 In 1906–07, the 'Union of Socialist-Revolutionary Maximalists' (SSRM) was founded as an independent political party.In theory it was devoted to revolutionary agitation among workers and peasants for an immediate socialist revolution; in practice, much of its energy was directed to fundraising by criminal means and to violence against state officials, capitalists and landowners.In the aftermath of the failed Revolution of 1905–07, the Maximalists were decimated by arrests, but with difficulty they remained in existence as a distinct revolutionary current until 1917, when they participated in the soviets.