MENSHEVIKS IN THE SYSTEM OF POLITICAL TERROR IN ODESSA IN 1920

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MENSHEVIKS IN THE SYSTEM OF POLITICAL TERROR IN ODESSA IN 1920

Journal Title: Записки історичного факультету - Year 2017, Vol 0, Issue 28

Abstract

The article reviews one of the factors of political life in Odessa in 1920, the irreconcilable strife between Mensheviks and Bolsheviks on the major issues of “the Communist state-building”. When the Proletariat dictatorship was established in Odessa in February 1920, Bolsheviks started with the subordination of trade unions, which had been led by Mensheviks. The election for Central Council of Trade Unions have shown the minimal advantage that Bolsheviks had had comparing to Mensheviks in the strife for the control of trade unions. The elections to the new Boards of Branch Professional Associations also showed the significant support that the workers of Odessa gave to the city committee of the RSDLP. Bolsheviks began the campaign to discredit RSDLP, to have the full control over trade unions and workers, which was essential for establishing the dictatorship of Proletariat. The Non-Partisan Conference yielded positive results to Bolsheviks, as no resolution of Mensheviks managed to get the majority of votes and the discrediting campaign was working. The political consequences of the discrediting campaign were the exclusion of the Menshevik’s faction from the Odessa Soviet of the Workers’ and Red Army Deputies. However, the Odessa Committee of RSDLP continued to exist legally, which gave the Mensheviks the opportunity to openly voice their stance on political and economic issues. In particular, during the sittings of the First Odessa Hubernia Trade Union Congress, Mensheviks made another statement about the impossibility of Proletariat revolution in the country, where the property is predominately small and held by peasents. Mensheviks were in the opposition to Bolshevik’s policy of liquidation of bourgeoisie as a class, the first act of which was expropriation of surpluses from the bourgeoisie. Social democrats pointed to the detriment of the prohibition of private trade in the city. Mensheviks strongly criticized the campaign against kurkuls, the main purpose of which was the abolition of the kurkuls as a class and the transition to collective land cultivation, and the first task was to confiscate grain from the peasants, according to the plans of the Prodrazvyorstka. Bolsheviks reacted to the Mensheviks’ criticism with arrests of I. Astrov and V. Korobkov, who represented the right wing of the RSDLP committee. They were sent to Kharkiv, where they were sentenced to imprisonment in a concentration camp. Mensheviks’ left wing continued to participate in the political life of the city. In October, during the Non-Partisan Conference, they made a declaration, in which they had demanded to democratize the Soviet system, establish the freedom of speech, assembly, unions, coalitions and the freedom to criticize the policies during the conference. Mensheviks, in their Conference speeches, called the authorities to lift the government control over the process of procurement and distribution of essential goods and products and give those functions to the free cooperation organizations. Social-democrats strongly criticized the policies of political terror, practiced by OHNK. They made an appealed to make the activities of this punitive body open to the society. The Odessa Soviet of Workers’, Peasants’ and Red Army Deputies became the official body, in which all members of RSDLP took part. This organ served as a tribune for Mensheviks, who called on to return to democratic republic and refuse dictatorship. In December, Odessa Hubernia Emergency Commission (OHNK) arrested a large group of social democrats, which became the last argument Bolsheviks have made in the stand-off with Mensheviks. Social democrats were accused of in the conscientious spread of anti-Soviet moods among workers, in the systemic resistance to the economic policies of the authorities. Thus, the arrest of Mensheviks was the consequence of the end of the first Communist Charge of 1918-1920, conducted by Bolsheviks. The Charge in particular anticipated the free supply of workers and officials of the state authorities with food and fuel, starting 1 January 1921; it also abolished fees for using post offices, telegraph, plumbing, sewage, gas, electricity, etc. In the end of December, a group of 19 Odessa Mensheviks was sent off to Kharkiv, from there to Moscow, where it was decided to sentence them to prison, without indictment. The majority of the group remained in prison until November 1921.

Authors and Affiliations

Oleksandr Shyshko

Keywords

Mensheviks; Bolsheviks; dictatorship; Proletarian revolution; trade unions; terror

EP ID EP383921
DOI -
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