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Serbian Social Democratic Party (Kingdom of Serbia)

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Serbian Social Democratic Party
Српска социјалдемократска партија
LeaderDragiša Lapčević
Dimitrije Tucović
Dušan A. Popović
Founded2 August 1903
Dissolved25 April 1919
Merged intoSRPJ(k)
NewspaperRadničke novine
(The Workers' Journal)
Ideology
Political positionLeft-wing to far-left
International affiliationSecond International
Party flag
Members of the party shown at a May Day celebration in 1905.
The party was organized around a paper called Radničke novine (the Workers' Journal)

The Serbian Social Democratic Party (Serbian: Српска социјалдемократска партија, romanizedSrpska socijaldemokratska partija; abbr. ССДП or SSDP), also known simply as the Serbian Socialist Party[2] was a left-wing political party in Kingdom of Serbia that was formed in 1903. Prominent leaders included Dimitrije Tucović, Dragiša Lapčević, and Dušan A. Popović.[3]

It ceased to exist after World War I with the creation of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes, when in 1919 the social democrats joined the new Socialist Workers' Party of Yugoslavia (of Communists) (Socijalistička radnička partija Jugoslavije (komunista)), the predecessor of the Communist Party of Yugoslavia.

History

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The Serbian Social Democratic Party was founded on 2 August 1903 in Belgrade. The founding congress adopted a program modeled after the Erfurt Program of the German Social Democratic Party.[4]

In 1903 a split emerged within the SSDP between the Marxists, led by Radovan Dragović and Dimitrije Tucović, and the so-called "opportunists", who insisted on the primacy of trade unionism over political struggle. In December 1904 the opportunists were expelled from the party.

In 1909 and 1910 the Marxist wing struggled against the anarcho-syndicalist wing.

The SSDP participated in the First Balkan Socialist Conference held on 7–9 January 1910 in Belgrade.

At the outbreak of World War I the Social Democratic deputies to the National Assembly refused to vote for war credits. The mobilization and the Austro-Hungarian occupation of the Kingdom of Serbia from October 1915 weakened the SSDP. During the revolutionary upswing that occurred in Serbia under the influence of the October Revolution, the SSDP merged with the Socialist Workers’ Party of Yugoslavia (of Communists) at the latter’s first (Unification) Congress, held in April 1919.

Electoral performance

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Year Popular vote % of popular vote # of seats Seat change Government
1903 2,627 0.99%
1 / 160
Increase 1 opposition
1905 2,571 0.87%
2 / 160
Increase 1 opposition
1906 3,381 0.91%
1 / 160
Decrease 1 opposition
1908 3,043 0.76%
1 / 160
Steady opposition
1912 24,665 5.37%
2 / 166
Increase 1 opposition

References

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  1. ^ "Republika - Glasilo gradjanskog samooslobadjanja". www.republika.co.rs.
  2. ^ "Memorandum by the serbian socialis party upon the conditions in occupied Serbia". Washington, D.C., Serbian press bureau. 1918.
  3. ^ Nyagulov, Blagovest (2014). "Early Socialism in the Balkans: Ideas and Practices in Serbia, Romania and Bulgaria". Entangled Histories of the Balkans. Vol. 2. Brill. p. 232.
  4. ^ "Latinka Perović, O istoriografiji i istoriji levice u Srbiji". www.helsinki.org.rs. Helsinki Committee for Human Rights in Serbia.
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