Combat organization. The meaning of the fighting organization of the Social Revolutionaries in the modern explanatory dictionary, BSE
UDC 930.057.634
M.I. Leonov*
THE PROCESS OF COMBAT ORGANIZATION OF THE SOCIALIST-REVOLUTIONARY PARTY
The article is devoted to the “Process of the Combat Organization of the Socialist Revolutionary Party,” which took place from February 18 to February 25, 1904 and became a noticeable phenomenon public life Russia at the beginning of the 20th century. Its progress was followed with intense attention by the authorities, including members of the imperial family and Nicholas II himself, conservatives, liberals and revolutionaries.
The behavior of the leaders and ordinary members of the Combat Organization of the Socialist Revolutionary Party during the investigation, during the trial and after the sentencing is analyzed. It is shown that a minority of terrorists involved in the process refused to testify during interrogations, the majority, including G.A. The Gershunis, both during the investigation and at trial, denied their involvement in the Combat Organization; all defendants waived closing statements. Almost all those convicted in the trial filed a petition for clemency both immediately after the verdict was announced and while serving their sentence. All this largely did not correspond to the proclaimed code of conduct for a revolutionary at trial.
Keywords: terror, assassination attempt, Combat Organization, court verdict, society, defense, appeal, repentance, glorification.
The trials of the Socialist Revolutionaries-terrorists were a noticeable phenomenon in the social life of Russia at the beginning of the 20th century. They were watched with intense attention by the authorities, including members of the imperial family and Nicholas II himself, conservatives, liberals and revolutionaries. Periodical and non-periodical, domestic and foreign, legal and illegal publications wrote about them without sparing space. Osvobozhdenie and liberals close to them, revolutionaries of all shades, imagined the processes as lists on which noble knights, without fear or reproach, who sacrificed their young lives in the name of the people, declared their wonderful motives and overthrew the base, insignificant servants of the autocracy. The stories of many Russian historians about terrorists are most similar to hagiographies and calendars.
“The case against G.A. Gershuni, M.M. Melnikova, A.I. Weizenfeld, L.A. Remyannikova, E.K. Grigoriev in belonging to the Combat Organization of the Socialist Revolutionary Party, preparing and committing terrorist attacks,” referred to in the literature as the “Process of the Combat Organization of the Socialist Revolutionary Party,” was heard from February 18 to February 25, 1904 in a closed session of the St. Petersburg Military District Court. The accused were charged with creating a secret terrorist organization, preparing and committing attempts on the life of the Minister of Internal Affairs D.S. Sipyagin, governors I.M. Obolensky and N.M. Bogdanovich, preparation of assassination attempts on the head of the security department public safety and order in the city of Moscow S.V. Zubatov and Chief Prosecutor of the Holy Synod K.P. Pobedonostseva. To the process
* © Leonov M.I., 2016
Leonov Mikhail Ivanovich ( [email protected]), department Russian history, Samara University, 443086, Russian Federation, Samara, Moskovskoe highway, 34.
su attracted the leader of the Combat Organization, his assistant, the head of the Ekaterinoslavsky Committee, and a prominent figure in the St. Petersburg Committee. The trial was presided over by Lieutenant General Baron Osten-Sacken in the presence of a military judge, Major General Kalishevsky, and four provisional members. “ by agreement,” that is, at the formal request of the defendants. The process caused a huge public outcry both in Russia and abroad. The meeting room was filled. There were many high-ranking people among those present. All days of the trial there was Grand Duke Andrei Vladimirovich, who at that time was taking a course at the Military Law Academy and was interested in criminal trials. Of the organizers and leaders of the Combat Organization, only P.P. was not involved in the process. Kraft - there was not sufficient non-intelligence evidence against him. Cases T.S. Bartoshkina, D.V., R.V., Kh.V. Rabinovich, K. Moonveze were allocated to special proceedings.
The materials of the inquiry and investigation amounted to seven volumes. The case file included the results of ballistic examinations, assassination weapons and bullets, the heads of which were sawn crosswise, filled with strychnine, covered with a thin layer of wax, filings, which were used to saw the bullet heads and make inscriptions on pistols, manuscripts of proclamations, letters and other handwritten and printed documents, testimony of numerous witnesses, primarily E.K. Grigorieva, Yu.F. Yurkovskaya-Grigorieva, F.K. Kachur, T.S. Bartoshkina.
The sincere testimony of F.K. made a huge impression. Cachurs. He spoke about the harm that revolutionaries cause through their actions, and did not try to shield himself and blame others. It was a calm story of a man who had finally broken with the revolutionary and terrorist past. According to G.A. Gershuni and the editors of Revolutionary Russia, who at one time created the image of a “hero-worker”: “Kachur’s testimony was no less a strong blow for our sentenced comrades than Rysakov’s testimony was for the Narodnaya Volya members!” They announced F.C. Kachur is “now an abnormal person” who “makes a terribly unhappy impression”, and his testimony is fantasies, delirium of a mentally ill person; Yesterday’s “people’s hero” was accused of insincerity and slander. N.P. Karabchevsky, B.G. Barth, M.L. Mandelstam, M.V. Bernshtam, who defended G.A. Gershuni and A.I. Weizenfeld, they even demanded that F.K. Kachur psychiatric medical examination. The court rejected the defense's claims as groundless. Later G.A. Gershuni argued that F.K. Kachura “avoided confusing and slandering persons whom he considered to be free,” and “blamed everything” on the arrested G.A. Gershuni and A.I. Weizenfeld
During the investigation M.M. Melnikov, one of the three organizers of the Combat Organization, resolutely denied involvement in it, terror and the Socialist Revolutionary Party “in general,” assuring that he was not familiar with G.A. Gershuni, nor with S.V. Balmashev, nor with T.S. Bartoshkin, nor with A.K. Grigoriev, nor with L.A. Remyannikova and did not take any part in the discussion of the assassination plans. She denied her involvement in the Combat Organization and L.A. Remyannikov, whose hand, as a graphological examination established, was written by the manuscripts “Execution of Minister Sipyagin” and “Biography of S.V.” sent abroad on April 5, 1902 from the St. Petersburg Post Office abroad. Balmashev." She refused to testify and sign the interrogation protocol. He denied involvement in the Combat Organization and the organization of assassination attempts and refused to testify and sign the interrogation report of A.I. Weizenfeld. K. Grigoriev and Yu.F. Yurkovskaya repented and spoke candidly about their participation in revolutionary and terrorist enterprises, about the Kiev terrorist circle of the Gershunis - the Rabinovich sisters, about the participants and plans of the Combat Organization.
Party leader and “dictator” of the Combat Organization G.A. At the preliminary inquiry, Gershuni refused to talk about “his personality, as well as the essence of the case,” but a little over a month later he wrote down information about himself, adding that he explained
statements regarding the charges against him “will be stated on a special sheet.” Later he wrote that he hesitated for a long time whether to recognize himself as a member of the Combat Organization? In the fall of 1904, he decided: “no!”, and on four large-format sheets he submitted the “Application of G.A. Gershuni to the Prosecutor of the St. Petersburg Court Chamber”, signed: “Peter and Paul Fortress, November 30, 1903.” The “Statement” began like this: “Not wanting to take any part in the legal comedy staged by the gendarmes under the guise of a preliminary inquiry, I refused both to testify and to sign the protocols.” Further G.A. Gershuni wrote that the conditions of Russian reality “forced” him “to move from peaceful social activities in the name of the good of the people to the path of open revolutionary struggle,” and formulated the thesis that he defended both during the trial and in publications in “Revolutionary Russia”, and in my memoirs: “As a member of the Socialist Revolutionary Party,” I carried out party-wide work, aimed mainly at mass activities. The gendarmerie authorities, apparently, are singling out my case from the general inquiry into the socialist revolutionaries, thus arranging an artificial grouping of the accused and reducing the process to the question of the degree of punishment.” He dissociated himself from the Combat Organization and the organization of assassination attempts, and the further, the more energetically. Proclaimed by G.A. Gershuni's explanation did not satisfy even his lawyers. At first G.A. Gershuni, in his words, “arrogantly” refused to read the investigative materials, but after the indictment was served, he requested them and carefully studied them.
It should be said that the conditions of detention of the head of the Combat Organization, as well as others involved in this case, cannot be considered inhumane. To his brother V.A. Gershuni, who was in custody, wrote on July 10, 1903: “My health is quite satisfactory, I feel calm.” Regular letters to his family are verbose: from July 3, 1903 to February 12, 1904, only to his brother V.A. He sent 86 typewritten pages of messages to Gershuni. O. Shabad-Gavronskaya reported at the beginning of 1904: “G.A. Gershuni often receives visits from his relatives in the Peter and Paul Fortress. His father saw him three times. He made sure that his son was happy, vigorous and healthy."
A.K. Grigoriev made a pitiful impression. “Even here in court,” said his defense attorney A.V. Bobrishchev-Pushkin, - Grigoriev is afraid of them [former fellow terrorists. - M.L.]. When Gershuni, directing his gaze at him, began to slowly mint his questions... the confused, trembling, pitiful figure of Grigoriev stood up to meet him, babbling something confusedly.” A.K. Grigoriev spoke frankly about the plans of terrorists in Kyiv in 1901, the history of the attempt on D.S. Sipyagin, attempted assassination of K.P. Pobedonostsev, preparation of the assassination attempt on V.K. Plehve; answered all questions in detail.
As the wife of the defendant, Yu.F. Yurkovskaya testified without oath. Her detailed reports about the plans and actions of terrorists and those associated with them, about the Combat Organization aroused the indignation of G.A. Gershuni, and in his correspondence and memoirs he poured mud on the young woman from head to toe. Here is part of what he wrote: Yu.F. Yurkovskaya “conducted herself shamelessly, in her lies, malice and subterfuge there was a lot of cunning and restraint”, “amazingly arrogant self-control and composure”, “made the most disgusting impression with her malice and lies”, “betrayal and slanderous insinuations. disgusting... evoked a disgusting feeling”, “malicious and disgusting”.
