Party of Cadets. USE

3 out of 11

From right to left: Minister of Trade and Industry A.I. Konovalov, Minister of Agriculture A.I. Shingarev, Minister of Railways N.V. Nekrasov, Minister of Foreign Affairs P.N. Milyukov; Chairman of the Council of Ministers Prince G.E. Lviv; Minister of Justice A.F. Kerensky; Minister of Finance M.I. Tereshchenko; state controller I.V. Godnev; Minister of Public Education A.A. Manuilov; Deputy Minister of the Interior D.M. Shchepkin. Petrograd. March 1917.

/ The figure of P. N. Milyukov - the head of the party of constitutional democrats (cadets) - was considered one of the most influential in the Russian opposition back in 1916. However, in a few months of the revolutionary 1917, Milyukov - a liberal, a representative of the elite and, most importantly, a supporter of the continuation of the war - lost all his influence. Being too democrat for the tsarist government, Pavel Nikolayevich turned out to be too "gentleman" for the revolutionary masses.


4 out of 11

The figure of P. N. Milyukov - the head of the party of constitutional democrats (cadets) - was considered one of the most influential in the Russian opposition back in 1916. However, in a few months of the revolutionary 1917, Milyukov - a liberal, a representative of the elite and, most importantly, a supporter of the continuation of the war - lost all his influence. Being too democrat for the tsarist government, Pavel Nikolayevich turned out to be too "gentleman" for the revolutionary masses.

© Photo: Public domain The fact that it was Manuilov - until 1911 the rector of Moscow University - should take the post of Minister of Education in the revolutionary government, was said back in 1915, when the projects of a "responsible ministry", that is, a parliamentary form of government, were only discussed. Very skeptical about the revolution as a whole, in his post Manuilov managed to restore university autonomy and prepare an orthographic reform. The very one that the Bolsheviks embodied with sadistic pleasure a year later.


5 out of 11

The fact that it was Manuilov - until 1911 the rector of Moscow University - should take the post of Minister of Education in the revolutionary government, was said back in 1915, when the projects of a "responsible ministry", that is, a parliamentary form of government, were only discussed. Very skeptical about the revolution as a whole, in his post Manuilov managed to restore university autonomy and prepare an orthographic reform. The very one that the Bolsheviks embodied with sadistic pleasure a year later.

/ A brilliant orator, Alexander Kerensky was considered one of the most powerful actors revolution. And until the autumn of 1917, his star was steadily rising. Aligning with some influential "siloviki" - first of all, with General Lavr Kornilov - Kerensky for the time being silenced the left parties. However, as it turned out, not for long.


6 out of 11

A brilliant orator, Alexander Kerensky was considered one of the most powerful actors in the revolution. And until the autumn of 1917, his star was steadily rising. Aligning with some influential "siloviki" - first of all, with General Lavr Kornilov - Kerensky for the time being silenced the left parties. However, as it turned out, not for long.

© Photo: Public domain Nikolai Nekrasov, a deputy of the State Duma from the Kadet Party, was almost a Social Democrat in his views, but he always remained in the public field, he was never a member of the underground. This, in the end, ruined him: having every opportunity to emigrate, Nekrasov chose to stay - and, of course, was subjected to repressions under the new order. After several arrests that ended successfully, he went through the camps of the 1930s - also released and even taken to the service by one of the leaders of the Volgolag. But in 1940, the next arrest nevertheless ended in execution.


7 out of 11

Nikolai Nekrasov, a deputy of the State Duma from the Kadet Party, was almost a Social Democrat in his views, but he always remained in the public field, he was never a member of the underground. This, in the end, ruined him: having every opportunity to emigrate, Nekrasov chose to stay - and, of course, was subjected to repressions under the new order. After several arrests that ended successfully, he went through the camps of the 1930s - also released and even taken to the service by one of the leaders of the Volgolag. But in 1940, the next arrest nevertheless ended in execution.

© Photo: Public domain Tereshchenko, the owner of sugar factories and large plantations, is one of the key representatives of the "big business" of old Russia in the Provisional Government. Under Prince Lvov, he was Minister of Finance, after the deposition of Milyukov, he became Minister of Foreign Affairs. After the revolution, this - undoubtedly one of the most prudent members of the Provisional Government - emigrated to France, where he continued his career as an entrepreneur.


9 out of 11

Tereshchenko, the owner of sugar factories and large plantations, is one of the key representatives of the "big business" of old Russia in the Provisional Government. Under Prince Lvov, he was Minister of Finance, after the deposition of Milyukov, he became Minister of Foreign Affairs. After the revolution, this - undoubtedly one of the most prudent members of the Provisional Government - emigrated to France, where he continued his career as an entrepreneur.

© Photo: Public domain Another industrialist (in this case, a textile manufacturer from the Kostroma province), Konovalov tried to establish relations between workers who were revolutionary in nature and industrial entrepreneurs. However, despite the good talents of a diplomat and experience in resolving labor conflicts, he failed to do anything significant. He retired in the spring of 1917.


10 out of 11

Another industrialist (in this case, a textile manufacturer from the Kostroma province), Konovalov tried to establish relations between workers who were revolutionary in nature and industrial entrepreneurs. However, despite the good talents of a diplomat and experience in resolving labor conflicts, he failed to do anything significant. He retired in the spring of 1917.

© Photo: public domain The leader of the parties "Union of October 17" and "Liberal Republican Party of Russia", Alexander Ivanovich Guchkov, in the first composition of the Provisional Government, oversaw the military and naval ministry. Guchkov is one of those who accepted the abdication of the throne of Nicholas II in Pskov. In May, however, he left the Provisional Government together with P. N. Millyukov, as a supporter of the continuation of the war.


11 out of 11

The leader of the parties "Union of October 17" and "Liberal Republican Party of Russia", Alexander Ivanovich Guchkov, in the first composition of the Provisional Government, oversaw the military and naval ministry. Guchkov is one of those who accepted the abdication of the throne of Nicholas II in Pskov. In May, however, he left the Provisional Government together with P. N. Millyukov, as a supporter of the continuation of the war.

3 out of 11

From right to left: Minister of Trade and Industry A.I. Konovalov, Minister of Agriculture A.I. Shingarev, Minister of Railways N.V. Nekrasov, Minister of Foreign Affairs P.N. Milyukov; Chairman of the Council of Ministers Prince G.E. Lviv; Minister of Justice A.F. Kerensky; Minister of Finance M.I. Tereshchenko; state controller I.V. Godnev; Minister of Public Education A.A. Manuilov; Deputy Minister of the Interior D.M. Shchepkin. Petrograd. March 1917.

How to understand the ocean of historical dates, outstanding personalities and get high score USE in history? Textbooks stuffed with dry expositions only confuse you? We offer not just cramming the material, but a consistent analysis of events that will easily stick in your memory. So how did the party of the Cadets come about and what was their role in the historical events of 1905-1917?

The Constitutional-Democratic Party (the Cadets) developed in the environment of liberal-minded zemstvo and city unions. Its core was made up of two semi-underground organizations: the Union of Zemstvo-constitutionalists and the Union of Liberation, the social composition of which was notable for heterogeneity. There were urban intelligentsia, nobles, as well as democrats who sympathized with leftist ideas.

Formation of the liberal front

The decision to establish the Constitutional Democratic Party was taken by the 5th Congress of Zemstvo-Constitutionalists. After some time, the Union of the Liberationists also joined the organization. Combining two political forces the course was tense: it was not easy to come to an agreement between the Zemstvo landowners and the Left Democrats. A decisive influence on this process was exerted by the figure of a talented politician, a historian by education, Pavel Nikolaevich Milyukov, the permanent leader of the Cadets.

