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Left SR uprising

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168-823: The Left SR uprising , or Left SR revolt , was a rebellion against the Bolsheviks by the Left Socialist Revolutionary Party in Moscow , Soviet Russia , on 6–7 July 1918. It was one of a number of left-wing uprisings against the Bolsheviks that took place during the Russian Civil War . The Left SRs had entered the Bolshevik government of Soviet Russia after the October Revolution of 1917, but resigned from

336-617: A Left SR in charge of the Cheka counter-espionage section dedicated to monitoring the activity of the Germans, and Nikolai Andreyev, a photographer the same section, received an order from Maria Spiridonova on 4 July, to carry out the assassination of the German ambassador in two days time. The day of the uprising was chosen, among other reasons, because it was the Latvian national holiday Ivanov Day ( Jāņi ), which

504-474: A blacksmith god, and Batradz , a mighty hero. The folklore of the Caucasus shows ancient Iranian Zoroastrian influence, involve battles with ancient Goths , Huns and Khazars , and contain many connections with ancient Indian , Norse Scandinavian , and Greek cultures. Caucasian folklore contains many links with the myths of the ancient Greeks. There are resemblances between the mother goddess Satanaya and

672-491: A car that was waiting for them in front of the embassy, heading straight for a Cheka HQ (under the command of Dmitry Popov) where the Left SR central committee was waiting. They made many mistakes during the assassination: they left a briefcase at the scene containing certificates in the name of Blumkin and Andreyev; Riezler and Mueller, witnesses to the murder, also survived. In the turmoil, Blumkin and Andreyev even left their caps at

840-460: A core group of professional revolutionaries who would devote their full time and energy towards developing the party into an organization capable of leading a successful proletarian revolution against the Tsarist autocracy . The base of active and experienced members would be the recruiting ground for this professional core. Sympathizers would be left outside and the party would be organised based on

1008-504: A higher budget. One of the common methods the Bolsheviks used was committing bank robberies, one of which, in 1907, resulted in the party getting over 250,000 roubles, which is the equivalent of about $ 125,000. Bolsheviks were in constant need of money because Lenin practised his beliefs, expressed in his writings, that revolutions must be led by individuals who devote their entire lives to the cause. As compensation, he rewarded them with salaries for their sacrifice and dedication. This measure

1176-456: A more organized revolutionary work. After the proposed revolution had successfully overthrown the Russian autocracy, this strong leadership would relinquish power and allow a Socialist party to fully develop within the principles of democratic centralism . Lenin said that if professional revolutionaries did not maintain influence over the fight of the workers, then that fight would steer away from

1344-477: A nearby railway station, was executed the next day, along with twelve Chekists from Popov's unit who had participated in the uprising. In Petrograd, 7 July dawned warm and sunny, the streets were filled with people. The press only picked up two lines about the murder of the German ambassador in Moscow, sent before communications with the capital were cut off. The night before, the few Bolshevik leaders who had remained in

1512-523: A one-year sentence, which was commuted by her admission to a sanitarium, from which she soon escaped. The Bolsheviks began to expel SRs from the institutions and took their offices in Petrograd on the morning of 7 July after a brief fight, despite the fact that there had been no incidents in the city. The party's two main newspapers, Znamia trudá and Golos trudovogo krestianstva , were closed and did not receive permission to resume publication. On 9 July,

1680-446: A revolver and shot at Count Mirbach , Dr. Kurt Riezler , and the interpreter, Lt. Mueller, but failed to injure any of them. Riezler and Mueller took shelter under a large table, whereas Mirbach, who tried to escape, was then shot by Andreyev. The assassins jumped out of a window while throwing grenades to create confusion; Blumkin fractured a leg in the jump and was injured by one of the embassy sentinels. The pair fled and disappeared in

1848-577: A rigid political structure was needed to effectively initiate a formal revolution. This idea was met with opposition from once close allies, including Martov, Plekhanov , Vera Zasulich , Leon Trotsky , and Pavel Axelrod . Plekhanov and Lenin's major dispute arose addressing the topic of nationalizing land or leaving it for private use. Lenin wanted to nationalize to aid in collectivization , whereas Plekhanov thought worker motivation would remain higher if individuals were able to maintain their own property. Those who opposed Lenin and wanted to continue on

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2016-760: A separate Union of Socialists-Revolutionaries Maximalists ) and then again after 1917. The Bolsheviks ultimately became the Communist Party of the Soviet Union . The Bolsheviks, or Reds , came to power in Russia during the October Revolution phase of the 1917 Russian Revolution , and founded the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic (RSFSR). With the Reds defeating the Whites and others during

2184-583: A separate party, convincing pro-Bolshevik workers within Russia to follow suit proved difficult. When the first meeting of the Fourth Duma was convened in late 1912, only one out of six Bolshevik deputies, Matvei Muranov (another one, Roman Malinovsky , was later exposed as an Okhrana agent), voted on 15 December 1912 to break from the Menshevik faction within the Duma. The Bolshevik leadership eventually prevailed, and

2352-504: A spit, heat it up, stab it into the giant's eye, and escape. There are also links with the ancient Greek myth of Prometheus . Many legends, widespread in the Caucasus, contain motifs shared with the Prometheus story. These motifs include a giant hero, his conflict with God or gods, the stealing of fire and giving it to men, being chained, and being tormented by a bird who pecks at his liver (or heart). The Adyge / Circassian Nart Nasran,

2520-506: A tentative agreement, and one of its provisions was to make Trotsky's Vienna-based Pravda , a party-financed central organ. Kamenev, Trotsky's brother-in-law who was with the Bolsheviks, was added to the editorial board; but the unification attempts failed in August 1910 when Kamenev resigned from the board amid mutual recriminations . The factions permanently broke relations in January 1912 after

2688-458: A viewpoint that Bogdanov had been exploring and developing as Empiriomonism . Having worked as co-editor with Plekhanov, on Zarya , Lenin had come to agree with the Valentinov's rejection of Bogdanov's Empiriomonism. With the defeat of the revolution in mid-1907 and the adoption of a new, highly restrictive election law, the Bolsheviks began debating whether to boycott the new parliament known as

2856-502: A white towel from one of the windows of the building. After a surrender agreement guaranteeing the safety of the defenders, about 150 of them surrendered to the troops, who entered the building a little later. The Bolsheviks immediately executed thirteen SRs that were in the Cheka, without trial, while keeping the SR Congressional delegation in prison and expelling its members from the executive committee. Little by little they released

3024-654: Is a region spanning Eastern Europe and Western Asia . It is situated between the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea , mainly comprising Armenia , Azerbaijan , Georgia , and parts of Southern Russia . The Caucasus Mountains , including the Greater Caucasus range, have conventionally been considered as a natural barrier between Europe and Asia , bisecting the Eurasian landmass. Mount Elbrus , Europe 's highest mountain,

3192-591: Is considered by some sources to be the dividing line between Europe and Southwest Asia . According to that, the highest peak in the Caucasus, Mount Elbrus (5,642 meters) located in western Ciscaucasus, is considered the highest point in Europe. The Kuma-Manych Depression , the geologic depression that divides the Russian Plain from the North Caucasus foreland is often regarded by classical and non-British sources as

3360-554: Is likewise called the Caucasus by many." In the Tale of Past Years (1113 AD), it is stated that Old East Slavic Кавкасийскыѣ горы ( Kavkasijskyě gory ) came from Ancient Greek Καύκασος ( Kaúkasos ), which, according to M. A. Yuyukin, is a compound word that can be interpreted as the 'mountain of the seagull(s)' (καύ-: καύαξ, καύηξ, -ηκος, κήξ, κηϋξ 'a kind of seagull' + the reconstructed *κάσος 'mountain' or 'rock' richly attested both in place and personal names). In Georgian tradition,

3528-793: Is situated in the Western Caucasus area of Russia . On the southern side, the Lesser Caucasus includes the Javakheti Plateau and the Armenian highlands , part of which is in Turkey. The Caucasus is divided into the North Caucasus and South Caucasus , although the Western Caucasus also exists as a distinct geographic space within the North Caucasus. The Greater Caucasus mountain range in

