Constitutional Democratic Party (« People's Freedom Party», « k.-d. party», « constitutional democrats», « ka-det party", Later " cadets") - a major centrist political party in Russia at the beginning of the 20th century.

Story

The decision to create the Constitutional Democratic Party was made at the 5th congress of the liberal organization of zemstvo leaders, the Union of Zemstvo Constitutionalists (July 9-10, 1905), based on the task set by the members of the Union of “unifying the zemstvo forces with the national forces” in the process of preparing for the elections in State Duma.

On August 23, 1905, the 4th congress of the liberal intelligentsia organization Liberation Union took place in Moscow, which decided to join the Union of Zemstvo Constitutionalists and create a single party together with zemstvo leaders. The commissions elected by both Unions formed the Provisional Committee, which prepared the unification congress.

Despite transport problems caused by the All-Russian political strike, the First (founding) Party Congress was held in Moscow from October 12 to 18, 1905. In his opening speech, Pavel Nikolaevich Milyukov characterized the constitutional democratic movement as ideological, non-class, social reformist, defined the main task of the created party as “entering the Duma with the exclusive purpose of fighting for political freedom and for proper representation,” and drew the boundaries of the party in the political spectrum Russia as follows: from the more right-wing parties, the Cadets are distinguished by the denial of both bureaucratic centralization and Manchesterism (a direction of economic policy in the 19th century in England, requiring unconditional non-interference of the state in economic life), from the more left-wing ones - by their commitment to a constitutional monarchy and the denial of the requirement for complete socialization of the means of production. At a meeting on October 14, 1905, the congress adopted a resolution in which it welcomed the “peaceful, and at the same time formidable” workers’ strike movement and expressed support for its demands. The next day, October 15, at the congress a message was announced about the signing by Emperor Nicholas II of the Highest Manifesto granting the people rights and freedoms. The delegates greeted this news with loud applause and shouts of “hurray.” In a heartfelt speech, Mikhail Lvovich Mandelstam briefly described the history of the liberation movement, which resulted in the October Manifesto, and welcomed the alliance of the intelligentsia, students and workers. Those gathered stood in honor of the memory of the fighters who died for people's freedom, and vowed not to give this freedom back.

At the same time, at the meeting on October 18, the congress gave a skeptical assessment of the Manifesto, noting the vagueness, allegory and vagueness of expressions, and expressed uncertainty about the possibility of implementing its provisions in practice under the current political conditions. The party demanded the abolition of exceptional laws, the convening of a Constituent Assembly to draft a constitution, and the release of political prisoners. At the banquet after the congress, P. N. Milyukov ended his speech with the words: “Nothing has changed, the war continues.”

The congress adopted the party's charter and program and elected a temporary Central Committee.

The relationship of cooperation between the cadets and the new government of Count Sergei Yulievich Witte did not work out. Witte invited the cadets to join the cabinet of ministers, but did not accept their proposal for general elections to the Constituent Assembly in order to develop a constitution, and his negotiations with the delegation of cadet leaders of the zemstvo union (N. N. Lvov, F. A. Golovin, F. F. . Kokoshkin) ended in failure. S. Yu. Witte did not accept the delegation of the Zemstvo-City Congress, at which the Cadets had a majority, reproaching the liberal public for “reluctance to assist the authorities in implementing the principles of the manifesto and maintaining order.”

At the Second Congress (January 5-11, 1906), the subtitle “Party of People's Freedom” was added to the name of the party (the combination “Constitutional Democratic” was not very clear to the masses of the illiterate population). The congress approved a new program, in which it definitely spoke out for a constitutional parliamentary monarchy and the extension of voting rights to women. On the issue of participation in the elections to the State Duma, the congress overwhelmingly decided to take part in the elections, despite the opposition of the administration and the electoral qualification that excluded workers and some peasants from elections. In case of victory in the elections, the congress declared the main goal of work in the Duma to be the introduction of universal suffrage, political and civil liberties, and the adoption of urgent measures to calm the country. The congress elected a permanent Central Committee chaired by Prince. Pavel Dolgorukov, which, in particular, included M. M. Vinaver, I. V. Gessen, N. N. Glebov, Prince. P. D. Dolgorukov, A. A. Kizevetter, F. F. Kokoshkin, A. A. Kornilov, V. A. Maklakov, M. L. Mandelstam, P. N. Milyukov, S. A. Muromtsev, V. D. Nabokov, L. I. Petrazhitsky, I. I. Petrunkevich, F. I. Rodichev, P. B. Struve, N. V. Teslenko, book. D. I. Shakhovskaya and G. F. Shershenevich.

In preparation for the elections to the Duma, the number of the party grew steadily, reaching 70 thousand people by April 1906. This was facilitated by the high level of political activity before the elections, and the opportunity to join the party on the basis of just one oral statement.

The party enjoyed great success in wide circles of both the intelligentsia, merchants and townspeople, and the liberal nobility, as well as among the working people. Wide public support was ensured by her program of deep political and social reforms, and on the other hand, by the desire to implement these reforms exclusively peacefully, in parliament, without revolutions, violence and blood.

As a result, constitutional democrats received 179 out of 499 seats (35.87%) in the First State Duma, forming the largest faction. The Chairman of the Duma was a member of the Central Committee of the Cadets, Professor Sergei Andreevich Muromtsev, all of his deputies (in particular, Nikolai Andreevich Gredeskul) and the chairmen of 22 Duma commissions were also cadets.

After the dissolution of the First Duma after 2.5 months of its work, the Cadets first participated in the meeting of deputies in Vyborg and in the development of the “Vyborg Appeal,” but soon abandoned the demands of the Vyborg Appeal and went to the elections to the Second Duma under very moderate slogans.

All those who signed the Vyborg Appeal were deprived of the right to be elected to the Second Duma (during the elections they were under investigation), and to the Third Duma (those sentenced to punishment by court were deprived of the right to vote for 3 years after the end of the punishment). Many popular party figures were unable to take part in subsequent elections. The success of the Cadets in the elections to the First Duma could not be repeated.

Group portrait of part of the Cadets faction in the Second Duma.

Social composition of the party and its electorate

Initially, the party was organized by representatives of the intelligentsia and the zemstvo liberal nobility. The party included liberal-minded landowners, the middle urban bourgeoisie (industrialists, merchants, bankers), teachers, doctors, and office workers. During the period of revolutionary upsurge of 1905-1907, many workers, artisans and peasants were members of party organizations or actively supported the party. The desire of the Cadets to play the role of constructive opposition and to oppose the tsarist government exclusively through parliamentary methods led, after the defeat of the 1905 revolution, to disappointment in the tactics of the Cadets and an outflow from the party of representatives of social groups engaged in manual labor and with small incomes. The reduction in the number of workers in the party continued until the revolution of 1917. During all this time, the Cadets Party was supported mainly by the urban middle class.

However, the attempt by the leader of the cadets to save the monarchy in this way failed. On March 2, 1917, Nicholas II changed his decision to abdicate the throne in favor of his young son Alexei and abdicated in favor of his brother Mikhail Alexandrovich, who, in turn, declared that he would accept supreme power only if such was the decision of the Constituent Assembly. In the current circumstances, when members of the Romanov dynasty itself abdicated power, it was difficult to further defend the monarchy. Already at the VII Congress of the Constitutional Democratic Party, held in Petrograd on March 25 - 28, 1917, the party program was revised: instead of demanding a constitutional monarchy, it was proclaimed that “Russia must be a democratic and parliamentary republic.”

The Cadets dominated the first composition of the Provisional Government; P. N. Milyukov, one of the party leaders, became Minister of Foreign Affairs. The cadets were close to the highest command staff of the army (M.V. Alekseev and others). In the summer of 1917, due to the obvious crisis in the revolutionary methods of governing the country, they relied on a military dictatorship, and after the failure of the Kornilov speech, which they sympathized with, they were removed from the Provisional Government.

