Socialist Revolutionary Party

Socialist Revolutionary party, in Russian history, an agrarian party founded by various Populist groups in 1901. Its program, adopted in 1906, called for the overthrow of the autocracy, the establishment of a classless society, self-determination for national minorities, and socialization of the land, which was to be distributed among the peasants on the basis of need. Viktor Chernov was a party leader. A secret "combat organization" within the party arranged political assassinations, notably that of V. K. Plehve (1904) and Grand Duke Sergei (1905). Originally made up of students and intellectuals, the party later gained support from the peasantry. In 1917 some Socialist Revolutionaries participated in the Petrograd soviet and in the provisional government. The party won a majority in the short-lived constituent assembly (Jan., 1918), which was disbanded by the Bolsheviks. By 1922 the party was suppressed.

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Socialist Revolutionary Party (SR)

Russian political party. The ideological heir to the 19th-century Narodniks (Populists), it was founded in 1901 by agrarian socialists and appealed mainly to the peasantry. It was the principal alternative to the Russian Social-Democratic Workers' Party in the early 20th century. It relied on terrorist tactics and carried out hundreds of political assassinations. By 1917 it was Russia's largest socialist group; its members included Aleksandr Kerensky, Viktor Chernov, and Catherine Breshkovsky. The party split after the Russian Revolution of 1917, and its radical wing joined the Bolshevik government. It was suppressed by Vladimir Lenin after the Russian Civil War.