The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition. 2001-07.
Socialist Revolutionary party
in Russian history, an agrarian party founded by various Populist groups in 1901. Its program, adopted in 1906, called for the overthrow of the autocracy, the establishment of a classless society, self-determination for national minorities, and socialization of the land, which was to be distributed among the peasants on the basis of need. Viktor Chernov was a party leader. A secret “combat organization” within the party arranged political assassinations, notably that of V. K. Plehve (1904) and Grand Duke Sergei (1905). Originally made up of students and intellectuals, the party later gained support from the peasantry. In 1917 some Socialist Revolutionaries participated in the Petrograd soviet and in the provisional government. The party won a majority in the short-lived constituent assembly (Jan., 1918), which was disbanded by the Bolsheviks. By 1922 the party was suppressed.