T.S. Bartoshkin outlined in detail the background of the Combat Organization, in particular, he told how in Kyiv in the spring of 1901 he introduced G.A. Gershuni with A.K. Gigoryev, and how he, together with G.A. Gershuni, D.V., R.V., H.V. Rabinovich, A.K. Grigoriev was planning an assassination attempt on S.V. Zubatov, how he received money from Gershuni and carried out his instructions. Gershuni immediately rejected the testimony of Bartoshkin, whom he allegedly met by chance, immediately understood what kind of bird it was, and never had anything to do with him. In correspondence in “Revolutionary Russia”, he butchered “a certain Bartoshkin,” “a dirty personality who had nothing to do with the revolution, but always hovered around revolutionaries.”
This point of view has been established in the literature of recent decades. Therefore, about T.S. Bartoshkin, his role in revolutionary and, in particular, terrorist enterprises should be said in more detail. T.S. Bartoshkin, a “freeloader of the revolution”, a lover of getting drunk, especially at someone else’s expense, to the point of insoles, since the 90s. participated in student protests, transported illegal literature, was friends with P.V. Karpovich, with whom in 1899 he was a member of the Gomel committee of the RSDLP. That same year they went abroad together; in 1899-1900 rented a room in Charlottenburg, the rent for which was usually paid by P.V. Karpovich. In September 1900 T.S. Bartoshkin returned to Russia, became close to terrorist-minded revolutionaries; and in 1901-1902. was a trusted representative of G.A. Gershuni in Kyiv, whom he then introduced to E.K. Grigoriev, F.F. and Yu.F. Yurkovsky as candidates for the role of terrorist “executors”. The organizers of the Combat Organization in 1902 listed T.S. Bartoshkin one of the three available “performers”.
A.I. Weizenfeld and L.A. Remyannikov, without further ado, rejected all testimony about involvement in the assassination attempts and did not enter into polemics with the witnesses. According to the memoirs of G.A. Gershuni, they agreed not to object to F.K. Kachure, A.K. Grigoriev, Yu.F. Yurkovskaya and others and “decided to remain silent.” Their final words were extremely lapidary.
MM. Melnikov, as during the preliminary investigation, rejected all evidence against him, denied his participation in organizing the assassination attempts, and in the Combat Organization, and even in the Socialist Revolutionary Party, directly or indirectly blaming others. The prospect of death terrified him. “I do not belong to the number of natures who are completely imbued with a sacrificial mood,” he did not hide. At the beginning of the process G.A. Gershuni sympathized with his recent “assistant.” “My heart aches with pain at the thought of Melnikov’s fate,” he wrote. Then there was no trace of sympathy left. “Melnikov,” declared the “dictator” of the Combat Organization, “gave the impression of a sick, tortured, torn, clearly abnormal person.” A month after the trial G.A. Gershuni has already irrevocably dissociated himself from his former assistant, claiming that he “did not participate in any terrorist acts and had nothing to do with the terrorist organization.”
The attention of those present, as well as those writing and reading about the trial, was attracted by G.A. Gershuni. “Artist of terror”, “smart, cunning, with an iron will”; “his hypnotizing gaze and convincing speech” captivated his interlocutors, “turned them into his ardent admirers”; he “made a strong impression on everyone with whom he came in contact”; “The charm of Gershuni’s personality is an undoubted fact” - such strong expressions characterized the head of the Combat Organization S.V. Zubatov, L.A. Rataev, A.I. Spiridovich. The judgments of a prominent Russian lawyer, a member of the Central Committee of the “Union of October 17th”, a famous publicist - “Gromoboy”, A.V., are in the same tone. Bobrishcheva-Pushkin. G.A. Gershuni, he said, “is a very cautious, intelligent, cold man, able to hide in the shadows,” “a manufacturer of heroes.” It is also worth saying that the above characteristics were implicitly or explicitly shared by both the Socialist Revolutionaries and their party opponents.
Gershuni, as a person, stood head and shoulders above the other participants in the Combat Organization process. He behaved with dignity, peering coldly at those present, spoke slowly, thoughtfully, weighing every word, and minted questions. At the trial, Gershuni categorically and consistently denied his membership in the Combat Organization.
The organizer and head of the Socialist Revolutionary Party and the Combat Organization, the organizer of the assassinations that made the party famous in revolutionary liberal circles, was a sacred figure at the time of the trial. All parties were involved in the creation of myths. A myth is a legend about the world and man’s place in it, a fable, according to the clear formulation of V.I. Dalia. In myth, form is identical to content, and therefore the symbolic image represents what it models. The most important function of a myth is to create a model, an example, an example. The system of mythical ideas constitutes mythology, a system of certain ideas about the world, a universal category
which the hero is. The leaders of the Socialist Revolutionary Party, as many as they had, created the myth of Gershuni. Debunking his mythical image threatened irreparable consequences for the party. According to the revolutionary myth, at the trial the revolutionary appeared as a knight without fear or reproach, and the apogee was the final speech, in which the revolutionary denounced the existing system, set out the circumstances that prompted him to make an atoning sacrifice “in the name of the happiness of the people.”
The “Gershunya Speech” prepared in advance (almost four pages of small and dense font of “Revolutionary Russia”) was built according to well-known models. It began with accusations against the authorities, the system of preliminary investigation and judicial proceedings. This was followed by the traditional escapade: “There are neither defendants nor judges here.” The author’s path into the revolution was described in detail, the authorities were sharply criticized, “the stunning conditions of Russian reality”, which especially affect “the Jewish people, to which I belong”; the program and tactics of the Socialist Revolutionary Party were outlined in detail. “Terror does not constitute an organic element of the activity of our party,” proclaimed the organizer and leader of the Combat Organization and continued: “The party delayed until the last moment the moment of taking the path of terrorist struggle.” At the same time, he emphasized: “Having entered the path of revolutionary struggle, I was mainly engaged in general party activities.”
“Gershunya’s Speech” earned the highest praise from Osvobozhdenie and many domestic authors. It must be said that this “Speech” should be most of all in the category of literary works. The editors of Revolutionary Russia accompanied its publication with a printed note: “This speech was intended for G.A. Gershuni to be pronounced at the trial, but, according to rumors, could not be pronounced in its entirety.” G.A. himself Gershuni spent a lot of effort and used up a lot of paper to explain his behavior at the trial. In his “Letter to Comrades”, in his characteristic pompous, sentimental style, he justified his behavior as follows: “I was going to St. Petersburg as if on a holiday. I dreamed that I would participate with others in a great process that would excite and awaken all those sleeping. But I was isolated from the comrades with whom I worked all the time, and placed together with traitors, worse - slanderers. And I had to not so much stand on principled grounds as destroy slander and insinuations.” Multi-page argumentation by G.A. Gershuni presented in his sentimental memoirs “From the Recent Past.” “Plehve’s treacherous move,” he emphasized, was “to single out several people, group them around terrorist acts and create a Combat Organization, but all without a trace.” Both in the memoirs and in the correspondence of G.A. Gershuni repeated many times: the authorities fabricated an artificial process of the Combat Organization, “created a Combat Organization.” The authorities were blamed for their reluctance to “create a big process of the Socialist-Revolutionary Party.”
There was no point in creating a Combat Organization for the authorities; it existed. One could only say that they were brought to trial random people, but hardly anyone could believe it. The defenders of the accused did not believe this either. The author of the memoirs thought unexpected turn: public importance The process of the Combat Organization “should have been insignificant,” so he refused to recognize himself as a member of it. “I was tied hand and foot,” continued G.A. Gershuni, “it was impossible” to admit that he was a member of the Combat Organization, “it was impossible” to refute the testimony of F.K. Kachura, Grigoriev (he never mentioned M.M. Melnikov and T.S. Bartoshkin in his memoirs), which is why he, and with him L.A. Remyannikov and A.I. Weizenfeld “preferred to remain silent” and “not make any objections.” Explained figuratively emotional condition author. At the beginning of the process: “The mood rises higher and higher... (signs in the text - M.L.). You climb onto the bench as if you were on a podium,” but in the hall “not a single meaningful, not a single thoughtful person,” “how can I speak, to whom should I speak?!”, “the process is ruined,” and he “decided to remain silent.”
The lofty sentimentalism characteristic of the writings of the leader of the Combat Organization was to a certain extent associated with certain manifestations of his mental organization. Indifference G.A. Gershuni to the destinies of the young people he
incited to murder and thereby sent to the gallows, they noted in a similar way, as A.B. Bobrishchev and his opponent at the trial N.P. Karabchevsky. E.S. Sazonov, emphasized N.P. Karabchevsky, “was capable of personally killing someone whom (like Plehve) considered an enemy of Russia, but even for such a murder he could not send another.” A.B. grades Bobrishchev-Pushkin are only slightly more rigoristic. “Personalities like Gershuni,” he stated, “are not capable of personal heroism; they... willingly “make heroes” out of other, more pliable young people than they are, sending them to the gallows with a light heart.”
Researchers of Socialist Revolutionary terrorism P.A. Gorodnitsky and A. Geifman following M.M. Melnikov argued that G.A. During the trial, Gershuni tried with all his might to avoid a death sentence and save his life. The trial materials do not provide grounds for such a conclusion. Probably, N.P.’s judgment is closer to the truth. Karabchevsky: “He had a harsh, mercilessly indifferent attitude towards other people’s lives [G.A. Gershuni], undoubtedly, in parallel with the same attitude towards his own.”