What parties operated in the Russian Empire shortly before the February Revolution will help to understand the table.

socialist liberal monarchical
Name Russian Social Democratic Labor Party (RSDLP). It broke up into 21 currents: Bolsheviks, Mensheviks.

"Union of the Russian people"
Whose interests were protected Workers and peasants, representatives of the oppressed nationalities. Bourgeoisie, landowners, urban intelligentsia, middle strata, part of the bureaucracy. The middle strata of the townspeople, part of the peasants, the bourgeoisie, the landowners, the clergy.
Primary requirements The liquidation of the autocratic system, the cessation of the exploitation of the working people, the abolition of private property, the nationalization of the land. Protection of political and economic rights and freedoms of citizens. The land and labor issues are resolved through reforms. Preservation and strengthening of autocracy, return to serfdom

The ideologists of the movement were prominent public figures: lawyer and journalist V. D. Nabokov, lawyer V. A. Maklakov, sociologist and philosopher P. B. Struve, scientist V. I. Vernadsky, historian and publicist A. A. Kizevetter, orientalist S. F. Oldenburg, jurist F.F. Kokoshkin, princes Pavel and Peter Dolgorukov, D. I. Shakhovskoy.

Despite some disagreements, the Constituent Congress was held in October 1905. It is impossible to name the exact date of the founding of the united party, since the congress was held from October 12 to October 18, 1905 years, in years. The participants unanimously recognized the constitutional-democratic movement as ideological, non-class, aimed at social reforms. The program and charter were adopted.

Goals and methods of work

The political program of the Cadets was based on the advanced European achievements of the liberal persuasion. It is worth noting that many of its provisions have become the fruit of many years of dreams of liberal Russian doctors, teachers, writers, engineers, and lawyers. The main goal of all the changes was proclaimed the creation of a constitutional-parliamentary monarchy with a complete separation of the branches of power and a universal secret ballot.

Consider briefly the provisions of the program. The document included demands for universal equality before the law, freedom of conscience and the press, inviolability of the home, freedom of movement without a passport (including abroad), and the need to eliminate class distinctions. Ideas were expressed about the unhindered formation of public associations with the right to submit collective petitions.

  • Solution of a working issue: reduction of the working day to 8 hours, protection of women's and children's labor, state health insurance, pensions, strengthening the role of workers' inspections.
  • In economics direct taxation on the basis of a progressive scale, a progressive inheritance tax, and the development of small credit at the expense of savings banks were envisaged.
  • In the field of administrative management a very welcome innovation was the creation of an extensive network of self-government. Persons elected to such bodies had the right to proceed further to parliament.
  • Transformations of the legal sphere: adversarial litigation, the abolition of the death penalty, the introduction of the concept of "probation" into the legal sphere, the protection of suspects during the preliminary investigation.
  • To solve the agricultural problem liberals actively insisted on increasing the volume of peasant land use. Resources were supposed to be found among state, appanage, office and monastic lands. However, the question of the alienation of privately owned lands remained unanswered, in terms of how and to what extent these same lands should be transferred into the hands of peasants and landless laborers.
  • national question It was decided extremely simply: all class distinctions and any restrictions on the rights of Jews, Poles and other groups of the population were canceled.

In general, the proposed program was of an exclusively peaceful, reformist, non-violent nature.

Activities in Parliament

The popularity of the Cadets was such that in the elections to the First State Duma they received the largest number of seats - 179 (35.9% of the total). They entered the Second Duma with moderate slogans, and as a result of intense competition with left-wing associations, they received only 98 seats. Despite the active publishing activity, only 54 deputies made it to the III Duma, and 59 to the IV. thousand people.

First World War forced the liberals to temporarily adjust their political course and abandon their opposition to the government. However, as tensions grew, associated with the defeats of the Russian army, the deterioration of the food supply of cities, opposition sentiments flared up with renewed vigor. Milyukov's speech (“What is this - stupidity or treason?”), with accusations against the government and the royal court on the eve of the February Revolution, undoubtedly served as a factor in the most serious way, destabilizing the situation in the country.

End of political activity

The main question that worried after all politicians was the question of power. Who will take the place of the abdicated king. Negotiations with the first contender, Grand Duke Mikhail Alexandrovich, proved fruitless. Then discarding the idea of ​​a constitutional monarchy, Milyukov led the process of forming the Provisional Government.

Here begins the countdown to the end of the liberal movement. The lack of experience in effectively solving problems on a national scale, the unstable social base, the aggravation of relations with socialist associations did not give a chance to stabilize the situation in the country in any way. By a decree of the Council of People's Commissars, already after, on November 28, 1917, the Constitutional Democratic Ideology was declared the ideology of "enemies of the people", all its leaders were subject to arrest and trial by a revolutionary tribunal.

Assessing the role of the Constitutional Democratic Party in the first Russian revolution, the historian M.N. Pokrovsky, in his works of the early 1920s, expressed the opinion that the liberal bourgeoisie as a whole played a significant revolutionary role, objectively facilitating the revolutionary movement.

Doctor of Historical Sciences A. Lubkov complements this point of view: “...both the government and the opposition were components of the same political elite. So February 1917 and the collapse of our Russian statehood in traditional forms that occurred then are the result of a lack of unity in the elite, both in terms of values, and political, and spiritual, and organizational.”

The Constitutional Democratic Party (Party of People's Freedom, "K.D. Party", "Kadets", "Professor's Party") was formed in October 1905. At the origins lay two illegal organizations - the Union of Liberation and the Union of Zemstvo-constitutionalists, formed in 1903. The first, heterogeneous in composition, included both liberals and democrats. Many of its participants have already managed to go through prisons and camps, such as N. F. Annensky (economist and journalist, defendant in the case of the attempt on Alexander II in 1879). The second union had in the backbone of liberal aristocrats - princes Dolgoruky and prince D. I. Shakhovsky. It was the members of this society that in July 1905 decided to create the Constitutional Democratic Party to participate in the elections to the State Duma, and at the end of August the Liberation Union joined them.

The first, small, in connection with the general strike, the party congress was held in the period from October 12 to 18, 1905. It adopted the charter of the party and its program.

Composition and structure

Although the party operated openly, formally, due to bureaucratic delays, it remained illegal. Its number, at various stages of existence, varied significantly, amounting to more than 50 thousand people in 1905-1907, about 30 thousand in 1908-1909, and in 1917 reached 70 thousand people. Due to moderate views and adherence to peaceful methods, the Cadets practically did not attract young people, most of the party was already established middle-aged people.

The social composition of the party included both educated aristocrats, landowners and philistines, as well as peasants and workers who joined it during the revolutionary period of 1905-1907. The last sections of the population, however, did not stay long in the party, due to dissatisfaction with its mild methods, and until the February Revolution, their number continued to fall. During its period, the size of the party increased again, due to the fact that an increasing number of people regarded it as the only hope for a peaceful completion of the revolution. However, the desire of the Cadets to preserve the monarchy and continue to participate in the First World War did not play into their hands and the support of their people fell, according to the deplorable situation at the front and in the country. After the October Revolution, the position of the Cadets worsened even more - now they were supported mainly only by the bourgeoisie and the intelligentsia, as opposition to the Bolsheviks.

The supreme organ of the party was the Congress, which elected the Central Committee, which consisted of the St. Petersburg and Moscow departments. Despite the existence of a formal core and a clear leader - P. N. Milyukov, a publicist, historian, a significant figure in opposition circles - the Cadets proclaimed the equality of all members of the organization.

