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The man who would become Vladimir Lenin, the leader of the Communist movement, is never even born.

The Russian Social-Democratic Labour Party
The Russian Social-Democratic Labour Party was not the first Russian Marxist group, that title belongs to the Group for Emancipation of Labour in 1883. The RSDLP was created to oppose Narodism, the more accepted revolutionary populist ideology that would later dominate Russia following the 1917 Revolution under the Socialist-Revolutionary Party. Despite Russia’s agrarian nature, the RSDLP program put its faith into the growing industrial working class, a tenet that ultimately led to their failure to take power in the revolutionary period following the Great War. The Social-Democrats were led for much of the party’s infancy by former newspaper writer Julius Martov. Under the RSDLP, trade-unions received much support in opposing the despotism of Tsar Nicholas II and the Russian imperial authority. The Soviet was popularized by the RSDLP as the revolutionary organ of choice following the Revolution of 1905. The RSDLP boycotted the First Duma of 1906, but were later represented in the Second Duma of 1907. Together with the Socialist-Revolutionaries, the RSDLP held 83 seats, but were largely held responsible for the dissolution of the Second Duma when it was discovered that Julius Martov was behind a conspiracy to subvert the army. SD presence was severely diminished in the Third Duma and until the February Revolution the RSDLP bided their time. Unlike the Socialist-Revolutionaries, who used terrorism to actively engage the Tsarist regime, the RSDLP preferred to gather converts and bolster unions, waiting for other parties to begin the liberal bourgeois revolution that would eventually lead to a Marxist socialist state. Nevertheless, the Russian Social-Democrats did organize and attend many international conventions to gather anti-war forces together, such as in the noted Zimmerwald Conference.

The Russian Social-Democratic Labour Party participated in the February Revolution of 1917, especially as supporters of the brief Petrograd Soviet during that year, but unexpectedly did not ever gain the popularity that they sought to begin a Marxist revolution. It was not until April 20th, 1917 that the RSDLP made an impact in history with the April Days that brought them into conflict with the Provisional Government. Those responsible for these radical acts would later become part of Yakov Sverdlov’s Left Social-Democratic Party who would initiate the Soviet Uprising a year later. Sverdlov, however, merely built upon the radical, leftist wing of the RSDLP that had been initially organized by Alexander Bogdanov a decade earlier, when he emerged as an influential leader in the Party in 1908. While more famous for his scientific discoveries in systems analyses, tectology, blood infusions, and his influence on Nikolai Bukharin and future Georgian strongman Joseph Jugashvilli, Bogdanov should also be recognized for providing the philosophical foundation for the Left-SDs, namely that true communism could be initiated in the near future if the party could sponsor ‘scientifically-justified radical acts’.

The events of the April Days became the first of increasingly-violent pro-Soviet clashes with the Provisional Government throughout the revolutionary period. Julius Martov should be commended for consistently pulling the SDs back when it seemed that a civil war was imminent with the liberal Provisional Government under Alexander Kerensky, such as on October 17, 1917 when he pushed the Petrograd Soviet to vote down resolution to create a Military Defense Committee to direct the arming of the populace of Petrograd for the defense of the city against foreign invasion. Such an act had the potential to give the Soviet system legitimate power to combat the Provisional Government, but Julius Martov feared that too much weakening of the state could result in German imperialist victory over Russia.

The month of November was a critical time for the Petrograd Soviet and the Russian Social-Democratic Labour Party. In the municipal elections for the Soviet, the RSDLP took a third of the votes, a 50 percent increase from the last six months. The Left-SDs were bolstered with returns that convinced them that the city supported their calls for another violent revolution. Beginning November 22nd, Sverdlov thus began a manifestation in the city, with 75,000 gathering in the city center to demand radical action. Fortunately, blood was not shed, but because the Left-SDs were unopposed, Yakov Sverdlov felt that the time for his revolution was coming soon. Leon Trotsky, another RSDLP leader, is reported to have predicted the inevitable failure of the Left-SDs to combat the Provisional Government during this time, but unfortunately Sverdlov would not listen to his pleas for a reunion of the party. The Soviet had been revitalized by Sverdlov’s influence: by December, the soviets, which had throughout the year dwindled in inactivity, only existing on paper, were up and running once more under.

Two months later, on February 4th, 1918, the final confrontation began. The Provisional Government finally declared the organization of a Constituent Assembly election to be held at the end of the month. The Petrograd Soviet faced dissolution. The Left-SDs thus began their most massive demonstration in Petrograd yet. Preparations had been made months in advance that now saw Left-SDs passing out arms and ammunition to supporters throughout the capital. With hundreds of thousands thus mobilized, Petrograd became for a brief period a functioning communist Soviet government as envisioned by Sverdlov. Their public execution of anti-Soviet leaders and the looting in the city forced reaction from the Provisional Government. Kerensky thus sent General Lavr Kornilov to deal with the crisis, with orders to arrest all those behind it. Russian soldiers, inspired by recent successes on the Eastern Front and promises of peace within the month, quickly dispersed the masses by the week’s end.

The Soviet Uprising ended on February 11 with the last radicals subdued. The Russian Social-Democratic Labour Party was disenfranchised. In order to validate their party in the eminent government structure, party leaders Julius Martov and Leon Trotsky revoked Soviet-ism forever, signing the Writ of Supremacy to Alexander Kerensky which dissolved the Petrograd Soviet and acknowledged formally the Provisional Government. Echo uprisings would still occur for the next two months, with struggling Soviet rebellions appearing in major cities and quickly being put down by government forces. The remnants of the Left-SDs would become notorious terrorists for the next decade. Meanwhile, with the popular ascendance of Leon Trotsky over Julius Martov, the party began shifting in a different direction...
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