13 - Splits in the party

Summary

In the course of 1906, the SR party suffered schisms both to the left and to the right, with the formation of the Union of SR Maximalists and the Party of Popular Socialists respectively. Before the First Congress met, both of these groups existed as trends within the party; but with the clarification of the SR programme and tactics at the congress, the gaps between the centre and the extreme wings of the party widened, to the point where organisational separation became inevitable. In the debates between the party centre and the future Maximalists and Popular Socialists, questions of agrarian programme and tactics played a major part.

The Maximalists

Maximalism derived its name from its rejection of the distinction drawn by Chernov between the minimum and maximum programmes of the party: the Maximalists demanded that the socialisation of industry should accompany that of the land. Chernov's distinction between the minimum and maximum programmes implied that the transition to socialism from Tsarist autocracy would be a two-stage process. The maximum programme consisted of socialist measures which the party would implement when it came to power. But a socialist seizure of power ‘assumes a persistent struggle, assumes a transitional period – long or short – in the course of which the party will certainly be able to an increasing degree to influence the course of legislation, but must take into account the fact that state power is in the hands of one or other group of the bourgeoisie’. The minimum programme represented the demands which the party would advocate in this period, with the aim of strengthening the position of the working class.