Liberal Centrists in Soviet Russia: A Test by the Civil War

Abstract

The article is devoted to a practically unexplored problem, connected with the history of the centrist current of the Russian liberalism of the early 20th century (between the Constitutional-Democrats and the Octyabrists). The author traces the fate of some leaders of liberal centrism (progressism) during the Сivil war in Soviet Russia and in a later period. The article shows the features of their understanding of the next turning point in the history of Russia. According to the author, at first a restrained acceptance of the new power was characteristic of some of former progressists, but later, at the turn of the 1920s — 1930s, they were confident of the imminent fall of the Bolshevik regime in the future. They have a critical attitude to power combined with genuine patriotism, the desire to serve the Motherland.