KADETS

The Kadets was the nickname for the liberal Constitutional Democratic Party, or Party of People's Freedom (the nickname deriving from the initials of the party's name in Russian). Founded in October 1905, the Kadets comprised Russia's largest nonrevolutionary party prior to 1917.

The party's name reflected its fundamental goals: transformation of Russia into a constitutional state based upon law, and democratization of its political and social order. Its program called for civil rights for all citizens, including freedom of speech, assembly, and religion; equality before the law; creation of a legislative body elected by universal suffrage (female as well as male); separation of church and state; an independent judiciary; and greater rights of local self-government. The program also contained important social provisions, such as the right to unionize and strike, mandatory health insurance and state-funded old-age pensions, a progressive income tax, and the creation of a state land fund to benefit the peasantry. These social reforms, which put the Kadets to the left of other European liberal parties of the time, reflected both the party's bid for mass support, and its belief that individual freedom could not be fully realized without broader opportunity and social protections.

The Constitutional Democrats enjoyed their greatest influence in the tumultuous period from 1905 to 1907, with approximately one hundred thousand dues-paying members and 346 local party organizations. The historian Pavel Milyukov headed the party for most of its existence; other prominent leaders included Peter Struve, Ivan Petrunkevich, Vasily Maklakov, Prince Dmitri Shakhovskoi, Vladimir Nabokov (father of the novelist), Maxim Vinaver, Andrei Shingarev, and Ariadna Tyrkova. The Kadets' makeup was diverse, including large numbers of educated professionals (professors, lawyers, doctors); low-level white-collar workers and teachers; small traders, artisans, and shop clerks; and some workers and peasants, though not as many as hoped for. The party's commitment to equal rights and cultural self-determination for minorities attracted many non-Russian subjects of the empire, especially Ukrainians, Armenians, and Jews, while its relative indifference to issues of economic development limited its attraction for the so-called big bourgeoisie. This social diversity corresponded to the liberals' self-image of their party as representing the whole nation by standing above the interests of any single class (nadklassnost); nonetheless, critics on the Left derogated the Kadets as bourgeois.

In April 1906, in Russia's first-ever national elections, the Constitutional Democrats won almost one-third of the seats to the Duma, becoming the largest single party in the lower house. A mutual lack of trust between government and Duma resulted in a speedy dissolution, in July 1906, with the Kadets criticized in many quarters for intransigence. The Kadets again won the largest number of seats in elections to the Second Duma, in early 1907, although fiercer competition from socialists reduced their deputies to one hundred. Despite liberals' efforts to make the Second Duma a more productive and cooperative body, the government considered it too radical and dissolved the legislature after just three months, simultaneously promulgating a restrictive electoral law that disenfranchised many liberal constituents. In consequence, in the Third and Fourth Dumas the Kadets' seats shrank to roughly 55 out of 449.

In the more repressive period of 1907 to 1914, the party experienced a marked decline in its membership and political influence. It helped pass important educational reforms, but its unsuccessful efforts to block chauvinistic nationalist legislation and to curb military spending reinforced conservatives' belief that the liberals were deficient in patriotism. World War I, however, helped restore the party's fortunes, as the Kadets wholeheartedly supported the war effort and played a leading role in nationwide relief organizations, such as the Union of Cities. In summer 1915 the Kadets were instrumental in organizing the Progressive Bloc, a broad, reformist Duma coalition seeking to restore public confidence in the conduct of the war.

When revolution occurred in February (March, new style) 1917, the Kadets seemed well positioned to become the most influential party in "new, free Russia," helping to organize the first provisional government and taking five of twelve cabinet-level posts. But the party's support for keeping Russia in the war, and related insistence on restoring military discipline and postponing social reforms, speedily eroded its popularity. The liberal Kadets condemned the Bolshevik seizure of power in October (November, N.S.) and were the first party outlawed by the new Soviet government, in December 1917; many Kadets joined the anti-Bolshevik forces in the Russian civil war (1918–1920).

bibliography

Rosenberg, William G. Liberals in the Russian Revolution: The Constitutional Democratic Party, 1917–1921. Princeton, N.J., 1974.

Shelokhaev, V. V. Ideologiia i politicheskaia organizatsiia rossiiskoi liberalnoi burzhuazii, 1907–1914 gg. Moscow, 1991.

Stockdale, Melissa. "Liberalism and Democracy: The Constitutional Democratic Party." In Russia under the Last Tsar: Opposition and Subversion, 1894–1917, edited by Anna Geifman, 153–178. Oxford, U.K., 1999.

Melissa K. Stockdale