Formation of the one-party system in the province in the 1920-ies (using the example of Tula and Ryazan provinces)

The article examines the problem of the formation of a one-party system in the early years of Secular power (1917–1922). Researchers of the political history of the early XXI century note the importance of studying the manifestations of the revolutionary process in the field, pay attention to the interpretations of political programs and policies of radical parties in various regions by both local branches and the population, as well as the stages of the formation of a one-party system and factors which influenced this process. The source base of the article is the documents of the authorities: both the «primary» ones deposited in the relevant funds (for example, in the funds of the gendarmerie department, Councils, provincial executive committees, local bodies of the People’s Commissariat of Internal Affairs) and the «secondary» ones, for example, created by NKVD employees based on the archives of the gendarmerie department and declassified in the 1990-ies. The uniqueness of the sources allows us to trace the dynamics of socialist parties (Mensheviks and Social Revolutionaries) from the moment of the proclamation of Soviet power to the complete withdrawal from political activity until the early 1930-ies. Based on the identified sources using quantitative methods, the article shows the dynamics of socialist organizations in the Tula and Ryazan provinces – regions that combined features as a Central Industrial, and the Central Agricultural economic districts. The dynamics of creation and changes in the composition of socialists made it possible to substantiate conclusions about the «crisis character» of provincial revolutionary organizations, as well as to identify the reasons for the withdrawal of Mensheviks and Social Revolutionaries from the political arena in the early 1920-ies, to determine the beginning of the formation of a one-party system in the spring of 1918. The authors used methods of quantitative and qualitative analysis, historical-comparative and historical-genetic.