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3696-491: Is speculative given that Pelasgian is so poorly known. The term Caucasus is not only used for the mountains themselves but also includes Ciscaucasia (which is part of the Russian Federation ) and Transcaucasia . According to Alexander Mikaberidze , Transcaucasia is a "Russo-centric" term. The Transcaucasus region and Dagestan were the furthest points of Parthian and later Sasanian expansions, with areas to

3864-496: Is variously a one-eyed rock-throwing cannibal, who lives in a cave (the exit of which is often blocked by a stone), kills the hero's companions, is blinded by a hot stake, and whose flock of animals is stolen by the hero and his men, all motifs which (along with still others) are also found in the Polyphemus story. In one example from Georgia , two brothers, who are being held prisoner by a giant one-eyed shepherd called "One-eye", take

4032-665: The Achaemenid Empire , Parthia , and the Sassanid Empire , who would altogether rule the Caucasus for many hundreds of years. In 95–55 BC, under the reign of the Armenian king Tigranes the Great , the Kingdom of Armenia included Kingdom of Armenia, vassals Iberia, Albania, Parthia, Atropatene , Mesopotamia , Cappadocia , Cilicia , Syria , Nabataean kingdom , and Judea . By the time of

4200-649: The Allied powers in order to resolve her internal conflict. Unfortunately for the Bolsheviks, Lenin's assumptions were incorrect. Despite his and the party's attempts to push for a civil war through involvement in two conferences in 1915 and 1916 in Switzerland, the Bolsheviks were in the minority in calling for a ceasefire by the Imperial Russian Army in World War I. Although the Bolshevik leadership had decided to form

4368-1011: The Central Powers advanced through Ukraine towards Rostov-on-Don while Ottoman units made it into the Caucasus . In March, Allied troops landed in Murmansk and reached the Russian Far East the next month. In late May, clashes between the Russians and the Czechoslovak Legion began, and in June rival anti-Bolshevik governments were formed in Samara (the Komuch ) and Omsk (the Provisional Siberian Government ). The Left SRs strongly objected to

4536-558: The Central Powers . With the treaty, the Left SRs considered that the opportunity to spread the revolution throughout Europe had been lost. They left the Council of People's Commissars in protest in March 1918 and at the 4th Congress of Soviets they voted against the treaty. Although they continued to work in the Cheka, which played a decisive role in rebellion. Left Social Revolutionaries remained on

4704-497: The Council of People's Commissars in March 1918 in protest of the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk . Left SRs continued to work in other organizations (notably the Cheka ) while denouncing the treaty and the policy of requisitioning grain from the peasants. After winning only a minority of seats in the 5th All-Russian Congress of Soviets , on 6 July the Left SRs assassinated Wilhelm von Mirbach ,

4872-717: The Georgian Amirani , the Chechen Pkharmat , and the Abkhazian Abrskil , are examples of such Prometheus-like figures. The Caucasus is an area of great ecological importance. The region is included in the list of 34 world biodiversity hotspots . It harbors some 6400 species of higher plants, 1600 of which are endemic to the region. Its wildlife includes Persian leopards , brown bears , wolves , bison , marals , golden eagles and hooded crows . Among invertebrates , some 1000 spider species are recorded in

5040-738: The Greater Caucasus mountain range. It consists of Southern Russia , mainly the North Caucasian Federal District 's autonomous republics and the Krais in Southern Russia, and the northernmost parts of Georgia and Azerbaijan . The North Caucasus lies between the Black Sea to its west, the Caspian Sea to its east, and borders the Southern Federal District to its north. The two Federal Districts are collectively referred to as "Southern Russia". The South Caucasus borders

5208-607: The Kartvelian , Northwest Caucasian , and Northeast Caucasian language families are indigenous to the area. Pliny the Elder 's Natural History (77–79 AD) derives the name of the Caucasus from a Scythian name, Croucasis , which supposedly means 'shimmering with snow'. German linguist Paul Kretschmer notes that the Latvian word kruvesis also means 'frozen mud'. Isidore of Seville 's Etymologies ( c.  625 AD) also says

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5376-595: The Mensheviks at the Second Party Congress in 1903. The Bolshevik party, formally established in 1912, seized power in Russia in the October Revolution of 1917, and was later renamed the Russian Communist Party, All-Union Communist Party, and Communist Party of the Soviet Union . The party's ideology, based on Leninist and later Marxist–Leninist principles, is known as Bolshevism . The origin of

5544-632: The Mensheviks were expelled from the All-Russian Central Executive Committee by a Bolshevik decree. By this same decree, all Soviets of workers, soldiers, peasants, and Cossack deputies were also invited to remove representatives of these parties from their midst. Vladimir Karelin , a member of the Central Committee of the Left SRs, called this decree illegal, since only the All-Russian Congress of Soviets could change

5712-485: The Mensheviks . In Germany , the book was published in 1902, but in Russia , strict censorship outlawed its publication and distribution. One of the main points of Lenin's writing was that a revolution can only be achieved by a strong, professional leadership with deep dedication to Marxist theoretical principles and an organization that spanned through the whole of Russia, abandoning what Lenin called "artisanal work" towards

5880-716: The Muslim conquest of Persia , large parts of the region came under the rule of the Arabs , and Islam penetrated the region. In the 10th century, the Alans (proto- Ossetians ) founded the Kingdom of Alania , that flourished in the Northern Caucasus , roughly in the location of latter-day Circassia and modern North Ossetia–Alania , until its destruction by the Mongol invasion in 1238–39. During

6048-672: The Ottoman Empire . In the second half of the 19th century, the Russian Empire also conquered the North Caucasus. In the aftermath of the Caucasian Wars , the Russian military perpetrated an ethnic cleansing of Circassians , expelling this indigenous population from its homeland. Between the 1850s and World War I, about a million North Caucasian Muslims arrived in the Ottoman Empire as refugees. Having killed and deported most of

6216-672: The Provisional Government " and "all power to the soviets ". In the summer of 1917, especially after the July Days and Kornilov affair , large numbers of radicalized workers joined the Bolsheviks, which planned the October Revolution which overthrew the government. The party initially governed in coalition with the Left Socialist-Revolutionaries , but increasingly centralized power and suppressed opposition during

6384-427: The Russian Civil War of 1917–1922, the RSFSR became the chief constituent of the Soviet Union (USSR) in December 1922. The average party member was very young: in 1907, 22% of Bolsheviks were under 20 years of age; 37% were 20–24 years of age; and 16% were 25–29 years of age. By 1905, 62% of the members were industrial workers (3% of the population in 1897). Twenty-two percent of Bolsheviks were gentry (1.7% of

6552-422: The Russian Civil War , and after 1921 became the sole legal party in Soviet Russia and the Soviet Union . Under Joseph Stalin 's leadership, the party became linked to his policies of " socialism in one country ", rapid industrialization, collectivized agriculture, and centralized state control. Lenin's political pamphlet What Is to Be Done? , written in 1901, helped to precipitate the Bolsheviks' split from

6720-436: The Simurgh . The Roman poet Ovid placed the Caucasus in Scythia and depicted it as a cold and stony mountain which was the abode of personified hunger. The Greek hero Jason sailed to the west coast of the Caucasus in pursuit of the Golden Fleece , and there met Medea , a daughter of King Aeëtes of Colchis . The Caucasus has a rich folklore tradition. This tradition has been preserved orally—necessitated by

6888-574: The Third Duma . Lenin, Grigory Zinoviev , Lev Kamenev , and others argued for participating in the Duma while Bogdanov, Anatoly Lunacharsky , Mikhail Pokrovsky , and others argued that the social democratic faction in the Duma should be recalled. The latter became known as " recallists " ( Russian : otzovists ). A smaller group within the Bolshevik faction demanded that the RSDLP Central Committee should give its sometimes unruly Duma faction an ultimatum, demanding complete subordination to all party decisions. This group became known as " ultimatists " and

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7056-406: The Western Front and allowed the government to finally reject the German claims in exchange for assigning a thousand Red Guards to protect the embassy, who would share the task with three hundred unarmed and plainclothes German soldiers. For his part, the Latvian colonel Jukums Vācietis , who had led the assault on the Cheka headquarters in the capital under the command of the main forces loyal to

