Labor group

Prior to the convocation of the First State Duma, there was no such organization. It arose in the 1st State Duma in April 1906, as a group of deputies from peasants and intellectuals of a populist trend.

The founders of the group were Aladyin , Anikin , Zhilkin , Bondarev , Shaposhnikov , Onipko .

A significant number of members of the First Duma who joined it were chosen as non-partisan.

In the first Duma, there were about 80 members of the labor party or the so-called Trudoviks. The labor group in size and influence was second only to constitutional democrats , but did not consider it necessary to call itself a party, because it was an exclusively parliamentary organization, did not differ sharply and definitely from related groups and did not obey strict party discipline.

She did not have a program, and even at the end of the existence of the Duma, she had only a platform project. Deputies entered the labor group, who in their views were to the left of the Cadets in the field of the agrarian question.

In its ranks there were several socialist revolutionaries , and at first several social democrats .

The ideology of the labor group was inherited from the populist parties and movements. She sought to fight for interests and reflect the mood of the working people, uniting mainly three social classes, which she ranked among the working people: the peasantry, the working proletariat and the working intelligentsia. At critical moments, the labor group often split and voted in one part for more extreme proposals made by its leaders, and the other part for more moderate proposals made by the cadet party.

Both in the First and in the Second Duma ( D. A. Lagno , O. M. Sytin , F. Ya. Timachev , P. D. Schipin , etc.) the group consisted mainly of representatives of the peasantry. The Trudoviks were an influential political force in the Duma and were widely popular among the people. Also, the faction put up a number of prominent speakers (Aladyin, Anikin, Bondarev, Bramson , Zhilkin, Lokot , etc.).

When discussing the response address to the throne speech, the labor group spoke on its own and proposed a draft much more radical than the draft of the cadet party . It very clearly stated the need to solve the agrarian question by transferring land into the hands of the working people, and political issues through universal and equal suffrage, with direct and secret ballot.

On the agrarian issue, the labor group submitted two projects, one signed by 104 deputies, the other signed 33; some signatures were common under both projects. This is because both projects were introduced as material for the agrarian commission. The 33rd project included the requirement to establish special land committees, provincial, district and volost, which would have discussed the project in detail before the Duma resolved the issue and, if the Duma adopted the project, would have promoted local reform. An amnesty project for political criminals came out of the labor group and was supposed to be carried out in law. A large part of requests for crimes committed by officials came from her. When discussing the issue of the death penalty, the Trudoviks insisted on its immediate discussion, at least in violation of the law on the monthly period, which is given to ministers to prepare for discussion of bills proposed by members of the Duma.

When the Duma was dissolved, members of the labor group went to Vyborg with the cadets. In Vyborg, the Trudoviks offered to issue an appeal not on behalf of the individuals gathered there, but on behalf of the entire Duma. The draft Trudoviks were rejected by the Cadets, after which the Trudoviks signed under the appeal of the Cadets, only slightly modified. It was published not on behalf of the Duma as a whole (for it recognized the dissolution of the Duma), but on behalf of the assembled 180 persons.

In addition to the work of the Duma, the labor group carried out broad non-Duma activities: it sent its members to places, distributed a large number of literature, etc. in turn, she received many orders and took many walkers.

By the end of August, at least 15 members of the labor group were arrested (Onipko was sentenced to settlement on charges of participating in the Kronstadt uprising ; priest Afanasyev was imprisoned in a monastery ^{[ specify ]} ); many others, hiding from arrest, switched to an illegal position (Anikin, Ulyanov , etc.), or went abroad ( Aladyin ).

In October, a congress of the labor group took place at Imatra , which was attended by former deputies who remained at large, and some people close to the labor group; representatives of the Social Revolution parties were also invited there . , social.-dem., people 's soc. and unions of peasant, railway and teacher. At this congress, it was decided that the labor group should be a political organization, not exclusively parliamentary; its task was to unite the elements that were not covered by the parties to the left of the Cadets. A committee of the labor group was elected, which was entrusted with the task of reviewing the project of the platform of the group, worked out during the Duma. This committee was called the central. Its members included partly former deputies. I had to abandon the idea of ​​making the labor group an open union legalized on the basis of the law of March 4, 1906, in view of the failure of similar attempts by the Cadet parties, people's socialists and even the party of "democratic reforms."

The government regarded the labor group as a revolutionary organization; some newspapers that printed its platform were confiscated, with the involvement of editors in court under Article 129 By February 1907, there were 32 local labor group committees in Russia, with many thousands of registered active members.

Having organized itself like a political party, the labor group nevertheless treasured its name as “groups” and opposed itself to political parties, insisting that it was a non-party political organization. She saw the opposite of her parties in the fact that she had no program and no desire to develop one, but only a platform, that is, a formulation of demands made at the immediate political moment, on the basis of which people with different political convictions could unite: monarchists - Republicans, socialists - with non-socialists and even with principled opponents of socialism. Another reason why the group opposed itself to parties was the weakness and even absence of party discipline; the possibility of simultaneous belonging to both the labor group and other left parties was recognized. In the field of political affairs, the labor group’s platform demanded the full “exercise of democracy” and the popular State Duma, elected by universal suffrage by the seven-member formula; this Duma must own all the fullness of the legislative power and complete control over the executive branch. Similar radical demands were put forward in matters of administrative, financial, military, national. In relation to the land issue, the platform expresses its full agreement with the agricultural project 104. In relation to the issue of the factory, the platform puts forward the requirement of an 8-hour working day, with the prohibition of work by minors under 16, with a mandatory weekly 42-hour rest, etc. of these practical requirements, the platform expresses the desire to rely on the labor group for a lasting union of three or even four social classes (workers, peasants, employees in commercial and other enterprises, labor intelligentsia), which s together make up the "working people".

