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Constitutional Democratic Party / Party of Peoples Freedom Конституционно-демократическая партия / Па́ртия Наро́дной Свобо́ды | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Abbreviation | K-D; Kadets |
| President | Pavel Miliukov |
| Founders |
|
| Founded | 12 October 1905 (1905-10-12) |
| Banned | 11 December 1917 (1917-12-11)[1] |
| Merger of | |
| Headquarters | Saint Petersburg |
| Newspaper | Rech |
| Ideology | |
| Political position |
|
| Colours | Azure White |
| Slogan | Skill and work for the good of the Motherland (Russian:Умение и труд на благо Родине) |
| State Duma (1906) | 178 / 497 |
| State Duma (Jan 1907) | 124 / 518 |
| State Duma (Oct 1907) | 54 / 441 |
| State Duma (1912) | 59 / 432 |
| Constituent Assembly | 24 / 766 |
TheConstitutional Democratic Party (Russian:Конституцио́нно-демократи́ческая па́ртия,romanized: Konstitutsionno-demokraticheskaya partiya,K-D), also calledConstitutional Democrats and formally theParty of People's Freedom (Russian:Па́ртия Наро́дной Свобо́ды), was apolitical party in theRussian Empire that promoted Westernconstitutional monarchy—among other policies—and attracted a base ranging frommoderate conservatives to mildsocialists.[11][12] Party members were calledKadets (or Cadets) from the abbreviation K-D of the party name.[13]Konstantin Kavelin's andBoris Chicherin's writings formed the theoretical basis of the party's platform. HistorianPavel Miliukov was the party's leader throughout its existence.
The Kadets' base of support were primarilyintellectuals andprofessionals; university professors and lawyers were particularly prominent within the party.[14] Many Kadet party members were veterans of thezemstvo, local councils.[15] The Constitutional Democratic Party formed from the merger of several liberal groupings, namely theUnion of Liberation, theUnion of Zemstvo Constitutionalists and theUnion of Unions as well as the organization ofbourgeois professionals and intellectuals, including teachers, lawyers, writers, physicians and engineers.[16][17]
The Kadets' liberal economic program favored the workers' right to aneight-hour day[18] and the right to take strike action. The Kadets "were unwaveringly committed to full citizenship for all of Russia's minorities" and supportedJewish emancipation.[19] The party drew significant support fromJews[20] until 1916,[21] andVolga Germans and a significant number of each group were active party members.[22][23] On the other hand, the Kadets adhered toRussian nationalism as they largely based their identity on "Russian nation" or the "Russian people" as something opposed to the state bureaucracy; since 1905, they drifted towards statism, and their views on foreign politics were based on the view of international politics as a "national struggle", and they generally advocated forRussian imperialism, describing Russians asStaatsvolk, and the Russian Empire as their nation-state. However, they differed from the hardline ethnocentric Russian nationalists, as they understood Russians rather as a political identity and defended the rights of ethnic minorities and nations of Russia to have cultural authonomies and to enter the Russian nation. Such views andPan-Slavism, which they shared with the other moderate right-wing parties, drove them into a very hostile attitude towards Germany and Austria-Hungary during World War I,[7][3][4][5][6] and by 1917, they were strongly nationalist and defensist;[24] during theRussian Civil War, they became proponents ofmilitary dictatorship and territorial integrity of the Russian Empire, and were the strongest supporters of theWhites next to the nationalist parties.[25]
The Constitutional Democratic Party was formed in Moscow on 12–18 October 1905 at the height of theRussian Revolution of 1905 whenTsarNicholas II was forced to sign theOctober Manifesto granting basiccivil liberties. The Kadets were to the immediate left of theOctobrists, another new formed party organized at the same time. Unlike the Octobrists, who were committed toconstitutional monarchy from the start, the Kadets were at first ambiguous on the subject, demandinguniversal suffrage (including women's suffrage) and aConstituent Assembly that would determine the country's form of government. This radicalism was despite the fact 60% of Kadets were nobles.[26] The Kadets were one of the parties invited by the reform-minded Prime MinisterSergei Witte to join his cabinet in October–November 1905, but the negotiations broke down over the Kadets' radical demands and Witte's refusal to drop notorious reactionaries likePetr Nikolayevich Durnovo from thecabinet.
