Revolutionary theory of Р.N. Tkachev in the context of discussion on Russian Jacobinism in the Soviet historiography of 1920s.

In the articleestimations of sociopolitical views of P.N. Tkachev within the discussion on the Russian Jacobinism in the Soviet historical science of the 1920sare considered. The discussion was caused by heterogeneity of the structure of its participants. First, higher schools had a part of the prerevolutionaryprofessorate who carefully preserved the academic traditions of the unbiased historical analysis. Second, many outstanding figuresof the Bolshevik party, people who were not only witnesses, but also direct participants of the historical events, came to study the past. Third,the young growth of the Red professors actively gained power wishing to declare themselves. Besides, despite the victory in the Civil War, theBolsheviks had the feeling of their insufficient argumentation and unstable positions in the society, so, they wished to strengthen the ideologicalbasis by proving the inevitability of the October Revolution, its presentation as the logical end of the preceding stages of the revolutionarymovement in Russia. During the debate the opinions of the researchers were essentially divided. One part of historians (B.P. Kozmin, S.I. Mitskevich,B.I. Gorev) insisted on the significant role of Tkachev and the Narodovoltsy (Populists) in the establishment of the Bolshevik model ofa socialist revolution. Others asserted that the revolution theory of Tkachev was utopian, as it relied on a peasant revolt; and Bolshevism appeareddespite Tkachevism, contrary to it, it was a new, more adequate and progressive form of revolutionary struggle led by working class. Asa result the conclusion is made that the interest of researchers of the 1920s in P.N. Tkachev's revolution theory is directly connected with studyingthe Jacobin-Blanquist direction in the Russian revolutionary movement and searches of ideological roots of Bolshevism. Trying to find unarguableproofs of inevitability of the October Revolution and thus justify cardinal social, economic and political changes in the country, historiansof the first years of the Soviet rule concentrated their attention on the recent revolutionary past, on the Narodnichestvo (Populism) as a directionof the Russian public idea of the second half of the 19th century in particular. Tkachevs Doctrine as the most radical in the Narodnichestvoturned to be most attractive to scientists who aspired to establish a continuity of their contemporary ideology, the practice of the Soviet authoritiesand the concepts of the pre-Marxism period in the Russian revolutionary movement. During that period the historical interpretation ofTkachevs creative heritage began; the thesis on the eclecticism of his ideas is questioned; their specificity and originality are emphasised; thecontinuity in the Russian revolutionary tradition where the Marxist component was not dominating and crucial is marked.

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