After the October Revolution

Council of People's Commissars

Decree on the arrest of the leaders of the civil war against the revolution

Members of the leading institutions of the Cadet Party, as a party of enemies of the people, are subject to arrest and trial by revolutionary tribunals.

Local Soviets are entrusted with the obligation of special supervision of the Cadet Party due to its connection with the Kornilov-Kaledin civil war against the revolution.

The decree comes into force from the moment it is signed.

Chairman of the Council of People's Commissars
Vl. Ulyanov (Lenin)

Administrator of the Council of People's Commissars
Vlad. Bonch-Bruevich

The cadets participated in various underground anti-Bolshevik organizations (Right Center, National Center, Union of Renaissance) and actively supported the White movement. The motto of the cadets proclaimed “the national restoration of Russia with the help of the new, in essence and spirit all-Russian, non-party, non-class power of the Supreme Ruler.” The Eastern Conference of the Cadet Party, held in Omsk in May 1919, proclaimed A.V. Kolchak as the national leader.

In the early 1920s, the Cadets party played a large role in emigration, where a number of programmatic and tactical issues somewhat diverted various currents in the party from each other. Right-wing Cadets (P. Struve, V. Nabokov), who made up the majority, in their speeches became closer to the monarchists. Left Cadets (Republicans), led by P.N. Milyukov, sought support in the peasantry, which led them to a rapprochement with the Socialist Revolutionaries. From the Cadets In emigration, part of the so-called “Smenovekhites” came out, proposing “Change of Milestones” and recognition of Soviet power.

The main points of the program (for 1913)

Leaders and prominent figures

see also

Notes

1. Published in the publication: P.B. Struve, “Selected Works”, Moscow, ROSSPEN, 1999, p. 412-423. Translation from German by N.S. Plotnikov. For the first time: Peter Struve, Sozialliberalismus // Internationales Handwörterbuch des Gewerkschaftswesens. Bd. 2. Berlin, 1932. S. 1531-1536
2. Congresses and conferences of the constitutional democratic party. In 3 volumes / Vol.1. 1905-1907 - M.: “Russian Political Encyclopedia” (ROSSPEN), 1997 - pp. 18-22. .
3. Congresses and conferences of the constitutional democratic party. In 3 volumes / Vol.1. 1905-1907 - M.: “Russian Political Encyclopedia” (ROSSPEN), 1997 - p.28. .
4. Congresses and conferences of the constitutional democratic party. In 3 volumes / Vol.1. 1905-1907 - M.: “Russian Political Encyclopedia” (ROSSPEN), 1997 - pp. 29-31. .
5. Congresses and conferences of the constitutional democratic party. In 3 volumes / Vol.1. 1905-1907 - M.: “Russian Political Encyclopedia” (ROSSPEN), 1997 - pp. 31-33.

Constitutional Democrats (Kadets), or the People's Freedom Party, considered themselves the successors of the liberal democratic traditions of the Russian intelligentsia, coming from the Decembrists and Herzen. The Cadet Party grew out of zemstvo and city unions generated by the reforms of Alexander II. Actively working in provincial zemstvos, especially in the field of public education, healthcare, development of local productive forces, communications, etc., the cadets accumulated significant practical and social experience.

Being before the revolution of 1917 on the platform of expanding the manifesto of October 17, 1905 through reforms, the Cadets demanded the establishment of a fully democratic, constitutional system in Russia, a parliamentary, responsible ministry, unlimited freedom of speech, assembly, etc.

Cadet poster 1917

The Cadets proposed the confiscation of large private land properties, with state compensation for the value of confiscated land to its owners, the transfer of confiscated land to peasants and the expansion of the rights and powers of already successfully functioning zemstvos.

The Cadets were not at all, as the Bolshevik press claimed, reactionaries in matters of social legislation: on the contrary, they insisted on laws that were progressive for that time - on the eight-hour working day; on compulsory state insurance of workers, with full coverage in case of illness or disability; on pensions for workers upon reaching the age limit; on complete freedom in the formation and work of trade unions. The cadets developed a draft law on compulsory universal education, on free medical care and a number of others.

However, the Cadets were not a party based on mass organizations with a production or territorial profile. Among the cadets there were mainly leaders of zemstvo and city governments, and a whole galaxy of brilliant representatives of the Russian intelligentsia - lawyers, economists, publicists, historians, including, among the latter, such prominent professors of Moscow University as Kiesewetter, Wipper, Miliukov.

The difficulty of the upcoming period of reforms, which P. A. Stolypin estimated at 20-25 years, lay primarily in the fact that due to the long, 25-year break (1881-1905) in reforms in Russia, the education of a wide layer of people in the city and village, who would be consciously ready to defend both freedom and democracy, and the state interests of a great power.

On February 27, 1917, the Cadets and the elements of the Duma that joined them progressive bloc" found themselves in power. But being the day before the most left-wing legal party in opposition to the government, the Cadets immediately after February Revolution, as if by inertia, they continued to fight against the already overthrown tsarist ministers, carried away by investigative commissions and other issues that had already become a thing of the historical past, in search of a “counter-revolutionary” chimera.

Member of the Central Committee of the Cadet Party, manager of the affairs of the Provisional Government V. Nabokov(father famous writer), who observed the chairman closest to others Provisional GovernmentPrince Lvov, who was also the Minister of Internal Affairs, considered it necessary to say - “no matter how harsh such a sentence may sound: Prince. Lvov not only did not do, but did not even try to do anything to counteract the ever-growing decomposition. He sat on the box, but didn’t even try to collect the reins.”

According to Chernova Prince Lvov was “in the era of the revolution, often to the left of the Cadets and in general more helpless than them... He often contrasted events with some kind of fatalistic lack of will, which for some reason was later mixed with some other weaknesses of the Provisional Government and dubbed “Kerenschina.”

This characteristic fully reflects the typical idealization of the so-called parties of revolutionary democracy, typical of the Cadets and their circle, and the naive belief that there are no enemies of democracy and freedom among them. Therefore, they did not see in time and underestimated the enemies on the left. Being themselves patriots and democrats, the Cadets did not attach any importance to the fact that among the parties of the so-called revolutionary democrats who fought with them against the autocracy, there was a strong current that was hostile not only to the state and national interests of Russia, but also, for the sake of implementing its doctrine, was ready to trample newly gained democracy and freedom of the people.

V. Nabokov. "Provisional Government". "Archive of the Russian Revolution". T. I, p. 39.

V. Chernov. "Before the Storm" New York 1953. Pp.

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The Constitutional Democratic Party (Kadets) is one of the basic political parties in Russia at the beginning of the 20th century. In Soviet historiography it was characterized as a “political party of the counter-revolutionary liberal bourgeoisie.”

The predecessors of the Cadet Party were two liberal organizations - the Union of Liberation and the Union of Zemstvo Constitutionalists. The party was formed in October 1905. on the basis of the unification of these two unions.

Organizationally, the party took shape during the period of the highest rise of the revolution of 1905–1907.

The founding congress took place on October 12–18, 1905 in ᴦ. Moscow, where the party's charter and program were adopted. At the Second Congress, held in January 1906, it was decided to add the words “people's freedom” party to the main name of the party - constitutional-democratic.

The party's Central Committee (CC) consisted of two departments: St. Petersburg and Moscow. The St. Petersburg department was involved in the further development of the program, bills for submission to the State Duma, and provided leadership to the Duma faction. The functions of the Moscow department were publishing activities and organizing propaganda work.

The Cadet Party consisted of the elite of the Russian intelligentsia: teachers of higher and secondary educational institutions, doctors, engineers, lawyers, writers, artists, as well as representatives of liberal-minded landowners and the bourgeoisie. The party also included a small number of artisans, workers and peasants.