The position in which G.A. stood. Gershuni, M.M. Melnikov, A.I. Weizenfeld, L.A. Remyannikov, did not give them the opportunity to declare the party program and tactics in the spirit of the canonical speeches of A.I. Zhelyabov and other revolutionaries and did not allow their lawyers to distinguish themselves. Only A.V. Bobrishchev-Pushkin, who consistently condemned the ideology of the revolutionaries, their methods and terror, published a “Defense Speech in the Grigoriev Case.” The luminaries of the liberal legal profession did not even mention their speeches at the trial, which they were so eager to attend, even in their memoirs. N.P. Karabchevsky, who repeatedly published his court speeches, including at the trial of E.S. Sazonov, held in the same 1904, a speech in defense of G.A. Gershuni did not publish. The defenders of M.M. did the same. Melnikova, A.I. Weizenfeld, L.A. Remyannikova.
The St. Petersburg Military District Court sentenced G.A. Gershuni, M.M. Melnikova, E.K. Grigoriev to deprivation of all rights of the estate and death penalty by hanging, A.I. Weizenfeld - to four years of hard labor, L.A. Remyannikov to three months in prison and three years of public supervision. The final verdict was announced on February 28, 1904. In relation to E.K. Grigorieva, L.A. Remyannikova’s sentence came into force on March 2, for the rest - on March 12, 1904. By the decision of the Main Military Court on March 12, 1904, the cassation appeals of the defenders G.A. Gershuni, M.M. Melnikova, A.I. Weizenfeld were left without consequences.
The Emperor, taking into account requests for pardon, on February 28, 1904, ordered the replacement of M.M. Melnikov was given the death penalty by indefinite hard labor. The same punishment was determined on March 4, 1904 by G.A. Gershuni. A.K. Grigoriev's death penalty was replaced with four years of hard labor. He submitted a second petition, in which he expressed his loyal feelings and repentance and asked to be given the opportunity to “shed blood for the Tsar in the war with Japan and thereby atone for his past criminal madness.” In April 1904, A.K. was sentenced to lifelong hard labor. Grigoriev was replaced by exile for four years in Transcaucasia, and from November 30, 1905 he was allowed to freely choose his place of residence with the exception of capitals and capital provinces. A petition for pardon was also submitted by M.M. Melnikov and his wife E.N. Konstantinov (they got married on January 30, 1904 in the Church of the Commandant's House). Punishment of M.M. Melnikov initially served in the Shlisselburg fortress. “For good behavior” he was transferred to the “New Prison”, and after the second petition the indefinite hard labor was replaced by 15 years.
G.A. Gershuni refused to submit a petition for pardon. “This is not accepted here,” he told N.P. Karabchevsky. Then the lawyer offered to submit a request for pardon on his own behalf. “In it,” he said, “it will not be said that you are asking for mercy; I will be asking, that is, in your opinion, “humiliating myself.” “Thank you... (signs in the text - M.L.) goodbye,” Gershuni answered me and warmly held my hand in his.” It should be said that the lawyer, by agreement, could
act only with the will and consent of the defendant. Having received carte blanche, the lawyer, together with his brother G.A. Gershuni prepared and submitted a petition for pardon to the highest name, “which,” N.P. emphasized. Karabchevsky, - has not been practiced until now.” Gershuni was grateful to his defender and shortly before escaping from hard labor he wrote to him thank you letter. His father, brother and daughter-in-law petitioned for pardon for the terrorist leader. G.A. himself Gershuni later claimed that the sentence was commuted due to his impeccable behavior during the investigation and the lack of convincing evidence before the court.
In January 1906 G.A. Gershuni and M.M. Melnikov was transported to the Akatui penal servitude, where, as E.S. described. Sazonov, there was a “free life. It didn’t feel like a prison,” every day half of the convicts went to the mountains without any security, on parole, from morning to evening “the wives of the family stayed in the prison, they could even spend the night,” “communication with the will, carrying all sorts of things were, of course, completely free. .. (signs in the text - M.L.). And of course, disgrace broke out, one after another the convicts, breaking their word of honor, rushed to run away, both single and married.” M.M. also fled. Melnikov. His escape outraged the Socialist Revolutionary convicts. 11 “Shlisselburgers”, including G.A. Gershuni, E.S. Sazonov, P.V. Karpovich, M.A. Spiridonov, on August 5, 1906, they sent a letter addressed to M.R. Gots, in which they announced “the termination of relations” with M.M. Melnikov, mainly because he, in violation of the agreement, fled before G.A. Gershuni. Arriving abroad M.M. The emigrant Socialist Revolutionaries greeted Melnikov with hostility and even refused to provide him with a fake passport. Until the end of his days, one of the founders of the Socialist Revolutionary Party and its Combat Organization unsuccessfully sought rehabilitation.
G.A. Gershuni served his sentence first in the Shlisselburg fortress, and from the fall of 1905 in the New Prison. In October 1905, his life sentence was replaced by 20 years of hard labor, transferred to Butyrka prison, and then transferred to Akatuysk hard labor, from where on October 13, 1906 he was taken out in a barrel of sauerkraut. Next, his path lay through China to America. His passion for “acting” manifested itself during his numerous performances in the United States, to which he appeared in prison garb and shackles. With extreme precautions he was taken to Finland, where on February 20, 1907 he appeared before the delegates of the Second Party Congress.
The Combat Organization process did not bring her glory. The behavior of the defendants discouraged many prominent Socialist Revolutionaries; they openly said that Gershuni behaved at the trial “extremely unworthy, cowardly, denying his participation in political murders and even his involvement in the BO” while they expected that he would use the trial to openly recognize the merits of the party in the fight against autocracy and set out before the judges the further tasks and goals of the “Combat Organization”.
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PROCESS OF SR COMBAT ORGANIZATION
The article is devoted to the “Process of SR Combat Organization” which was held from 18 up to 25 February, 1904 and which became a prominent event in the public life of Russia of the beginning of the XX century. For its progress the authorities including imperiality and Nikolai II himself, conservatives, liberals and revolutionaries followed with strained attention.
The article analyzes the behavior of the leaders and members of SR Combat Organization under investigation, during the trial and after the verdict. It is shown that to test during interrogation refused the minority of the involved in the process of the terrorists, the majority, including G.A. Gershuni, and during the investigation and in court denied his involvement in the military organization; all the defendants refused the final word. Almost all prisoners on the process petitioned for a pardon as soon as the verdict was announced, as well as serving their sentences. All this is largely not in line proclaimed by the Code of Conduct of the revolutionary at court.
Key words, terror, assassination, Combat Organization, judicial verdict, society, protection, appeal, remorse, glorification.
The article was received by the editor on 22/II/2016.
The article received 22/II/2016.
* Leonov Mikhail Ivanovich ( [email protected]), Department of Russian History, Samara University, 34, Moskovskoye shosse, Samara, 443086, Russian Federation.
COMBAT ORGANIZATION OF THE SRs - an organization created by the Socialist Revolutionary Party in the beginning. 1900s to fight autocracy through terror against the most odious representatives of the ruling elite. The organization included from 10 to 30 militants led by G. A. Gershuni, and from May 1903 - E. F. Azef. Organized Act of terrorism against the Minister of Internal Affairs D.S. Sipyagin and V.K. Pleve, the Kharkov governor Prince I.M. Obolensky and the Ufa governor N.M. Bogdanovich, Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich; prepared attempts on the lives of Nicholas II, Minister of Internal Affairs P. N. Durnovo, Moscow Governor-General F. V. Dubasov, priest G. A. Gapon and others, which did not take place due to Azef’s provocateur activities. Azef's exposure caused demoralization and subsequent dissolution of the organization. In 1911 it announced self-dissolution.
- - created in St. Petersburg by the Union of Maximalists in May 1906. Over 30 members, headed by M. I. Sokolov. It had weapons depots, workshops for making bombs and documents, safe houses...
Russian Encyclopedia
- - decisive action military personnel, subunits, units and troops as a whole, aimed at seizing and maintaining the initiative, inflicting maximum defeat on the enemy by all available means and successful...
Glossary of military terms
- - a complex of knowledge, skills and abilities of military personnel, training of personnel of units, units and formations to conduct combat operations in various situations and in accordance with their purpose...
Glossary of military terms
- - a state that ensures the ability of troops in any situation to begin military operations on time and successfully complete assigned tasks...
Glossary of military terms
- - a task assigned by a higher commander to a unit, unit, formation, association to achieve a certain goal in battle by a set date...
Glossary of military terms
- - distribution of personnel according to command posts and combat posts, defining the specific responsibilities of crew members to maintain high level ship's combat readiness and effective use...
Glossary of military terms
- - the state of formations, formations, units, subdivisions of troops and bodies of the RF PS, which determines their ability to carry out assigned service and combat missions for the protection and security of the GG in an organized and timely manner...
Border Dictionary
- - ability aircraft after being exposed to weapons of destruction, continue the flight with the aim of fully or partially completing the combat mission, returning to one’s territory or...
Encyclopedia of technology
- - the ability of troops in any situation to begin military operations on time and successfully complete assigned tasks...
Marine dictionary
- - a task assigned by a superior commander to a formation of ships, an individual ship, etc., indicating the goal in battle and the time frame for achieving it...
Marine dictionary
- - rational distribution of personnel among command posts and combat posts with the definition functional responsibilities each crew member to maintain high combat...
Marine dictionary
- - the axis of the carriage, on which the so-called. war wheels...
encyclopedic Dictionary Brockhaus and Euphron
- - armed forces, a state that determines the degree of preparedness of each type of armed forces to carry out the combat missions assigned to it...
- - 1) an infantry combat unit created in 1917 almost simultaneously in the German and French armies as a result of the development of group infantry tactics...
- - a St. Petersburg group of militants created by the Union of Maximalists in May 1906 to organize terror and expropriations as the main means of fighting the autocracy. St. 30 members led by M. I. Sokolov...
