Russian Revolution - the Third Way

I'm really keen to develop an idea about a third main political strand in revolutionary Russia between the Bolsheviks and the conservative Kadets/counter-revolutionaries, can anyone shed some light as to whether this is at all viable?

I'm envisaging an alliance of some of the groups caught in the middle of the early stages of the Civil War, with a fusion between some of the elements that made up the Black Hundred groups along with the anti-Bolshevik Socialist Revolutionaries.

The result would be a Proto-Fascist (before Fascism itself was developed :rolleyes:) peasant based movement promising widespread land reform, Corporatist style economic policies (based on the communes/soviets) alongside a heavy focus on the Russian Orthodox faith.

I know I'm tracking backwards from the end product here, but can anyone see this being possible? Would it appeal to the Russian people and offer a real social/political alternative to Bolshevism?
 

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I'm really keen to develop an idea about a third main political strand in revolutionary Russia between the Bolsheviks and the conservative Kadets/counter-revolutionaries, can anyone shed some light as to whether this is at all viable?

I'm envisaging an alliance of some of the groups caught in the middle of the early stages of the Civil War, with a fusion between some of the elements that made up the Black Hundred groups along with the anti-Bolshevik Socialist Revolutionaries.

The result would be a Proto-Fascist (before Fascism itself was developed :rolleyes:) peasant based movement promising widespread land reform, Corporatist style economic policies (based on the communes/soviets) alongside a heavy focus on the Russian Orthodox faith.

I know I'm tracking backwards from the end product here, but can anyone see this being possible? Would it appeal to the Russian people and offer a real social/political alternative to Bolshevism?

Maybe if you try with Kornilov affair?
If he defeated bolsheviks, than maybe communism can be averted and some sort of:
a) democratic Republic of Russia
or
b) military ruled Russia under Kornilov & Co
could be established.
 
Didn't Mussolini already have fascism developped?:confused:

Not in 1917. It wasn't formally organised until after the war, in 1919. Even then it took a couple of years to develop into 'fascism' as opposed to Mussolini's own brand of right-wing socialism.

The Kornilov affair could be a good place to start, although I think Kerensky would make a good leader for the movement with his Bonapartist tendencies and attempts to create his own cult of personality when he was in power. Also, he was removed from mainstream White politics following the October Revolution and didn't really have a base of power amongst the existing movements - a possible figurehead at any rate.

Brusilov would also be interesting - although his personality might make it more difficult.
 
And you'd be wrong. Very, very wrong. The Kadets only drifted rightward after the October "Revolution". And even that was only portions of them. Hell, Kirov was a Kadet before he was Bolshevik.
 
The Kadets slowly started drifting rightwards after the 1905 revolution, when they were on the centre-left, to the point where by the time the Bolsheviks took over they were the only centre-right party still in business. Obviously they had left-leaning elements, but in their Great Russian nationalism, for example, they weren't obviously liberal.
 
The Kadets slowly started drifting rightwards after the 1905 revolution, when they were on the centre-left, to the point where by the time the Bolsheviks took over they were the only centre-right party still in business. Obviously they had left-leaning elements, but in their Great Russian nationalism, for example, they weren't obviously liberal.

Exactly.

It's also important to note that it wasn't a completely unified party at any point, more a collection of the intelligentsia who were, to varying degrees, largely politically liberally and socially conservative. By 1917 the right-wing section of the party was definitely in the ascendency.

Space Oddity, have a look at the Kadet stance on the question of land reform - obviously the most important issue in early 20th century Russia. Although as Lord Douglas says the party was more liberal at the start - in political terms at least - by 1917 its stance was most definitely conservative.


Examples:

* Land reform, can anyone really demonstrate that the Kadets were liberal in this sence? They were proposing the absolute minimum of reform.
*The Kadets deliberately delayed and blocked elections to the Constituent Assembly following the February Revolution - knowing that going to the country would expose their lack of support beyond a section of, as I said, the upper and professional classes.
* The Kadets in the provisional government refused to deal with the Ukrainian Rada during mid-1917, eventually resigning from the cabinet.
 
Quite, but in many respects, if we make a comparison with Britain, the Kadets were more obviously similar to the Conservatives than the Liberals - although I appreciate that there was a gulf of difference. Nevertheless the fact that the party's leader was one of the foremost monarchists in the Provisional Government, as well as the party's backing for increased military expenditure before the Great War, points to a more centre-right than centre-left stance.
 
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