The printed edition of the Party of People's Freedom was the magazine Rech, published from February 1906 to January 1918 in St. Petersburg under the direction of Milyukov and I. V. Gessen.

Political program

The Cadets were left-wing liberals and positioned themselves as an ideological and "non-class" party. Their ideal was the rule of law, they initially considered the constitutional monarchy to be the best form of government, but when at the end of March 1917 it became clear that it was impossible to preserve, in their opinion, the monarchy in the country, the party began to strive to establish a parliamentary republic.
The Cadets adhered to moderate views, denying both the bureaucracy and the complete removal of the state from the activities of the economic sector.

The purpose of the organization was to radically transform peacefully.

The original program of the party was divided into eight sections, regulating civil rights, state and local self-government, judicial system, agrarian and labor legislation, questions of education and enlightenment.

The main provisions of the program were as follows:

1. Civil rights:
- achievement of equal rights of citizens regardless of gender, nationality, religion and class;
- freedom of conscience and religion, thoughts and words;
- the right to cultural self-determination;
- abolition of censorship;
- freedom of public meetings, organizations of societies and unions;
- inviolability of person and home;
- freedom of movement, travel outside the country;
- inclusion of all civil rights in the basic state law and their judicial protection.

2. State structure:
- the constitutional device should be determined by the fundamental law;
- people's representatives are elected by direct, universal, equal and secret suffrage;
- the people's government takes part in the exercise of legislative power, control of the budget and the legitimacy of the higher and lower administration;
- the legislative initiative should belong to the members of the people's representations;
- no one normative act, if it is not based on the decisions of the people's representation, it cannot have the force of law;
- taxes, duties and fees can only be established by law, the budget is also adopted only by law and for a period of one year;
Ministers must be accountable to the representatives of the people.

3. Local government:
- local self-government should be extended throughout the state;
- members of local self-government bodies must be elected by universal, equal, direct and secret suffrage;
- the activities of representatives of the central authorities in the field should be reduced to the supervision of local authorities;
- The Kingdom of Poland received autonomy, Finland - a special status.

4. Judicial system:
- no one should be punished without a court verdict;
- the Minister of Justice does not participate in the appointment of judges, judges do not receive awards;
- there is a need for a complete revision of the criminal law, the revision of the civil one;
- abolition of the death penalty;
- the introduction of a suspended sentence;
- establishment of an adversarial procedure for holding a court session and defense at a preliminary investigation;
- officials are obliged to bear responsibility on general terms;
- The jurisdiction of the jury should depend on the severity of the case.

5. Financial and economic policy:
- need to revise the budget;
- development of tax reform, development of the direct taxation system;
- cancellation of redemption payments;
- reduction of customs duties;
- development of small-scale lending.

6. Agricultural policy:
- increase in the areas of land use of the population cultivating the land by personal labor;
- organization of a system of state assistance to peasants;
- regulation of lease relations by law;
- Establishment of agricultural inspectorates to oversee the implementation of legislation.

7. Labor legislation:
- freedom of workers' councils and meetings, the right to strike;
- the introduction, if possible - immediate, eight-hour working day. Prohibition of night and overtime work, except for the necessary;
- development of labor protection for women, children and workers in hazardous industries;
- obligatory state medical insurance, insurance in case of old age and disability;
- introduction of criminal liability for violation of labor protection standards;
- Establishment of labor inspectorates to oversee the implementation of legislation.

8. Education issues:
- removal of any barriers to school education related to gender, religion, social status;
- introduction of universal, free and compulsory primary education;
- freedom of teaching;
- freedom of initiative to open educational institutions;
- establishing a link between the levels of education to facilitate the transition between them;
- autonomy and freedom of education in higher education institutions;
- increase in the number of secondary and higher educational institutions;
- reducing the cost of education;
- Primary education should be transferred under the responsibility of local governments;
- development of vocational education;
- Creation of educational institutions for adult education.

All the language of the program, with the possible exception of the paragraphs concerning civil rights, was formulated indistinctly and vaguely, due to the uncertainty of the members of the party in the form of the political system, which the state would come to as a result.

The role of the party in the events of 1905-1917

The participation of the party in the political life of Russia began triumphantly - in the First State Duma (April 27 - July 9, 1906), the Cadets were the largest faction - 35.87%, the number of seats, according to various sources, from 161 to 179. The Chairman of the Duma was also a party member was appointed - S. A. Muromtsev.

But after the dissolution of the First Duma, they were no longer able to repeat their success - in the Second State Duma (February 20 - June 3, 1907) they received 98-99 seats (19%), in the Third (November 1, 1907 - June 9, 1912 .) 52-54 seats (12%) and in the Fourth (November 15, 1912 - October 6, 1917) - 57-59 seats.

Yet the first Provisional Government, formed in 1916, was also dominated by constitutional democrats. Non-Party Minister-Chairman G. E. Lvov adjoined the Cadets. P. N. Milyukov took the post of Minister of Foreign Affairs, N. V. Nekrasov - Minister of Railways, A. I. Shingarev - Minister of Agriculture, A. A. Manuilov - Minister of Education, and F. I. Rodichev - Minister of Finnish Affairs . Also, in July, Minister of Trade and Industry AI Konovalov joined the Cadets.

In May 1917, after the first government crisis, Milyukov, in connection with his position on Russia's participation in the First World War and popular indignation, was dismissed.

In the First Coalition Government, the situation was no longer so idyllic, but the Cadets continued to hold the posts of ministers of trade and industry, communications, and education. A. I. Shingarev took the post of Minister of Finance, and D. I. Shakhovsky - Minister of State Charity. Five ministerial portfolios were retained by the Cadets in the second provisional government, four in the third. But it is worth noting that the same N.V. Nekrasov (Minister of Communications, later Minister of Finance), in connection with his radical views, belonged to the Cadets only formally and was a supporter of Milyukov's resignation in May 1917.
On October 25, 1917, the activity of the last Provisional Government was stopped, and on November 28, 1917, the constitutional democrats were declared "the party of enemies of the people" and banned.

After the October Revolution

On the day when the Cadets were declared an illegal organization, A. I. Shingarev and F. F. Kokoshkin were arrested. On the night of January 6-7, 1918, both were killed in the Mariinsky prison hospital.

Prince Pavel Dolgoruky - shot in 1927, his twin brother Peter died in prison in 1951.
V. D. Nabokov died in 1922, during the assassination attempt on Milyukov in Paris.

Prince D. I. Shakhovskoy and N. V. Nekrasov became victims of the terror of the 1930s and were shot in 1939 and 1940, respectively. In 1937, F. A. Golovin was shot.

N. N. Glebov, an engineer and inventor, one of the members of the Central Committee of the Cadets, died of starvation in Leningrad in 1941.

P. N. Milyukov, V. A. Maklakov, F. I. Rodichev and a number of other party members continued their activities in exile, where the party continued to exist for several more years.

parties. Cadets

Freedom of Russia. Poster of the party of the Cadets, 1917

Party name

Constitutional Democratic Party of People's Freedom.

Party of Russian Constitutional Democrats.

Motto: "Skill and work for the good of the Motherland"

Years of existence

Created in October 1905

Social base

    liberal intelligentsia

    Entrepreneurs

    The petty bourgeoisie of town and country

population

Maximum - 100 thousand people

Leaders

    Milyukov P.N.

    Dolgorukov P.D.

    Muromtsev S.A.