The leader of the cadets was a brilliant orator and publicist, famous historian P.N. Milyukov. In 1894, for participating in the liberation movement, he was fired from Moscow University and exiled to Ryazan. Returning from exile in 1897, he was forced to go abroad, where he lectured on Russian history at Sofia, Boston and Chicago universities. Returning to Russia in 1899, Miliukov again took up politics and was repeatedly arrested for his harsh speeches and was forced to emigrate again. In April 1905, Miliukov returned to Russia and became an active participant in the political life of the country.

The Cadets declared their main goal to be the introduction of a democratic constitution in the country. An unlimited monarchy, according to their program, was to be replaced by a parliamentary democratic system (the Cadets avoided the question of whether it would be a monarchy or a republic, but their ideal was a constitutional monarchy of the English type).

They advocated the separation of powers into legislative, executive and judicial, for the creation of a government responsible to the State Duma, for a radical reform of local self-government and the courts, for universal suffrage, freedom of speech, press, assembly, unions, for strict adherence to " civil and political rights of the individual."

The Cadet work program was also aimed at streamlining bourgeois relations. One of its central points was the demand for freedom of workers' unions, meetings and strikes. The Cadets believed that the creation of legal workers' unions would contribute to a peaceful settlement of relations between labor and capital, between workers and entrepreneurs. The cadet program also provided for the introduction of an 8-hour working day at enterprises, a reduction in overtime work for adult workers, a ban on involving women and teenagers, social insurance and labor protection.

Their program included points about the restoration of state autonomy of Finland and Poland, but as part of Russia, and the cultural autonomy of other peoples.

In solving the agrarian question, the Cadets believed in the partial “alienation” (up to 60%) of the landowners’ land in favor of the peasants, which they had to buy at “a fair valuation” (ᴛ.ᴇ. at market prices), advocated private land ownership and were decisive opponents of its socialization.

Printed organs of the party: newspaper "Rech", magazine "Bulletin of the Party of People's Freedom".

In the 1st and 2nd State Dumas they occupied a dominant position. They supported the government's policies in World War I and were the initiators of the creation of the Progressive Bloc. Predominated in the first composition of the Provisional Government.

A special section of the cadet program was devoted to educational issues. In it, the cadets advocated the abolition of restrictions on admission to school related to gender, nationality and religion, as well as freedom of private and public initiative in the opening and organization of educational institutions of all types. The Cadets insisted on the autonomy of universities, freedom of teaching in higher education, free organization of students, an increase in the number of secondary educational institutions and lower fees in them, and the introduction of universal, free and compulsory education in primary school.

In general, the cadet program was aimed at developing Russia according to the Western bourgeois model. They dreamed of creating an “ideal” society in which there would be no insurmountable class conflicts, harmonious social relations would be established, and optimal conditions would be created for the comprehensive development of the individual.

They achieved their goals only through peaceful means - by obtaining a majority in the State Duma and carrying out through it the reforms written in their program. The Kadet Party did not represent unity. Subsequently, three directions were determined in its composition: “left”, “right” cadets and the center.

After the First Congress, the process of organizational building of the cadet party began throughout the Russian Empire. Already in October-December 1905, 72 party organizations were constituted. They arose primarily in places where the organizations of the Union of Liberation and the Union of Zemstvo Constitutionalists had previously functioned. The bulk of local cadet organizations were formed during the election campaign to the First State Duma. Thus, in January-April 1906, 274 cadet committees were already constituted. In the same year, cadet organizations began to function in Mogilev and Pinsk - the first organizations of the People's Freedom Party on the territory of Belarus.

According to the second paragraph of the charter of the Cadet Party, its members could be persons who “accepted the party program and agreed to submit to party discipline established by the party charter and party congresses.” A recommendation from a party member was also necessary. It was noted that the Cadets are a “non-class” party and, by their nature, fully correspond to the “traditional mood of the Russian intelligentsia.”

The social composition of the Cadet Party underwent changes based on the specific political situation. The Cadets Party included the flower of the Russian intelligentsia, as well as part of the liberal-minded landowners, the middle urban bourgeoisie, office workers, doctors, and clerks. During the revolution of 1905–1907. in local party organizations there were many representatives of the “social lower classes”, workers, artisans, office workers, and in rural ones - peasants. The total number of cadets in 1905–1907. fluctuated between 50-70 thousand people, and, according to the Police Department, in the spring of 1906 this party numbered about 100 thousand people. Organizationally, the party was an amorphous and unstable political structure, subject to significant fluctuations based on the political situation. The main source of funding for the Central Committee was donations from wealthier party members and proceeds from charitable events.

After the defeat of the revolution, the People's Freedom Party, like the left-wing parties, experienced an organizational crisis, which proceeded for a long time and painlessly. During 1907–1914, 15 provincial, 50 city, 132 district and 69 volost cadet organizations ceased to exist. Only a few cadet organizations survived in Belarus, the Baltic states, Transcaucasia and Siberia, and generally disintegrated in Poland and Central Asia. On the eve of the First World War, there were only 10–12 thousand people in the cadet party.

For the period 1907–1917 There is a characteristic tendency for the Cadets of the middle urban strata to predominate in the party, and for the strengthening of its ties with representatives of the bourgeois elements proper—liberal-minded merchants, industrialists, and bankers.

The leader of the Cadet Party, its main theoretician and strategist was Pavel Nikolaevich Milyukov (1859–1943). After graduating from classical gymnasium, he entered the Faculty of History and Philology of Moscow University. His teachers were world-famous historians V. O. Klyuchevsky and P. G. Vinogradov. In 1892 he defended his dissertation for a master's degree in history. The aura of a major historian and the reputation of an “extreme left revolutionary” contributed to the growth of Miliukov’s popularity in wide circles of the Russian and Western European public. While abroad, he met with the leaders of various political parties (P. A. Kropotkin, E. K. Breshko-Breshkovskaya, V. I. Lenin, V. M.

Chernov, etc.), as well as with many public and political figures from England, France, the USA, etc.

countries Miliukov was a professor of Russian history at Sofia University and lectured on the history of social movements at Boston and Chicago universities. In the spring of 1905, after returning from abroad to revolutionary Russia, he joined the political struggle and began creating the Cadet Party, with which he linked his fate.

Russian liberals: Cadets
(documents, memoirs, journalism).

Program of the Constitutional Democratic Party
(People's Freedom Party)

I. Fundamental rights of citizens.

1. All Russian citizens, without distinction of gender, religion or nationality, are equal before the law. All class differences and all restrictions on the personal and property rights of Poles, Jews and all other individual groups of the population without exception must be abolished.

2. Every citizen is guaranteed freedom of conscience and religion. No persecution for professed beliefs and convictions, for change or renunciation of religious doctrine is allowed. The performance of religious and liturgical rites and the dissemination of religious doctrines is free, unless the actions performed thereby involve any common offenses provided for by criminal laws. The Orthodox Church and other confessions should be freed from state tutelage.

3. Everyone is free to express his thoughts orally and in writing, as well as to make them public and distribute them by printing or in any other way. Censorship, both general and special, no matter what it is called, is abolished and cannot be restored. For crimes and misdemeanors committed by word of mouth and in print, the perpetrators are answerable only before the court.

4. All Russian citizens are given the right to organize public meetings, both indoors and outdoors, to discuss all kinds of issues.

5. All Russian citizens have the right to form unions and societies without asking for permission.

6. The right to petition is granted both to individual citizens and to all kinds of groups, unions, meetings, etc.

7. The person and home of everyone must be inviolable. Entry into a private home, search, seizure and opening of private correspondence is permitted only in cases established by law, and not otherwise than by court order. Any detained person in cities and other places where the judiciary is located must be either released or presented to the judiciary within 24 hours, and in other areas of the empire no later than within 3 days from the time of detention. Any detention carried out without sufficient grounds or prolonged beyond the legal period entitles the victim to compensation from the state for the losses he has suffered.

8. No one can be prosecuted or punished except on the basis of the law - by the judiciary and the court updated by law. No emergency trials are permitted.

