Public law

The emergence of the party was associated with the dramatic search by the former Narodnik revolutionaries for new ways to fight the autocracy in the conditions of the crisis of the populist movement after the defeat of the Narodnaya Volya party in 1884 . In the early 1890s , a significant portion of the former Narodnaya Volya returned from exile. Since 1889, the populist M. A. Natanson , who settled in Saratov , attempted to unite the fragmented populist circles into a single party. Since 1892, the former Narodovolets N. S. Tyutchev , who settled in Nizhny Novgorod , joined his efforts. At the same time, populist N.F. Annensky and writer V.G. Korolenko , who were serving a link for their political unreliability, were in Nizhny. In May 1892, on the recommendation of V. G. Korolenko, A. I. Bogdanovich was brought into the new party. ^[1] O. V. Aptekman , V. A. Bodaev , A. V. Gedeonovsky , V. A. , outstanding figures of the populist and people's movement took part in the creation and activity of the party in one way or another . Zhdanov , G. F. Zdanovich , M. P. Miklashevsky , V. Ya. Bogucharsky , P. F. Nikolaev , A. V. Peshekhonov , M. A. Plotnikov ^[2] , V. M. Chernov , N. M Flerov .

It became possible to create a party by uniting the Saratov, Orel and Moscow Narodnik circles. In addition to the Narodniks, the party included leaders of the liberal movement V. A. Goltsev , P. N. Milyukov and others. The final formation of the party took place in September 1893 at the unification congress in Saratov. N.K. Mikhailovsky , who together with N.F. Annensky and Korolenko personally attended the organizational conference in Saratov, agreed to become the editor of the People’s Law print organ, but at the same time, like them, he somewhat distanced himself from active political work in party. ^[1] Branches of an illegal organization existed in Moscow , St. Petersburg , Orel , Smolensk , Kharkov , Nizhny Novgorod, Perm , Yekaterinburg , Ufa , Baku , Tbilisi , Rostov-on-Don , etc.

In their activity, the people’s leaders sought to take into account the miscalculations of the previous tactics, which led to the defeat of the “People’s Will”. Ignoring the blanquist-conspiratorial methods of the people of the people, they tried to rely on the wider social strata of society:

appear in the face of triumphant absolutism not by a circle of conspirators, but by a political party

- A. I. Bogdanovich, “An urgent issue.” London, 1895, p. one.

The most important goal of the party is the struggle against the autocracy and democratic reforms.

To abolish autocracy and replace bureaucracy with popular government - these are the immediate goals and objectives of the struggle for political freedom in modern Russia ... to shake off the oppression of dilapidated ideas of populism, culture, preaching small deeds ... to abandon the reverent worship of the mythical "god-bearing" people, with their kind then to an unknown special truth.

- A. I. Bogdanovich, “An urgent issue.” London, 1895, p. 24, 30.

The ultimate goal is the establishment of a socialist system. On this platform, the democrats sought to unite to achieve their goals with all Russian democratic forces from revolutionaries to liberals. The party’s program included the following immediate goals: representative governance on the basis of universal suffrage, freedom of the press, gatherings, religion, personal integrity, political self-determination for all peoples of Russia.

Unlike the People’s Volunteers, “People’s Law” did not set itself the task of physical reprisal against individual representatives of the ruling regime and did not have its own combat organization. The people’s point of view was to discredit the entire existing system, to create ideological prerequisites for the transition to parliamentarism, and to form a single, united, anti-government bloc of opposition forces to fight for political reforms. According to V.I. Lenin , constitutionalism was of more interest to the people of the rule than socialism itself .

The method of party struggle is revolutionary propaganda through illegal intellectual circles in legal educational institutions, in zemstvos, in educational institutions, work clubs, etc. The party had its own printing house in Smolensk, where in 1894 the party "Manifesto" and the brochure "Essential question". Later, after the defeat of the party, the author of the pamphlet, A. I. Bogdanovich, reprinted it in 1895 in London . Democrats planned to discuss issues of party strategy and tactics, the economic program in their own illegal party magazine, but the party members did not have time to complete their regular print organ - in the summer of 1894, the Smolensk printing house was destroyed along with the defeat of the party.

Since the activities of the new Narodnik organization from the very beginning proceeded under the supervision of a gendarme official S.V. Zubatov , its work was quickly stopped and the party leadership was arrested. Along with the disclosure of the party’s activities, the “Group of People’s Volunteers” also failed. In April 1894, M. A. Natanson was arrested, later N. S. Tyutchev, V. M. Chernov, A. V. Peshekhonov, and others were detained. In total, 158 people were involved in an inquiry about the activities of the People’s Law party. participants. The party found itself without a leadership center; some provincial branches were completely liquidated.