Program

    State structure

    A constitutional monarchy

    Freedom and transformation

    Universal suffrage, parliamentary elections direct and equal

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

    Development of a market economy

    Protecting the interests of entrepreneurs

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

1 Duma: chairman Muromtsev S.A. cadet

2 Duma: chairman Golovin A.F., cadet

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

    In 1915, the 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, the study of culture, etc.

    agrarian question

    Cancellation of redemption payments

    Allotment of land to peasants at the expense of state and monastic lands

    Partial alienation of landed estates by paying state compensation

    Working 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 struggle

    Only legal methods of struggle are parliamentary

Activities after the February and October Revolutions of 1917

    Several ministers in the Provisional Government were Cadets. They tried to stop the devastation in the country.

    They opposed the policies of the Bolsheviks.

    They supported the speech of A. Karnilov 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 party of the Cadets was banned by the Bolsheviks, went underground, that is, into an illegal position.

    In the years civil war most of the cadets were on the side of the whites.

    After the civil war, most emigrated abroad.

Printed organs

    Newspaper "Rech"

    Journal "Bulletin of the Party of People's Freedom"

Material prepared: Melnikova Vera Aleksandrovna

Adopted at the Constituent Congress of the Constitutional Democratic Party

October 18, 1905

I. Basic rights of citizens 1. All Russian citizens, without distinction of sex, religion or nationality, are equal before the law. All class distinctions and all restrictions on the personal and property rights of Poles, Jews and all other separate groups of the population without exception must be abolished. 2. Every citizen is guaranteed freedom of conscience and religion […] The Orthodox Church and other confessions must be freed from state guardianship. 3 Everyone is free to express his thoughts orally and in writing, as well as publish them and distribute them by printing or in any other way. Censorship, both general and special, whatever it may be called, is abolished and cannot be restored. […] 4. All Russian citizens are granted 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, assemblies, etc. 7. Everyone's person and home shall be inviolable […] 8. No one may be subjected to persecution except on the basis of the law - by the judiciary and the court established by law. No emergency courts are allowed. 9. Every citizen enjoys freedom of movement and travel abroad. The passport system is being abolished. 10. All the above rights of citizens must be introduced into the fundamental law of the Russian Empire and provided with judicial protection. 11. The fundamental law of the Russian Empire must guarantee to all the peoples inhabiting the Empire, in addition to full civil and political equality of all citizens, the right of free cultural self-determination […] 12. The Russian language must be the language of central institutions, the army and navy […] The population of each locality must be provided with primary and, if possible, further education in their native language. II. Political system 13. The constitutional structure of the Russian state is determined by the fundamental law. 14. People's representatives are elected by universal, equal, direct and secret suffrage, without distinction of religion, nationality or sex. 15. People's representation participates in the exercise of legislative power, in the establishment of the state schedule of income and expenditure, and in the control over the legality and expediency of the actions of the higher and lower administration. […] 18. Members of people's congresses have the right to initiate legislation. 19. Ministers are responsible to the people's congress […] III. Local self-government and autonomy 20. Local self-government should be extended to the all-Russian state. […] 25. […] An autonomous system is introduced in the Kingdom of Poland with a Sejm elected on the same grounds as a national representation, provided that state unity is maintained and participation in the central representation is on the same basis as other parts of the empire. […] 26. […] The constitution of Finland, which ensures its special status as a state, must be completely restored. […] V. Financial and economic policy 30. Revision of the state expenditure budget in order to eliminate expenditures that are unproductive in their purpose or in their size and to correspondingly increase the expenditures of the state for the real needs of the people. 31. Cancellation of redemption payments. […] VI. Agricultural legislation 36. Increasing the land use area […] of landless and small-land peasants […] with state, appanage, office and monastery lands, as well as by alienating […] at the expense of the state […] privately owned lands with remuneration of current owners at a fair (non-market) assessment . 37. Alienated lands go to the state land fund. […] 38. Broad organization of state assistance for the resettlement, resettlement and organization of the economic life of the peasants. […] VII. labor legislation 41. Freedom of workers' unions and meetings. 42. The right to strike. […] 44. Legislative introduction of an eight-hour working day […] On the question of the immediate extension of the suffrage to women, the minority, for practical reasons, remained with a separate opinion, on the strength of which the congress recognized the decision of the party on this issue as not binding on the minority. 45. Development of labor protection for women and children and the establishment of special labor protection measures for men in hazardous industries.

Collection of programs of political parties of Russia. Issue. 1. S. 34-49. http://www.hrono.ru/dokum/kadety1905.html

Constitutional Democratic Party

"Constitutional Democratic Party"

Leader:

Pavel Milyukov

Foundation date:

October 1905

Dissolution date:

Headquarters:

St. Petersburg

Ideology:

liberalism, constitutional monarchy, social liberalism

Motto:

skill and work for the good of the Motherland

Seats inState Duma:

176 / 499

98 / 518

53 / 446

59 / 432

15 / 767

(constituent Assembly)

Party Seal:

the newspaper "Rech", the magazine "Bulletin of the Party of People's Freedom".

"Freedom of Russia" (Poster of the Kadet Party 1917)

Constitutional Democratic Party("the consignment Ph.D.», « People's Freedom Party», « ka-dety", later " cadets”) - a major left-liberal political party in Russia at the beginning of the 20th century.

The decision to create the Constitutional Democratic Party was made at the 5th congress of the liberal organization of Zemstvo activists, 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 people's" in the process of preparing for the elections to State Duma.

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

Despite the transport problems caused by the All-Russian political strike, the First (Constituent) Congress of the Constitutional Democratic Party was held in Moscow from October 12 to 18, 1905. In his opening speech, P. N. Milyukov characterized the constitutional-democratic movement as an ideological, non-class, social-reformist movement, defined the main task of the party being created as "entry into the Duma with the exclusive goal of fighting for political freedom and for correct representation" and drew the boundaries of the party in the political The spectrum of Russia is as follows: from the more right-wing parties, the Cadets are distinguished by the denial of bureaucratic centralization and Manchesterism, from the more left-wing parties - by the commitment to the constitutional monarchy and the denial of the demand for the 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, 1905, a message was announced at the congress about the signing by Emperor Nicholas II of the Supreme Manifesto on granting rights and freedoms to the people. The delegates greeted this news with loud applause and cheers. In a heartfelt speech, M. L. Mandelstam briefly described the history of the liberation movement in Russia, which resulted in the October Manifesto, and expressed party greetings to the union of the Russian intelligentsia, student youth and the working class. Those gathered honored by rising the memory of all the fighters who died for people's freedom, and vowed not to give this freedom back.

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

At the congress, the charter and program of the party were adopted, and a provisional Central Committee was elected.

Cooperation relations between the Cadets and the new government headed by c. S. Yu. Witte, did not work out. Negotiations between a delegation of cadet leaders of the Zemstvo Union (Prince N. N. Lvov, F. A. Golovin, F. F. Kokoshkin) and c. S. Yu. Witte, who offered the Cadets to join the reformed cabinet of ministers, ended in failure, since c. S. Yu. Witte did not accept the condition for the Zemstvo Cadets to enter the cabinet (general elections to the Constituent Assembly with the aim of drafting a constitution). S. Yu. Witte refused to accept the delegation of the zemstvo-city congress, in which the Cadets had a majority, reproaching the liberal public for "unwillingness to assist the authorities in the implementation of the principles of the manifesto and the maintenance of order."