With some socialist and revolutionary parties boycotting the election to theFirst Duma in February 1906, the Kadets received 37% of the urban vote and won over 30% of the seats in the Duma. They interpreted their electoral win as a mandate and allied with the left-leaning peasantTrudovik faction, forming a majority in the Duma. When their declaration of legislative intent was rejected by the government at the start of the parliamentary session in April, they adopted a radical oppositionist line, denouncing the government at every opportunity. On 9 July, the government announced that the Duma was dysfunctional and dissolved it. In response, 120 Kadet and 80 Trudovik andSocial Democrat deputies went to inVyborg,Finland (and thus beyond the reach of Russian police) and responded with theVyborg Manifesto (or the "Vyborg Appeal"), written by Miliukov. In the manifesto, they called for passive resistance, non-payment of taxes and draft avoidance. The appeal failed to have an effect on the population at large and proved both ineffective and counterproductive, leading to a ban on its authors, including the entire Kadet leadership, from participation in future Dumas. This was further accentuated by the force of the tsar trying to control and deteriorate the power of the Duma.
It was not until later in 1906, with the revolution in retreat, that the Kadets abandoned revolutionary andrepublican aspirations and declared their support for a constitutional monarchy. The government remained suspicious of the Kadets until the fall of the monarchy in 1917. Finnishliberal politician and professor of jurisdiction and politologyLeo Mechelin was expelled 1903–1904 when the Kadets were preparing to form a party. Mechelin cooperated with them and wrote them a liberal constitution for Russia to be enforced when they would get into power. At the time of Vyborg Manifesto, Mechelin was already the leader of the Finnish government, or "Mechelin's senate" (1905–1908), which implemented theuniversal right to vote and freedoms ofexpression,press,congregation andassociation.
When theSecond Duma was convened on 20 February 1907, the Kadets found themselves in a difficult position. Their leadership was not represented in the Duma after the Vyborg Manifesto fiasco and their numbers were reduced to about 100. Although still the largest faction in the Duma, they no longer dominated the parliament and their attempts to concentrate on lawmaking were frustrated by radicals on the left and on the right who saw the Duma as a propaganda tool. Although the Kadets had moderated their position in the Second Duma, they refused to vote in May 1907 for a resolution denouncing revolutionary violence which gave the government ofPyotr Stolypin a pretext to dissolve the Second Duma on 3 June 1907 and change the electoral law to drastically limit the representation of leftist and liberal parties.
Due to the changes in the electoral law, the Kadets were reduced to a relatively small (54 seats) opposition group in theThird Duma (1907–1912). Although excluded from the more important Duma committees, the Kadets were not entirely powerless and could determine the outcome of certain votes when allied with the centrist Octobrist faction against right-wing nationalist deputies. With the revolution crushed by 1908, they moderated their position even further as they voted to denounce revolutionary violence, no longer sought confrontation with the government and concentrated on influencing legislation whenever possible. By 1909, Miliukov could claim that the Kadets were now "the opposition of His Majesty, not the opposition to His Majesty", which caused only moderate dissent among the left-leaning faction of the party.
Although the Kadets, allied with the Progressive faction and the Octobrists, were able to push some liberal bills (religious freedoms, freedom of the press and of the labor unions) through the Duma, the bills were either diluted by the upper house of the parliament or vetoed by the tsar. The failure of their legislative program further discredited the Kadets' strategy of peaceful change through gradual reform.
In 1910, the government rekindled its pre-revolutionaryRussification campaign in an attempt to restrict minority rights, notably drastically curtailing Finland's autonomy. Most Kadets were opposed to these policies and allied with the left-wing of the Octobrists tried to blunt them as much as possible, but they were unsuccessful. However, a minority of Kadets headed byPyotr Struve supported a moderate version of Russification, which threatened to split the party. With the increase in popular discontent after theLena massacre on 4 April 1912 and a continuous decline in party membership after 1906, the rift in the party became more pronounced. Kadet leaders on the left like Central Committee memberNikolai Vissarionovich Nekrasov argued that the Duma experience had been a failure and that "constructive work" was pointless under an autocratic government. Kadet leaders on the right like Central Committee membersVasily Maklakov,Mikhail Chelnokov,Nikolai Gredeskul andAriadna Tyrkova-Williams[citation needed] argued for a shift to the right. The disagreements were temporarily put aside in July 1914 at the outbreak ofWorld War I when the Kadets unconditionally supported the government and found an outlet for their energies in various kinds of relief work under the umbrella of the All-Russian Union of Zemstvos and the All-Russian Union of Cities.