- - COMBAT ORGANIZATION OF THE SRs - an organization created by the Socialist Revolutionary Party in the beginning. 1900s to fight the autocracy through terror against the most odious representatives of the ruling elite...
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organization created by the Socialist Revolutionary Party in the beginning. 1900s to fight autocracy through terror against the most odious representatives of the ruling elite. The organization included from 10 to 30 militants led by G. A. Gershuni, and from May 1903 - E. F. Azef. She organized terrorist attacks against the Minister of Internal Affairs D.S. Sipyagin and V.K. Pleve, the Kharkov governor Prince I.M. Obolensky and the Ufa governor N.M. Bogdanovich, Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich; prepared attempts on the lives of Nicholas II, Minister of Internal Affairs P. N. Durnovo, Moscow Governor-General F. V. Dubasov, priest G. A. Gapon and others, which did not take place due to Azef’s provocateur activities. Azef's exposure caused demoralization and subsequent dissolution of the organization. In 1911 it announced self-dissolution.
TSB. Modern Dictionary, TSB. 2003
See also interpretations, synonyms, meanings of the word and what is the COMBAT ORGANIZATION OF THE SRs in Russian in dictionaries, encyclopedias and reference books:
- SR COMBAT ORGANIZATION
organization created by the Socialist Revolutionary Party in the beginning. 1900s to fight autocracy through terror against the most odious representatives of the ruling elite. ... - COMBAT
Sledgehammer is an English version of the war hammer, which is a blacksmith's hammer with a spear point. Used by archers before the Hundred Years' War. Length 1200... - ORGANIZATION
MANAGER - see MANAGEMENT ORGANIZATION ... - ORGANIZATION in the Dictionary of Economic Terms:
OIL EXPORTING COUNTRIES (OPEC) is an intergovernmental economic and political organization formed in 1960 at a conference in Baghdad (Iraq). Charter... - ORGANIZATION in the Dictionary of Economic Terms:
SERVICE - organization of service provided by the service department of the company - the manufacturer of the product. There are several rules of OS that have received recognition in the world... - ORGANIZATION in the Dictionary of Economic Terms:
PRIMARY TRADE UNION - see PRIMARY TRADE UNION ORGANIZATION ... - ORGANIZATION in the Dictionary of Economic Terms:
TRADE UNION TERRITORIAL - see TERRITORIAL ORGANIZATION OF THE TRADE UNION ... - ORGANIZATION in the Dictionary of Economic Terms:
CRIMINAL - see CRIMINAL ORGANIZATION ... - ORGANIZATION in the Dictionary of Economic Terms:
The UN INDUSTRIAL DEVELOPMENT (UNIDO) is an international organization promoting industrial development and accelerated industrialization of developing countries by mobilizing national and… - ORGANIZATION in the Dictionary of Economic Terms:
UNITED NATIONS (UN) - a universal international organization for ensuring peace, security and international cooperation. Created in 1945 on the initiative of... - ORGANIZATION in the Dictionary of Economic Terms:
PUBLIC - see PUBLIC ORGANIZATION ... - ORGANIZATION in the Dictionary of Economic Terms:
INFORMAL - see INFORMAL ... - ORGANIZATION in the Dictionary of Economic Terms:
NON-PROFIT AUTONOMOUS - see AUTONOMOUS NON-PROFIT ORGANIZATION ... - ORGANIZATION in the Dictionary of Economic Terms:
NON-PROFIT - see NON-PROFIT ORGANIZATION ... - ORGANIZATION in the Dictionary of Economic Terms:
SCIENTIFIC - see SCIENTIFIC ORGANIZATION ... - ORGANIZATION in the Dictionary of Economic Terms:
INTERNATIONAL REGIONAL - see REGIONAL INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZATION ... - ORGANIZATION in the Dictionary of Economic Terms:
MARKETING FUNCTIONAL - see FUNCTIONAL MARKETING ORGANIZATION ... - ORGANIZATION in the Dictionary of Economic Terms:
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AFRICAN UNITY (OAU) is a regional intergovernmental security organization created at the Addis Ababa Conference of Independent States of Africa in 1963. It operates on the basis of a charter ... - ORGANIZATION in the Dictionary of Economic Terms:
OF THE AMERICAN STATES (OAS) is a regional intergovernmental organization created in 1948 and including most countries of the Western Hemisphere. The OAS acts on... - ORGANIZATION in the Big Encyclopedic Dictionary:
"ISLAMIC CONGRESS" (OIC; Organization of the Islamic Conference) was founded in 1969. Unites most Muslim states and the Palestine Liberation Organization According to the charter... - ORGANIZATION
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ORGANIZATION FOR ECONOMIC COOPERATION AND DEVELOPMENT (OECD), interstate. econ. org-tion Created in 1961. Official. OECD goals - economic coordination. politics and... - ORGANIZATION in the Big Russian Encyclopedic Dictionary:
ORGANIZATION OF THE CENTRAL TREATY (CENTO; English Central Treaty Organization - CENTO); military-political organization on Bl. and Wed. East. Created in 1955... - ORGANIZATION in the Big Russian Encyclopedic Dictionary:
ORGANIZATION OF CENTRAL AMERICAN STATES (OCAS), created. in 1951 for political, economic. and cultural cooperation. Unites Guatemala, Honduras, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Nicaragua. Charter... - ORGANIZATION in the Big Russian Encyclopedic Dictionary:
ORGANIZATION OF OIL EXPORTING COUNTRIES (OPEC; English Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries - OPEC), created. in 1960. Includes Iran, Iraq, ... - ORGANIZATION in the Big Russian Encyclopedic Dictionary:
NORTH ATLANTIC TREATY ORGANIZATION (NATO; English North Atlantic Treaty Organization - NATO), military-political. alliance created on the basis of the North Atlantic. agreement signed 4... - ORGANIZATION in the Big Russian Encyclopedic Dictionary:
PALESTINE LIBERATION ORGANIZATION (PLO), created. in 1964. Unites most of the Palestinian resistance movement organizations and societies. Palestinian organizations. Higher organ of the PLO... - ORGANIZATION in the Big Russian Encyclopedic Dictionary:
UNITED NATIONS INDUSTRIAL DEVELOPMENT ORGANIZATION (UNIDO; English United Nations Industrial Development Organization - UNIDO), created. in 1966 to encourage... - COMBAT in the Big Russian Encyclopedic Dictionary:
COMBAT TECHNICAL GROUP under the Central Committee of the RSDLP, led the fighting squads of workers and military personnel. Bolshevik organizations during the Revolution of 1905-07; headed by L.B. ... - COMBAT in the Big Russian Encyclopedic Dictionary:
COMBAT ORGANIZATION OF THE SRs, organization, created. the Socialist Revolutionary Party in the beginning. 1900s to fight the autocracy through terror against the people. odious... - COMBAT in the Big Russian Encyclopedic Dictionary:
COMBAT ORGANIZATION OF MAXIMALISTS, St. Petersburg. militant group created Union of Maximalists in May 1906 to organize terrorists. acts and expropriations. St. 30… - COMBAT in the Big Russian Encyclopedic Dictionary:
INFANTRY COMBAT VEHICLE (BMP), an armored tracked, less often wheeled, usually a floating motorized rifle vehicle. (motorized infantry) troops. Appeared in the 1960s. ... - ORGANIZATION in Ozhegov’s Dictionary of the Russian Language:
public association or government agency Party, Komsomol, trade union about. Construction o. organization<= организовать организация Obs == организм N2 У … - ORGANIZATION in Ushakov’s Explanatory Dictionary of the Russian Language:
organizations, w. 1. units only Action according to verb. organize (book)....The matter is about the new most profound, economic, foundations of life of dozens... - COMBAT READINESS in the Dictionary of Military Historical Terms:
FORTRESSES - the readiness of the latter for military operations during the transition from a peaceful situation to a military one. Based on the definition of strength as slender... - COMBAT TRAINING in the Great Soviet Encyclopedia, TSB:
preparation, training of certain categories of military personnel, units, units, formations, headquarters in the conduct of combat operations, and logistics agencies in logistics support. B.p.... - SPRING in The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Weapons:
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- BITSENKO
Anastasia Alekseevna (1875-?). Since 1902 - member of the Socialist Revolutionary Party. She carried out organizational and propaganda work, was a member of the Moscow party committee... - AZEF in the Directory of Characters and Cult Objects of Greek Mythology:
Evno is a famous provocateur, Socialist Revolutionary. In the 2nd half of the 90s. joined the foreign group of the Union of Russian Socialists-Revolutionaries. In 1899... - AVKSENTIEV in the Directory of Characters and Cult Objects of Greek Mythology:
Nikolai Dmitrievich (1878-1943). One of the leaders of the Socialist Revolutionary Party. In 1905, on behalf of the party, he was a member of the St. Petersburg Council of the R. D. ... - TERRORIST ORGANIZATIONS AND MOVEMENTS
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(Russia) - USSR. In 1905 in Russia there were up to 20 maximalist organizations, in 1906 - 52. The most fully formed... - NATHANSON
M. A. (1850-1919) - Narodnaya Volya member, since 1905 - Socialist Revolutionary, member of the Central Committee of the party. During the First World War - an internationalist, ... - MIRBAH in 1000 biographies of famous people:
(Mirbach) Wilhelm (1871-1918). Count, diplomat. Since April 1918 - German Ambassador in Moscow. Killed in Moscow, in Denezhny Lane, in...
Terrorist activities and combat organization of the Socialist Revolutionary Party under the leadership of E.F. Azef in 1903-1906
Report by 3rd year student of the Faculty of History Maxim Vostroknutov
State Academic University of Humanities
Moscow - 2010
Introduction
Russia in the second half of the 19th - early 20th centuries became the arena of struggle between a powerful revolutionary movement and the autocratic Russian statehood. The progressive process of deepening and aggravating contradictions between the urgent needs of the public for reforms and state policies that ignored these needs, the growing gap between the authorities and the people, led to the radicalization of the revolutionary movement and the intensification of the protest of revolutionaries, prompting them to extreme methods of struggle and counteraction.