9. Every citizen enjoys freedom of movement and travel abroad. The passport system is being abolished.

10. All of the above rights of citizens must be introduced into the fundamental law of the Russian Empire and ensure judicial protection.

11. The Basic Law of the Russian Empire must guarantee to all nationalities inhabiting the empire, in addition to the complete civil and political equality of all citizens, the rights of free cultural self-determination, such as: complete freedom to use various languages ​​and dialects in public life, freedom to found and maintain educational institutions and all kinds of meetings , unions and institutions aimed at preserving and developing the language, literature and culture of each nationality, etc.

12. Russian should be the language of central institutions, the army and the navy. The use, along with the national language, of local languages ​​in state and public institutions and educational institutions maintained at the expense of the state or self-government bodies is regulated by general and local laws, and within their limits - by the institutions themselves. The population of each locality should be provided with primary and, if possible, further education in their native language.

II. Political system

13. Russia must be a constitutional and parliamentary monarchy. The state structure of Russia is determined by the fundamental law.

14. People's representatives are elected by universal, equal, direct and secret voting, without distinction of religion, nationality and gender.

The party allows within its midst a difference of opinion on the issue of organizing popular representation, in the form of one or two chambers, of which the second chamber should consist of representatives from local government bodies, reorganized on the basis of universal suffrage and extended to the whole of Russia.

15. People's representation participates in the exercise of legislative power, in establishing the state schedule of income and expenses, and in monitoring the legality and appropriateness of the actions of higher and lower administration.

16. Not a single resolution, order, decree, order, etc. an act that is not based on a resolution of popular representation, no matter what it is called and no matter who it comes from, cannot have the force of law.

17. The state list, in which all state income and expenses must be included, is established for no more than one year by law. No taxes, duties and fees in favor of the state, as well as state loans, can be established otherwise than by law.

18. Members of the Assembly of People's Representatives have the right of legislative initiative.

19. Ministers are responsible to the Assembly of People's Representatives, whose members have the right of inquiry and interpellation.

III. Local government and autonomy

Local self-government should be extended to the Russian state.

21. Representation in local self-government bodies, approaching the population through the establishment of small self-governing units, must be based on universal, equal, direct and closed voting without distinction of gender, religion and nationality, and assemblies of higher self-governing unions can be formed by electing assemblies of lower ones such same unions. Provincial zemstvos should be given the right to enter into temporary and permanent unions with each other.

22. The range of departments of local self-government bodies should extend to the entire area of ​​local government, including the position of security and deanery and with the exception of only those branches of government that, in the conditions of modern public life, must necessarily be concentrated in the hands of the central government with the provision of a part in favor of local self-government bodies funds currently flowing into the state budget.

23. The activities of local representatives of the central government should be limited to monitoring the legality of the activities of local government bodies, and the final decision on disputes and doubts arising in this regard should belong to judicial institutions.

24. After the establishment of the rights of civil freedom and proper representation with constitutional rights for the entire Russian state, a legal framework should be opened in the manner of national legislation to establish local autonomy and regional representative assemblies with the right to participate in the exercise of legislative power on certain subjects, according to the needs of the population.

25. Immediately after the establishment of imperial-wide democratic representation with constitutional rights, an autonomous structure is introduced in the Kingdom of Poland with a Sejm elected on the same basis as national representation, subject to the preservation of state unity and participation in central representation on the same basis as other parts of the empire. The boundaries between the Kingdom of Poland and neighboring provinces can be adjusted in accordance with the tribal composition and the wishes of the local population, and in the Polish state there should be nationwide guarantees of civil freedom and the right of nationality to cultural self-determination and the rights of minorities should be ensured.

26. Finland. The Constitution of Finland, which ensures its special state position, must be completely restored. Any further measures common to the empire and the Grand Duchy of Finland must henceforth be a matter of agreement between the legislative bodies of the empire and the grand duchy.

27. All deviations from the beginning of the judicial statutes of November 20, 1864, establishing the separation of judicial power from administrative power (irremovability, independence and publicity of the court and equality of all before the court), both introduced by later innovations and allowed during the drafting of the statutes, are abolished. In these types, first of all: a) the rule that no one can be punished without a valid verdict of a competent court is not subject to any restrictions; b) any interference by the Minister of Justice in the appointment to judicial positions or the transfer of judges, and especially in the conduct of court cases, is eliminated. Judges do not receive awards; c) the responsibility of officials is determined on a general basis; d) the competence of the jury is determined solely by the severity of the punishment prescribed by law, regardless of the nature of the case, and, however, all crimes against the state and against press laws are subject to this competence in any case. The court with class representatives is abolished. The jurisdiction of the elected magistrate's court also includes matters of the volost justice. The volost court and the institution of zemstvo chiefs are abolished. The requirement for a property qualification both for filling the position of a justice of the peace and for serving as a juror is abolished; f) the principle of unity of the cassation court is restored; f) the lawyer is organized on the basis of true government.

28. Regardless of this, in order to implement the most urgent and indisputable demands of criminal policy and process: a) the death penalty is abolished, of course, forever; b) a suspended sentence is imposed; c) a defense is established during the preliminary investigation; d) an adversarial element is introduced into the ritual of bringing someone to trial.

29. The immediate task is a complete revision of the criminal code, the repeal of regulations that contradict the principles of political freedom, and the revision of the draft civil code.

V. Financial and economic policy

30. Revision of the state expenditure budget in order to eliminate expenses that are unproductive in their purpose or size and a corresponding increase in state expenditures for the actual needs of the people.

31.Cancellation of redemption payments.

32. Development of direct taxation against indirect taxation; the general provision of indirect taxation and the gradual abolition of indirect taxes on consumer goods of the masses.

33. Reform of direct taxes based on progressive income and property taxation; introduction of a progressive inheritance tax.

34. Reducing customs duties in accordance with the situation of individual industries in the form of reducing the cost of consumer goods and the technical rise of industry and agriculture.

35. Circulation of funds from savings banks for the development of small loans.

VI. Agrarian legislation

36. Increasing the area of ​​land use by the population cultivating the land with personal labor, such as landless and landed peasants, as well as other categories of small landowners - state, appanage, cabinet and monastic lands, as well as through alienation for the same purpose at the expense of the state and the required size of privately owned lands with remuneration to current owners at a fair (not market) valuation.

Note. The price of land is determined according to the normal yield for a given area, subject to independent farming, without taking into account rental prices created by land needs.

37. Alienated lands go to the state land fund. The principles at which the lands of this fund are subject to transfer to the population in need (personal or communal ownership or use, etc.) must be established in accordance with the characteristics of land ownership and land use in various regions of Russia.

38. Wide-ranging organization of state assistance for the resettlement, resettlement and arrangement of economic life of peasants. Reorganization of land surveying, ending demarcation and other measures to improve the well-being of the rural population and improve agriculture.

39. Regularization by law of lease relations by ensuring the right to renew the lease, the right of the tenant, in case of transfer of the lease, to remuneration for the costs of improvement made but used on time, and the establishment of conciliation chambers to regulate rent and to resolve disputes and disagreements between tenants and landowners. Opening a legal path through the courts to reduce exorbitantly high rental prices and eliminate enslaving transactions in the field of land relations.

40. Abolition of existing rules on the hiring of rural pa6ochs and the extension of labor legislation to agricultural workers, in relation to the technical features of agriculture. The establishment of an agricultural inspection to monitor the correct application of labor protection legislation in this part and the introduction of criminal liability for rural owners for violating labor protection legislation.

VII. Labor legislation

41. Freedom of workers' unions and meetings.

42. The right to strike. The punishability of offenses committed during or in connection with strikes is determined on a general basis and in no case can be increased.

43. Extension of labor legislation and independent labor inspection to all types of hired labor; participation of workers' representatives in the supervision of the inspectorate over the implementation of laws protecting the interests of workers.

