The Constitutional Democratic Party, also called the Kadets Party, was founded in 1905 and was a left-wing trend of liberalism. It was also called the “Professional Party” for the high level of education of its members. The Cadets offered liberal values and constitutional solutions to the empire, which were implemented in European states. However, in Russia they turned out to be unclaimed.
The Cadets Party advocated the non-violent development of the state, parliamentarism and liberalization. In the program of political education there was a provision on the equality of all citizens, regardless of nationality, class, gender and religion. The Cadet Party also advocated the abolition of restrictions for different classes and nationalities, the right to inviolability of the person, freedom of movement, conscience, speech, assembly, press and religion.
The Cadets Party considered the best for Russia a parliamentary form of government basedon universal suffrage with open and secret ballot. The democratization of local self-government and the expansion of its powers were also what the Cadets wanted. The party advocated the independence of the judiciary and an increase in the area of land allotments for peasants at the expense of specific, state, office and monastic lands, as well as through the redemption of private lands of landlords at their real estimated value. The list of priorities also included: freedom of strikes and workers' unions, an eight-hour working day, the development of industrial legislation, universal compulsory and free primary education, and full autonomy for Poland and Finland. The leader of the party of cadets P. N. Milyukov subsequently became Minister of Foreign Affairs in the Provisional Government.
In 1906, a clause was added to the program that the country should become a parliamentary and constitutional monarchy. The highest party body of the Cadets was the Central Committee, which was elected at congresses. It was subdivided into Moscow and St. Petersburg departments. The St. Petersburg Central Committee was engaged in work on the party program and the submission of various bills to the Duma. There was publishing work at the Moscow Central Committee, as well as the organization of agitation. Most of the members of the Central Committee were representatives of the bourgeoisie and the intelligentsia, as well as landowners with liberal views.
In 1917, after the February Revolution broke out, the Cadets Party turned from an opposition structure into a ruling political entity. Its representatives took leading places in the Provisionalgovernment. The party quickly moved from the idea of a constitutional monarchy to the slogans of democracy and a parliamentary republic. After the February Revolution, this party began to actively strengthen its position among the clergy, students and intellectuals. Among the working class and the majority of peasants, her position remained weak, which later became one of the reasons that the Provisional Government could not stay in power for a long time.
In 1921 in Paris, at the party congress, it split into two groups. The new "democratic" branch was under the leadership of Milyukov, and the part that remained in its former positions was headed by Kaminka and Gessen. Since that time, the Cadets, as a single political party, have ceased to exist.
