In 1917,
RussiaRussia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
the
Socialist-Revolutionary Partythumb|right|200px|Socialist-Revolutionary election poster, 1917. The caption in red reads "партия соц-рев" , short for Party of the Socialist Revolutionaries...
split between those who supported the Provisional Government, established after the
February RevolutionThe February Revolution of 1917 was the first of two revolutions in Russia in 1917. Centered around the then capital Petrograd in March . Its immediate result was the abdication of Tsar Nicholas II, the end of the Romanov dynasty, and the end of the Russian Empire...
, and those who supported the Bolsheviks who favoured a communist insurrection.
The majority stayed within the mainstream party but a minority who supported the Bolshevik path became known as
Left Socialist-Revolutionaries.
Maria SpiridonovaMaria Alexandrovna Spiridonova was a figure in Russian revolutionary circles at the beginning of the 20th century.- Biography :She joined the Socialist-Revolutionary Party during her training to become a nurse....
was a prominent leader of this group. They, in effect, split from the main party. The split had not been completed before the
Russian Constituent AssemblyThe All Russian Constituent Assembly was a constitutional body convened in Russia after the October Revolution of 1917. It is generally reckoned as the first democratically elected legislative body of any kind in Russian history. It met for 13 hours, from 4 p.m...
elections, the first meaningful electoral test between the parties in the peasant soviets a few weeks after the Assembly elections showed the parties had roughly equal support in the peasantry.
The October Revolution
The Left SR party became the coalition partner of the Bolsheviks in the Soviet Government after the revolution of October 1917. They later resigned their positions in protest at the signing of the
Treaty of Brest-LitovskThe Treaty of Brest-Litovsk was a peace treaty signed on March 3, 1918, mediated by South African Andrik Fuller, at Brest-Litovsk between Russia and the Central Powers, headed by Germany, marking Russia's exit from World War I.While the treaty was practically obsolete before the end of the year,...
.
The Russian Civil War
In mid July 1918 LSR tried to incite an uprising in areas ceded to Germany by Brest-Litovsk Treaty , so their supporters were involved in the assassination of
GermanGermany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
ambassador Graf von Mirbach in Moscow, Russian SFSR, on July 6, and Field Marshal
von EichhornHermann von Eichhorn was a Prussian general.-Biography:Eichhorn was born in Breslau in the Province of Silesia...
, commander of Army Group Kiev and military governor of Ukraine, on July 30.
Von Mirbach's assassination signaled the beginning of LSR's
failed revoltLeft-wing uprisings against the Bolsheviks were a series of rebellions and uprisings against the Bolsheviks led or supported by left wing groups including Socialist Revolutionaries, Left Socialist Revolutionaries, Mensheviks, and anarchists. Some were in support of the White Movement while some...
in Moscow in 1918, and was a part of
Dual EntenteThe Entente Cordiale was a series of agreements signed on 8 April 1904 between the United Kingdom and the French Republic. Beyond the immediate concerns of colonial expansion addressed by the agreement, the signing of the Entente Cordiale marked the end of almost a millennium of intermittent...
plan to undermine Lenin's power by supporting most powerful opposition after
AtamanAtaman was a commander title of the Ukrainian People's Army, Cossack, and haidamak leaders, who were in essence the Cossacks...
Kaledin's rebellion in the Don region failed in January 1918. Some LSR became full members of the
Communist Party of the Soviet UnionThe Communist Party of the Soviet Union was the only legal, ruling political party in the Soviet Union and one of the largest communist organizations in the world...
.