Since January 1907, the labor group energetically set about campaigning. Almost everywhere, she strove to unite all the left elements, sometimes together with the Cadets. against the right and the Octobrists, sometimes without the Cadets against them and the right. In St. Petersburg, the bloc she proposed by all the left with the Cadets failed, but the Left bloc without the Cadets took place and without social dem. "Mensheviks." In St. Petersburg, this block was broken, but collected for itself 27% of all votes cast and held its electors in one of the 12 parts of the city of St. Petersburg ( Vyborg ). In the early days of the Second Duma, 55 full members enrolled in the labor group, except for the 14 members of the peasant union that joined it, and 19 deputies who declared themselves "sympathetic to the labor group." On February 15-17, 1907, the second congress of the labor group was held in Terioki , which was attended by 52 delegates from various departments.

At this congress, it was decided that in the State Duma the labor group would merge with the peasant union and would be called the "labor group and peasant union", representing a united parliamentary faction, with a single committee. The group’s platform project was reviewed, but not finally approved and recognized as provisional, until revision at the Third Congress. The central committee of the group remained the same, from the labor group it was held on the Presidium of the Duma, by the fellow chairman, M. E. Berezin . Among the visitors to the meetings of the labor group was another friend of the chairman, HH Poznansky (but only after he was elected as the chairman's comrade).

In the early days of the Second State Duma, the labor group introduced an amnesty project for political criminals, which was a slightly modified version of last year, and a land reform project, for which the group also took advantage of last year's project. As the speakers of the labor group of the Second Duma, Berezin, Karavaev , Bulat , the priest Tikhvinsky , Kartashev and others stood out.

Almost always, the labor group spoke in the Duma along with socialist-revolution. and nar. socialists. She sought to create a permanent bloc from these three Duma factions and even merge them into one Duma faction, without destroying the party independence of each of them outside the Duma.

The labor group subsequently existed only as a parliamentary faction. In the elections to the 3rd and 4th State Duma, the Trudoviks spoke out from a bloc of populist organizations and leftist forces that stood on the basis of radical democratic transformations. In the 3rd State Duma, the Trudoviks received 14 seats, in the 4th - 10 seats. Since 1915, the chairman of the Trudovik faction was A.F. Kerensky .

During the first state. Duma body of the labor group was the newspaper "Izvestia Peasant Deputies", then "Labor Russia", and later "Peasant Deputy". In the period between the two Duma, the labor group did not have its own body, but since the end of 1906, the Metropolitan Post was the body close to it. Since March 15, 1907, its body is the “ Labor People ”. The most outstanding articles from the first three newspapers are collected in the book: “A Collection of News of Peasant Deputies and Labor Russia” (Moscow, 1906).

After the June 3 coup, the work of the Trudoviks in the field ceased. After the February Revolution of 1917, they united with the People’s Socialists (Enes) and formed the Labor People’s Socialist Party at the 6th Congress of the Trudoviks [June 17–23 (June 30 – July 6) 1917]. The party supported the Provisional Government, and after the October Revolution of 1917, it took an anti-Bolshevik position and soon disintegrated.

• T. V. Lokot, “The First Duma” (Moscow, 1906);
• T. V. Lokot, “Political Parties and Groups in the State. The Duma ”(Moscow, 1907);
• I. Bonch-Osmolovsky (edited by S. I. Bondarev, member of the labor group of the State Duma of the first convocation), “Works of the first State. Duma ”(St. Petersburg, 1906);
• O. Volintsov, “Speeches by A. F. Aladyin in the First Russian Parliament” (St. Petersburg, 1906);
• S. Bondarev and I. Subbotin, “Tactics of the labor group. Dissolution of the first state. Dumas ”(St. Petersburg, 1907);
• Olgovich , “What did the village say first? The Duma ”(St. Petersburg, 1906);
• S. Bondarev, K. Ulyanov and S. Korniliev, “What the people demand from the State. Thoughts Orders and appeals to deputies of the labor group ”(Issue I, without a year);
• G. K. Ulyanov, “To my voters” (M., 1907);
• Tan, “Guys in the State. The Duma ”(Moscow, 1907);
• Anonymous brochure “What is a Labor Group” (without a year and place of publication);
• S. Anikin, “Congress of the labor group” (article in the national social collection “People's Labor”, 1906, No. 1).
• G. Plekhanov, “At Home. Notes of a publicist ”(in the journal“ Modern Life ”, October, 1906)
• F. Dan, “Social Democratic Faction in the State. Duma ”(in“ Responses of the Present, ”1906, No. 5)
• M. B — s and F. Dan, “Workers' Deputies in the First State. Duma ”(St. Petersburg, without a year).

• Labor group // Brockhaus and Efron Encyclopedic Dictionary : in 86 volumes (82 volumes and 4 additional). - SPb. , 1890-1907.