At the II Congress (January 5 - 11, 1906), it was decided to add to the name of the party, as a subtitle, the words "Party of People's Freedom", since the phrase "Constitutional-Democratic" was incomprehensible to the illiterate majority of the population. The congress approved a new program of the party, in which it definitely spoke in favor of a constitutional parliamentary monarchy and the extension of voting rights to women. On the most acute issue - participation in the elections to the State Duma - the congress decided by an overwhelming majority, despite the opposition of the administration and the electoral qualification, which cuts off workers and part of the peasants from participating in elections, to take part in the election campaign primarily in order to propagate their program and organizational structuring of the party. In the event that the Cadets win the elections, the congress decided to go to the Duma, but not for the purpose of ordinary legislative work, but solely for the purpose of introducing universal suffrage, political and civil rights and freedoms, and taking urgent measures to "calm down the country." The congress also elected a permanent Central Committee chaired by Prince. Pavel Dolgorukov, which, in particular, included V. I. Vernadsky, M. M. Vinaver, I. V. Gessen, Prince. Petr 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, Prince. D. I. Shakhovskoy, G. F. Shershenevich.

In the course of preparations for the elections to the State Duma, the membership of the Cadets party grew steadily, reaching 70,000 by April 1906. This was facilitated both by the high level of political activity on the eve of the elections, and the opportunity to join the Constitutional Democratic Party on the basis of a mere oral application.

In the elections to the State Duma, the party enjoyed great success both among wide circles of the intelligentsia, the bourgeoisie, part of the liberal nobility and philistinism, and among the working people. The wide public support of the party was determined, on the one hand, by the radical program of political, social and economic reforms, and, on the other hand, by the desire of the party to carry out these reforms exclusively by peaceful, parliamentary means, without revolutions, violence and blood.

As a result, the constitutional democrats received 179 seats out of 499 (35.87%) in the State Duma of the 1st convocation, forming the largest Duma faction. Professor S. A. Muromtsev, a member of the Central Committee, became the Chairman of the Duma; all his deputies and chairmen of 22 Duma commissions were also Cadets.

After the dissolution of the Duma after 2.5 months of its work, the Cadets first participated in a meeting of deputies in Vyborg and in the development of the famous "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 persons who signed the Vyborg Appeal lost 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 the court were deprived of the right to vote for 3 years after the end of the punishment). This circumstance led to the fact that many popular leaders of the party could not take part in subsequent elections, and was one of the reasons why the success of the Cadets in the elections to the First Duma could never be repeated.

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 the party of enemies of the people, are subject to arrest and trial by revolutionary tribunals.

The local Soviets are entrusted with the duty of special supervision over the Cadets Party in view of its connection with the Kornilov-Kaledino civil war against the revolution.

The decree comes into force from the moment of its signing.

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

People's Commissars: N. Avilov (N. Glebov), P. Stuchka, V. Menzhinsky, Dzhugashvili-Stalin, G. Petrovsky, A. Schlichter, P. Dybenko.

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

Council Secretary N. Gorbunov

In the Second Duma, they received 98 deputy mandates (a member of the Central Committee, F. A. Golovin, was again elected chairman). The Cadets carried only 54 deputies to the VIII Duma, and 59 to the next (and last) one.

After the dissolution of the Second State Duma, the Cadet Party, unlike the socialist parties, continued to operate openly and legally, held all-Russian congresses, freely published and distributed party literature. Numerous cadet clubs and committees functioned locally, rallies were organized, and funds were collected to support the party. At the same time, the Ministry of the Interior consistently denied official registration to the Constitutional Democratic Party.

They played a decisive role in the last Duma, in the organizations of Zemsky and city unions, in the Military Industrial Committees. They supported the policy of the government in the 1st World War. Initiators of the creation of the opposition Progressive Bloc (1915). They acted under patriotic, but radically anti-government slogans. The famous Duma speech of Milyukov is known with accusations against the government and the court ("What is this - stupidity or treason?").

The most influential periodical that supported the positions of the Constitutional Democratic Party was the newspaper Rech.

The social composition of the party and its electorate

Initially, the Cadets Party was organized by representatives of the intelligentsia and the Zemstvo liberal nobility. The party also included liberal-minded landowners, the middle urban bourgeoisie (industrialists, merchants, bankers), teachers, doctors, and office workers. During the revolutionary upsurge of 1905-1907, many workers, artisans and peasants were members of or actively supported the party organizations. The desire of the Cadets to play the role of a constructive opposition and to oppose the tsarist government exclusively by parliamentary methods led, after the defeat of the revolution of 1905, to disappointment in the tactics of the Cadets and an outflow from the party of representatives of social groups engaged in physical labor and having small incomes. The reduction in the number of workers in the party continued until the revolution of 1917. During all this time, the Cadets were supported mainly by the urban middle class. After the February Revolution of 1917, which the Cadets welcomed and which gave them a leading role in the Provisional Government, the membership of the Constitutional Democratic Party began to grow sharply both due to the massive entry into it of workers and peasants hoping for democratic changes, and due to the former Progressives, Octobrists and even right-wing monarchists, who saw in it the only hope for a peaceful end to the revolution and the restoration of law and order. However, as the devastation caused by the war intensified and the masses became radicalized, support for the Cadets, who tried to save the monarchy and advocated the war to a victorious end, among the urban lower classes, and especially the rural and provincial population, steadily decreased, which was reflected in the results of local elections unfavorable for the Cadets. The failure of the speech of General L. G. Kornilov, behind whom they saw the “hand of the Cadets”, also damaged the reputation of the party. However, in the elections to the Constituent Assembly in 1917, the Cadets still won the votes of the urban middle class.

After the February Revolution

“In the February Revolution of 1917, Candidate-Democrat. tried their best to save the monarchy. "In the revolution of 1917 they spoke out at their congress for the republic". On March 3, 1917, in the Catherine Hall of the Tauride Palace, the chairman of the Central Committee of the Constitutional Democratic Party, P. N. Milyukov, delivered a speech in which, in particular, he stated:

“The old despot, who has brought Russia to complete ruin, will voluntarily renounce the throne or be deposed. Power will pass to the regent, Grand Duke Mikhail Alexandrovich. We imagine it as a parliamentary and constitutional monarchy.Perhaps others see it differently.But if we argue about it now, instead of immediately resolving the issue, Russia will find itself in a state of civil war and a regime that has just been destroyed will be reborn.We cannot do this. we have rights... But as soon as the danger passes and a lasting peace is established, we will begin preparing for the convocation of a Constituent Assembly on the basis of a universal, direct, equal and secret vote. adversaries."

However, the Kadet leader's attempt to save the monarchy in this way failed. On March 2, 1917, Nicholas II changed his decision to abdicate 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. Under the circumstances, when members of the Romanov dynasty itself renounced power, it was difficult to defend the monarchy further. 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 should be a democratic and parliamentary republic."

The Cadets predominated in the first composition of the Provisional Government, P. N. Milyukov, one of the leaders of the party, became Minister of Foreign Affairs. The Cadets were close to the top command staff army (Alekseev and others). In the summer of 1917, in view of 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

During the October Revolution, on the night of November 25 (November 7) to October 26, 1917, the Cadets ministers (N. M. Kishkin, A. I. Konovalov, A. V. Kartashev, S. A. Smirnov), who were in the Winter palace, along with other members of the Provisional Government, were arrested by the Bolsheviks who seized the palace. On the same night, October 26 (November 8), 1917, members of the Central Committee of the Constitutional Democratic Party V. D. Nabokov, Prince. V. A. Obolensky, S. V. Panina joined the anti-Bolshevik Committee for the Salvation of the Motherland and the Revolution, formed by the city duma of Petrograd. On October 27, 1917, the Central Committee of the Party appealed to the population to disobey the Council of People's Commissars. The Central Committee also declared that it was inadmissible for party members, with the exception of teachers, to be in the service of the Bolsheviks.