Once the initial outburst of national unity feelings died down in mid-1915 as Russian retreat fromGalicia showed the government's incompetence, the Kadets, together with the Progressive faction, the Octobrist faction and a part of the Nationalist faction in the Duma, formed theProgressive Bloc in August 1915 which was critical of the government's prosecution of the war and demanded a government of "popular confidence". As Russia's defeats in the war multiplied, the Kadets' opposition became more pronounced, culminating in Miliukov's speech in the Duma in October 1916 when he all but accused government ministers of treason.
During theFebruary Revolution of 1917, Kadet deputies in the Duma and other prominent Kadets formed the core of the newly formedRussian Provisional Government with five portfolios. Although exercising limited power in a situation known asdual power, the Provisional Government immediately attempted to deal with issues of the many nationalities in the Russian Empire. They introduced legislation abolishing all limitations based on religion and nationality and introduced an element ofself-determination by transferring power from governors-general to local representatives. They issued a decree recognisingPolish autonomy, more as a symbolic gesture in light of the German occupation of this territory. However, this tendency was limited as most of the ministers feared a break up of the empire. One of the Kadet leaders,Prince Lvov, became Prime Minister and Miliukov became Russia's Foreign Minister. A radical party just 11 years earlier, after the February Revolution the Kadets occupied the rightmost end of the political spectrum since all monarchist parties had been dissolved and the Kadets were the only openly functioning non-socialist party remaining.
The Kadets' position in the Provisional Government was compromised when Miliukov's promise to theEntente allies to continue the war (18 April) was made public on 26 April. The resulting government crisis led to Miliukov's resignation and a power-sharing agreement with moderate socialist parties on 4–5 May. The Kadets' position was further eroded during the July crisis when they resigned from the government in protest against concessions to the Ukrainian independence movement. The coalition was reformed later in July underAlexander Kerensky and survived yet another government crisis in early September.Sergei Fedorovich Oldenburg was Minister of Education and served briefly as chair of the short-lived Commission on Nationality Affairs. The Kadets had become a liability for their socialist coalition partners and an evidence of the treason of the moderated socialists, exposed byBolshevik propaganda. By the summer of 1917, many prominent Kadets were supporters ofLavr Kornilov during theKornilov affair.[27]
With the Bolshevik seizure of power on 25–26 October and subsequent transfer of political power to theSoviets, Kadet and other anti-Bolshevik newspapers were closed down and the party was suppressed by the new regime because of its support for Kornilov andKaledin.[28]
After the Bolshevik victory in theRussian Civil War, most of the Kadet leadership was forced to emigrate and continued publishing newspapers abroad ("Vozrojdénie") untilWorld War II. However, Oldenburg negotiated a working relationship between the Russian Academy of Science and the Bolsheviks, signing an agreement that the Academy supported the Soviet State in February 1918.
A party calledConstitutional Democratic Party – Party of Popular Freedom was founded in the then-Russian SFSR in 1990 and based on the program of the historical Kadet party. However, the party soon drifted into hardline nationalist politics and joined the national-communistNational Salvation Front and supported the Supreme Soviet against President Yeltsin.
| Year | Party leader | Performance | Status | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Votes | Percentage | Seats | ||||
| 1906 | Pavel Milyukov | Unknown | Unknown | 184 / 477 | 1st | Majority |
| 1907 (January) | Pavel Milyukov | Unknown | Unknown | 98 / 518 | 2nd | Minority |
| 1907 (October) | Pavel Milyukov | Unknown | Unknown | 54 / 442 | 2nd | Minority |
| 1912 | Pavel Milyukov | Unknown | Unknown | 59 / 442 | 4th | Minority |
| Year | Party leader | Performance | Status | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Votes | Percentage | Seats | ||||
| 1917 | Pavel Milyukov | 2,088,000 | 4.7% | 16 / 703 | 3rd | Minority |