In the first decade of the 20th century, the entire political life of Russia was inextricably linked with the emergence, growth in scope and then, conversely, the extinction of the terrorist struggle against the autocratic political system, carried out by the most irreconcilable and opposition-minded parties and movements. The necessity and justification of attempts to change the political structure of a state through violence is an important problem that has occupied the minds of historians from the beginning of the 20th century to the present day. This work is devoted to a topic that is an integral part of this problem - a very important and, at the same time, little-studied aspect of the Russian revolutionary movement, associated with the activities of the militant organization of the Socialist Revolutionary Party, aimed at crushing the ossified political system of the Russian state. The relevance of the topic of this work lies in such a high significance of these issues. In this report, I will pay my attention only to a certain period of the existence of the military organization - the peak of its military activity under the leadership of Yevno Azef - 1903-1906, a famous provocateur operating on two fronts. The peculiarity of this period lies in the mystery and insufficient study of the problem of motives and goals that this historical figure pursued, while simultaneously serving both forces hostile to each other: the police department (hereinafter: DP) and the socialist revolutionaries.
BO AKP was the vanguard of numerous terrorist groups that were active in Russia in 1901-1911, and its acts of extremism and terror shook the Russian Empire, forcing state power to often maneuver, making concessions to public demands. The monarchy, which had lost many of its best representatives of the state apparatus, managed to resist the systematic and often reckless attacks of terrorists, but the calm development of the country did not last long - in February 1917, the autocracy, virtually deprived of all public support, collapsed almost at lightning speed.
Conventionally, the domestic historiography of the Socialist Revolutionary terror is divided into several periods.
The second half of the 1910s - the beginning of the 1930s - during this period, contemporaries, eyewitnesses and direct participants in the events tried to comprehend terror as a phenomenon, collect and analyze available documents and evidence, and a considerable body of memoir literature was also created.
The mid-1930s - late 1950s were a time of greatest ideological pressure on humanities, and the inability of domestic historians to objectively study the activities of parties that acted as opponents of the Bolsheviks. An even more forbidden topic was individual terror, the study of which during this period often caused illusions and fears among the leaders of the ideological apparatus about the propaganda of methods that could be aimed at combating the existing regime.
Early 1960s - mid-1980s - further study of the history of the Socialist Revolutionary Party and political terror as an important factor in this history based on an accessible set of documents.
Since the late 1980s, the involvement of numerous new sources in the field of view of historiography, the ideological freedom of researchers: both in determining the perspective of problems and in their assessment. However, even this period did not rid some historians of some ideological clichés and shallow insight into the essence of the issues being studied.
I have studied the sources and literature indicated at the end of this work. The monograph by R.A. provided me with the greatest help. Gorodnitsky and his article, which gave me basic information about the Combat Organization of Socialist Revolutionaries. To analyze the personality of E.F. Azef's article was most useful to me by L. Priceman. The truthful, in my opinion, and quite emotional memoirs of the terrorist B. Savinkov are quite fascinating, but they hardly brought in the historical information necessary for writing the report. I was informed about the emergence of the AKP by a textbook on the history of political parties in Russia, which also provided me with some assistance in characterizing the program of the Socialist Revolutionary Party. And of course, the rest of the literature given at the end helped me in writing the work, although not so significant.
To conclude the introductory part of the work, I will briefly outline its structure. The first chapter will be devoted to general information about the Socialist Revolutionary Party and the emergence of its military organization, then, in the next part of this work, I will dwell on the features of the structure and activities of the BO in 1903-1906, the third chapter will be devoted to the phenomenon of the BO leader of this period - E. Azef; This will be followed by a conclusion with conclusions drawn from the previous chapters.
The emergence of the AKP. AKP program and tactics. Education BO AKP.
The Socialist Revolutionary Party occupied one of the leading places in the system of Russian political parties. It was the largest and most influential non-Marxist socialist party.
The first organizations of socialist revolutionaries began to appear in the mid-90s of the 19th century. In August 1897, a congress of southern groups of Socialist Revolutionaries took place in Voronezh, at which the creation of the “Party of Socialist Revolutionaries” was proclaimed. In the same year, the previously created “Union of Socialist Revolutionaries” began to actively operate in Moscow, coordinating the activities of northern groups. In addition to these main associations, numerous circles and groups functioned, the successful work of which required the creation of a single center. There were also various associations in emigration, from which the Agrarian Socialist League, created in 1900, emerged.
There was constant talk between the northern and southern groups about a merger. Around December 1901, in Berlin, E.F. Azef and M.F. Selyuk, having all the necessary powers from the northern groups, and G.A. Gershuni, who had the same powers from the southern groups, completed the formal unification of the AKP.
At the same time, Gershuni and Azef negotiated with the Agrarian-Socialist League about merging it with the party, and soon a temporary union of the AKP and the League was formed on a federal basis. Subsequently, the League merged with the party.
In 1905-1906, the founding congress of the AKP took place, which approved the program and charter of the party.
Approximately simultaneously with the unification of groups of socialist-revolutionaries, the BO began to take shape. Due to some disagreements within the party and in views on military activities, this organization initially did not arise as a party institution and not under the Central Committee. This was a private initiative of some socialist revolutionaries. The first BO formed around Gershuni. As a result of negotiations with the Central Committee, it was clarified that the AKP should receive its name as a BO under special conditions - from the moment it commits the first major terrorist act. The possibility of the emergence of other initiative groups was assumed, and it was from the commission of one of them of a terrorist act that this group would be recognized as supremacy, and it would have to act as a militant organization of the Socialist-Revolutionary Party, monopolizing within its ranks the conduct of centralized political terror. The official history of the BO begins with the murder of D.S. Sipyagin.
V.M. took up the development of the theory of the Social Revolutionaries. Chernov. He wrote an article published in the main periodical organ of the party (the newspaper “Revolutionary Russia”) and reflected the views of the overwhelming majority of Socialist Revolutionaries on terror - “The terrorist element in our program.”
According to this article, the terrorist activities of the AKP BO have a propaganda value. Terrorist acts “attract everyone’s attention, excite everyone, awaken the sleepiest, most indifferent ordinary people, stir up general talk and talk, force people to think about many things that had never occurred to them before - in a word, force them to think politically.” " The result of theoretical activity was declared to be a disorganizing value that could manifest itself in conditions of general resistance to the authorities, and which would lead to confusion in the ruling circles, “shake the throne” and “raise the question of the constitution.” Chernov emphasized that terrorist means are not a self-sufficient system of struggle, but only part of a multifaceted struggle against the enemy. Terror must be intertwined with all other methods of both partisan and mass pressure on the government. Terror is only a technical means of struggle, which, in interaction with other methods, can give the desired result. The Socialist Revolutionary Party, according to the article, does not see any all-permissive means in the terrorist struggle, but, nevertheless, it is “one of the most extreme and energetic means of fighting the autocratic bureaucracy, restraining government arbitrariness, disorganizing the government mechanism, agitating and exciting society, awakening enthusiasm and fighting spirit in the most revolutionary environment." But, if in a “tactical sense it is necessary to coordinate the struggle by terrorist means with all other forms of revolutionary activity and struggle, then in a technical sense it is no less necessary to separate it from other functions of the party.”
As for the Socialist Revolutionary program, it can be divided into four parts. The first is devoted to the analysis of capitalism of that time; the second - to the international socialist movement opposing it; the third part contains a description of the features of the socialist movement in Russia; the fourth part was the rationale for a specific RPS program.
The program boiled down to the following goals:
in the political and legal field: the establishment of a democratic republic, with broad autonomy of regions and communities, civil liberties, inviolability of person and home, complete separation of church and state and the declaration of religion as a private matter for everyone, the establishment of compulsory, equal general secular education for all at public expense, equality languages, the destruction of the standing army and its replacement by the people's militia; convening of the Zemsky Sobor (Constituent Assembly).
in the national economic field: satisfaction of the basic demands of workers (to put it very briefly), socialization of all privately owned lands, strengthening of the peasant community, some changes in tax policy (for example, the abolition of indirect taxes), development of public services (free medical care, communal water supply, lighting , ways and means of communication, etc.).
The Social Revolutionaries were supporters of democratic socialism, i.e. economic and political democracy, which should be expressed through the representation of organized representatives (trade unions), organized consumers (cooperative unions) and organized citizens (a democratic state represented by parliament and self-government). The originality of Socialist Revolutionary socialism lay in the theory of socialization of agriculture. The original idea of this theory was that socialism in Russia should begin to grow first of all in the countryside. The basis for it was to be the socialization of the village (the abolition of private ownership of land, but at the same time not turning it into state property, not its nationalization, but turning it into public property without purchase and sale; transfer of all land to the management of central and local bodies of people's self-government, “equal-labor” use of land). The Socialist Revolutionaries considered political freedom and democracy to be the most important prerequisite for socialism and its organic form. Political democracy and socialization of the land were the main demands of the Socialist Revolutionary minimum program. They were supposed to ensure a measured, evolutionary transition of Russia to socialism.
In the field of tactics, the party program of the Socialist Revolutionaries was limited to the provision that the struggle would be waged “in forms corresponding to the specific conditions of Russian reality.” The arsenal of methods and means of struggle of the AKP included propaganda and agitation, peaceful parliamentary work and all forms of extra-parliamentary, violent struggle (strikes, boycotts, armed uprisings and demonstrations, etc.), individual terror as a means of political struggle.
