2. _Cadets._ So-called from the initials of its name, Constitutional Democrats. Its official name is “Party of the People’s Freedom.” Under the Tsar composed of Liberals from the propertied classes, the _Cadets_ were the great party of _political_ reform, roughly corresponding to the Progressive Party in America. When the Revolution broke out in March, 1917, the _Cadets_ formed the first Provisional Government. The _Cadet_ Ministry was overthrown in April because it declared itself in favour of Allied imperialistic aims, including the imperialistic aims of the Tsar’s Government. As the Revolution became more and more a _social economic_ Revolution, the _Cadets_ grew more and more conservative. Its representatives in this book are: Miliukov, Vinaver, Shatsky.
2a. _Group of Public Men._ After the _Cadets_ had become unpopular through their relations with the Kornilov counter-revolution, the _Group of Public Men_ was formed in Moscow. Delegates from the _Group of Public Men_ were given portfolios in the last Kerensky Cabinet. The _Group_ declared itself non-partisan, although its intellectual leaders were men like Rodzianko and Shulgin. It was composed of the more “modern” bankers, merchants and manufacturers, who were intelligent enough to realise that the Soviets must be fought by their own weapon—economic organisation. Typical of the _Group:_ Lianozov, Konovalov.
3. _Populist Socialists,_ or _Trudoviki_ (Labour Group). Numerically a small party, composed of cautious intellectuals, the leaders of the Cooperative societies, and conservative peasants. Professing to be Socialists, the _Populists_ really supported the interests of the petty bourgeoisie—clerks, shopkeepers, etc. By direct descent, inheritors of the compromising tradition of the Labour Group in the Fourth Imperial Duma, which was composed largely of peasant representatives. Kerensky was the leader of the _Trudoviki_ in the Imperial Duma when the Revolution of March, 1917, broke out. The _Populist Socialists_ are a nationalistic party. Their representatives in this book are: Peshekhanov, Tchaikovsky.
4. _Russian Social Democratic Labour Party._ Originally Marxian Socialists. At a party congress held in 1903, the party split, on the question of tactics, into two factions—the Majority (Bolshinstvo), and the Minority (Menshinstvo). From this sprang the names “Bolsheviki” and “Mensheviki”—“members of the majority” and “members of the minority.” These two wings became two separate parties, both calling themselves “Russian Social Democratic Labour Party,” and both professing to be Marxians. Since the Revolution of 1905 the Bolsheviki were really the minority, becoming again the majority in September, 1917.