7224-469: The countries of the Fourth Accord and again called on the " bourgeoisie " to manage factories and command the army. What happened to the revolution? Everything that the Bolsheviks did after February 1918 did not suit the Left Socialist Revolutionaries... In the spring of 1918, the Left SRs began to treat the Bolsheviks in the same way that the Bolsheviks themselves treated the Provisional Government and democratic socialists in 1917. They declared themselves

7392-456: The socialist mode of production path towards complete socialism and disagreed with his strict party membership guidelines became known as "softs" while Lenin supporters became known as "hards". Some of the factionalism could be attributed to Lenin's steadfast belief in his own opinion and what was described by Plekhanov as Lenin's inability to "bear opinions which were contrary to his own" and loyalty to his own self-envisioned utopia . Lenin

7560-456: The "inhabitants of the southern coast of the Black Sea ". It was also noted that in Nakh Ков гас ( Kov gas ) means "gateway to steppe". The modern endonym for the region is usually similar in many languages, and is generally between Kavkaz and Kaukaz . The North Caucasus region is also known as the Ciscaucasus , whereas the South Caucasus region is alternatively known as the Transcaucasus . The North Caucasus contains most of

7728-414: The 2nd Congress vote, Lenin's faction won votes on the majority of important issues, and soon came to be known as Bolsheviks , from the Russian bolshinstvo , 'majority'. Likewise, Martov's group came to be known as Mensheviks , from menshinstvo , 'minority'. However, Martov's supporters won the vote concerning the question of party membership, and neither Lenin nor Martov had a firm majority throughout

7896-521: The Armenians of Western Armenia during the Armenian genocide , the Turks intended to eliminate the Armenian population of Eastern Armenia . During the 1920 Turkish–Armenian War , 60,000 to 98,000 Armenian civilians were estimated to have been killed by the Turkish army. In the 1940s, around 480,000 Chechens and Ingush , 120,000 Karachay – Balkars and Meskhetian Turks , thousands of Kalmyks , and 200,000 Kurds in Nakchivan and Caucasus Germans were deported en masse to Central Asia and Siberia by

8064-421: The Bolshevik coalition government, supporting the Bolsheviks immediate enactment of the Socialist Revolutionary Party's land redistribution program. The Left SRs were given four Commissar positions and held high posts within the Cheka . The Left SRs still diverged with the Bolsheviks on the issue of the war and were dismayed that the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk gave up large amounts of territory in Eastern Europe to

8232-426: The Bolsheviks except in self-defense. Shortly after the assassination, Lenin ordered Yakov Peters to put under guard the whole Left SR faction of the Fifth Congress of Soviets (approximately 450 people). The Bolshoi Theatre , where the session of Congress took place, was surrounded by chekists and Latvian riflemen . Bolshevik delegates of Congress were allowed to leave the theater, while Left SRs were arrested inside

8400-482: The Bolsheviks formed their own Duma faction in September 1913. One final difference between the Bolsheviks and Mensheviks was how ferocious and tenacious the Bolshevik party was in order to achieve its goals, although Lenin was open minded to retreating from political ideals if he saw the guarantee of long-term gains benefiting the party. This practice was seen in the party's trying to recruit peasants and uneducated workers by promising them how glorious life would be after

8568-411: The Bolsheviks had gathered enough forces, mainly Vācietis's Latvian Riflemen, to start their counterattack. At about 10:00 a.m., they set up their artillery only two hundred yards in front of the building where Popov's unit was located. After an unsuccessful negotiation attempt, the Latvians opened fire. The very first salvos hit the Left SR headquarters, after which the Left SR Central Committee left

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8736-414: The Bolsheviks organised a Bolsheviks-only Prague Party Conference and formally expelled Mensheviks and recallists from the party. As a result, they ceased to be a faction in the RSDLP and instead declared themselves an independent party, called Russian Social Democratic Labour Party (Bolsheviks) – or RSDLP(b). Unofficially, the party has been referred to as the Bolshevik Party. Throughout the 20th century,

8904-400: The Bolsheviks, but to force the Sovnarkom to confront the Germans; the left SRs preferred to achieve this through motions of congress, but, once this route was exhausted, the SRs resumed the decision to carry out the Assassinations. Knowledge of the plans was confined to only a few members of the central committee: neither the delegates of the Soviet congress, nor those of the party congress, nor

9072-411: The Bolsheviks, in turn, reproached them for trying to provoke a war between Russia and Germany. Left Socialist-Revolutionaries proposed to express no confidence in the Bolshevik government, denounce the Brest-Litovsk Treaty and declare war on Germany. When this proposal was rejected by the Bolshevik majority, the Left Socialist Revolutionaries left the congress. This disillusionment felt by the Left SRs,

9240-537: The Bolsheviks, was appointed commander of the Volga front and, later, commander-in-chief of the whole Red Army. According to Orlando Figes he was also rewarded with 10,000 roubles. Left SR members did not immediately disappear from the institutions due to a lack of cadres, which prevented the Bolsheviks from replacing them with their own supporters. However, they became part of the persecuted opposition, even groups that distanced themselves or broke relations with their central committee did not retain their previous power in

9408-405: The Bolsheviks. He remained a self-described "non-factional social democrat " until August 1917, when he joined Lenin and the Bolsheviks, as their positions resembled his and he came to believe that Lenin was correct on the issue of the party. All but one member of the RSDLP Central Committee were arrested in Moscow in early 1905. The remaining member, with the power of appointing a new committee,

9576-402: The Bolsheviks. The Left SRs collapsed as a party by 1922 and only existed as small cells through 1925. Mirbach's assassins, Blumkin and Andreev, managed to evade capture. In early 1919, Blumkin was pardoned by the Bolsheviks and rejoined the Cheka. During the Moscow Trials in 1937, it was claimed that Trotsky, Kamenev, and Zinoviev were involved in this plot. Yuri Felshtinsky claimed the revolt

9744-456: The Caucasus region. As a result of her military campaigns and the temporary fall of the Byzantine Empire in 1204, Georgia became the strongest Christian state in the whole Near East area, encompassing most of the Caucasus stretching from Northern Iran and Northeastern Turkey to the North Caucasus. The Caucasus region was conquered by the Ottomans , Turco-Mongols , local kingdoms and khanates, as well as, once again, Iran . Up to and including

9912-423: The Caucasus was usually incorporated into the Iranian world . At the beginning of the 19th century, the Russian Empire conquered the territory from Qajar Iran . The territory of the Caucasus region was inhabited by Homo erectus since the Paleolithic Era . In 1991, early Hominini fossils dating back 1.8 million years were found at the Dmanisi archaeological site in Georgia . Scientists now classify

10080-474: The Caucasus. Most of arthropod biodiversity is concentrated on Great and Lesser Caucasus ranges. The region has a high level of endemism and several relict animals and plants, the fact reflecting the presence of refugial forests, which survived the Ice Age in the Caucasus Mountains. The Caucasus forest refugium is the largest throughout the Western Asian (near Eastern) region. The area has multiple representatives of disjunct relict groups of plants with

10248-447: The Cheka dismissed, ousted Dzerzhinsky and put Latsis in his place, who was ordered to recruit new people to the Cheka. Trotsky ordered Latsis to arrest all the Left Socialist Revolutionaries serving in the Cheka, and declare them hostages. However, soon the Left Socialist-Revolutionaries themselves occupied the Cheka's building, arresting Latsis and freeing the Left Socialist Revolutionary Emelyanov, whom had been arrested. Also unsuccessful

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10416-422: The Cheka's lieutenant himself, Vyacheslav Aleksandrovich, received any communication about the resolution of the central committee. In their meeting on 24 June, the Central Committee of the Left SR internationalists, having discussed the present political situation of the Republic, found that in the interests of the Russian and international revolution it was necessary to put an end to the so-called “respite”, which

10584-411: The Congress as delegates left or switched sides. In the end, the Congress was evenly split between the two factions. From 1907 onward, English-language articles sometimes used the term Maximalist for "Bolshevik" and Minimalist for "Menshevik", which proved to be confusing as there was also a "Maximalist" faction within the Russian Socialist Revolutionary Party in 1904–1906 (which, after 1906, formed

