Andrei Argunov
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Andrei Aleksandrovich Argunov (; 19 October 1866 – 7 November 1939) was a Russian revolutionary political activist and one of the leaders of the
Socialist-Revolutionary Party The Socialist Revolutionary Party (SR; ,, ) was a major socialist political party in the late Russian Empire, during both phases of the Russian Revolution, and in early Soviet Russia. The party members were known as Esers (). The SRs were ag ...
. Born in
Yeniseysk Yeniseysk ( rus, Енисейск, p=jɪnʲɪˈsʲejsk) is a town in Krasnoyarsk Krai, Russia, located on the Yenisei River. Population: 20,000 (1970). History Yeniseysk was founded in 1619 as a stockaded town—the first town on the Yenisei ...
in to
nobility Nobility is a social class found in many societies that have an aristocracy. It is normally appointed by and ranked immediately below royalty. Nobility has often been an estate of the realm with many exclusive functions and characteristics. T ...
, he became involved in the
left-wing Left-wing politics describes the range of Ideology#Political ideologies, political ideologies that support and seek to achieve social equality and egalitarianism, often in opposition to social hierarchy either as a whole or of certain social ...
populist (''
narodnik The Narodniks were members of a movement of the Russian Empire intelligentsia in the 1860s and 1870s, some of whom became involved in revolutionary agitation against tsarism. Their ideology, known as Narodism, Narodnism or ,; , similar to the ...
'') movement in the 1880s, in Tomsk. In the 1890s, he organised student populist circles in Moscow. In 1896 he founded the 'Union of Socialist-Revolutionaries' in Saratov, later transferring its headquarters to Moscow. He wrote the Union's programme, ''Our Tasks'', in 1898. The 'Northern Union', as it was also called, was one of the principal roots of the unified
Socialist-Revolutionary Party The Socialist Revolutionary Party (SR; ,, ) was a major socialist political party in the late Russian Empire, during both phases of the Russian Revolution, and in early Soviet Russia. The party members were known as Esers (). The SRs were ag ...
(PSR) that emerged. In 1901, Argunov founded Russia's first illegal PSR journal ''Revolutionary Russia'' (''Революционная Россия''). Argunov's deputy in this period was
Yevno Azef Yevno Fishelevich (Yevgeny Filippovich) Azef (; 1869–1918) was a Russian socialist revolutionary who also operated as a double agent and agent provocateur. He worked as both an organiser of assassinations for the Socialist Revolutionary Party ...
, a police spy. As Argunov later admitted - "We entrusted everything to Azev. We told him our passwords, all our connections, the names and addresses, and we recommended him warmly to all our friends." To protect Azev's cover, the police allowed Argunov to continue his revolutionary activity unmolested until Azef left Russia in November 1901. Argunov was then arrested and deported to Siberia. He escaped in 1905. While he was in Siberia, the group Argunov founded had merged with the 'Party of Socialist-Revolutionaries', also known as the 'Southern Party', founded in Kiev in 1897 by
Viktor Chernov Viktor Mikhailovich Chernov (; 19 November 1873 – 15 April 1952) was a Russian revolutionary, politician, and theorist who was a principal founder and leader of the Socialist Revolutionary Party (PSR). As the party's chief ideologist, he deve ...
, and with other groups, to form the
Socialist Revolutionary Party The Socialist Revolutionary Party (SR; ,, ) was a major socialist political party in the late Russian Empire, during both phases of the Russian Revolution, and in early Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic, Soviet Russia. The party memb ...
. Argunov was elected to its Central Committee at the party's founding congress in December 1905-January 1906. The 'Northern Party' had been mainly oriented toward urban organisation among intellectuals and (to a lesser extent) factory workers. It also endorsed political terrorism. In these respects the Northern Union followed ''
Narodnaya Volya Narodnaya Volya () was a late 19th-century revolutionary socialist political organization operating in the Russian Empire, which conducted assassinations of government officials in an attempt to overthrow the autocratic Tsarist system. The org ...
''. The Southern Party was more reluctant to endorse terrorism and wanted to organise the rural peasantry. The unified PSR adopted a compromise position, endorsing terrorism and organisational work among workers, peasants and intellectuals alike. Argunov acted as the party's treasurer, collecting the funds for Azef's combat organisation. He refused to believe Azef was a police agent, even after he had been exposed by
Vladimir Burtsev Vladimir Lvovich Burtsev (; November 17, 1862August 21, 1942) was a revolutionary activist, scholar, publisher and editor of several Russian language periodicals. He became famous by exposing a great number of agents provocateurs, notably Yevn ...
. At that time, in 1909, Argunov was living in Paris, but was dispatched by the Central Committee to St Petersburg to interview A.A.Lopukhin, the
Okhrana The Department for the Protection of Public Safety and Order (), usually called the Guard Department () and commonly abbreviated in modern English sources as the Okhrana ( rus , Охрана, p=ɐˈxranə, a=Ru-охрана.ogg, t= The Guard) w ...
officer who wanted the police to stop using Azef as a double agent, and reluctantly accepted the truth. With the outbreak of war in 1914, Argunov supported the Russian war effort, and called for an end to all revolutionary activity until Germany had been defeated. He edited the war time social patriotic journals ''За рубежом'' and ''Новости''. This put him on the far right wing of the Socialist Revolutionary Party. Returning to Russia in 1917, he supported the government of
Alexander Kerensky Alexander Fyodorovich Kerensky ( – 11 June 1970) was a Russian lawyer and revolutionary who led the Russian Provisional Government and the short-lived Russian Republic for three months from late July to early November 1917 ( N.S.). After th ...
, and edited the pro-Kerensky journal ''Воля Народа''. Argunov opposed the Bolshevik Revolution, and moved to Ufa, where the Social Revolutionaries attempted to establish a rival socialist government, known as the
Ufa Directory The Provisional All-Russian Government, informally known as the Directory, the Ufa Directory, or the Omsk Directory, was a short-lived government of the Russian State during the Russian Civil War, formed on 23 September 1918 at the State Confe ...
, headed by
Nikolai Avksentiev Nikolai Dimitrovich Avksentyev (; 28 November 1878 – 24 March 1943) was a leading member of the Socialist-Revolutionary Party (PSR). He was one of the 'Heidelberg SRs' (a group of Russian students at the University of Heidelberg in the 1890s), ...
, with Argunov as deputy chairman. However, the Ufa Directorate was forcibly disbanded by the White Army of
Admiral Kolchak Admiral Alexander Vasilyevich Kolchak (; – 7 February 1920) was a Russian navy officer and polar explorer who led the White movement in the Russian Civil War. As he assumed the title of Supreme Ruler of Russia in 1918, Kolchak headed a mili ...
. Argunov went into exile in 1922, and died in
Prague Prague ( ; ) is the capital and List of cities and towns in the Czech Republic, largest city of the Czech Republic and the historical capital of Bohemia. Prague, located on the Vltava River, has a population of about 1.4 million, while its P ...
in 1939.


References

* Radkey, Oliver H., ''The Agrarian Foes of Bolshevism'' Columbia U.P. 1958 * Hildermeier, M., ''The Russian Socialist Revolutionary Party before the First World War.'' New York, 2000.


Notes

{{DEFAULTSORT:Argunov, Andrei 1866 births 1939 deaths People from Yeniseysky District People from Yeniseysk Governorate Nobility from the Russian Empire Narodniks Trudoviks Socialist Revolutionary Party politicians Russian Constituent Assembly members Committee of Members of the Constituent Assembly Asian democratic socialists European democratic socialists Russian anti-communists Russian revolutionaries White Russian emigrants to Czechoslovakia People from Yeniseysk