Blackwell Reference Online

Extract

The Russian revolutionary tradition of the nineteenth century was always heavily influenced by western models, coupled with a deep awareness of the need for modifications in order to fit local conditions. The model that eventually won out was European social democracy, particularly as exemplified by the German Social Democratic Party (SPD) . By 1900 the centrality of the SPD model was accepted by both Russian socialist parties, that is, not only the Russian Worker Social Democratic Party (RWSDP) but also the Party of Socialist Revolutionaries (PSR), the party that claimed a direct lineage to the early Russian revolutionary tradition. The story of the Russian revolutionary tradition is thus in large part the rise to dominance of the social democratic model. This model can be defined as follows: a nationwide party that uses constitutionally guaranteed political freedom in order to assert leadership over the class struggle of the workers, to conduct wide-scale agitation for socialism, and to use opportunities for non-revolutionary political action as a means of preparing for a revolutionary takeover of state power by the workers. At the heart of the social democratic model is Marx's idea of the world-historical mission of the proletariat to introduce socialism . This core idea took on institutional embodiment through decades of political innovation by social democratic activists. ... log in or subscribe to read full text