Mensheviks
Bolsheviks' rival faction
Mensheviks were the moderate faction of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party, opposed to the Bolsheviks led by Lenin.
The split occurred in 1903 over party organization—Mensheviks favored a broader, more democratic party while Bolsheviks demanded a tight revolutionary vanguard.
After the 1917 Revolution, the Bolsheviks suppressed them.
The name comes from a Russian word meaning "minority," though they actually held the majority at some points.
Class-based revolutionary philosophy
- social democracyReformed capitalism with welfare state
- socialismCommunal economic control
- gradualismPhilosophy of incremental change
- reformismGradual political change doctrine
proletariat · bourgeoisie · class struggle · democratic socialism · labor movement · trade unions · means of production · capitalism
Lenin's revolutionary party
- February Revolution1917 Russian imperial collapse
- DumaMoscow's legislative chamber
- Tsar Nicholas IIFinal Romanov ruler
- LeninSoviet state founder
Trotsky · Dan · Axelrod · Russian Empire · Romanov · October Revolution · St. Petersburg · autocracy
Lenin's revolutionary party
- splinterThin sharp fragment
- moderatesReduces intensity or extremity
- gradualistsAdvocates of slow change
- dissentersOpponents of prevailing views
schism · liquidators · internationalists · party congress · émigrés · factionalism · outvoted · coalition
Marxism
Class-based revolutionary philosophy
- social democracyReformed capitalism with welfare state
- socialismCommunal economic control
- gradualismPhilosophy of incremental change
reformism · proletariat · bourgeoisie · class struggle · democratic socialism · labor movement · trade unions · means of production · capitalism · industrialization
Bolsheviks
Lenin's revolutionary party
- February Revolution1917 Russian imperial collapse
- DumaMoscow's legislative chamber
- Tsar Nicholas IIFinal Romanov ruler
Lenin · Trotsky · Dan · Axelrod · Russian Empire · Romanov · October Revolution · St. Petersburg · autocracy · intelligentsia
Bolsheviks
Lenin's revolutionary party
- splinterThin sharp fragment
- moderatesReduces intensity or extremity
- gradualistsAdvocates of slow change
dissenters · schism · liquidators · internationalists · party congress · émigrés · factionalism · outvoted · coalition
MensheviksBolsheviks
Lenin's revolutionary party
Leninists · Bolshevism · Bolshevik Party · Vladimir Lenin · hardliners
MensheviksWhite Army
Anti-communist Russian forces
Whites · monarchists · counterrevolutionaries · reactionaries · White Russians