10752-417: The German Empire. As the Bolshevik leaders feared, on 14 July the acting ambassador demanded the sending of troops to Moscow on the pretext of protecting the embassy, which would have placed the Sovnarkom under the control of the German high command. The rejection of the German demands, however, seemed to lead to a resumption of hostilities. The start of the Second Battle of the Marne turned German attention to

10920-409: The German ambassador in Moscow, in the hope of recommencing the war against "German Imperialism" and of igniting a popular uprising. The rebels occupied the Cheka headquarters and took its leader Felix Dzerzhinsky hostage, seized the telephone exchange and telegraph office, and issued manifestos. Mikhail Muravyov , a Left SR and Red Army commander in the East, seized Simbirsk . After the uprising

11088-421: The Greater Caucasus range and Southern Russia to its north, the Black Sea and Turkey to its west, the Caspian Sea to its east, and Iran to its south. It contains the Lesser Caucasus mountain range and surrounding lowlands. All of Armenia , Azerbaijan (excluding the northernmost parts), and Georgia (excluding the northernmost parts) are in the South Caucasus. The watershed along the Greater Caucasus range

11256-408: The Greek goddess of love Aphrodite . The story of how the trickster Nart Sosruquo, became invulnerable parallels that of the Greek hero Achilles . The ancient Greek Amazons may be connected to a Caucasian "warrior Forest-Mother, Amaz-an". Caucasian legends include stories involving giants similar to Homer 's Polyphemus story. In these stories, the giant is almost always a shepherd , and he

11424-408: The Left S.R.s had taken over power and that their action had been welcomed by the whole nation . A telegram from the Left SR Central Committee stating that the Left SRs had seized power in Moscow, was sent to Mikhail Artemyevich Muravyov , a Left SR and Commander of the Eastern Front. On the pretext of attacking the Germans, he seized Simbirsk and tried to march his forces on Moscow in support of

11592-410: The Left SRs were defeated less by [ Vācietis and his Latvian Riflemen ] than they were by themselves. As their own party comrade Steinberg put it, they were beaten 'not because their leaders were not brave enough, but because it was not at all their purpose to overthrow the government'. The assassination of the ambassador led to a serious but short-lived crisis between the Lenin government and

11760-462: The Left SRs' naive tendency 'to play at revolution'. The Left SRs … were much less interested in seizing power themselves than they were in calling for a popular uprising to force the Bolsheviks to change their policies. The Left SRs had no idea where this uprising would end up; they were happy to leave that to the 'revolutionary creativity of the masses'. They were the 'poets of the revolution' and, like all poets, were anarchists at heart. […] And yet

11928-409: The Left SRs, attracted to the building's guard by the better conditions than the front, defended the place. At 17:00, communications to the building were counted and they began to surround themselves, while government patrols began to walk the main avenues of the city The military committee tried unsuccessfully to achieve the surrender of the besieged. After a first unsuccessful assault, the talks between

12096-582: The Left Socialist Revolutionaries appealed to those groups that helped the Bolsheviks seize power in October and now felt that they had been betrayed. In this situation of internal tension, on 4 July, the 5th All-Russian Congress of Soviets began to decide the country's policy. The confrontation between the SRs and Bolsheviks was harsh. Left SR speakers fiercely attacked the policy of the Bolsheviks, from

12264-639: The Left Socialist Revolutionaries made no attempt to arrest the Bolshevik government, although they even had passes allowing them to enter the Kremlin without hindrance. In addition, the rebels did not arrest the Bolshevik delegates of the Fifth Congress of Soviets. Without attempting to seize power, they declared the Bolsheviks “agents of German imperialism” who established the regime of “commissar rule” and smeared all other socialists as “counterrevolutionaries”. Researcher Valery Evgenievich Shambarov draws attention to

12432-976: The Mensheviks made an alliance with the Jewish Bund , the Bolsheviks found themselves in a minority. However, all factions retained their respective factional structure and the Bolsheviks formed the Bolshevik Centre , the de facto governing body of the Bolshevik faction within the RSDLP. At the 5th Congress held in London in May 1907, the Bolsheviks were in the majority, but the two factions continued functioning mostly independently of each other. Tensions had existed between Lenin and Alexander Bogdanov from as early as 1904. Lenin had fallen out with Nikolai Valentinov after Valentinov had introduced him to Ernst Mach 's Empiriocriticism ,

12600-621: The Middle Ages, Bagratid Armenia , Kingdom of Tashir-Dzoraget , Kingdom of Syunik and Principality of Khachen organized local Armenian population facing multiple threats after the fall of antique Kingdom of Armenia . Caucasian Albania maintained close ties with Armenia and the Church of Caucasian Albania shared the same Christian dogmas with the Armenian Apostolic Church and had a tradition of their Catholicos being ordained through

12768-528: The Moscow events, local organizations were stunned by the instructions. Confused by the unexpected events, pro-socialist forces offered no resistance to disarmament and the only victims of the disarmament process were by accident, when a grenade exploded causing four deaths and fourteen injuries. The only confrontation in the city took place at the School of Pages , where the scarce garrison, just 350–380 mercenary soldiers, most of them teenagers and without sympathy for

12936-642: The Patriarch of Armenia. In the 12th century, the Georgian king David the Builder drove the Muslims out of the Caucasus and made the Kingdom of Georgia a strong regional power. In 1194–1204 Georgian Queen Tamar 's armies crushed new Seljuk Turkish invasions from the southeast and south and launched several successful campaigns into Seljuk Turkish-controlled Southern Armenia. The Georgian Kingdom continued military campaigns in

13104-494: The Russian Federation. The Russian divisions include Dagestan , Chechnya , Ingushetia , North Ossetia–Alania , Kabardino–Balkaria , Karachay–Cherkessia , Adygea , Krasnodar Krai , and Stavropol Krai , in clockwise order. Two territories in the region claim independence but are recognized as such by only a handful of entities: Abkhazia , and South Ossetia . Abkhazia and South Ossetia are largely recognized by

13272-570: The Social Revolutionaries from all local soviets, regardless of whether or not they condemned the actions approved by the PSRI central committee. In Petrograd, Left SR representatives were expelled from the leadership of the Petrograd Soviet and from then on their influence over the organisation was nonexistent. Mirbach's assassination was attempted, in vain, to force the Bolsheviks to resume

13440-519: The Socialist Revolutionaries of having risen to take power. After a vain attempt to stop the clash, pro-Bolshevik units attacked the SRs. The first assault, scheduled for 2:00 a.m., was a failure. Being a Sunday and a public holiday – St. John the Baptist's day – the troops assigned to the assault did not show up and forced it to be carried out the next day, instead of taking advantage of

13608-623: The Southern Caucasus (except western Georgia), northwestern Iran, the northeastern Caucasus, eastern Turkey, and as far as Syria. Under Ashurbanipal (669–627 BC), the boundaries of the Assyrian Empire reached as far as the Caucasus Mountains. Later ancient kingdoms of the region included Armenia , Albania , Colchis and Iberia , among others. These kingdoms were later incorporated into various Iranian empires, including Media ,

13776-640: The Soviet security apparatus. About a quarter of them died. The Southern Caucasus region was unified as a single political entity twice – during the Russian Civil War ( Transcaucasian Democratic Federative Republic ) from 9 April 1918 to 26 May 1918, and under the Soviet rule ( Transcaucasian SFSR ) from 12 March 1922 to 5 December 1936. Following the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, Georgia , Azerbaijan and Armenia became independent nations. The region has been subject to various territorial disputes since

13944-575: The Soviets Congress continued its sessions, without the Left SR delegates. It condemned the uprising as an attempt by the Left SRs to take power, approved the government's actions to crush the revolt and expelled left-wing Socialist Revolutionaries who did not condemn the actions of their central committee from the Soviets. Grigory Petrovsky , Commissioner of the Interior, nevertheless ordered the expulsion of

