The Left SR uprising, or Left SR revolt, was a rebellion against the Bolsheviks by the Left Socialist Revolutionary Party in Moscow, Soviet Russia, on 6–7 July 1918. It was one of a number of left-wing uprisings against the Bolsheviks that took place during the Russian Civil War.
The Left SRs had entered the Bolshevik government of Soviet Russia after the October Revolution of 1917, but resigned from the Council of People's Commissars in March 1918 in protest of the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk. Left SRs continued to work in other organizations (notably the Cheka) while denouncing the treaty and the policy of requisitioning grain from the peasants.
After winning only a minority of seats in the 5th All-Russian Congress of Soviets, on 6 July the Left SRs assassinated Wilhelm von Mirbach, the German ambassador in Moscow, in the hope of recommencing the war against "German Imperialism" and of igniting a popular uprising. The rebels occupied the Cheka headquarters and took its leader Felix Dzerzhinsky hostage, seized the telephone exchange and telegraph office, and issued manifestos. Mikhail Muravyov, a Left SR and Red Army commander in the East, seized Simbirsk.
After the uprising was suppressed with help from the Latvian Riflemen, the Bolsheviks arrested most of the party's leaders, and expelled all of its members from the soviets.
Background
thumb | left | 200px | [[Maria Spiridonova, one of the leaders of the Left Socialist Revolutionaries.]]
The revolt was led by the Left Socialist-Revolutionaries in Moscow.
Previously, the Socialist Revolutionary Party had supported the continuation of the war by the Provisional Government after the February Revolution of 1917. The Bolshevik Party came to power in November 1917 through the simultaneous election in the soviets and an organized uprising supported by military mutiny. Several of the main reasons the population supported the Bolsheviks were to end the war and have a social revolution, exemplified by the slogan "Peace, Land, Bread". The Bolsheviks invited left SRs and Martov's Menshevik Internationalists to join the government. Left SRs split from the main SR party and joined the Bolshevik coalition government, supporting the immediate enactment of the Socialist Revolutionary Party's land redistribution program. The Left SRs were given four Commissar positions and high posts within the Cheka, and their leader Maria Spiridonova was appointed head of the Peasant Section of the Central Executive Committee of the All-Russian Soviet of Workers', Peasants', and Soldiers' Deputies (VTsIK), making her nominally a chief official over peasant affairs. The Left SRs still diverged with the Bolsheviks on the issue of the war and were dismayed that the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk gave up large amounts of territory in Eastern Europe to the Central Powers. With the treaty, the Left SRs considered that the opportunity to spread the revolution throughout Europe had been lost. They left the Council of People's Commissars in protest in March 1918 and at the 4th Congress of Soviets they voted against the treaty. Although they continued to work in the Cheka, which played a decisive role in rebellion. Left Social Revolutionaries remained on the boards of the People's Commissars, the military department, various committees, commissions, and councils.
In Finland, where the soviet government had pledged by the treaty not to intervene, the landing of German troops significantly helped the "white" (counter-revolutionary) forces to crush the Finnish Revolution. The Left SRs strongly objected to the invasion and opposed Trotsky's insistence that nobody was allowed to attack German troops in Ukraine. Sergey Mstislavsky coined the slogan "It's not a war, it's an uprising!", calling on the "masses" to "rebel" against the German-Austrian occupation forces, accusing the Bolsheviks of creating a "state that obstructs the working class", moving away from the position of revolutionary socialism onto the path of opportunistic service to the state."
A new surge of tension was associated with an increase in the activity of the Bolsheviks in rural villages, when the Bolshevik-controlled government announced, by decree, the enforcement of a state bread monopoly and the organization of "food detachments" for the compulsory collection of bread. By this same decree, all Soviets of workers, soldiers, peasants, and Cossack deputies were also invited to remove representatives of these parties from their midst. Vladimir Karelin, a member of the Central Committee of the Left SRs, called this decree illegal, since only the All-Russian Congress of Soviets could change the composition of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee. In early July, the Third Congress of the Left Socialist Revolutionary Party was held, in its resolution to the present moment sharply condemned the policy of the Bolsheviks:
According to Richard Pipes,
Fifth Congress of Soviets
thumb|Boris Kamkov, one the main leaders of the Left SRs
In this situation of internal tension, on 4 July, the 5th All-Russian Congress of Soviets began to decide the country's policy. The confrontation between the SRs and Bolsheviks was harsh. Left SR speakers fiercely attacked the policy of the Bolsheviks, from the requisitioning of grain and suppression of opposition parties, to the institution of the death penalty. They argued especially against the Bolshevik peace with imperialist Germany and the lack of defense of the revolution in Ukraine and Finland. However, the Bolsheviks had sent a large number of delegates who were suspected of not being legitimately elected, simply to achieve a large majority in Congress. The Left Socialist-Revolutionaries had 352 delegates compared to 745 Bolsheviks out of 1132 total. The vast Bolshevik majority thwarted the socialist-revolutionary plans to change government policy in Congress, which was now firmly in the hands of Lenin's party.