The Moscow State Conference of 1917 in Overcoming the Language of Class Struggle

Abstract

The article examines the history of the State Conference in Moscow on 12–15 August 1917. This public forum is considered in the context of the corporate policy of the Provisional Government, which attracted various public, professional, national, and other organizations to participate in governing the country. The idea of the Conference began to be implemented only after an attempt to remove the government from power on 3–5 July 1917. In total, the meeting was attended by up to 2,600 people representing the central bodies of the Soviets, former members of the State Duma, various military, economic, food organizations, local government, etc. For four days, the speakers tried to find a common language that would facilitate unification. However, the sessions of the State Conference were held in a conflict atmosphere. During the discussions, the division of the participants into two conventional camps was noticeable. The groups that disagree on several issues can hardly be attributed to the contradiction "bourgeoisie" - "democracy". The border between them was not social, but discursive in origin. Nevertheless, serious mutual claims did not allow them to work out a common political program. The author concludes that during the Conference, it was not possible to implement the "pure form" of corporatism and representation of group interests. The main political groups managed to unite a significant part of public and professional organizations around their declarations. The language of the class struggle remained dominant in the discourse of the conference. It was used by very different social groups to describe the varied conflicts of the time.