The émigré socialist revolutionary party and the russian peasantry during nep

White, Elizabeth

Abstract

This article examines the analysis of the Russian peasantry during NEP that was made by members of the Socialist Revolutionary Party (SRs) in emigration. They saw evidence that peasant behaviour in this period justified narodnik beliefs. It also discusses the SR programme for modernisation, to which the usual ‘alternative’ to Stalinism–Bukharinism–owed something. Their analysis of the correlation of social forces led the SRs to believe that the peasantry would bring the Soviet regime down. These hopes were disappointed and it is suggested that the SRs' weakness, particularly that of their leader, Viktor Chernov, lay in their failure to understand how power operated in the Bolshevik state. © 2005, Taylor & Francis Group, LLC.

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Publication Date: Jan 1, 2005
• Deposit Date: Sep 26, 2013
• Journal: Revolutionary Russia
• Print ISSN: 0954-6545
• Electronic ISSN: 1743-7873
• Publisher: Taylor & Francis (Routledge)
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 18
• Issue: 1
• Pages: 47-70
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/09546540500091134
• Keywords: Russian revolution, emigre politics
• Public URL: https://uwe-repository.worktribe.com/output/1056372
• Publisher URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/09546540500091134
• Contract Date: Nov 15, 2016