In November 1917, the Cadets took part in the elections to the All-Russian Constituent Assembly. Since the Cadets represented the right wing of the political spectrum, they managed to gather the votes of those forces that rejected Bolshevism and did not accept socialism. However, the number of such voters was small. Basically, the middle strata of large cities voted for the Cadets: the bourgeoisie, the intelligentsia. In Petrograd, Moscow and many cities, the Cadets took second place (after the Bolsheviks), and in 13 cities they took first place, but in the whole country, the Cadets won only 4.7% of the vote and received 15 seats in the Constituent Assembly. However, the Cadet deputies could not take part in the work of the Constituent Assembly: on November 28 (December 12), 1917, the Council of People's Commissars of the RSFSR issued a decree declaring the Cadet Party "the party of enemies of the people" and providing for the arrest of its leaders. By decree of the Council of People's Commissars, 4 deputies of the Constituent Assembly from the Constitutional Democratic Party were arrested (Prince P. D. Dolgorukov, F. F. Kokoshkin, V. A. Stepanov, A. I. Shingarev). On January 7, 1918, two of them, F. F. Kokoshkin and A. I. Shingarev, were killed by the Red Guards in the Mariinsky prison hospital.

The Cadets participated in various underground anti-Bolshevik organizations (Right Center, National Center, Renaissance Union) and actively supported the White movement.

In the early 1920s, the C.D. played a large role in emigration, where a number of programmatic and tactical issues somewhat diverted the various trends in the party from each other. Right c.-d. (P. Struve, V. Nabokov), constituting the majority, in their speeches became close to the monarchists. Left c.-d. (Republicans), led by P. N. Milyukov, sought support in the peasantry, which led them to rapprochement with the Socialist-Revolutionaries. From K.-D. part of the so-called "Smenovekhites" came out in exile, standing for the recognition of Soviet power.

The main points of the program (for 1913)

    equality of all Russian citizens without distinction of sex, religion or nationality;

    freedom of conscience, speech, press, assembly, unions;

    inviolability of the person and dwellings;

    freedom of cultural self-determination of nationalities;

    a constitution with a ministry responsible to the people's representatives (parliamentary system);

    universal suffrage according to the seven-term formula;

    local self-government based on universal suffrage, extending to the entire area of ​​local self-government;

    an independent court;

    reform of taxes to alleviate the poorest classes of the population;

    free transfer of state, appanage, office and monastery lands to peasants;

    compulsory redemption in their favor of a part of privately owned lands “at a fair assessment”;

    the right to strike;

    legislative labor protection;

    8-hour working day, "where its introduction is possible";

    universal free and compulsory primary education.

    cultural self-determination of all nations and nationalities (religion, language, traditions)

    full autonomy of Finland and Poland

    federal structure of Russia

Leaders and Eminent Persons

    Milyukov, Pavel Nikolaevich;

    Vernadsky, Vladimir Ivanovich;

    Vinaver, Maxim Moiseevich

    Gerasimov, Pyotr Vasilievich;

    Gessen, Joseph Vladimirovich;

    Glebov, Nikolai Nikolaevich;

    Golovin, Fedor Alexandrovich;

    Dolgorukov, Pavel Dmitrievich;

    Kizevetter, Alexander Alexandrovich;

    Kishkin, Nikolai Mikhailovich;

    Kokoshkin, Fedor Fedorovich (younger);

    Lvov, Georgy Evgenievich;

    Manuilov, Alexander Apollonovich;

Political parties in Russia at the beginning of the 20th century

Party name

Creation date, manager

Social base

agrarian question

Political question

Working question

national question

(Bolsheviks)

1898, 1903,

V.I. Ulyanov

Workers + peasants

A) Liquidation of landownership and transfer of land to public ownership

Elimination of autocracy; the transfer of power into the hands of the workers and peasants

DICTATORSHIP OF THE PROLETARIAT

The right of nations to self-determination up to secession and the formation of an independent state

(Mensheviks)

1898, 1903; G.V. Plekhanov, Yu.O. Martov

Workers, petty bourgeoisie, intellectuals

Differences with the Bolsheviks are tactical in nature. The tactics are based on the political environment and allow for various forms of activity, with preference given to legal activity in the Duma, trade unions and other organizations.

Party of Socialist Revolutionaries (SRs)

V.M. Chernov

Peasants + workers

A) liquidation of landed estates

B) endowing the peasants with land according to the equalizing principle - SOCIALIZATION OF THE LAND

Elimination of autocracy; the transfer of power into the hands of the workers and peasants. Creation of a democratic republic.

Empowerment of workers with full economic and political rights

The right of peoples to self-determination; creation of a federal state.

Party of Constitutional Democrats

P.N.Milyukov

Liberal bourgeoisie, liberal landlords, intelligentsia

Redemption by the state of part of the landowners' lands and allotment of the peasants. The abolition of communities.

Universal equal suffrage; separation of powers; adoption of the Constitution. A constitutional monarchy. Equality; civil rights

8 hour working day; the right to trade unions, strikes. Labor law. Occupational Safety and Health.

The right of cultural-national autonomy. Self-government of Poland and Finland as part of Ross. empire

(Octobrists)

A.I. Guchkov

Big bourgeoisie, landowners

Liquidation of the community; alienation of part of the landed estates for redemption.

Const. monarchy with broad rights of the king. Civil rights of the population.

Creation of moderate labor legislation

One and indivisible

(unitary) state

POLITICAL PARTIES AT THE BEGINNING OF THE 20TH CENTURY In Russia, the first political parties were created only at the beginning of the 20th century. During the first twenty years, they tried to influence the internal politics of the government, using both legal and illegal methods of influence, based on their programmatic and tactical guidelines. Cadets The Constitutional Democratic Party of People's Freedom was founded in October 1905. The number of its members reached 70 thousand people. The social base of the party was the intelligentsia, entrepreneurs, the petty bourgeoisie of the city and countryside. The party program provided for the transformation of Russia into a constitutional monarchy, proclaimed political freedoms and universal suffrage, an 8-hour working day, social insurance, autonomy for Poland and Finland. The Cadets were in opposition to the regime, but they recognized only legal methods of struggle. Particular attention was paid to work in the State Duma, where the Cadets enjoyed great influence. They played a dominant role in the Progressive Bloc, which was formed in State Duma in 1915. The apogee of the confrontation between the party and the government was P. N. Milyukov’s speech delivered on November 1, 1916 from the rostrum of the State Duma, in which he sharply criticized the actions of the government. The February Revolution opened a new milestone in the history of the Kadet Party, which is essentially the ruling party. The composition of the Provisional Government, created after the abdication of Nicholas II, included several ministers of the Cadets. The party tried to stop the devastation in the country and restrain the leftward movement of the masses. The activity of the Bolsheviks caused particular indignation in the Kadet circles. Therefore, the party supported the speech of A. Kornilov in August 1917, which dealt a heavy blow to its authority. The Cadets did not accept the October Revolution and directed all their efforts towards rallying the anti-Bolshevik forces. At the end of November 1917, the Cadet Party was banned by a decree of the Council of People's Commissars and its members went underground. During the civil war, most of them fought in the ranks of the "white army", and then emigrated from Russia.

