Narodniki-Kommunisty

(Populist-Communists), a group of Left Socialist-Revolutionaries who refused to support the adventurist policy of their own Central Committee and left the party after the Left Socialist-Revolutionary Revolt of 1918. On Aug. 18, 1918, the group took the name of Populist-Communists and at a conference in September established itself as a separate party. The party’s best-known leader was G. D. Zaks, former deputy people’s commissar of education of the RSFSR and vice-chairman of the All-Russian Extraordinary Commissions (All-Russian Cheka). The Populist-Communists considered themselves a Soviet party and supported the policies and measures of the Soviet government, although they had tactical disagreements with the Bolsheviks; these disagreements were caused by vestiges of populist views. The Populist-Communists published the newspaper Znamia Trudovoi kommuny (Banner of the Labor Commune) in Moscow. On Nov. 6, 1918, a congress of the Populist-Communists resolved to disband the party, and its members joined the RCP(B).