44. Legislative introduction of an eight-hour working day. Immediate implementation of this rule wherever it is currently possible, and its gradual introduction in other proceedings. Prohibition of night and overtime work, except technically and socially necessary.

45. Development of labor protection for women and children and the establishment of special labor protection measures for men in hazardous industries.

46. ​​The establishment of conciliation chambers consisting of an equal number of representatives of labor and capital to normalize all employment relations not regulated by labor legislation, and to resolve disputes and disagreements arising between workers and entrepreneurs.

47. Mandatory insurance through the state against illness (for a certain period), accidents and occupational diseases, with costs borne by entrepreneurs.

48. State insurance in cases of old age and inability to work for all persons living by personal labor.

49. Establishment of criminal liability for violation of labor protection laws.

VIII. On educational issues

Public education should be organized on the principles of freedom, democratization and decentralization, meaning by this the implementation of the following principles:

50. Elimination of all restrictions on entering school related to gender, origin and religion.

51. Freedom of private and public initiative in the opening and organization of educational institutions of all types and in the field of extracurricular education; freedom of teaching.

52. A direct connection should be established between the various levels of schools of all grades to facilitate the transition from the lowest to the highest level.

53. Complete autonomy and freedom of teaching in universities and other higher schools. Increasing their number. Reduced fees for listening to lectures. Organization of educational activities in higher schools for the wider population. Free organization of students.

54. The number of secondary educational institutions should be increased in accordance with social needs; the fee should be reduced. Local public institutions should be given broad participation in the organization of educational work.

55. Introduction of universal, free and compulsory education in primary school. Transfer of primary education and management of local government bodies. Organization by self-government bodies of material assistance to needy students.

56. Establishment by local governments of educational institutions for the adult population, elementary schools for adults, public libraries, and public universities.

57. Development of vocational education.

Legislative projects and assumptions of the People's Freedom Party. 1905-1907 / Ed. N.I. Astrov, F.F. Kokoshkina, S.A. Muromtseva, P.I. Novgorodtseva, book. DI. Shakhovsky. St. Petersburg, 1907. P. XI - XIX.

Parties. Cadets

Freedom of Russia. Poster of the Cadets Party, 1917

Party name

Constitutional Democratic Party of People's Freedom.

Party of Russian Constitutional Democrats.

Motto: “Skill and work for the benefit of the Motherland”

Years of existence

Created in October 1905

Social base

Liberal intelligentsia

Entrepreneurs

Petty bourgeoisie of town and countryside

Number

Maximum – 100 thousand people

Leaders

Miliukov P.N.

Dolgorukov P.D.

Muromtsev S.A.

Program

State structure

A constitutional monarchy

Freedom and transformation

Universal suffrage, direct and equal parliamentary elections

Civil liberties: speech, press, religion, assembly, etc.

Development of a market economy

Protecting the interests of entrepreneurs

A major role was assigned to the State Duma, and in the 1st and 2nd they occupied leading positions.

1 Duma: Chairman S.A. Muromtsev. cadet

2nd Duma: Chairman Golovin A.F., cadet

On November 1, 1916, from its rostrum P.N. Milyukov made a speech sharply criticizing the government.

In 1915, a Progressive bloc was created in the Duma, in which the majority were cadets.

National politics

Russia is a single state

Broad autonomy rights for Poland and Finland

The right of nations to cultural self-determination: language, education, office work in their native language, cultural study, etc.

Agrarian question

Cancellation of redemption payments

Providing land to peasants at the expense of state and monastery lands

Partial alienation of landowners' lands by paying state compensation

Work question

8 hour work day

Social insurance

Reducing overtime

Prohibition on involving children and women in overtime work

Freedom of trade unions

Right to strike

Methods and means of control

Only legal methods of struggle are parliamentary ones

Activities after the February and October Revolutions of 1917

In the Provisional Government, several ministers were cadets. They tried to stop the devastation in the country.

They opposed the policies of the Bolsheviks.

They supported A. Karnilov’s speech in August 1917, which significantly undermined the authority of the party.

They did not accept the October Revolution.

Measures were taken to unite all anti-Bolshevik forces.

The end of November 1917 - the Cadet Party was banned by the Bolsheviks and went underground, that is, into an illegal position.

During the Civil War, most of the cadets sided with the whites.

After the civil war, the majority emigrated abroad.

Press organs

Rech newspaper

Magazine "Bulletin of the People's Freedom Party"

Material prepared by: Melnikova Vera Aleksandrovna

The Constitutional Democratic Party, also called the Cadets Party, was created in 1905 and represented the left wing of liberalism. It was also called the “professorial party” for the high level of education of its members. The cadets proposed empires and constitutional solutions that were implemented in European states. However, in Russia they turned out to be unclaimed.

The Cadet Party advocated the non-violent development of the state, parliamentarism and liberalization. In education there was a provision on the equality of all citizens, regardless of nationality, class, gender and religion. The Cadet Party also advocated the abolition of restrictions for different classes and nationalities, the right to personal integrity, freedom of movement, conscience, speech, assembly, press and religion.

The Cadet Party considered the parliamentary form of government based on universal suffrage with open and secret voting to be the best for Russia. Democratization of local self-government and expansion of its powers was also what the Cadets sought. The party advocated the independence of the court and an increase in the area of ​​land plots for peasants through appanage, state, cabinet and monastic lands, as well as through the purchase of private lands of landowners at their real assessed value. The list of priorities also included: freedom of strikes and workers' unions, an eight-hour working day, development of production legislation, universal compulsory and free legislation, as well as complete autonomy for Poland and Finland. Leader of the Cadet Party P.N. Miliukov subsequently became Minister of Foreign Affairs in the Provisional Government.

In 1906, a clause was added to the program that the country should become a parliamentary and constitutional monarchy. The highest party body of the Cadets was the Central Committee, which was elected at congresses. It was divided into Moscow and St. Petersburg departments. The St. Petersburg Central Committee was busy working on the party program and submitting various bills to the Duma. The Moscow Central Committee carried out publishing work, as well as organizing agitation. The Central Committee consisted mostly of representatives of the bourgeoisie and intelligentsia, as well as landowners with liberal views.

In 1917, after the Cadet Party emerged, it transformed from an opposition structure into a ruling political entity. Its representatives took leading positions in the Provisional Government. From the idea, the party quickly moved to slogans about democracy and After the February Revolution, this party began to actively strengthen its position among the clergy, students and intelligentsia. Among the working class and the majority of peasants, its position remained weak, which later became one of the reasons that the Provisional Government could not stay in power for long.

In 1921 in Paris, at the party congress, it split into two groups. The new “democratic” branch was led by Miliukov, and the part that remained in their previous positions was headed by Kaminka and Gessen. Since that time, the Cadets, as a single political party, ceased to exist.

Cadets (Constitutional Democratic Party)

Stepanov S.A.

The article is a shortened version of the lecture of the special course “Political Parties of Russia: 1905–1917.” The author examines the history of the emergence of the Cadet Party, which was the most authoritative liberal political party in pre-revolutionary Russia. The article focuses on the period from October 1905, when the Cadets Party was created, to June 1907, when the government dissolved the Second State Duma. Analysis of the cadet program and tactical slogans allows us to come to the conclusion that the cadets shared reformist views. The Cadet Party advocated the gradual evolution of the autocratic system and legal methods of political struggle. Unlike radical parties, the Cadets did not enjoy great influence among the masses.

The Constitutional Democratic Party, or People's Freedom Party (second name) represented the left flank of Russian liberalism. The Cadets were also respectfully called the “professorial party,” meaning the high educational and cultural level of ordinary members and the constellation of names in the party leadership. Constitutional democrats offered Russia proven constitutional solutions and liberal values ​​that had long been instilled in parliamentary states. However, these values ​​and ideals turned out to be unclaimed, which was the tragedy of Russian liberalism.