14112-446: The area. Russian is used as a lingua franca most notably in the North Caucasus. The peoples of the northern and southern Caucasus mostly are Shia Muslims , Sunni Muslims , Eastern Orthodox Christians or Armenian Christians . Located on the peripheries of Turkey , Iran , and Russia , the region has been an arena for political, military, religious, and cultural rivalries and expansionism for centuries. Throughout its history,

14280-534: The assassins. Blumkin and Andreyev hid the pistols and grenades in briefcases and drove in a Cheka car to the German embassy, where they arrived at 2:15 PM. They showed a letter of introduction, supposedly signed by the head of Cheka Felix Dzerzhinsky and asked to see the German envoy. Mirbach believed that the Chekists were coming to inform him of a plan to assassinate him, a plan he had been warned about earlier. During their conversation - at about 2:50 PM, Blumkin drew up

14448-564: The assemblage of fossil skeletons as the subspecies Homo erectus georgicus . The site yields the earliest unequivocal evidence for the presence of early humans outside the African continent; and the Dmanisi skulls are the five oldest hominins ever found outside Africa . Kura–Araxes culture from about 4000 BC until about 2000 BC enveloped a vast area of approximately 1,000 km by 500 km, and mostly encompassed, on modern-day territories,

14616-656: The available published and unpublished evidence, I conclude that it was not. Upon investigation, with the possible exception of Prosh Proshian's brief occupation of the Central Telegraph Office and his behavior there, which may as well have been unauthorized, all of the Moscow Left SRs' actions following Mirbach's assassination were consistent with the objective of reshaping the policies of the Leninist Sovnarkom but not with forcibly seizing power or even fighting

14784-458: The beginning of World War I loomed near. Joseph Stalin was especially eager for the start of the war, hoping that it would turn into a war between classes or essentially a Russian Civil War . This desire for war was fuelled by Lenin's vision that the workers and peasants would resist joining the war effort and therefore be more compelled to join the socialist movement. Through the increase in support, Russia would then be forced to withdraw from

14952-596: The boards of the People's Commissars, the military department, various committees, commissions, and councils. In Finland , where the soviet government had pledged by the treaty not to intervene, the landing of German troops significantly helped the "white" (counter-revolutionary) forces to crush the Finnish Revolution . In Ukraine , a puppet government, the Hetmanate , had been established with German backing. The forces of

15120-490: The building at once. Lenin decided to demonstrate to the Germans that the Bolsheviks could control the Socialist Revolutionaries, despite having lost control of the local Cheka. Lenin accused the SRs of trying to overthrow the Soviet Government and charged Trotsky with crushing the rebellion who, in turn, put Ivar Smilga in command of the forces faithful to the Bolsheviks. For a while, Lenin, Sverdlov and Trotsky declared

15288-465: The bulk of the delegates. Those who opposed the uprising were immediately released, after their weapons had been seized. Thirteen of the four hundred and fifty delegates - including Spiridonova - were transferred on the morning of 8 July from the theater to the Kremlin dungeons; ten of them were released the next day. The Communists tried to divide the party and alienate the militants from the leadership, by having some form two separate new parties. Most of

15456-487: The city and had not attended the Fifth Soviet Congress in Moscow received the order to prepare for an uprising of the Left SRs and they immediately formed a revolutionary military committee. They decided to disarm the main Left SR armed detachment in the city, close down their main newspaper and try to arrest the local Left SR committee. They also ordered the formation of Bolshevik troikas in the different districts of

15624-470: The city, these were to neutralize and disarm the socialist revolutionaries of the respective districts. The Bolshevik authorities in Petrograd knew about the murder of the German ambassador before even the local socialist revolutionaries. Moisei Uritsky arrived in Petrograd around 15:00 on 7 July and immediately took over the leadership of the revolutionary military committee. He relieved Prosh Proshian from

15792-482: The closest relatives in Eastern Asia, southern Europe, and even North America. Over 70 species of forest snails of the region are endemic. Some relict species of vertebrates are Caucasian parsley frog , Caucasian salamander , Robert's snow vole , and Caucasian grouse , and there are almost entirely endemic groups of animals such as lizards of genus Darevskia . In general, the species composition of this refugium

15960-844: The collapse of the Soviet Union, leading to the First Nagorno-Karabakh War (1988–1994), the East Prigorodny Conflict (1989–1991), the War in Abkhazia (1992–93) , the First Chechen War (1994–1996), the Second Chechen War (1999–2009), Russo-Georgian War (2008), and the Second Nagorno-Karabakh War (2020). In Greek mythology , the Caucasus was one of the pillars supporting the world. After presenting man with

16128-567: The command of the Kremlin Bolshevik Pavel Dmitrievich Malkov, fell into the hands of Lenin. Another appeal stated that "... the executioner Mirbach was killed ... German spies and armed provocateurs have invaded Moscow, demanding the death of the left-wing socialist revolutionaries. Frightened by possible consequences, as before, the ruling party of the Bolsheviks are following the orders of the German executioners ... Forward, workers, workers and Red Army soldiers, to defend

16296-702: The composition of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee. In early July, the Third Congress of the Left Socialist Revolutionary Party was held, in its resolution to the present moment sharply condemned the policy of the Bolsheviks: Increased centralization, crowning the system of bureaucratic bodies with a dictatorship, the use of requisition units operating outside the control and leadership of local Soviets,

16464-497: The concept of democratic centralism . Martov, until then a close friend of Lenin, agreed with him that the core of the party should consist of professional revolutionaries, but he argued that party membership should be open to sympathizers, revolutionary workers, and other fellow travellers. The two had disagreed on the issue as early as March–May 1903, but it was not until the Congress that their differences became irreconcilable and split

16632-493: The conscience of the revolution, an incorruptible alternative to the regime of opportunists and supporters of compromise. As the influence of the Bolsheviks among industrial workers diminished, the Left Socialist Revolutionaries became more and more dangerous rivals for them, for they appealed to the very anarchist and destructive instincts of the Russian masses, on which the Bolsheviks relied while they came to power, but, having gained power, tried to suppress in every way ... In fact,

16800-531: The consequences of the attack. It served primarily to facilitate Lenin's removal of political power from the rival party. Despite its strong support in the countryside, the Left SRs never recovered from the repression suffered after the Mirbach murder and disappeared as a notable political option. The " Party of the Populists-Communists " and " Party of Revolutionary Communism " split from Left SRs and supported

16968-441: The cultivation of poor committees – all these measures create a campaign on the Soviets of peasant deputies, disorganize workers' Soviets, and confuse class relations in the countryside, creating a disastrous front between the cities and villages. According to Richard Pipes , [...] the Left Socialist Revolutionaries suddenly discovered that they were cooperating with a regime of prudent politicians who make deals with Germany and

17136-468: The deep political crisis of the Bolshevik government: “Today, after more than 2 months of careful observation, I don’t think I can make a more favorable diagnosis of Bolshevism: we, no doubt, are at the bedside of a seriously ill patient; and although moments of apparent improvement are possible, ultimately it is doomed." In May, he sent a telegraph to Berlin saying “the Entente allegedly spends huge sums to bring

17304-521: The defense of the occupied positions was reduced to sitting out in two buildings of Trekhsvyatitelsky Lane. Subsequently, in 1921, during interrogation at the Cheka, Popov claimed that: “I didn’t take part in the preparation of the alleged uprising against the state, the armed clash in Trekhsvyatitelsky Lane was an act of self-defense.” In total, during the mutiny, the Left Socialist Revolutionaries took 27 Bolshevik functionaries hostage, including

17472-635: The deputy chairman of the Cheka Martin Latsis and the chairman of the Moscow City Council Pyotr Smidovich . In addition, they captured several cars, and a congress delegate Nikolai Abelman was killed. They also captured the General Post Office and began to send out anti-Bolshevik appeals. One of these appeals, declaring the Bolshevik government deposed and ordering "not to execute orders of Lenin and Sverdlov", according to

17640-689: The early 19th century, most of the Southern Caucasus and southern Dagestan all formed part of the Persian Empire . In 1813 and 1828 by the Treaty of Gulistan and the Treaty of Turkmenchay respectively, the Persians were forced to irrevocably cede the Southern Caucasus and Dagestan to Imperial Russia . In the ensuing years after these gains, the Russians took the remaining part of the Southern Caucasus , comprising western Georgia, through several wars from