The program of the cadet party

The initial premise of the political program of the Cadets was the idea of ​​the evolutionary development of society, the gradual reform of Russian power structures. They demanded the replacement of unlimited autocracy by a constitutional-monarchist system. The political ideal of the Cadets was a parliamentary constitutional monarchy of the British type, where "the king reigns but does not govern." The idea of ​​the separation of powers - legislative, executive and judicial - was consistently pursued. The Cadets advocated the introduction of universal suffrage in Russia, the proclamation of democratic freedoms - speech, assembly, unions, etc., insisted on observing the civil and political rights of the individual, i.e. sought to create a legal state in Russia.

The theory of the rule of law served as a rationale for the Cadet program of a constitutional monarchy. MM. Kovalevsky *** emphasized that law is primary, and the state is secondary, that law has priority over the state.

The legal cadets believed that the recognition of the rule of law is expressed in three conditions:

a) there can be no changes in the legal order in the state without the participation of popular representation;

b) there can be no irresponsible government acts, although there may be irresponsible bodies;

c) there must be a right court.

The rule of law is characterized by the participation of the people in legislation, control over the implementation of laws and self-restraint of state power. According to F.F. Kokoshkin ****, the legal and constitutional state are synonyms, a truly legal democratic state cannot but be parliamentary, since the crown of the constitutional regime is parliamentarism.

Gradually, Russian jurists introduced the concept of "constitutional law" into scientific use. Previously, they operated with the term "state law", using the concept of "constitutional law" only in relation to Western Europe. Over time, this term has firmly established itself in the legal scientific lexicon.

At the same time, there were quite a few provisions in the Cadets' program that did not correspond to the position of consistent democracy. Thus, on the national question, the Cadets took a position that enabled their socialist opponents to reproach them for being "great powers." The Cadets, being unitarians by their principles, did not recognize the right of nations and peoples to political self-determination and separation from the Russian Empire, allowing only the slogan of cultural and national self-determination (which involved the use of national languages ​​in the education system, in book publishing, and legal proceedings) and in some cases - regional autonomy. For Poland and Finland, the Cadets recognized a wider autonomy, but within the framework of a single Russian state.

The theorists of the People's Freedom Party were acutely aware of the growing discrepancy between the outdated political system and the needs of reforming the country. Being the ideologists of a new type of liberalism, the Cadets considered the market economy to be the most optimal, rational basis for the social process, therefore the program of the Cadets expressed with the greatest completeness and consistency the tendencies of the country's capitalist development for the foreseeable historical perspective.

Much attention in the program of the party was given to the solution of economic problems. The agrarian question was worked out most thoroughly. The Cadets proceeded from the premise that without a fundamental solution to this issue it would be impossible to transform the country's economy and raise the standard of living of the population. They advocated the liberation of the peasants from communal fetters, the creation of a small independent peasant economy, and the formation of a market infrastructure for agricultural production. It was proposed to form a special fund from the state, appanage, cabinet, monastic and part of the landowners' lands and allocate the peasants from this fund. The Cadets believed that it was impossible to solve the agrarian-peasant question in Russia without a partial compulsory alienation of the landowners' land (Minister of the Interior P.A. Stolypin, the extreme rightists and the Octobrists insisted on the complete inviolability of landownership).

The question of the permissible limits for the alienation of landowners' land was one of the complex and debatable points of the agrarian program. The main criterion for evaluating expropriated lands belonging to landlords was the method of their exploitation. The Party of People's Freedom considered it possible to sacrifice large landownership, which was the economic basis for the preservation of semi-serf forms of lease, a stronghold of the autocracy and a constant source of discontent among the peasants. A certain section of the Left Cadets advocated the alienation of part of the middle landownership. However, the leadership of the Kadet Party strongly objected to such radicalism. It was constantly emphasized that this step should be taken only in extreme cases, when "there is no other way to satisfy the land needs of the surrounding population and when, moreover, the hope is provided that the economy will continue to continue in the future." worst than before."

One of the fundamental questions of the Cadet agrarian program was the question of redemption, which underwent evolution. Alienation of land by the Cadets was allowed only for a ransom. They were convinced that a ransom was necessary, because "the land is not a gift from God, but the product of human labor and the embodiment of capital." During the upsurge of the revolution, the Cadets advocated the redemption of land at the expense of the state. Along with this, a current was gaining strength, whose representatives proposed to lay part of the payments on the peasants themselves. “The unfavorable moral impact of the free acquisition of land on the masses of the people could destroy all the good economic consequences of this measure,” wrote N.N. Kutler*****. the same injustice towards other classes of the population.

The Cadets worked out a democratic and flexible mechanism for agrarian reform through a network of land committees consisting of representatives of landowners, peasants and officials. In essence, in their agrarian program the Cadets advocated the cleansing of the Russian agrarian system of the most crude forms and methods of semi-serf exploitation. Defending the interests of the liberal-minded bourgeoisie and the landlords, who run their economy on a capitalist basis, the Cadets sought to adapt the agrarian system of Russia to the needs of bourgeois development, to establish "social peace" in the countryside.

A working program was aimed at streamlining bourgeois relations, stabilizing and humanizing the sphere of wage labor. The desire to transfer trade unionism to Russian soil made it a central requirement to create legal workers' unions, which, in the opinion of the Cadets, should contribute to a peaceful settlement of relations between labor and capital, between workers and entrepreneurs. The Cadets insisted on the need for the trade unions to conclude a collective agreement with the employers, which could be terminated only by judicial procedure. It was proposed to transfer the solution of questions about the relationship between labor and capital to special arbitration bodies with the participation of representatives from workers and capitalists.

An important place in the program of the Party of People's Freedom was occupied by the issues of social protection of workers. It put forward demands for the gradual introduction of an 8-hour working day, a reduction in overtime work, and a ban on involving teenagers in them. The Cadets advocated the provision of compensation to workers in case of disability due to an accident or occupational disease (payment of compensation should be made at the expense of the employer), for the introduction of state insurance in case of death, old age and illness. All workers and employees, regardless of the type of enterprise (industrial, transport, agricultural, construction, etc.), were subject to compulsory insurance against accidents, exclusively at the expense of entrepreneurs.

The victims were supposed to be paid weekly allowances and pensions. Benefits were to be awarded in the amount of 60% of the average actual earnings of the victim from the day of the accident to the day of restoration of working capacity or recognition of its loss. In the event of disability, pensions were to be paid, which were also supposed to be provided to family members in the event of the death of the victim. Attention was drawn to the organization and activities of sickness funds, which were obliged to issue cash benefits and provide patients with free treatment. It also provided for the organization of zemstvo and city cash desks, the funds of which were made up of contributions from entrepreneurs (two-thirds) and workers (one-third). It was planned to create courts to consider issues related to insurance.

The work program of the Cadets provided for a significant improvement in the position of the working class, taking into account the level of Russia's economic development, and did not lead to a decrease in labor productivity at enterprises.

An extensive program of measures aimed at transforming the national economy was also developed. It included: the creation of a special body under the government (with the participation of representatives of the legislative chambers and business industrial circles) to develop a long-term plan for the development of all sectors of the national economy; revision of outdated commercial and industrial legislation and the abolition of petty guardianship and regulation, which hampered the freedom of entrepreneurial activity; opening access for private capital to railway construction, mining, postal and telegraph business, etc.; liquidation or reduction of unprofitable state economy; expansion of foreign trade, as well as the organization of the consular service.

The program also included financial reforms. This is primarily the expansion of the budgetary rights of the State Duma, the organization of industrial credit and the establishment of a long-term industrial credit bank, the creation of chambers of commerce and industry. The Cadets demanded a change in the financial policy in the field of the state budget in order to reduce expenditures that were unproductive for their purpose or in their size and a corresponding increase in the state's expenditures for the real needs of the people.