The movement of democracy did not stop in connection with the defeat of the party. Some of its members managed to avoid repression (A.I. Bogdanovich, M.P. Miklashevsky (Nevedomsky), V. Ya. Bogucharsky, M.A. Plotnikov and P.F. Nikolaev and others). Their activities proceeded in an atmosphere of deep underground. They were released in 1896 - 1898. the newspaper “Struggle”, appeals to striking workers, propaganda literature: “The First Year of Nicholas II ”, “In Memory of M. F. Vetrova”, collection “Our Time” (two issues). The leader of the surviving democrats A. I. Bogdanovich left the magazine " Russian wealth " in 1894 and transferred to the magazine "Peace of God" , where he became a leading literary critic. Until the end of the 1890s, the “Peace of God” became, in a certain sense, a tribune of the people of the right. ^[1] Due to the fact that the activities of the people’s Democrats were extremely conspiratorial, their influence on the political situation in Russia in the late 1890s was not noticeable.

In the future, the fate of the people of the rule evolved differently. The only consistent supporter of the ideas of the "Manifesto" of the party was A. I. Bogdanovich. He himself was its author along with M. A. Plotnikov and P. F. Nikolaev. Under constant police surveillance, Bogdanovich was repeatedly arrested in the late 1890s and early 1900s. The publicist was influenced by the ideas of "legal Marxism", but he did not join any of the later parties and groups, finally departing from the ideas of Narodism only in 1906 . ^[one]

A part of the people’s citizens underwent evolution towards social democracy and Marxism (O. V. Aptekman, V. Ya. Bogucharsky, M. P. Miklashevsky, V. A. Zhdanov ), liberalism (the same V. Ya. Bogucharsky, N. F Annensky - “The Union of Liberation ”, P. N. Milyukov after becoming a member of the “Union of Liberation” becomes the leader of the Cadets .) But the main core of the people of the people later joined the Socialist Revolutionary Party (M. A. Natanson, N. S. Tyutchev, V. M Chernov, A.V. Gedeonovsky and others) and the Enesov (N.F. Annensky, A.V. Peshekhonov).

Most scholars of the history of the People’s Law party agree that the distinctive feature of the activities of this organization was the transitional, intermediate nature of the ideology of democracy from Narodism on the one hand to liberalism , Marxism on the other. ^[1] Democrats are distinguished by getting rid of some of the illusions of Narodism, revising its tactics, but also a certain uncertainty of views, an eclecticism of political sympathies, a desire to unite socialists and non-socialists in one party.

Historians do not have a single opinion on the correlation in the ideology and tactics of the democrats of the liberal and revolutionary-democratic components and, accordingly, the historical place of this organization. ^{[1] An} important part of the platform of “People’s Law” was not only a decisive break with liberal-populist concepts, but also a revision of popular ideas about the distinctive historical development of Russia. Leading ideologists of the party proved the indisputable advantages of bourgeois parliamentarism of the European type in comparison with the Russian autocratic state system, although in achieving this parliamentarism they only imagined the immediate and most necessary goal of the liberation process on the path to further movement towards socialist society. The connection with the preceding revolutionary-democratic tradition distinguished the rule of law from mature bourgeois liberalism. In addition, the popular leaders shared the conviction of the intelligentsia as a kind of extra-class leader in social progress, an economically disinterested bearer of the ideals of social justice and a special superpersonal “moral force”. ^[one]

• [BUT. I. Bogdanovich, P. F. Nikolaev, M. A. Plotnikov] - “Manifesto of the Social Revolutionary Party“ People's Law ””, [Smolensk], 1894
• [BUT. I. Bogdanovich] - “An urgent issue. On the struggle for political freedom in Russia ”, [Smolensk], 1894
• [BUT. I. Bogdanovich] - “An urgent issue. About the struggle for political freedom in Russia. ” London: Russian free press fund. 1895. (Editions of the Free Russian Press Fund; Issue 17). The author of the book is not specified; installed by publication: Consolidated catalog of Russian illegal and prohibited prints of the XIX century: Books and periodicals. The 2nd supplemented and revised edition of M. 1981. Part 1. The foreword of the London pamphlet says: "The proposed publication is a reprint of the pamphlet published last fall in Russia on behalf of the People's Law Party." - Russian State Library .
• "The first year of Nicholas II ." 1896;
• “In memory of M. F. Vetrova”, 1898;
• "Nowadays". Collection. (Two numbers).

• People's will
• Party of Socialist Revolutionaries
• Labor People's Socialist Party
• Tyutchev, Nikolai Sergeevich
• Natanson, Mark Andreevich
• Pharmacist, Osip Vasilievich
• Bogdanovich, Angel Ivanovich

• Vodovozov V.V. People's Law // Brockhaus and Efron Encyclopedic Dictionary : in 86 volumes (82 volumes and 4 additional). - SPb. , 1890-1907.
• The Flying Leaf of the Free Russian Press Foundation, London, 1894, No. 9;
• Aptekman O. V., Party of "People's Law". (Based on personal recollections), The Former, 1907, No. 7/19;
• Spiridovich A.I., Party of Socialists-Revolutionaries and its predecessors, 1886-1916, 2nd ed., P., 1918.
• Lenin V.I., Complete Works, 5th ed., Vol. 1, p. 301-04, 343-46; t. 2, p. 439-40, 445, 452-453, 463-465, 543-50;
• Shirokova V.V., “People's Law” Party, Saratov, 1972.
• "Figures of the Revolutionary Movement in Russia: A Bibliographic Dictionary." - "BUT. I. Bogdanovich. " - M., 1933, v. 3, no. one.