17808-514: The embassy to apologize for the murder and try to calm the Germans. Later that night, when going to give condolences to the embassy, Dzerzhinski indicated that the authors were socialist-revolutionary members of the Cheka. At the same time, the Foreign Commissioner, Georgy Chicherin , communicated to him the German demand to station troops in Moscow. A few weeks later, on 30 July, the commander of German occupation forces Hermann von Eichhorn

17976-463: The embassy. That same afternoon, Lenin had sent some of the few remaining forces in the city to the northeast, to try to quell the Yaroslavl uprising , which had just broken out. Only a few Latvian marksmen units, Cheka forces and some Red Guard and Army units (still in training), remained in Moscow. Lenin received the news shortly after, not knowing who had perpetrated the attack, and immediately went to

18144-513: The fact that for most of the languages involved, there was no alphabet until the early twentieth century—and only began to be written down in the late nineteenth century. One important tradition is that of the Nart sagas , which tell stories of a race of ancient heroes called the Narts. These sagas include such figures as Satanaya , the mother of the Narts, Sosruquo a shape changer and trickster, Tlepsh

18312-510: The fight against Germany, once the impossibility of having a majority in Congress that allowed them to change the government's policy in a peaceful way was clear. Despite the government's accusation of the Left SR's attempted overthrow of the Soviet government , the Cheka's own investigation in Petrograd ended without any evidence being found and with the release of those arrested. Much the same conclusions have also been reached by British historian Orlando Figes , who generally holds up to ridicule

18480-421: The first century BC, Zoroastrianism had become the dominant religion of the region; however, the region would go through two other religious transformations. Owing to the strong rivalry between Persia and Rome , and later Byzantium . The Romans first arrived in the region in the 1st century BC with the annexation of the kingdom of Colchis, which was later turned into the province of Lazicum . The next 600 years

18648-604: The formation of Party Schools as Proletarian Universities at a Bolshevik mini-conference in Paris organised by the editorial board of the Bolshevik magazine Proletary . However, this proposal was not adopted and Lenin tried to expel Bogdanov from the Bolshevik faction. Bogdanov was then involved with setting up Vpered , which ran the Capri Party School from August to December 1909. With both Bolsheviks and Mensheviks weakened by splits within their ranks and by Tsarist repression,

18816-459: The gift of fire, Prometheus (or Amirani in the Georgian version ) was chained there by Zeus , to have his liver eaten daily by an eagle as punishment for defying Zeus's wish to keep the "secret of fire" from humans. In Persian mythology , the Caucasus might be associated with the mythic Mount Qaf which is believed to surround the known world. It is the battlefield of Saoshyant and the nest of

18984-590: The idea of a completely classless society . This pamphlet also showed that Lenin opposed another group of reformers, known as " Economists ", who were for economic reform while leaving the government relatively unchanged and who, in Lenin's view, failed to recognize the importance of uniting the working population behind the party's cause. At the 2nd Congress of the RSDLP , which was held in Brussels and then London during August 1903, Lenin and Julius Martov disagreed over

19152-405: The institutions. The increasing measures of repression against the SRs culminated in the trial of the party that began on 27 November. Of the fourteen defendants, only two were present, the rest went underground. All were sentenced to short sentences, but the party was removed from power. The uprising, which ended the alliance between Bolsheviks and left-wing social revolutionaries, was a milestone in

19320-507: The invasion and opposed Trotsky's insistence that nobody was allowed to attack German troops in Ukraine. Sergey Mstislavsky coined the slogan “It's not a war, it's an uprising!”, calling on the “masses” to “rebel” against the German - Austrian occupation forces, accusing the Bolsheviks of creating a “state that obstructs the working class", moving away from the position of revolutionary socialism onto

19488-520: The left socialist revolutionaries. However, Muravyov could not convince his troops to oppose the Bolsheviks and was killed when arrested. The leader of the Left Socialist-Revolutionaries Maria Spiridonova then went to the Fifth Congress of Soviets, where she announced that "the Russian people are free from Mirbach," and, jumping onto a table, started shouting "Hey, you, listen, Earth, hey, you, listen, earth! ”. However,

19656-637: The less significant Moscow Soviet was dominated by the Bolsheviks. These Soviets became the model for those formed in 1917. As the Russian Revolution of 1905 progressed, Bolsheviks, Mensheviks, and smaller non-Russian social democratic parties operating within the Russian Empire attempted to reunify at the 4th Congress of the RSDLP held in April 1906 at Folkets hus , Norra Bantorget , in Stockholm . When

19824-484: The midst of events, Lenin doubted the loyalty of the commander of the Latvian Riflemen, Jukums Vācietis , and expressed his readiness to “accept his services” only by assigning four commissioners to him. During the uprising Trotsky investigated four times whether Vācietis had joined the Left Socialist Revolutionaries. At night, Lenin ordered him to gather forces to launch a counterattack. By the early morning of 7 July,

19992-482: The name means shining white like snow: "Thus, toward the east, where it rises to a greater height, it is called the Caucasus, due to the whiteness of its snow, for in an eastern language, caucasus means “white,” that is, shining white with a very thick snow cover. For the same reason the Scythians, who live next to this mountain range, call it Croacasim, for among them whiteness or snow is called casim. 3. The Taurus range

20160-429: The natural and historical boundary between Europe and Asia. Another opinion is that the rivers Kura and Rioni mark this border, or even that of the river Aras . The Caucasus is a linguistically , culturally and geographically diverse region. The nation states that compose the Caucasus today are the post-Soviet states Georgia (including Adjara and Abkhazia ), Azerbaijan (including Nakhchivan ), Armenia , and

20328-571: The news. Of all the units of the Moscow garrison, the Bolsheviks were able to rely only on the Latvian Riflemen — all the other units either sided with the rebels or declared their neutrality. Trotsky's order to units of the Moscow garrison to speak out against the rebels was carried out only by the Commandant Regiment and the School of Military Cadets, and the Commandant Regiment soon fled. In

20496-450: The night, as originally planned. The attack finally started at noon with the use of artillery against the Cheka headquarters, which was badly damaged by the explosions. Around 2:00 p.m., the revolt had been put down and the SR leaders had fled, abandoning Dzerzhinski in the building. Of the defenders, the assailants ended up capturing about four hundred. Aleksandrovich, captured shortly thereafter at

20664-417: The north is mostly shared by Russia and Georgia as well as the northernmost parts of Azerbaijan . The Lesser Caucasus mountain range in the south is occupied by several independent states, mostly by Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Georgia, but also extends to parts of northeastern Turkey , and northern Iran . The region is known for its linguistic diversity : aside from Indo-European and Turkic languages,

20832-516: The north of the Greater Caucasus range practically impregnable. The mythological Mount Qaf , the world's highest mountain that ancient Iranian lore shrouded in mystery, was said to be situated in this region. The region is also one of the candidates for the location of Airyanem Vaejah , the apparent homeland of the Iranians of Zoroaster . In Middle Persian sources of the Sasanian era, the Caucasus range

21000-637: The party adopted a number of different names. In 1918, RSDLP(b) became All-Russian Communist Party (Bolsheviks) and remained so until 1925. From 1925 to 1952, the name was All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks) and from 1952 to 1991, the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. As the party split became permanent, further divisions became evident. One of the most notable differences was how each faction decided to fund its revolution. The Mensheviks decided to fund their revolution through membership dues while Lenin often resorted to more drastic measures since he required

21168-516: The party membership rules. Lenin, who was supported by Georgy Plekhanov , wanted to limit membership to those who supported the party full-time and worked in complete obedience to the elected party leadership. Martov wanted to extend membership to anyone "who recognises the Party Programme and supports it by material means and by regular personal assistance under the direction of one of the party's organisations." Lenin believed his plan would develop

21336-419: The party was the Russian police. The police were able to infiltrate both parties' inner circles by sending in spies who then reported on the opposing party's intentions and hostilities. This allowed the tensions to remain high between the Bolsheviks and Mensheviks and helped prevent their uniting. Lenin was firmly opposed to any reunification but was outvoted within the Bolshevik leadership. The meeting reached