The People's Freedom Party also insisted on revising the tax system. These demands included: cancellation of redemption payments; the reduction of indirect taxation and the gradual abolition of indirect taxes on consumer goods of the masses; reform of direct taxes based on progressive and property taxation; introduction of a progressive inheritance tax; lowering customs duties; state public assistance to cooperation in all its forms, the circulation of funds from savings banks for the development of small credit.

Since the economic program of the Cadets proceeded from the interests of the country's bourgeois development, it was supported and shared by the Octobrists and Progressives. A feature of the documents of the party of the Cadets was that they proposed not only certain measures, but also the mechanisms for their preparation and implementation.

The opportunity to put their program into practice arose for the Cadets after the February Revolution of 1917, when the Constitutional Democratic Party ceased to be an opposition party. The agrarian and industrial-financial program of the party was reflected in the draft Declaration of the Provisional Government on economic issues and an explanatory note to it, submitted for consideration by the cabinet through the Ministry of Industry and Trade. Taking into account the real situation in the country, the Cadets were forced to accept the idea of ​​state regulation and energetically called for the widespread attraction of foreign capital, without which they could not imagine the development of the productive forces in Russia.

The political position of the Cadets of this period assumed the rejection of the constitutional monarchy in favor of a parliamentary bourgeois republic of the Western European type. However, this provision in the party program did not last long - by August 1917, according to P.N. Milyukov, the Cadets were convinced that "the salvation of Russia lies in the return of the monarchy."

The course towards the further participation of Russia in the First World War was considered unchanged. Among the most important national tasks, the Cadets included the acquisition of the Black Sea straits of the Bosporus and the Dardanelles and Constantinople. The party leader even received the nickname "Milyukov-Dardanelsky" in the press. According to the calculations of the Cadets, the satisfaction of these requirements should have strengthened Russia's strategic position, strengthened its influence in the Middle East and the Balkans, and stimulated the development of the country's economy. However, the broad masses hated the predatory slogans adopted by the Provisional Government. Famous note P.N. Milyukova provoked the April government crisis, which led Milyukov, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Provisional Government, to resign. The people wanted peace. The peasants, who made up the bulk of the population of Russia, demanded land, the proletariat advocated control over production and the destruction of private property. After the February events, the programs of other parties that came out of the underground are becoming more and more popular. Since April, the Bolshevik Party began to gain strength.

The Cadets, who previously occupied positions closer to the left flank in the State Duma, became a stronghold of the right. Their program, upholding the inviolability of the principle of private property, the transfer of part of the landowners' land to the peasants for redemption, the war to a victorious end, now attracted those who were frightened and repelled by the revolution. The ranks of the Cadets were joined by tsarist officials, big merchants and industrialists, and, which is especially hard to imagine, the Black Hundreds with their great-power chauvinism and anti-Semitism. The changed composition of the Cadet Party, its ideological image, the struggle against the Soviets, the desire to establish a military dictatorship aroused irritation and hostility among the people.

The revolutionary impatience and leveling tendencies that seized the masses of the people did not help to strengthen the Cadets Party in power. Their agrarian and industrial program was subjected to fierce criticism from the parties of the socialist persuasion. In the perception of the broad masses of the people, the Cadets increasingly became a symbol of conservatism and restraint of reforms.

The authors of the book "The Drama of Russian Reforms and Revolutions" quite rightly note that at the moment of identifying theory and practice, liberalism as a political trend of the pre-October era turned out to be untenable, firstly, because it could not develop an answer to the problems posed by the social peasant revolution; secondly, because liberalism failed to win the mass consciousness; and finally, thirdly, the Cadets have never fully succeeded in rising to the idea of ​​overthrowing the autocracy.

After the October Revolution of 1917, the Council of People's Commissars issued a decree placing the Cadets party "outside the law." As a result of repressions and the victory of the Bolsheviks in the civil war, the Kadet Party left the political arena of Russia.

Instead of a conclusion

Liberal constitutional ideas again began to be openly proclaimed in our country in the late 80s and early 90s of the past century. To one degree or another, they were voiced in the programs of the European Liberal Democratic Party, the Russian Social Liberal Party, the Republican Party and a number of others. In 1989, the beginning of the revival of the Cadet Party was laid. The name of the new party repeats the name of the pre-revolutionary party of cadets - the Constitutional Democratic Party - People's Freedom Party (KDP-PNS). Registered by the Ministry of Justice of the Russian Federation on September 25, 1991.

The KDP (PNS) program develops the ideas and attitudes of the Cadets of the early twentieth century in relation to the present. Like their predecessors, the new Cadets in their program pay great attention to the constitutional rights of citizens: freedom of the individual, speech, press, manifestations, movement, entrepreneurship, the right to private property, and uphold the principles of broad self-government. Both are supporters of a strong rule of law state.

The question of the state system is considered by modern Cadets in the spirit of the decisions of the 7th Congress of the Party of People's Freedom in 1917, namely: the proclamation of a democratic parliamentary republic based on the constitutional separation of legislative, executive and judicial powers. However, on the issue of the state structure, there is also a difference in positions. The pre-revolutionary Cadets advocated a united and indivisible Russia and were unitarians. The modern Cadet Party adheres to the principle of a federal structure of the state, although it should be noted that the rights of various nationalities are spelled out in more detail in the program of the pre-revolutionary Cadets.

So, the programs of the Cadets at the beginning and end of the 20th century are focused on the democratic development of Russia. However, the modern party of Cadets cannot yet be called strong and influential. Its leaders lack political experience and maturity, and the program lacks taking into account all the nuances of the political situation in the country.

The study of the history of the liberal tradition and the attitude of the liberal intelligentsia to the issues of social and economic development of Russia seems to be very relevant in the modern period. All these problems are closely related to the process of formation and evolution of civil society and the rule of law in modern Russia.

Literature

1. Political parties of Russia during the revolution of 1905-1907. Quantitative analysis: Sat. articles. M., 1987. S. 99, 146.

2. Kovalevsky M.M. The doctrine of personal rights. M., 1905. S. 6-7.

3. Alekseev A.S. The Beginning of the Rule of Law in the Modern State // Questions of Law. 1910. Book. II. S. 15.

4. Kokoshkin F.F. Lectures on General State Law. 2nd ed. M., 1912. S. 261.

5. Chuprov A.I. On the issue of agrarian reform. M., 1906. S. 27.

6. The program of the party of people's freedom (constitutional-democratic). M., 1917. S. 3-22.

7. Legislative drafts and proposals of the People's Freedom Party. 1905-1907 SPb., 1907. S. 16.

8. Milyukov P. Tactics of the faction of people's freedom during the war. Pg., 1916. S. 6, 7.

9. Plimak E.G., Pantin I.K. The drama of Russian reforms and revolutions. M., 2000. S. 273, 281-282.

* A total of ten congresses of the Cadets Party were held: I - in 1905; II, III, IV - in 1906, V - in 1907, VI - in 1916, VII, VIII, IX, X - in 1917. At the II Congress (January 1906) the party was finally constituted Cadets, changes were made to the program and charter, a new composition of the Central Committee was chosen, an addition was made to the main name of the party - the Party of People's Freedom (PNS).

*** Kovalevsky Maxim Maksimovich (1851–1916) - social scientist, leader of the Democratic Reform Party.

**** Fedor Fedorovich Kokoshkin (1871–1918) - lawyer, leading expert in the field of state law.

***** Kutler Nikolai Nikolaevich (1859–1924) – lawyer, one of the leaders of the Cadets party, author of the liberal draft on the land issue.

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