THE SPIRIT OF RUSSIA
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The term "social revolutionaries" goes back to Bakunin, and was intended to denote those who aimed at the definitive social revolution; but the name likewise stressed the idea of revolutionary tactics.
In respect of organisation and of program the Social Revolutionary Party was the rival of the Social Democratic Party. The contrast between the two organisations is succinctly shown in the following table:—
| Social Revolutionary Party. | Social Democratic Party. |
| Represents the workers generally, opposes every kind of exploitation of the workers; is not a class party, but a union of the intelligentsia, the peasantry, and the operatives. | Represents the factory workers, the proletariat as a class, which will put an end to the class struggle. |
| The peasants constitute the most numerous contingent of the working class and must be revolutionised; the factory operatives will then follow their lead. The peasant is not a petty bourgeois but a collectivist. | The peasant is inferior to the factory operative in respect of revolutionary energy; he is a petty bourgeois. |
| The mir is a socialistic factor; it has defects, but they can be remedied. | The mir has played its part, and is now a moribund and reactionary institution. |
| The small holdings of the peasantry will not be absorbed by the large estates; on the contrary, the number of small holdings is on the increase. | The small-holding peasant will be gobbled up by the great landlord. |
| Private property in land is inadmissible; the land belongs to all (nationalisation of the land). Private property in land, free ownership of land, advantages none but the rich. | Freedom of landownership may serve to accelerate the concentration of landownership. |
| Terrorism is ethically and politically permissible as a supplement to the mass revolution; it must however be conducted by the party, and must not be undertaken by individuals upon their own initiative. | Terrorism is injurious to the mass revolution, and does no good. |
| All the revolutionary parties should amalgamate. | The social democrats can make common cause with other revolutionary parties only temporarily and ad hoc. |
| The organisation of the party is centralist. | The organisation of the party is either centralist or autonomist. |
| The party considers a republic to be a practicable aim. | The party aims at a republic. |
| The duma is to be boycotted. | The duma is to be boycotted (majority); deputies should be sent to the duma (minority).[1] |
- ↑ The translations of Thun's book and the supplements to that work which we owe to Plehanov and Šiško respectively, facilitate an interesting comparison