21504-497: The party's objective and carry on under the influence of opposing beliefs or even away from revolution entirely. The pamphlet also showed that Lenin's view of a socialist intelligentsia was in line with Marxist theory . For example, Lenin agreed with the Marxist ideal of social classes ceasing to be and for the eventual " withering away of the state ". Most party members considered unequal treatment of workers immoral and were loyal to

21672-620: The party. At first, the disagreement appeared to be minor and inspired by personal conflicts. For example, Lenin's insistence on dropping less active editorial board members from Iskra or Martov's support for the Organizing Committee of the Congress which Lenin opposed. The differences grew and the split became irreparable. Internal unrest also arose over the political structure that was best suited for Soviet power . As discussed in What Is To Be Done? , Lenin firmly believed that

21840-430: The passivity of military units that sided with the rebels: “The regiment of the Cheka, under the command of Popov, rebelled quite strangely. On 1 March, their forces were armed with 1,800 bayonets, 80 sabers, 4 armored cars and 8 artillery guns. The Bolsheviks in Moscow had 720 bayonets, 4 armored cars and 12 artillery guns. But instead of attacking and winning, taking advantage of surprise and an almost three-fold advantage,

22008-579: The path of opportunistic service to the state." A new surge of tension was associated with an increase in the activity of the Bolsheviks in rural villages, when the Bolshevik-controlled government announced, by decree, the enforcement of a state bread monopoly and the organization of "food detachments" for the compulsory collection of bread. On 14 June 1918, representatives of the Socialist-Revolutionary parties (both Left and Right ) and

22176-509: The policy of the Kerensky government ." The Left SRs also called for proportional representation in the elections of the Soviets , due to the sharp vote disparity between rural and city-dwelling workers. However, the Bolsheviks had sent a large number of delegates who were suspected of not being legitimately elected, simply to achieve a large majority in Congress. The Left Socialist-Revolutionaries had 352 delegates compared to 745 Bolsheviks out of 1132 total. The vast Bolshevik majority thwarted

22344-408: The process of forming a one-party state. The murder of the ambassador, contrary to what the socialist-revolutionary leaders expected, frustrated their plans: neither did it bring about the resumption of the conflict with Germany, nor did it cause the expected uprising of the population against it, nor did it serve to bring the left-communists closer together; furthermore, the party was not prepared for

22512-425: The radical leaders who had advocated accepting peace with the Central Powers ended up repudiating the uprising. Those who, instead of criticizing the actions of the party, endorsed them, were persecuted by the authorities. Despite the flight of most of the leaders, some four hundred Party members were arrested and some of them executed. Spiridonova remained in prison in the Kremlin until the end of November. She received

22680-440: The regiment passively "rebelled" in the barracks ". On the same topic American historian Alexander Rabinowitch argues as follows. By the night of 6 July, the actions of the Left SRs, beginning with Count Mirbach's assassination, were already being defined by the Soviet government as "an uprising against Soviet power," and historians have often depicted the episode that way. But is this characterization valid? Having sifted through

22848-510: The regional Commissariat of Interior and accelerated the release of the Administration's socialist-revolutionary positions. Forces loyal to the Bolsheviks surrounded the offices of the socialist-revolutionaries in Smolny and closed them at 14:00, while the Socialist Revolutionary delegation of the Petrograd Soviet was arrested. Then the city's Social Revolutionary Committee, alerted to the likelihood of government actions to disarm and arrest his forces, alerted them and went underground. Ignorant of

23016-424: The requisitioning of grain and suppression of opposition parties, to the institution of the death penalty. They argued especially against the Bolshevik peace with imperialist Germany and the lack of defense of the revolution in Ukraine and Finland . Boris Kamkov promised to "sweep food detachments from the villages." Maria Spiridonova characterized the Bolsheviks as "traitors to the revolution" and "successors to

23184-422: The revolution and granting them temporary concessions. Bolshevik figures such as Anatoly Lunacharsky , Moisei Uritsky and Dmitry Manuilsky considered that Lenin's influence on the Bolshevik party was decisive but the October insurrection was carried out according to Trotsky's, not to Lenin's plan. In 1918, the party renamed itself the Russian Communist Party (Bolsheviks) at Lenin's suggestion. In 1925, this

23352-471: The right wing of the Socialist Revolutionary Party to power and resume the war... Sailors on ships... are probably bribed, like the former Preobrazhensky regiment. Weapons stocks... from weapons factories in the hands of the Socialist Revolutionaries." German diplomat Carl von Botmer also testified that the German embassy, beginning in mid-June 1918, repeatedly received threats that the Bolshevik security service had investigated, but to no avail. Yakov Blumkin ,

23520-410: The sense of danger in the face of the Bolshevik threats – embodied in Trotsky's resolution that allowed the execution of those who opposed the German occupation of Ukraine – and the conviction that a terrorist action could force the start of new hostilities with Germany led the socialist-revolutionary leadership to plot the murder of the German ambassador in Moscow. The SR's objective was not to challenge

23688-414: The simultaneous election in the soviets and an organized uprising supported by military mutiny. Several of the main reasons the population supported the Bolsheviks were to end the war and have a social revolution, exemplified by the slogan "Peace, Land, Bread". The Bolsheviks invited left SRs and Martov 's Menshevik Internationalists to join the government. Left SRs split from the main SR party and joined

23856-445: The socialist-revolutionary plans to change government policy in Congress, which was now firmly in the hands of Lenin's party. As soon as the Congress of Soviets opened at the Bolshoi, the Bolsheviks and Left Socialist Revolutionaries immediately grabbed each other's throats. Speakers from the Left Socialist Revolutionaries accused the Bolsheviks of betraying the cause of the revolution and of fomenting war between town and country, while

24024-511: The split was Lenin's support for a smaller party of professional revolutionaries, as opposed to the Menshevik desire for a broad party membership. The influence of the factions fluctuated in the years up to 1912, when the RSDLP formally split into two parties. The Bolsheviks' political philosophy was based on the Leninist principles of vanguardism and democratic centralism . After the February Revolution of 1917, Lenin returned to Russia and issued his April Theses , which called for "no support for

24192-531: The term Caucasus is derived from Caucas ( Georgian : კავკასოსი Ḳavḳasosi ), the son of the Biblical Togarmah and legendary forefather of the Nakh peoples . According to German philologists Otto Schrader and Alfons A. Nehring, the Ancient Greek word Καύκασος ( Kaukasos ) is connected to Gothic hauhs 'high' as well as Lithuanian kaũkas 'hillock' and kaukarà 'hill, top', Russian куча 'heap'. British linguist Adrian Room claims that * kau- also means 'mountain' in Pelasgian , though this

24360-454: The theater. Despite sympathy on the part of the Moscow garrison for the SRs, the Bolsheviks mustered enough forces on the morning of 7 July to storm their positions, thanks especially to the support of the Latvian Riflemen , who remained loyal to the Bolsheviks. In the Bolshoi, Maria Spiridonova and Andrei Kolegayev severely reproached Trotsky for their confinement and for the measures taken against their comrades. Trotsky responded by accusing

24528-443: The total population) and 38% were uprooted peasants ; compared with 19% and 26% for the Mensheviks. In 1907, 78% of the Bolsheviks were Russian and 10% were Jewish ; compared to 34% and 20% for the Mensheviks. Total Bolshevik membership was 8,400 in 1905, 13,000 in 1906, and 46,100 by 1907; compared to 8,400, 18,000 and 38,200 for the Mensheviks. By 1910, both factions together had fewer than 100,000 members. Between 1903 and 1904,

24696-402: The two factions were in a state of flux, with many members changing sides. Plekhanov, the founder of Russian Marxism, who at first allied himself with Lenin and the Bolsheviks, had parted ways with them by 1904. Trotsky at first supported the Mensheviks, but left them in September 1904 over their insistence on an alliance with Russian liberals and their opposition to a reconciliation with Lenin and