The main stages of creating a party of cadets

The core of the future cadet party became two semi-legal organizations: the Union of Zemstvo Constitutionalists and the Union of Liberation. Both organizations appeared in 1903. The “Union of Zemstvo Constitutionalists” was created by liberal zemstvo leaders to prepare coordinated speeches by supporters of the constitution at zemstvo congresses. It is significant that the main role in this illegal and clearly oppositional alliance was played by people belonging to the highest aristocracy - Prince D.I. Shakhovskoy and two brothers, princes Peter and Pavel Dolgorukov, Rurikovich by birth, one of the richest landowners in Russia.

The Liberation Union took its name from the Liberation magazine, published in Stuttgart under the editorship of P.B. Struve. The founders of the union were two dozen zemstvo leaders and liberal intellectuals, who gathered under the guise of a tourist group exploring the beauty of Lake Constance in Switzerland. Among the leaders of the union was the flower of noble liberalism: chamberlains and chamberlains with progressive views. But along with them, a democratic element was represented in the Union, whose beliefs smacked of leftism. It is not without reason that when the Liberation Union was created, its chairman I.I. Petrunkevich uttered a characteristic phrase: “We have no enemies on the left.” These were people who went through the underground, prisons and exile. N.F. became the Deputy Chairman of the Union. Annensky, brother-in-law of the Russian Blanquist P.N. Tkachev, a witness at the trial of the Nechaevites and a suspect in the case of attempted regicide. Another Osvobozhdenie was S.N. Bulgakov, the son of a priest, under the influence of materialistic ideas, left the theological seminary and broke with Orthodoxy in order to take the priesthood exactly thirty years later.

Thanks to left-wing elements, the Liberation Union acted decisively and assertively. At the second congress of the Union in November 1904, it was decided to launch a banquet campaign. The formal occasion was the anniversary: ​​the celebration of the fortieth anniversary of the judicial reform, the most liberal and consistent of all the reforms of the 60s. XIX century In fact, the banquet campaign was supposed to play the role of a catalyst for opposition sentiments. By decision of the Liberation Union, there was also a campaign for the creation of unions of liberal professions, which made it possible to circumvent the ban on the existence of political parties. In a short time, more than a dozen unions arose in Russia: academic, writers, engineers, lawyers, teachers, doctors, agronomists, statisticians. On the eve of Bloody Sunday, January 9, 1905, the Osvobozhdenie people hastily formed a single coordinating center - the Union of Unions. The events that followed the shooting of a peaceful demonstration in St. Petersburg put on the agenda the issue of creating a political party that would unite liberals.

Pavel Milyukov

The creation of such a party was inextricably linked with the name of Pavel Nikolaevich Milyukov. He was born in 1859 into the family of an architect. Even at the gymnasium, Pavel Miliukov showed a penchant for studying languages, and in total he mastered eighteen languages ​​during his life. He proved himself to be a brilliant student and was retained in the department of Russian history. Miliukov is often called a student of V.O. Klyuchevsky, but he was too independent a figure to bow even to his authority. In his study “The State Economy of Russia and the Reforms of Peter the Great,” Miliukov came to the conclusion that Peter’s reforms were a continuous chain of mistakes and reforms and led to the extinction of a fifth of the country’s population. Klyuchevsky gave a negative review and expressed sharp criticism at a public debate. Miliukov was not awarded a doctorate, but only a master's degree.

For his bold public lectures, Miliukov was subjected to repression. The director of the police department, with a pencil in his hands, was studying Miliukov's lithographed lectures; the dossier on the suspicious assistant professor lay on the table of the Minister of Internal Affairs. Deprived of the right to teach in Russia, Miliukov was forced to leave for Bulgaria, where he became a professor at the Higher School. A few years later, Miliukov returned to Russia and soon found himself in prison for speaking at one of the meetings. One day he was taken straight from Kresty to the office of the all-powerful Minister of Internal Affairs V.K. Plehve, who offered the arrested... the post of Minister of Public Education. Miliukov replied jokingly that he was refusing the Ministry of Education as insignificant: “Now, if Your Excellency had offered me to take your place, then I would have thought again.” The minister’s reaction could have been predicted: “I drew a conclusion from our conversation. You will not reconcile with us. At least don't openly fight with us. Otherwise, we will sweep you away!” Miliukov was given a choice: either exile or emigration. He chose emigration.

Miliukov knew the leaders of all revolutionary parties. In his words: “Even Lenin, Lenin himself, then looked closely at me as a possible temporary (rather “short-term”) fellow traveler - along the path from the “bourgeois” revolution to the socialist one. At his invitation, I saw him in 1903 in London in his wretched cell. Our conversation turned into an argument about the feasibility of his pace of upcoming events, and the argument turned out to be futile. Lenin kept hammering home his point, walking heavily over the opponent’s arguments.”

In April 1905, Miliukov returned and completely immersed himself in the creation of a liberal party. The process of uniting the zemstvo-constitutionalists and the Osvobozhdeniye movement was difficult, since there was a wall of alienation between the zemstvo-landowners and the left-wing elements. Miliukov's role in overcoming disagreements was enormous. By his character, he was ideally suited for such work. Like-minded people who knew Miliukov well recalled that “Miliukov knew how to listen carefully, knew how to select information, features, judgments from each interlocutor that made up the public mood or opinion.” He knew how to find a compromise, and, on occasion, convince and urge those who doubted.

Program of the Constitutional Democratic Party

The founding congress of cadets, held from October 12 to 18, 1905, was small in composition. A general strike began in the country and two-thirds of the delegates were unable to get to Moscow. Nevertheless, the congress proclaimed the creation of a constitutional democratic party. It was positioned as “classless.” The party program and charter were adopted.

Speaking to the delegates of the founding congress, Miliukov argued that “our program is the most left-wing of all those presented by similar political groups in Western Europe.” One can agree with such an assessment if the party leader intended the first section of the program to be devoted to the fundamental rights of citizens. This section included clauses on the equality of all Russian citizens, without distinction of gender, religion or nationality. The program included a provision on the abolition of all restrictions based on class or nationality. The program proclaimed the inviolability of person and home. The right to freedom of movement also found its place in the cadet program. Every citizen also had to have the right to travel abroad. “The passport system is being abolished,” this short phrase expressed the attitude of the liberal intelligentsia towards “the passport, the police station and the forced care of the senior janitor,” so familiar to the Russian heart. In a state where Orthodoxy was the state religion, the cadets preached freedom of conscience and religion. The cadet program proclaimed the rights to freedom of thought and speech. It would not be an exaggeration to say that the first section of the cadet program was the quintessence of liberal ideas, a kind of summary of those hopes and dreams that lived for several generations of Russian liberals.

If the section on civil rights contained clear and polished language, then the section on the political system produced a completely different impression. Miliukov openly admitted that when this section was approved, all the most important fundamental issues were deliberately “bypassed or obscured in programmatic formulations.” The program did not answer the question of whether the cadets were for the monarchy or for the republic. The first paragraph of the section on the state system read: “The constitutional structure of the Russian state is determined by the Basic Law.” Without prejudging the question of a monarchical or republican system, the cadet leaders hoped to retain supporters of both directions in their ranks. However, ordinary party members compared this point of the program with the top hat of an illusionist: a wave of the hand - and the monarchy appears before the most respectable public; one more manipulation - and a republic appears on the stage. Within a few months, local committees were decisively in favor of the monarchy. At the Second Party Congress, the program point on the state structure was formulated more specifically: “Russia must be a constitutional and parliamentary monarchy.” In this form, this point remained unchanged until March 1917, when the VII Congress of the Constitutional Democratic Party decided on the need to introduce a republican system in Russia.

