28_ENG

PERSONALITIES

TIMELINE

POLITICAL PARTIES, ORGANIZATIONS, MOVEMENTS

MAPS

Left SR uprising

July 6, 1918

Armed uprising of the Party of Left Socialist Revolutionaries (PLSR) on July 6 in Moscow during the 5th All-Russian Congress of Soviets. It was conducted according to the decision of the Central Committee of the PLSR and directed against the foreign (Brest-Litovsk Peace with Germany) and domestic (emergency food policy, the establishment of kombeds [committees of the rural poor], deepening the class split of the rural population, etc.) the Bolshevik policy. The Left SRs also spoke out against the election for the Congress results, which had been rigged, in their opinion.

July 6, 1918, saw the assassination of the German ambassador, Count Wilhelm von Mirbach by the Left SRs. It became both the cause and a pretext for the revolt. On the same day, Maria Spiridonova tried to convince the 5th Congress of the Soviets of the need to resume the revolutionary war with Germany. The Bolsheviks arrested the entire Left Socialist Revolutionary faction of the Congress of Soviets. In response, the Left SRs arrested the Chairman of the All-Russian Extraordinary Commission (VChK) Felix Dzerzhinsky and several other leaders of the Russian Communist Party (Bolsheviks), RCP(b), captured the building Central Telegraph and began campaigning among the troops of the Moscow garrison in support of the uprising. However, the Bolsheviks accused the Left SRs of anti-Soviet revolt and rapidly took control of the situation. An attempt made by Commander-in-Chief of the Eastern Front of the Red Army, Mikhail Muravyov, to stage a coup in Simbirsk on July 10, 1918 (it is unclear whether his action was independent or approved by the PLSR) failed as well. Muravyov was killed.

After July 6, 1918, the Left SRs lost their representation in the All-Russian Central Executive Committee (VTsIK) and local Soviets. Part of the Left SRs sided with the tactics of the Central Committee, while the other supported a united revolutionary front with the Bolsheviks (in September 1918 the latter formed the Party of Populists-Communists and the Party of Revolutionary Communism).

Maria Spiridonova. 1917–1918.

SMPHR. F.III-17609/1

Maria Spiridonova (1884–1941),

the leader of the Left Socialist Revolutionaries’ Party (Internationalists), chairperson of the Extraordinary (November) and II (November – December) All-Russian Congresses of Soviets of Peasant Deputies, member and chairperson of the Peasant Section of VTsIK in January – July 1918.

Vladimir Karelin Petrograd. 1917.

SMPHR. F.III-16014

Vladimir Karelin (1891–1938),

member of the Central Committee of the Party of Left Socialist Revolutionaries (Internationalists). People’s Commissar of State Property of the Russian SFSR in 1917 – 1918. He was involved in the preparation of the assassination attempt on Wilhelm von Mirbach.

Yakov Blumkin 1918.

SMPHR. F.III-15515

Yakov Blumkin (1898 – 1929),

member of the Party of Left Socialist Revolutionaries (Internationalists). On July 6, 1918, together with his associate Nikolay Andreev, he committed the assassination of Wilhelm von Mirbach. In the 1920s, he was a Soviet security officer.