24864-410: The two factions were tempted to try to reunite the party. In January 1910, Leninists, recallists, and various Menshevik factions held a meeting of the party's Central Committee in Paris. Kamenev and Zinoviev were dubious about the idea; but under pressure from conciliatory Bolsheviks like Victor Nogin , they were willing to give it a try. One of the underlying reasons that prevented any reunification of

25032-420: The two sides resumed, without ceasing the fighting. They attracted a crowd, curious to see what was happening in the area. At 19:00, new troops surrounded the building and brought machine guns; the main assault occurred about an hour later, using artillery and machine guns against the besieged. The shelling accelerated the defectors' defection. The fighting ended around 21:00 when the few remaining defenders hoisted

25200-438: The working peasantry and the working class joined the uprising and actively supported the party. To this end, to coincide with terrorist acts, an announcement was published in the newspapers of the Left SR’s participation in recent Ukrainian events, such as agitation and the destruction of weapons arsenals. On 25 June 1918, Count Mirbach informed his boss, State Secretary of the German Foreign Ministry Richard von Kühlmann about

25368-466: The working people, against all executioners, against all spies and provocative imperialism. ” By this time, the leader of the Left Socialist Revolutionaries, Maria Spiridonova, who had come to the Congress of Soviets, had already been arrested by the Bolsheviks herself and also taken hostage. Lenin thought that the whole Cheka had rebelled. According to the testimony of Vladimir Bonch-Bruyevich , Lenin “did not even turn pale, but turned white” when he heard

25536-417: The world community as part of Georgia. The region has many different languages and language families. There are more than 50 ethnic groups living in the region. No fewer than three language families are unique to the area. In addition, Indo-European languages, such as East Slavic , Armenian and Ossetian , and Turkic languages , such as Azerbaijani , Kumyk language and Karachay–Balkar , are spoken in

25704-552: The worldwide political movement coordinated by the Comintern . During the Cold War in the United Kingdom, trade union leaders and other leftists were sometimes derisively described as Bolshies . The usage is roughly equivalent to the term " commie ", "Red", or " pinko " in the United States during the same period. The term Bolshie later became a slang term for anyone who was rebellious, aggressive, or truculent. Caucasus The Caucasus ( / ˈ k ɔː k ə s ə s / ) or Caucasia ( / k ɔː ˈ k eɪ ʒ ə / ),

25872-439: Was Trotsky's attempt to prevent the rebels from seizing the central telegraph; the two companies of Latvian riflemen sent to them there were disarmed by the group of Left Socialist Revolutionaries led by Prosh Proshian . For a short time the Left SRs controlled the telephone exchange and telegraph office. They sent out several manifestos , bulletins , and telegrams in the name of the Left S.R. Central Committee declaring that

26040-435: Was arrested and taken hostage by the Left Socialist Revolutionaries, to ensure the SR delegates to the Soviet congress. The main armed force that the Socialist-Revolutionaries could make use of was the Cheka detachment under the command of Popov. This detachment consisted mostly of Finns and sailors, numbering about 800 people, and was armed with several guns and armored cars. However, Popov's detachment did not take action, and

26208-403: Was assassinated in Kiev , by the Left SR Boris Donskoy . Dzerzhinsky personally appeared at the headquarters of the Left Socialist-Revolutionary Cheka detachment and demanded the extradition of Mirbach's killers. Accompanied by three Chekists, Dzerzhinsky began to search the premises, breaking several doors. At this point, the Central Committee of the Left SRs left the Congress of Soviets, which

26376-461: Was changed to All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks). At the 19th Party Congress in 1952 the Party was renamed the Communist Party of the Soviet Union at Stalin's suggestion. Bolo was a derogatory expression for Bolsheviks used by British service personnel in the North Russian Expeditionary Force which intervened against the Red Army during the Russian Civil War. Adolf Hitler , Joseph Goebbels , and other Nazi leaders used it in reference to

26544-451: Was created due to the ratification of the Brest-Litovsk treaty by the Bolshevik government. To this end, the Party Central Committee considered it both possible and appropriate to organize a series of terrorist acts against prominent representatives of German imperialism. At the same time, the Central Committee of the Party decided to organize a mobilization of reliable military forces for its decision and to make every effort to ensure that both

26712-458: Was generally allied with the recallists. With most Bolshevik leaders either supporting Bogdanov or undecided by mid-1908 when the differences became irreconcilable, Lenin concentrated on undermining Bogdanov's reputation as a philosopher. In 1909, he published a scathing book of criticism entitled Materialism and Empirio-criticism (1909), assaulting Bogdanov's position and accusing him of philosophical idealism . In June 1909, Bogdanov proposed

26880-480: Was marked by a conflict between Rome and Sassanid Empire for the control of the region. In western Georgia the eastern Roman rule lasted until the Middle Ages. As the Arsacid dynasty of Armenia (an eponymous branch of the Arsacid dynasty of Parthia ) was the first nation to adopt Christianity as state religion (in 301 AD), and Caucasian Albania and Georgia had become Christian entities, Christianity began to overtake Zoroastrianism and pagan beliefs. With

27048-418: Was referred to as Kaf Kof . The term resurfaced in Iranian tradition later on in a variant form when Ferdowsi , in his Shahnameh , referred to the Caucasus mountains as Kōh-i Kāf . "Most of the modern names of the Caucasus originate from the Greek Kaukasos (Lat., Caucasus ) and the Middle Persian Kaf Kof ". "The earliest etymon" of the name Caucasus comes from Kaz-kaz , the Hittite designation of

27216-451: Was seen even by fellow party members as being so narrow-minded and unable to accept criticism that he believed that anyone who did not follow him was his enemy. Trotsky , one of Lenin's fellow revolutionaries, compared Lenin in 1904 to the French revolutionary Maximilien Robespierre . The two factions of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party (RSDLP) were originally known as hard (Lenin supporters) and soft (Martov supporters). In

27384-419: Was staged by the Bolsheviks as a pretext to discredit the Left SRs. However, this was disputed by L. M. Ovrutskii and Anatolii Izrailevich Razgon. Bolsheviks The Bolsheviks ( Russian : большевики , bolsheviki ; from большинство, bolshinstvo , 'majority'), led by Vladimir Lenin , were a far-left faction of the Marxist Russian Social Democratic Labour Party (RSDLP) which split with

27552-482: Was supposed to neutralize the Latvian units most loyal to the Bolsheviks. The Leadership of the Left SRs believed this assassination would lead to a widespread popular uprising in support of their aims. They claimed to be leading a revolt against the peace with Germany and not necessarily against the Bolsheviks and soviet power. On 6 July 1918, at about 1:00 PM, a member of the Left SR central committee, probably Maria Spiridonova , handed over weapons and instructions to

27720-451: Was suppressed with help from the Latvian Riflemen , the Bolsheviks arrested most of the party's leaders, and expelled all of its members from the soviets . The revolt was led by the Left Socialist-Revolutionaries in Moscow . Previously, the Socialist Revolutionary Party had supported the continuation of the war by the Provisional Government after the February Revolution of 1917. The Bolshevik Party came to power in November 1917 through

27888-411: Was taken to help ensure that the revolutionaries stayed focused on their duties and motivated them to perform their jobs. Lenin also used the party money to print and copy pamphlets which were distributed in cities and at political rallies in an attempt to expand their operations. Both factions received funds through donations from wealthy supporters. Further differences in party agendas became evident as

28056-430: Was taking place at that time, and began a meeting at the headquarters of the Popov detachment, where Dzerzhinsky discovered it. Dzerzhinsky threatened to shoot almost the entire Left SR Central Committee, announced the arrest of the Left Socialist-Revolutionary Commissars Proshyan and Karelin and demanded Popov immediately extradite Blumkin, threatening to shoot him on the spot in case of refusal. However, Dzerzhinsky himself

28224-463: Was won over by the Bolsheviks. The lines between the Bolsheviks and the Mensheviks hardened in April 1905 when the Bolsheviks held a Bolsheviks-only meeting in London, which they called the 3rd Party Congress . The Mensheviks organised a rival conference and the split was thus finalized. The Bolsheviks played a relatively minor role in the 1905 Revolution and were a minority in the Saint Petersburg Soviet of Workers' Deputies led by Trotsky. However,

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