The victims of the Socialist Revolutionary terror in the period preceding the revolution of 1905-1907 were: Ministers of Internal Affairs D.S. Sipyagin (April 2, 1902 - from this moment the official registration of the BO AKP took place) and V.K. Plehve (July 15, 1904), Kharkov governor Prince I.M. Obolensky, who brutally dealt with peasant uprisings in the Poltava and Kharkov provinces in the spring of 1902 (wounded on July 29, 1902), Ufa governor N.M. Bogdanovich, who organized the “massacre” of Zlatoust workers (killed on May 6, 1903), Moscow Governor-General, uncle of the Tsar, Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich (February 4, 1905).
This is general information about the emergence and formation of the Socialist Revolutionary Party and its combat organization. Now let's move on to the main part of this work, dedicated to the activities of the BO in 1903-1906.
Combat organization under the leadership of E.F. Azef (1903-1906).
Yevno Azef was born in October 1869 in the city of Lyskovo near Grodno into the family of a poor Jewish tailor. He participated in circles of revolutionary Jewish youth. In 1892, hiding from the police, he stole 800 rubles and fled to Germany, where he got a job as an electrical engineer in Karlsruhe. In 1893, he proposed to the Police Department to be an informant about Russian revolutionaries - students of the Polytechnic Institute in Karlsruhe, and his proposal was accepted.
On the instructions of S.V. Zubatov, in 1899 he joined the Union of Socialist Revolutionaries. After G.A. Gershuni was arrested in 1903, and Azef remained a central figure and headed the Combat Organization of the Social Revolutionaries, which carried out terrorist acts. Azef’s party pseudonyms are “Ivan Nikolaevich”, “Valentin Kuzmich”, “Tolsty”. In contacts with the Security Department, he used the pseudonym “Raskin”.
According to the charter, the BO was autonomous, but the BO was headed by a member of the Central Committee of the AKP, who was appointed head of the BO, and the Central Committee had the right to temporarily suspend or completely terminate the activities of the BO, to expand or narrow the range of its activities. In organizational, material and other aspects, the BO was independent. Therefore, despite the general party leadership, the personality of the head of the BO left an indelible imprint on its actions. The head of the BO had a significant influence on all aspects of its functioning, and to a large extent it depended on him whether the BO would succeed or fail.
All three BO leaders are G.A. Gershuni. E.F. Azef, B.V., Savinkov were bright personalities, and, naturally, each of them had their own leadership style, their own manner of developing plans and implementing them.
After the arrest of the first leader, Gershuni, in May 1903, the BO consisted of six individuals (E.F. Azef, M.R. Gots, P.S. Polivanov, A.D. Pokotilov, E.O. Dulebov, N. I. Blinov) and actually ceased to exist as a single organization. Under these conditions, Azef, who came abroad, managed to unite all the disparate forces and attract many revolutionary-minded youth to the BO. Of all the future members of the BO, only Azef took part in its construction in the summer of 1903, only he knew everyone accepted into the BO, but they themselves did not know each other. Azef's authority was unquestionable. The principles of selection when admitting new members to the organization, which Azef was guided by, are characterized by the absence of campaigning for candidates, an extremely strict selection, in which Azef rejected the candidacy at the slightest doubt. Azef’s insight in selecting members of the BO was simply unique - in all the years of his leadership of this organization, not a single provocateur was accepted into it.
Having taken over the leadership of the BO, Azef came to grips with the issue of dynamite technology and came to successful results. He created a number of large dynamic workshops abroad, carried out a number of experiments, and supervised his own work. At the same time, the basic methods of struggle were developed, which the BO followed during its further existence. Azef was the main organizational force behind new initiatives in terrorist activities. He came up with the idea of external surveillance of persons who were scheduled for elimination: the militants disguised themselves as cab drivers, peddlers, cigarette holders, etc. Azef established a passport business, created a cash register for the BO, personally found the necessary locations, apartments, meeting places, and developed larger projects, which later, however, did not come to fruition.
The combat organization of the AKP was divided into three parts: the first, the so-called. lackeys - people who were engaged in actual external surveillance of persons scheduled for destruction; they lived in complete poverty and worked with tension unimaginable in any other area of party affairs. The second part consisted of chemical groups engaged in the manufacture of explosives and bombs; their financial situation was average; they could afford to exist in conditions of secrecy. And finally, the third, very small, group consisted of people living in lordly roles. They organized and coordinated the work of the other two parts of the organization. It goes without saying that the lifestyle of these people was quite broad. The last group usually consisted of 3-4 people. Such a system guaranteed the success of the intended enterprises. The BO was united by a single will, personified in Azef. In BO in 1904-1906. The relationship of superiors and subordination reigned less, and there was more friendship and love, and it looked more like a family than a body established by the Central Committee of the AKP. And although the BO could not imagine itself without a party, party differences were alien to its members. And although legally Azef could make any decisions individually, in fact not a single decision was made without Savinkov specifically talking, even on minor issues, with each member of the BO, understanding their opinions, trying to achieve some unanimity. Azef very often joined the opinion of the majority, and although he sometimes took responsibility for decisions that contradicted the opinion of the majority, usually the work of the BO was determined by the collective will, and in 1904-1906. There were no significant disagreements within the organization.
It should be noted that in 1903-1905. Azef's position in the Central Committee of the AKP was central. M.R. Gots, who spoke in relation to the BO on behalf of the Central Committee, was bedridden and only gave out directives, while Azef was the most active member of the party. His role in organizing all the work of the AKP after the arrest of Gershuni was global. It turned out that the Central Committee actually ceased to exist in Russia - all its members were arrested. Azef was left almost alone and, with his own efforts, restored the Central Committee, and at the same time created a strong, cohesive Organization on the ruins of the BO from the time of Gershuni, which was able to succeed in eliminating the central figures of the government apparatus. It was organized by the beginning of 1904. It included: B.V. Savinkov, M.I. Schweitzer, E.S. Sozonov, I.P. Kalyaev, D.Sh. Borishansky, D.V. Brilliant, I.I. Matseevsky, P.S. Ivanovskaya, Sh.V. Sikorsky. In August, after the murder of V.K. Plehve, the status of the BO was finalized - its charter was adopted. The supreme body of the BO became the Committee, of which Azef was elected as a managing member, and Savinkov as his deputy. However, according to Savinkov, the charter was never implemented by the militants. It expressed the wishes of the BO members rather than being a constitution for them.
Azef divided the BO into three territorial departments: Kiev, which consisted mainly of workers and was small in number, Moscow, which consisted of four people and carried out the assassination attempt on Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich, and Petersburg, which numbered fifteen people. Thus, the BO was divided on a territorial basis, and each formed department had the goal of eliminating the local head of administration. After a series of failures, the BO was in a state of disorganization. The period from mid-1904 to early 1905 was characterized by the presence of disagreements in the terrorist environment. After the Manifesto of October 17, 1905, it was dissolved, but at the first party congress in January 1906 it was restored. From that time until April 27, BO was unable to achieve success in any enterprise. It existed until November 1906 and was liquidated after Azef and Savinkov refused to lead the combat work. The militants argued their decision by saying that the BO could no longer act: all the old paths turned out to be untenable, but there were no new ones, and the Central Committee did not provide enough forces and means to find them.
During the period from the summer of 1903 to the spring of 1905, Azef did not extradite a single terrorist. Being aware of all military affairs, he actually did not report anything about them to the Police Department. Some of the guidelines he conveyed to his police superiors were extremely frivolous. Then, until the end of 1905 - until the dissolution of the BO in early November - Azef established the organization of terrorist work, without actually informing his police leaders about anything. His only issue during this period was a reference in August 1905 to Savinkov, who again managed to escape. Thus, the period from May 1903 to November 1905 can be recorded in Azef’s life as certainly “revolutionary”.
From the beginning of 1906, Azef, who had gained unshakable authority in the ranks of the AKP, became more and more inclined to cooperate with police structures.
However, even in 1906, he preferred not to provide information about the militants that would contribute to their arrest, but simply to frustrate the planned BO enterprises. Therefore, the main reason for the paralysis of the BO in 1906 was Azef’s provocation. But even here his game cannot be called unambiguous. Azef organizes the April assassination attempt in Moscow on Dubasov, and only by a miracle does he remain unharmed. By pointing out groups of terrorists conducting surveillance on government officials, Azef only intended to “scare” the members of the BO, but all of them remained at large and took part in other enterprises. For the entire 1906, it was Azef who handed over only one Kalashnikov in May, surveillance of which led to the arrest of four militants (including Savinkov, who managed to escape after 2 months). Since August 1906, Azef has been frustrating almost all the plans of the BO, which was latently one of the main reasons for its November dissolution. We do not have any data indicating that, on Azef’s instructions, at least one terrorist was arrested in the second half of 1906. In general, the period of Azef’s activity in 1906 can be described as conditionally “revolutionary,” since in this year he helped the work of the BO to approximately the same extent as he opposed its undertakings.
If we summarize the activities of the BO in 1903-1906, the following points should be noted:
In 1903 - 1906 There is a maximum increase in terrorist activity of the AKP BO for the entire period of its existence. Terrorist activities contributed to the emergence of a revolutionary situation by the beginning of 1905, and BW strikes were one of the factors influencing the tsarist government, which forced it to maneuver and make concessions, introducing a number of civil liberties.
Terrorist struggle of the AKP BO in 1903 - 1906. influenced the emergence and development of mass forms of protest against the autocracy. In 1903 - 1906 The AKP BO managed to eliminate some key representatives of the government apparatus of autocratic Russia. In response to the terrorist attacks, the government tightened its repressive policies towards the AKP. Police departments managed to block many areas of the BO’s activities and partially paralyze its functioning. With the decline of the revolutionary wave of 1905 - 1907. the activities of all Socialist Revolutionary and other organizations irreconcilably opposed to the existing state system, and the terror of the AKP BO in particular, only begins to push the government to abandon the course of reforms, and it moves on to punitive measures against any parties and associations of a terrorist nature, establishing a military field courts.
