The Problem of “Personality and Historical Process” in the Ideology of the Socialist-Revolutionaries

One of the “white spots” in the theoretical legacy of the past is the constructive coverage of the philosophical views of the ideologists of the party of “Socialist Revolutionaries”, one of the largest and most influential parties of pre-revolutionary Russia, which had its organizational branches in all regions of the Russian empire, including Turkestan. Having a closer look at the history of relations between political parties in Russia before and after the October Revolution, an analysis of their political programs and philosophical views helps to better understand the atmosphere of that time in all its complexity and inconsistency, and it also contributes to enriching our political thinking. The article considers the problem of “Personality and Historical Process” in the theoretical and philosophical legacy of the ideologists of the Socialist Revolutionary Party, in the context of their understanding of the role of the individual in history, which also motivated their terrorist activities. In this respect, the specifics of the Socialist Revolutionary ideologists’ interpretationare, according to the authors, associated with their analysis of the essence of man. As shown in the article, the Socialist Revolutionaries were characterized by a naturalistic interpretation of personality, based on a biopsychical understanding of the person. According to the authors, the Socialist Revolutionaries adhered to the positivist attitude. They interpreted the desire to explore the objective laws of social development as an unscientific attempt, since their truth cannot, in their view, be verified by empirical means. Sociological laws, according to the Social Revolutionaries, are inevitably refracted trough human psychology, and find their true expression in it. Socialist Revolutionaries proceeded from the principles of the subjective method in sociology, developed by P.L. Lavrov and N.K. Mihailovsky, complementing them with ideas taken from Western European subjective-idealistic movements. In rationalizing terror, Socialist Revolutionaries proceeded from a biopsychical understanding of personality, trying to influence the psyche of the individual by means of terror, considering terror as an exciting and revolutionizing factor. The absolutization of biological and psychological moments in man contributed to the incorrect analysis of the political situation in the country, which made, to some extent, the political program of the Socialist Revolutionaries itself utopian.