|
Templeogue is Where the arsehole who took my girlfriend is from.
{{Politics of Russia}}
The '''Constitutional Democratic Party''' ('''Constitutional Democrats''', formally '''Party of Popular Freedom''', informally '''Cadets''') was a [[liberalism|liberal]] [[political]] party in [[Tsar]]ist [[Russia]]. Party members were called '''Kadets''' (or '''Cadets'''), from the abbreviation '''K-D''' of the party name ('''Конституционная Демократическая партия''' in [[Russian language|Russian]]). This name should not be confused with the term ''cadets'', which referred to students at military schools in the Imperial Russia. [[Konstantin Kavelin]]'s and [[Boris Chicherin]]'s writings formed the theoretical basis of the party's platform. Historian [[Pavel Miliukov]] was the party's leader throughout its existence. The Kadets were mainly supported by professionals, - university professors and lawyers were particularly prominent within the party - members of the [[zemstvo]] (a form of local government), and some industrialists.
==Radical Origins (1905-1906)==
The Constitutional Democratic Party was formed in Moscow on [[October 12]]-[[October 18|18]], [[1905]] at the height of the [[Russian Revolution of 1905]] when [[Tsar]] [[Nicholas II of Russia|Nicholas II]] was forced to sign the [[October Manifesto]] granting basic [[civil liberties]]. The Cadets were to the immediate Left of the [[Octobrists]], another liberal party organized at the same time. Unlike the Octobrists, who were committed to [[constitutional monarchy]] from the start, the Kadets were at first ambiguous on the subject, demanding universal suffrage (even women's suffrage) and a [[Constituent Assembly]] that would determine the country's form of government. The Kadets were one of the parties invited by the reform-minded Prime Minister [[Sergei 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 like [[Petr Nikolayevich Durnovo]] from the cabinet.
With some socialist and revolutionary parties boycotting the election to the First [[State Duma (Imperial)|State 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 peasant [[Trudovik]] 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 [[July 9]], the government announced that the Duma was disfunctional and dissolved it. In response, 120 Kadet and 80 Trudovik and [[Russian Social Democratic Labor Party|Social Democrat]] deputies went to [[Vyborg]] (then a part of the autonomous [[Grand Duchy of Finland]] and thus beyond the reach of Russian police) and responded with the [[Vyborg 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, participation in future Dumas.
It wasn't until later in 1906, with the revolution in retreat, that the Kadets abandoned revolutionary and [[republic]]an aspirations and declared their support for a constitutional monarchy. The government, however, remained suspicious of the Kadets until the fall of the monarchy in 1917.
Finnish [[liberal]] politician and professor of jurisdiction and politology, [[Leo Mechelin]], was expelled 1903-04, 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 ("Mechelin's senate", (1905-08)), which implemented the universal right to vote and freedoms of expression, press, congregation and association.
==Parliamentary Opposition (1906-1917)==
When the [[Second Duma]] was convened on [[February 20]], [[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, in May 1907 they refused to vote for a resolution denouncing revolutionary violence, which gave the government of [[Pyotr Stolypin]] a pretext to dissolve the Second Duma on [[June 3]], 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 the [[Third 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 Octoberist faction against right wing nationalist deputies. With the revolution crushed by [[1908]], they moderated their position even further, 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 opposition ''to'' His Majesty", which caused only moderate dissent among the left-leaning faction of the party.
Although the Kadets, allied with the [[progressivism|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-revolutionary [[russification]] 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 ledt wing of the Octobrists, tried to blunt them as much as possible, but were unsuccessful. However, a minority of Kadets headed by [[Pyotr Struve]] supported a moderate version of russification, which threatened to split the party. With the increase in popular discontent after the [[Lena massacre]] on [[April 4]], [[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 member [[Nikolai 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 members [[Vasily Maklakov]], [[Mikhail Chelnokov]], [[Nikolai Gredeskul]] and [[Ariadna Tyrkova-Williams]], on the other hand, argued for a shift to the Right. The disagreements were temporarily put aside in July [[1914]] at the outbreak of [[World 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 from [[Galicia (Central Europe)|Galicia]] 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 the [[progressivism|progressive Block]] 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.
==1917 Revolution==
During the [[February Revolution]] of 1917, Kadet deputies in the Duma and other prominent Cadets formed the core of the newly formed [[Russian Provisional Government]] with five portfolios. Although exercising limited power in a situation known as dual power, the provsional 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 of [[self-determination]] by transferring power from governor-generals to loacl representatives. They issued a decree recognising [[Poland|Polish]] 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 beak 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 the [[Triple Entente|Entente]] allies to continue the war ([[April 18]]) was made public on [[April 26]], 1917. The resulting government crisis led to Miliukov's resignation and a powersharing agreement with moderate socialist parties on [[May 4]]-[[May 5|5]]. The Kadets' position was further eroded during the July crisis when they resigned from the government in protest against consessions to the Ukrainian independence movement. Although the coalition was reformed later in July under [[Alexander 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 a lightning rod for [[Bolshevik]] propaganda. With the Bolshevik seizure of power on [[October 25]]-[[October 26|26]], 1917, Kadet and other anti-Bolshevik newspapers were closed down and the party was suppressed by the new regime. Ol'denburg along with a group of academics visted [[Lenin]] at the [[Smolny Institute]] to complain about the arrest of several fomer ministers of the Provisional Government.
==Russian Civil War and Decline (1918-1940)==
After the Bolshevik victory in the Russian Civil War, most of the Kadet leadership was forced to emigrate and continued publishing newspapers abroad, mainly in [[Paris]], until [[World War II]]. However Ol'denburg 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.
==List of Prominent Kadets==
* [[Alexander Alexandrovich Kornilov]]
* [[Prince Georgy Lvov]]
* [[Pavel Miliukov]]
* [[Vladimir Dmitrievich Nabokov]]
* [[Nikolai Vissarionovich Nekrasov]]
* [[Sergei Fedorovich Ol'denburg]]
* [[Pyotr Struve]]
* [[Ariadna Tyrkova-Williams]]
* [[Vladimir Vernadsky]]
==References==
* Melissa Stockdale. "The Constitutional Democratic Party" in ''Russia Under the Last Tsar'', edited by Anna Geifman, Blackwell Publishers Ltd, 1999, ISBN 1-55786-995-2 pp. 164-169.
==See also==
*[[Liberalism]]
*[[Contributions to liberal theory]]
*[[Liberalism worldwide]]
*[[List of liberal parties]]
*[[Liberal democracy]]
*[[Liberalism in Russia]]
[[Category:Historical liberal parties|Russia 1905]]
[[Category:Political parties established in 1905]]
[[Category:Political parties of the Russian Revolution]]
[[Category:Political parties in Imperial Russia]]
[[da:Kadetpartiet]]
[[de:Konstitutionelle Demokraten]]
[[ko:입헌 민주당]]
[[ja:立憲民主党]]
[[pl:Partia Konstytucyjno-Demokratyczna (Rosja)]]
[[ro:Partidul Constituţional Democratic]]
[[ru:Кадеты]]
[[fi:Perustuslaillis-demokraattinen puolue]]
| 