Russian political party.
The ideological heir to the 19th-century Narodnik s (Populists), it was founded in 1901 by agrarian socialists and appealed mainly to the peasantry. It was the principal alternative to the Russian Social-Democratic Workers' Party in the early 20th century. It relied on terrorist tactics and carried out hundreds of political assassinations. By 1917 it was Russia's largest socialist group; its members included Aleksandr Kerensky , Viktor Chernov , and Catherine Breshkovsky . The party split after the Russian Revolution of 1917 , and its radical wing joined the Bolshevik government. It was suppressed by Vladimir Lenin after the Russian Civil War .