Октябрьский переворот в оценках меньшевистской интеллигенции (конец 1917 – начало 1918 гг.)

Тетради по консерватизму. 2017. № 4. С. 211–222.

Orlov I. B.

The article is devoted to the attitude of the social-democratic (in particular, Menshevik) intellectuals to October 1917 events, to the first results and prospects of revolutionary process in Russia. Of course, Russian intelligentsia's point of view has been seriously changed by party "optics" and, above all, by disagreements within Menshevik’s group. The deepening split between «defensists» and «internationalists» not only weakened the positions of the Mensheviks in their struggle with the Bolshevik's regime, but largely determined the political defeat of the Mensheviks at the milestone of 1917-1918. This article shows that in general all Menshevik’s trends were confident in the bourgeois-democratic nature of the Russian revolution and condemned violence as a way of building a new society after the Bolshevik’s rise to power. Meanwhile differences between «international» and «defence» wings significantly deepened. The Menshevik leaders understanding of what is happening in Russia were incompatible with the conception of social humanity and civilized society moral principles. Thence another line of disagreement among the Mensheviks has become relevant to the prospects for the preservation of power by the Bolsheviks and the justification of armed struggle against them.

Keywords: революция, большевизм, диктатура, террор, левая интеллигенция, меньшевизм, однородное социалистическое правительство