The question of popular representation was also shrouded in ambiguity. The program stated that “the party allows within its midst a difference of opinion on the issue of organizing popular representation, in the form of one or two chambers, of which the second chamber should consist of representatives from local government bodies, reorganized on the basis of universal suffrage and extended to the whole of Russia " Even before the adoption of the program, the question of what the future Russian parliament should be like was hotly debated in liberal circles. Miliukov defended a unicameral parliament as more democratic. His opponent was professor of state law F.F. Kokoshkin, who emphasized that the second chamber should, like the American Senate, represent the independent interests of various parts of the empire. As a result, each side remained with its own opinion, which was reflected in the program.

The cadet program stated: “People’s representatives are elected by universal, equal, direct and secret voting, without distinction of religion, nationality and gender.” The last condition from this list meant that the Cadets demanded that women be given voting rights, which was not the case at the beginning of the 20th century. did not exist even in the most democratic states.

True, the adoption of this point, a very acute and sensitive one, was accompanied by a funny episode - a family quarrel (even a “storm”) at the founding congress of the Cadet Party. Miliukov tried to convince the congress to remove the clause on extending suffrage to women, since the program was already overloaded and could go to the bottom. His wife spoke out against Miliukov and, as one would expect, emerged victorious from the marital dispute. The party leader remained in the minority.

The Cadets were supporters of the division of power according to the scheme first put forward by Charles Montesquieu and over the past century and a half adopted in many countries. The cadet program stated: “Ministers are responsible to the Assembly of People’s Representatives.” Russian practice turned out to be very far from this declaration. The ministers were and remained responsible only to the emperor; they were appointed by the highest will and removed by it. Subsequently, this design of executive power predetermined a constant conflict between the government and the first two Dumas, in which the Cadets ruled.

The Cadets did not want the dismemberment of the empire. Even an autonomous state system was envisaged only for two border regions - Poland, where it previously existed, and Finland, where it continued to exist. All other peoples were offered cultural and national self-determination, in particular the right to receive primary education in their native language, and only primary, since the cadet program expressed extreme caution about further education in national languages, making the reservation “if possible.” The Russian language was supposed to have the status of a state language - to be “the language of central institutions, the army and navy.”

The Cadets proposed increasing peasant land use at the expense of state, appanage, cabinet and monastic lands. The stumbling block was privately owned land - the main object of desire for the peasants. According to the Cadets themselves, the agrarian part of their program contained the same deliberately vague formulations as the general political part. The program did not use the term “confiscation”; instead, the more neutral term “alienation” appeared. It was also not specified which categories of privately owned lands were subject to alienation. The scale of the proposed alienation was not indicated; something very vague was said about this - “to the required extent.” The program stipulated that the seizure of land would be carried out for a fee “at a fair” but “not market valuation.” It should be noted that the agrarian program of the Cadet Party simultaneously frightened the landowners and disappointed the peasants.

Assessing the program of the constitutional democratic party as a whole, it should be emphasized that it expressed the best traditions of Russian liberalism with the greatest completeness and consistency. The initial premise of the Cadets was the idea of ​​reforming the old state power. The Cadets, unlike their opponents on the left, opposed sudden violent upheavals. They hoped to implement their program by legal, parliamentary methods, although they did not reject the possibility of political revolution as a last resort. The political ideal of the Cadets was a legal state, modeled after European constitutional states with a wide range of civil rights and freedoms.

The Cadets proposed a liberal solution to the fundamental issues of Russian reality. However, this option turned out to be equally unacceptable for the right and left.

Party organizational structure

The Constitutional Democratic Party was conceived as a legal organization. However, problems arose with the legalization of the party. Many times, cadet lawyers submitted the documents necessary for registration to the Ministry of Justice, and each time officials found an excuse for refusal. In fact, the Cadets carried out political activities completely openly and unhindered - they convened congresses and conferences, adopted resolutions, organized public meetings, and published lists of their candidates in newspapers. But formally, the Cadets were the same illegal parties as the Socialist Revolutionaries or the Bolsheviks. This absurd comedy played out until the fall of the monarchy.

The highest body of the party was the congress, which elected the Central Committee, which consisted of two departments: St. Petersburg and Moscow. The composition of the Central Committee was systematically updated. Ariadna Tyrkova, a member of the Central Committee of the Cadet Party, recalled: “The elections to the Central Committee were given great importance, public opinion followed them. Being a member of the Central Committee was considered a considerable honor. It was a kind of public title, a distinction. Newcomers, coming to its meetings for the first time, were embarrassed, worried, at first they kept quiet and listened.” Meetings of the St. Petersburg department of the Central Committee took place in Petrunkevich’s apartment on Baskov Lane. Dark wallpaper and curtains gave the dining room an impressive look. The long table could easily accommodate about 20 people. The table was decorated with abundant food, crystal vases with jam, plates with cookies, crackers, buns, cakes and selected fruits, which no one had in St. Petersburg - they were specially sent from the owner’s Crimean estate.

All members of the Central Committee were considered equal. Nevertheless, a strict hierarchy developed in the cadet leadership, there was a core that was re-elected at each congress, and a permanent leader - P.N. Milyukov. Miliukov's party comrade, Prince V.A. Obolensky argued that “not one of the party leaders, with the exception of Lenin, enjoyed such enormous influence and authority within his party as Miliukov had.”

The size of the cadet party fluctuated depending on the time. The heyday of the party occurred during revolutionary periods. According to the calculations of the researcher of the history of cadets V.V. Shelokhaev, the total number of the party in 1905–1907. fluctuated between 50–60 thousand people. In 1908–1909, no more than 75 provincial and district cadet committees operated (all rural committees disbanded), and the number of the party did not exceed 25–30 thousand people. In the subsequent period, the party's size steadily declined. In 1912–1914 There were cadet committees in 51 provincial and district cities, and the total number of the party was no more than 10 thousand people. After the victory of the February Revolution of 1917, the process of reviving local cadet committees began at a rapid pace. In March-April 1917, more than 380 cadet organizations were already operating in the country, and the total number of the party again grew to 70 thousand people.

The Constitutional Democratic Party had an intellectual appearance. Professors, gymnasium teachers, lawyers, doctors, journalists, zemstvo and city employees - this was a typical set of professions for a cadet. Despite the large number of teachers at higher and secondary educational institutions, students were practically not represented in the cadet party. “We had almost no young people,” Tyrkova recalled. “Many cadet professors were extremely popular, but students did not join the professorial party. Only a few higher schools had student cadet groups. The student also had to have the courage to preach cadetism among students. We were too moderate for young people..."

The social composition of the Cadet Party was not something immutable and frozen. During the revolution of 1905–1907. in local party organizations there were quite a lot of small traders, clerks, artisans, even workers and peasants. After the defeat of the revolution, almost all of them fled from the People's Freedom Party. In 1907–1917 The party was dominated by representatives of the middle urban strata. After the February Revolution, the social composition of the Cadets, on the one hand, democratized due to the massive influx of new people, and on the other hand, absorbed former members of conservative parties who had left the political scene - Octobrists, progressives, even some Black Hundreds.

Temptation by power

In October 1905, the newly created cadet party received its first chance to transform from opposition to government. Simultaneously with the publication of the manifesto on October 17, changes occurred in the highest spheres of power. S.Yu. was appointed Chairman of the Council of Ministers. Witte, who considered it useful to involve public figures in the government. Witte asked to send a delegation from Moscow for a “mutual exchange of thoughts.” The Prime Minister spoke to I.V. Gessen that he was ready to support the Cadet Party, “but on one indispensable condition, that it cut off the revolutionary tail.” Meanwhile, the liberals had no intention of abandoning their allies on the left. The delegates called the convening of a Constituent Assembly on the basis of universal, equal, direct and secret suffrage a precondition for their participation in the government. Witte did not accept the ultimatum demands. Miliukov was also invited to the Winter Palace for a private conversation. The leader of the Cadets advised that a constitution be given as quickly as possible in the name of the Tsar. An objection followed: “The people don’t want a constitution!” Miliukov just shrugged: “Then it’s useless for us to talk. I can’t give you any practical advice.”

