The
Constitutional Democratic Party , also called
Constitutional Democrats, formally
Party of People's Freedom, was a
liberal political party in the
Russian Empire. Party members were called
Kadets (or
Cadets), from the abbreviation
K-D of the party name (
Конституционная Демократическая партия in
Russian). This name should not be confused with the term
cadets, which referred to students at military schools in the Imperial Russia.
Konstantin Kavelin's and
Boris Chicherin's writings formed the theoretical basis of the party's platform. Historian
Pavel Miliukov was the party's leader throughout its existence.