The methods and means by which terror was carried out in 1903 - 1906 were optimal for conducting combat during the historical period under consideration. These methods were developed by reality itself, but the most significant influence on their formation was exerted by the head of the BO E.F. Azef.
Despite his dual role in the AKP BO, Azef applied his colossal organizational abilities to improve terrorist practices.
Azef’s provocative activities significantly interfered with the non-stop development of terror, but in no way was a constant deterrent to its spread.
Azef managed to gather the most active revolutionary elements into the BO. BO AKP period 1903 - 1906. included the overwhelming majority of fanatics devoted to their ideas, ready to unconditionally throw their lives on the altar of revolution. The names of many members of the BO forever entered the chronicle of fighters for the social liberation of the peoples of Russia.
The ambiguity and inconsistency of terrorist methods of struggle were not realized by the majority of BO members, who were generally not inclined to introspection in the areas of moral and political problems that question the admissibility of violent forms of resistance to the regime.
During the period of its activity under review, the BO included 64 people. This appears to be the exact number of its members. The head of the BO was E.F. Azef, his deputy was B.V. Savinkov.
Approximate statistical data on members of the BO 1903-1906. are given below.
In BO in 1903 - 1906 included 13 women and 51 men.
The class origin of the members of the BO during these years of its existence looks like this: 13 nobles, 3 honorary citizens, 5 children of priests, 10 children of merchants, 27 burghers and 6 peasants. The leadership of the BO included 2 persons of noble origin, 3 sons of merchants and 2 tradesmen.
Based on these data, it can be argued that representatives of almost all strata of Russian society were concentrated in the BO.
The educational level of BO members for the period under review was distributed as follows: 6 BO members had higher education, 28 had incomplete higher education, 24 had secondary education, 6 had primary education. The leadership of the BO included 3 people with higher education, 3 with incomplete higher education, 1 with primary education. The figures reveal the main environment from which BO members were recruited - the students of higher educational institutions. The percentage of people who did not have a general educational foundation was relatively low in the BO.
By age, the composition of the BO during the time of its leadership by E.F. Azef in 1903 - 1906. it turned out like this: 1 member of the BO was over 50 years old, 1 - from 40 to 50, 6 - from 30 to 40, 54 from 20 to 30, 2 - up to 20. Among the BO leaders, the age of 5 persons varied from 20 to 30 years, 2 - from 30 to 40. As is easy to see, it was young people of 20-30 years of age who formed the backbone of the BO. There were relatively few mature people in the BO, and almost no young people.
The national composition of the BO for the period of time under consideration was as follows: 43 Russians, 19 Jews and 2 Poles. The leadership of the BO included 5 Jews and 2 Russians. The data allows us to talk about representatives of virtually only two nations going to terror.
All members of the AKP BO from 1903 to 1906. adhered to beliefs with a distinctly socialist orientation. The influence of the ideas of liberalism on the formation of the ideological attitudes of the BO members is not traced in any example (with the exception of P.S. Polivanov, who stayed in the BO for three months - from May to August 1903).
For many members of the BO 1903 - 1906. the rigid ideological canons of the AKP were too narrow, and they perceived their stay and work in the BO as serving the interests of the entire Russian revolution, which, after its victory, as the militants hoped, was supposed to carry out a radical reorganization of society on socialist principles.
The governing body of the AKP - its Central Committee begins in 1903-1906. approach terrorism very carefully as a means of political struggle; Gradually, an anti-terrorism movement is latently maturing in the Central Committee. After the death of M.R. Gots, which followed in August 1906, there was not a single convinced representative of the unconditional acceptance of terror as a method of struggle in the leadership of the AKP.
Political and social achievements of the revolution of 1905-1907. forced the leaders of the AKP to reconsider many provisions of party tactics. The changes made, not least of all, affected terrorist practices and forced the BO to suspend and intensify combat activities, depending on the internal political climate in Russia.
In 1903 - 1906 the incorrect interference of the AKP Central Committee in the affairs of the BO becomes a constantly present factor, which gave rise to mutual hostility between these two party structures. The Central Committee's dissatisfaction with the activities of the BO greatly contributed to its collapse at the end of 1906.
The dissolution of the BO in November 1906 put an end to the most “heroic” period of “storm and stress” in the history of the Socialist Revolutionary terror. B.V. Savinkov, one of the most capable and determined supporters and organizers of the military cause, left the leadership of the BO for a long time. E.F. Azef, seeking to rehabilitate himself in the eyes of representatives of police departments, contributes to the curtailment of the work of the BO and prefers to temporarily withdraw from terrorist activities.
Provocative activities of E.F. Azef.
From the end of 1901, after meeting G.A. Gershuni Azef began to hide some of the information concerning the latter and the BO headed by him. The tactics of Azef’s messages about Gershuni in the DP were quite peculiar. He wrote honestly about Gershuni's leading role in the negotiations for the unification of the party, but tried to either deny or downplay Gershuni's involvement in terror. So, being well aware of Gershuni’s role in the murder of D.S. Sipyagina, Azef on July 4, 1902 wrote to the head of the foreign agents of the DP L.A. Rataev: “Gershuni belongs to the Combat Organization of the Socialist Revolutionary Party<…>He himself does not take direct part, and his activities consist only of traveling, acquiring money for the Combat Organization and finding people who are capable of sacrificing themselves from among the youth.” Of all the BO plans of this period, Azef gave the police only the absolutely unrealistic plan to assassinate V.K. Plehve by attacking his carriage by two officers.
From the end of 1902, the second stage in Azef’s activities began, when the secret officer began to work more for the revolution than for the police. At this time, Azef did everything in his power to develop a murder plan, select executors, and send militants to Russia. He covered them from the police by inquiring from L.A. Rataeva knew information about the plans of terrorists, while insuring herself in the eyes of the police by supplying scraps of information about the plans of terrorists, which she could not use in any way. He informed the DP about other aspects of the activities of the Socialist Revolutionary Party, revealed the plans of competing groups of terrorists, and eliminated his ill-wishers Kh. Levit and S.N. Sletov with the help of the police.
The reasons for Yevno Azef's change of course lie in many factors. Presumably one of them was the anti-Semitic policy of the Russian government. V.M. Chernov, according to L. Priceman, believed that the anti-Semitism of V.K. Plehve was one of the main reasons that prompted Azef to organize his murder. Azef’s second victim, Moscow Governor-General Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich, who declared immediately after his appointment to this post that his goal was “to protect Moscow from Jews,” was the same symbol of anti-Semitism as Plehve. But, at the same time, it would be stupid to reduce the murders committed to the personal “revenge” of an employee of the DP and the head of the AKP BO. The terrorist activities of the Social Revolutionaries are characterized by their systematic nature and were directed primarily against key representatives of the administrative elite. Another factor that, in my opinion, played a much more significant role in Azef’s behavior was his political views. Of course, he was a paid agent of the DP and a provocateur, who went to great lengths for the sake of selfish interests, but, nevertheless, he developed his own views, political convictions, and they played a certain role in his behavior.
In the first months of his stay abroad, Azef was rather restrained, opposed extreme forms of revolutionary struggle and joined the moderate Marxist circle. Having become an agent of the secret police, Azef, on her instructions, posed as a supporter of extreme, terrorist forms of struggle. According to the testimony of A.V. Gerasimov, Azef was a moderate person in his views, not to the left of a moderate liberal. He always spoke sharply, sometimes even with undisguised irritation, about violent, revolutionary methods of action. He was a resolute opponent of the revolution and recognized only reforms, and even then carried out with great consistency. He treated Stolypin's agrarian legislation with almost admiration and often said that the main evil of Russia was the lack of property among peasants.
But maybe Azef wanted to look like a man of moderate views only in the eyes of his police leaders? Perhaps the most curious thing is that in conversations with party comrades, he expressed the same views, with some adjustment. V.M. Chernov recalled: “According to his views, he took an extreme right position in the Central Committee, and he was often jokingly called “a cadet with terror.” He pushed social problems into the distant future and did not believe at all in the mass movement as a direct revolutionary force. At this moment he recognized the only real struggle for political freedom, and the only effective means at the disposal of the revolution was terror.” He outlined his views in most detail at a meeting with M.R. Gotz in October 1905, when, after familiarizing himself with the Manifesto on October 17, the Socialist Revolutionaries living in Geneva at that time gathered and decided what to do next: “Tolstoy (Azef) did something that surprised many statement: he is, in essence, only a fellow traveler of the party, as soon as a constitution is achieved, he will be a consistent legalist and evolutionist. He considers any revolutionary intervention in the development of the elemental social demands of the masses to be ruinous, and at this phase of the movement he will break away from the party and break with us. It’s not the road for us to go any further.”
It is noteworthy that such a position, completely exceptional in the Socialist Revolutionary Party, did not interfere with Azev in his party career. Often when voting in the Central Committee, despite his moderate views, he remained in the minority, and sometimes alone. It would seem that a police agent should not stand out for his views in a revolutionary environment, and if he does stand out, then in the direction of extreme, orthodox revolutionism, but in this case we see a completely opposite picture.
Azef’s terrorist activities were also facilitated by the popularity he enjoyed in the party and which endlessly appealed to him. “He, a passionate player, was also influenced by the unusually sharp, fascinating game that he played with the DP and with the Socialist Revolutionary Central Committee, in which the stakes were the heads of ministers, grand dukes, Socialist Revolutionary militants, his own head, the fate of Russia, the revolution.”
After the Manifesto of October 17, Azef believed in the success of the revolution and with manic obsession rushed around with the idea of blowing up the building of the St. Petersburg Security Department. Returning after a meeting with M.R. Gots, he expressed this idea to V.M. Chernov: under the guise of a carriage with prisoners, bring several pounds of dynamite into the secret police courtyard to carry out an explosion. Azef probably wanted so badly to destroy all evidence and witnesses of his connections with the secret police.