The intransigence of the liberals was largely explained by their incorrect assessment of the balance of forces in the country. In conditions when the anti-government movement was still on the rise, it seemed reckless to them to risk their reputation for the sake of contacts with a regime that seemed to be in its death throes. Witte subsequently recalled with annoyance: “...At that time, public figures were afraid of bombs and Brownings, which were in great use against the authorities, and this was one of the internal motives that whispered to everyone in the depths of their souls: “It’s better to be away from danger.”

Parliamentary activities of cadets

The Cadets hoped to become a parliamentary party. The problem was that Russia did not have a parliament. Only in August 1905 was it announced the convocation of a legislative, so-called Bulygin Duma, which was transformed into a legislative Duma by the Manifesto of October 17, 1905. The Cadets took an active part in the Duma elections. The boycott of the elections by the far left contributed to the success of the Cadets. Voters saw them as the party most opposed to the government, and gave them their votes. The Cadets managed to get 179 of their 478 candidates into the Duma. They turned out to be the largest faction and divided the majority of Duma posts among themselves.

Member of the Central Committee of the Cadet Party S.A. was elected Chairman of the First Duma. Muromtsev, members of the Central Committee Prince Pavel Dolgorukov and Professor N.A. were elected comrades (deputies) of the chairman. Gredeskul, secretary - member of the Central Committee, Prince D.I. Shakhovskaya. Miliukov did not run for the 1st and 2nd State Dumas, so he was denied registration under the pretext of lack of proper qualifications. This did not prevent the party leader, according to well-informed persons, from conducting the faction “from the Duma buffet.”

On the eve of the opening of the sessions of the First State Duma in April 1906, the third congress of the Cadet Party met, at which the party’s tactics were discussed. A number of congress delegates demanded that the deputies elected to the Duma must “go to the end, without compromise,” ignore the government and the State Council, and carry out the Cadet general political program in the form of an “ultimatum.” The whole calculation was on popular support. Rodichev said at the congress: “The Duma cannot be dispersed; The voice of the people is with us." Miliukov took a different position. Responding to recent allies on the left and party comrades who threatened the authorities to “move the waters of the Acheron” - the hellish river, which meant a spontaneous popular revolt, Miliukov said: “No matter how fragile the fabric of constitutional legal consciousness is at first, we want to strengthen this fabric, and not to go back to the elemental power of Acheron.”

The State Duma entered into a tough confrontation with the government. While sharply criticizing the government, the Cadets at the same time persistently sought ways to reach an agreement with it. Some courtiers tried to find common ground with the liberals. In particular, such an initiative was shown by the former head of the empire’s police, D.F. Trepov, who, after leaving the Ministry of Internal Affairs, was appointed palace commandant - a position extremely important in the Russian hierarchy of power due to constant access to the emperor. In June 1906, Trepov secretly met with Miliukov in a separate office of the fashionable restaurant Kyuba. The leader of the Cadets outlined the demands of his party: “A revision of the basic laws, a new constitution created by the constituent power of the Duma, but with the “approval of the sovereign,” the abolition of the State Council - all this state casuistry did not at all bring the general, alien to the law, into holy horror.” A list of ministerial candidates was even drawn up, headed by Prime Minister Muromtsev and Minister of Internal Affairs Miliukov.

However, the majority of the ruling elite was resolutely against risky experiments with a responsible ministry. I.L. Goremykin insisted on dispersing the electoral institution, guaranteeing peace of the population. On the morning of July 9, 1906, deputies who came to the Tauride Palace read a manifesto posted on the tightly locked doors that the State Duma had been dissolved because they had “deviated into an area that did not belong to them.” The Duma, elected for 5 years, lasted only 72 days. The first parliamentary experience in Russian history ended in complete failure.

Some Duma deputies, mainly Cadets and Trudoviks, decided not to obey the decree. They gathered in Vyborg, on the territory of the Grand Duchy of Finland, beyond the reach of the Russian police. Muromtsev opened the meeting with the words: “The Duma meeting continues.” The deputies adopted an appeal in which the population of Russia was called upon to provide passive resistance: not to pay taxes and not to give recruits to the government. These methods of influencing the government were obviously ineffective. The call for passive resistance essentially remained a verbal threat. The only result of the Vyborg Appeal was the prosecution of the deputies who signed it, including 120 cadets.

Having dispersed the Duma of the first convocation, the highest authorities did not dare to liquidate this elected institution. Government of P.A. Stolypin, who replaced Goremykin, called new elections. For the cadets they became a difficult test. On the one hand, repression fell upon them, removing from their ranks more than a hundred popular deputies accused of signing the Vyborg Appeal. On the other hand, the Kadet Party lost its role as the main opposition party, because the Socialist Revolutionaries and Social Democrats took part in the second elections. As a result of intense competition from left-wing parties, the Cadets lost 80 parliamentary seats in the elections. Nevertheless, they retained a dominant position in the Second State Duma. Fyodor Aleksandrovich Golovin, a member of the Central Committee of the Cadets, was elected Chairman of the Duma.

The tactics of the Cadet faction in the Second State Duma boiled down to “saving the Duma.” They stopped abusing requests and restrained the request rush of the left factions. As a result, only 36 requests were submitted to the Second Duma - ten times less compared to the First Duma. All winter, the cadet lawyers worked to make their bills more acceptable to the government. But the Stolypin government had its own reform program, the main element of which was agrarian reform. The majority of the Cadet leadership (excluding Maklakov) considered both the goals of the Stolypin reform and the violent methods of its implementation detrimental to Russia. Therefore, the Cadets in the Second Duma rejected government agrarian legislation and maintained a rather harsh oppositional tone when discussing other measures of tsarism, including military justice. The cadet speaker Rodichev threw the phrase about “Stolypin’s ties” in the first minister’s face and gestured to a rope loop tied around his neck. Stolypin challenged him to a duel, received an apology, but since then these words have become popular.

Having failed to achieve approval for his agrarian reform, Stolypin set a course for dissolving the Duma and changing the electoral law. The Cadets tried to save the Duma until the last minute. Late in the evening, a cadet delegation consisting of Bulgakov, Maklakov, Struve and Chelnokov was sent to Stolypin’s dacha, where a meeting of the Council of Ministers was taking place. According to Maklakov, the Prime Minister was adamant: “He immediately cut off the conversation about the validity of the accusation. He did not even allow the thought of delaying to study the matter: “while we are talking here, the Social Democrats are running around the factories, inciting the workers.” Maklakov recalled that after empty arguments, Stolypin seemed to stop pretending and said frankly: “There is a question on which you and I still cannot agree. This is agricultural. On it, conflict is inevitable. Then why bother? To the Minister of Finance V.N. Kokovtsov remembered the dismissive gesture of Stolypin, who returned to the meeting after negotiations: “Well, you can’t get along with these gentlemen!” On the morning of June 3, 1907, the State Duma was dissolved. At the same time, a new Election Regulation was introduced. The tactic of “saving the Duma” did not work. As V.I. wrote in one of his articles. Lenin, the tsar decided to “spit in the faces of the cadet leaders.”

Bibliography

1. Milyukov P.N. Memories: 1859–1917. – T. 1–2. – M., 1990.

2. Minutes of the Central Committee of the Cadet Party: Documents and materials. – T. 1. – M., 1996.

3. Sikirinsky S.S., Shelokhaev V.V. Liberalism in Russia: Essays on History. – M., 1995.

4. Shatsillo F. Russian liberalism on the eve of the revolution of 1905–1907. – M., 1985.

5. Shelokhaev V.V. The Cadets are the main party of the liberal bourgeoisie. 1907–1917 – M., 1991.

6. Shelokhaev V.V. Liberal model for the reconstruction of Russia. – M., 1996.

To prepare this work, materials from the site http://www.gumer.info/ were used

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