as a layer. The government of the SRL criticized the course for international loans he took, believing that in this way the government was ruining the Russian people.
NRC and Terror
The Union of the Russian People was created - the largest of the monarchist unions - on the initiative of several people at the same time: the doctor Dubrovin, the abbot Arseny and the artist Maykov. Alexander Dubrovin, member of the Russian Assembly, became the leader. He turned out to be a good organizer, politically sensitive and energetic person. He easily came into contact with the government and administration and convinced many that only mass patriotism can save the current order, that a society is needed that will carry out both mass actions and individual terror.
The conservative parties of the 20th century begin to engage in terror - it was something new. Nevertheless, the movement received support of all kinds: police, political and financial. The Tsar blessed the NRC with all his heart in the hope that even terror is better than the inaction shown by other conservative parties in Russia.
In December 1905, a mass rally was organized in the Mikhailovsky Manege of the NRC, which brought together about twenty thousand people. Prominent people spoke - famous monarchists, bishops. The people showed unity and enthusiasm. The Union of the Russian People published the newspaper Russian Banner. The king took deputations, listened to reports and received gifts from the leaders of the Union. For example, the decals of the members of the NRC, which the king and the crown prince put on from time to time.
Meanwhile, calls to the NRC for absolutely pogrom anti-Semitic content were circulated to the people in the millions of rubles received from the treasury. This organization grew at a tremendous pace, regional sections were opened in almost all the major cities of the empire, in a few months - more than sixty branches.
Congress, charter, program
In August 1906, the NRC charter was approved. It contained the main ideas of the party, its program of action and the concept of development. This document was rightfully considered the best among all the charters of monarchist societies, because it was short, clear and accurate in wording. Then a congress of leaders from all regions was convened to coordinate activities and its centralization.
The organization became paramilitary due to the new structure. All rank-and-file party members were divided into dozens, dozens were knocked into hundreds, and hundreds into thousands, respectively, subordinate to the dozens, centurions, and thousands. The organization of such a plan well helped the popularity among the people. A particularly active monarchist movement was in Kiev, and a huge part of the NRC members lived in Little Russia.
The deeply revered John of Kronstadsky, the All-Russian priest, as he was called, arrived at the Mikhailovsky Manege for the next celebration on the occasion of the consecration of the banner, as well as the NRC banner. He said a welcoming speech and later himself entered the NRC, and until the very end was an honorary member of this Union.
To prevent revolutions and maintain order, the NRC kept alert, often armed, on alert. The White Guard from Odessa is a particularly famous squad of this kind. The principle of the formation of self-defense is a military Cossack with esauls, chieftains and foremen. At all the factories in Moscow and St. Petersburg there were such squads.
Collapse
By its fourth congress, the NRC was the first among the Russian monarchist parties. It had more than nine hundred branches, and the vast majority of delegates were members of this Union. But then the contradictions among the leaders began. Purishkevich tried to remove Dubrovin from business, and soon he succeeded. He pulled all publishing and organizational work to himself, many leaders of the local branches no longer listened to anyone except Purishkevich. This also affected many of the NRC founders.
And there was a conflict that went so far that the most powerful organization quickly came to naught. Purishkevich in 1908 created his "Union of the Archangel Michael", the Moscow department withdrew from the NRC. The Tsar’s Manifesto on October 17 finally split the NRC, since the attitude to the creation of the Duma was polar different. Then there was a terrorist act with the murder of a prominent State Duma deputy, in which the supporters of Dubrovin and himself were accused.
The St. Petersburg NRC department in 1909 simply removed Dubrovin from power, leaving him an honorary membership in the Union, and very quickly ousted like-minded people from all posts. Until 1912, Dubrovin tried to fight for a place in the sun, but realized that nothing could be returned, and in August he registered the charter of the Dubrovinsky Union, after which the regional branches began to break away from the center. All this did not add credibility to the NRC organization, and it finally fell apart. The conservative parties (right) were sure that the government was afraid of the power of this Union, and Stolypin personally played a huge role in its collapse.