The revolution was defeated, but a constitutional regime was established in Russia. On April 26, 1906, P.A. Stolypin became Minister of Internal Affairs, whose activities Azef rated very highly. Azef’s new leader in the secret police was A.V. Gerasimov, who treated him as the main weapon in the fight against the revolution and handled the information provided to him with extraordinary caution. In May 1906, a new period began in Azef’s activities. He again becomes a devoted employee of the St. Petersburg security department and serves only one master - the Russian government. The last terrorist act that he organized was the assassination attempt on Moscow Governor-General F.V. Dubasov on April 23, 1906.
Thanks to the joint activities of Azef and Gerasimov, all the efforts of the Combat Organization to carry out the assassination attempt on Stolypin were paralyzed and it was dissolved in October 1906. Azef told Gerasimov where the headquarters of the Central Combat Detachment of the Socialist Revolutionary Party was located, which helped arrest L. Zilberberg and V. Sulyatitsky. Azef told Gerasimov in detail about the assassination attempt on the Tsar, which was being prepared by the new leadership of the detachment led by B. Nikitenko. Thanks to Azef’s instructions, the head of the Flying Combat Detachment of the Northern Region of the Socialist Revolutionary Party, K. Trauberg, was arrested. Azef reported on the plan to blow up the State Council and named the new leader of the detachment, Anna Rasputina, as a result of which the remnants of the detachment were arrested and seven people were hanged. Azef kept Gerasimov in the know about the plans of the BO, recreated in early 1908, to kill Nicholas II.
Azef's exposure had enormous consequences. At first, the socialist revolutionaries completely refused to believe in his provocative activities. When there was no longer any doubt about it, for many Socialist Revolutionaries it meant the collapse of ideals and value systems. Several suicides occurred among people close to Azef (Bella Lapina); yesterday's irreconcilable terrorists completely refused to participate in revolutionary activities (P.V. Karpovich); Party leaders were accused of the most fantastic crimes. The revolutionary party, which included terror in its program as a way to combat the political system of Russia at that time, had to strive for the emergence in its ranks of a synthesized type of party worker who, being a member of the Central Committee, would at the same time be a terrorist. However, the shortsightedness of almost all AKP members who faced the provocateur; personal ambitions, complacency, cowardice and politicking of the majority of members of the Central Committee; arrogance, psychological narrowness and naivety of the members of the BO - made it impossible to raise terror to the proper height and were the reason for the excessive rooting in the party of E.F. Azef, who outwitted and outplayed everyone without exception.
But Azef's exposure had dire consequences for the government camp as well. Newspapers around the world accused the Russian government of carrying out all the assassination attempts in recent years under the direction of government agents. This led to a decline in the prestige of the Russian state throughout the world. But there was something else. The exposure of Azef, the murder by A.A. Petrov of the head of the St. Petersburg security department, Colonel S.G. Karpov on December 19, 1909, and the murder of P.A. Stolypin by the agent of the Kiev security department D.G. Bogrov led the leaders of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia to some kind of mystical horror of secret employees. If the organizers of political investigation saw the secret officers they used as the most reliable means of fighting the revolution, and from 1902 to 1908 the number of security departments increased from 3 to 31, then after the murder of Stolypin the situation changed. Security departments began to be perceived as breeding grounds for provocation. The DP met the February revolution practically without a wide network of secret agents. Perhaps this is one of the main consequences of the Azef case.
Conclusion
In the Combat Organization of the Socialist Revolutionary Party 1903-1906. Representatives of almost all strata of Russian society were concentrated, but the main environment from which BO members were recruited was the students of higher educational institutions. At the same time, during this period, the recruitment of new militants was very limited - E.F. Azef showed great insight and exactingness when selecting members of the BO.
The combat organization was more like a kind of brotherhood than an organ of the Central Committee of the AKP; there was practically no atmosphere of subordination in it.
The AKP BO Charter had little significance and mostly expressed the views of its members.
As for the fate of the Combat Organization in the period from 1903 to 1906, it was revived practically from scratch, its activities were established precisely during this period, and the forms of this activity did not change in the subsequent years of the existence of the BO.
Yevno Azef’s activities to strengthen the Combat Organization are characterized by great activity and energy. All this led to the fact that in 1903 - 1906. There was a maximum increase in the terrorist activity of the AKP BO for the entire period of its existence. Terrorist activities contributed to the emergence of a revolutionary situation by the beginning of 1905, and BW attacks were one of the factors influencing the tsarist government. Despite his dual role in the AKP BO, Azef applied his colossal organizational abilities to improve terrorist practices. Azef’s provocative activities significantly interfered with the non-stop development of terror, but in no way was a constant deterrent to its spread. During these years, Azef was a personification, a kind of banner, a necessary component of the fighting spirit of the terrorist activities of the Socialist Revolutionaries.
The ambiguity of the figure of the DP agent and the head of the AKP BO will probably worry the minds of a considerable number of historians. There are many interpretations of the bilateral activities of a provocateur; in the conclusion of this work I will give my vision of this problem.
In my opinion, during the period under review, Azef used the DP to a greater extent in the interests of the AKP rather than the revolutionaries in the interests of the secret police. Posing himself as a secret informant for the DP, Azef eventually outmaneuvered them, helping to strengthen the Combat Organization of Socialist Revolutionaries. It is interesting that Azef was not at the same time an informant for the Socialist Revolutionaries; he kept his connection with the police secret from them, but in fact he acted as a “Socialist Revolutionary spy” in the ranks of the DP no less than a DP spy in the ranks of the AKP. If he had really served the counter-revolutionary cause, he would have “strangled” the Socialist Revolutionaries much earlier, betraying all members of the BO and the entire leadership of the Central Committee. After such a blow, the party would hardly have been able to recover. Instead, Azef not only left everything as it was, but even led the AKP BO to flourish, giving the secret police only the appearance of serving it as its agent. Subsequently, E.V. Azef’s course changed, and the question remains who he was more of: a revolutionary and terrorist, or a secret police officer and provocateur, but consideration of this problem is not within the scope of this work. The main conclusion regarding this historical figure is that in the period from 1903-1906. Azef’s dual role was reduced to a greater extent to covering up the activities of the AKP BO terrorists, and to the contradictory combination of containing its excessive growth with the further improvement of the terrorist practices of the Socialist Revolutionary Party.
Bibliography
1. Program of the AK Party. - www.hrono.rudokumeserprog.html
2. Chernov V.M. The terrorist element in our program/Revolutionary Russia, 1902 - www.chernov.sstu.ru
3. Savinkov B.V. Memoirs of a terrorist. - Kharkov: Proletary, 1926
1. Gorodnitsky R. A. Combat organization of the Socialist Revolutionary Party in 1901-1911. - M.: Rosspan, 1998
2. Gusev K.V. Socialist Revolutionary Party: from petty-bourgeois revolutionism to counter-revolution: Historical outline. - M., 1975.
3. Morozov K.N. Socialist Revolutionary Party in 1907-1914. - M.: ROSSPEN, 1998.
4. Individual political terror in Russia, XIX - early XX centuries. - M.: Memorial, 1996
5. History of political parties in Russia: Textbook. For university students/N.G. Dumova, N.D. Erofeev, S.V. Tyutyukin; edited by A.I. Zeveleva. - M.: Higher. School, 1994.
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Tags: Terrorist activities and combat organization of the Socialist Revolutionary Party
Combat Organization
A structural unit of the Socialist Revolutionary Party, created specifically to carry out the most important terrorist acts in 1901, i.e., even before the final formation of the party itself. The leaders of the B.O. were G. A. Gershuni (1901-1903) and E. F. (1903-1908). B.O. was strictly secretive, well organized and small in number. At first, its number was only 10-15 people. During the revolution of 1905-1907. it included about 30 terrorists. B.O. had its own funds, was independent and autonomous in relation to the leadership of the Socialist Revolutionary Party. The most famous terrorist acts committed by its members: the murder of the Ministers of Internal Affairs D.S. Sipyagin (04/2/1902) and V.K. Plehve (07/15/1904), the attempt on the life of the Kharkov governor I.M. Obolensky (probably 05/11/1903 ) and Ufa governor N.M. Bogdanovich (07/22/1902). On February 4, 1905, on the territory of the Moscow Kremlin, a member of the B.O.I.P. killed the Moscow Governor-General, Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich, the brother of Alexander III and the uncle of Emperor Nicholas I. Many of the planned terrorist acts of the B.O. thwarted because its long-term leader Azef was a secret agent of the Police Department. After Azef was exposed as a provocateur, the Socialist Revolutionary Party was dissolved.
Terror and terrorists: Dictionary. - St. Petersburg: St. Petersburg Publishing House. university. Lantsov S. A. 2004.
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Combat organization of the ship- rational distribution of personnel among command posts and combat posts, defining the functional responsibilities of each crew member to maintain high combat readiness of the ship and the effective use of weapons and technical... ... Naval Dictionary
"Combat organization of the Socialist Revolutionary Party"- Combat organization of the Socialist Revolutionary Party (Russia) BO AKP. In operation since 1901. The initiator of the creation, the first leader and author of the first charter of the AKP BO was G. A. Gershuni. Initially, the BO consisted of Gershuni and those attracted by him to commit... ... Terrorism and terrorists. Historical reference book
Combat organization of the Socialist Revolutionary Party- This term has other meanings, see Combat organization. Combat organization of the Socialist Revolutionary Party (SRs) Other names: B.O. Part of: Socialist Revolutionary Party Ideology: populism, revolutionary... ... Wikipedia
Books
- The first militant organization of the Bolsheviks. 1905-1907 , S. M. Pozner. This book is a supplement to the book The First Conference of Military and Combat Organizations of the RSDLP in November 1906, published by the Marx-Engels-Lenin Institute in 1932. It complements the protocols...
