BOLSHEVIKS: HISTORICAL ORIGIN, SOCIO-POLITICAL CHARACTERISTICS - HISTORY - 2025

The Bolsheviks were the members of a faction of the Russian Social Democratic Labor Party, led by Lenin, which took over the Russian government in October 1917. They separated from the Mensheviks - the other faction - at the Second Congress of the party in 1903.

The first decades of the 20th century definitely transformed the history of the Russian Empire. While the government of Tsar Nicholas Romanov benefited the aristocratic classes with extremely exclusive policies, workers and peasants began to claim their labor and civil rights in an organized way.

Lenin's speech to Red Army units in 1920.

Meanwhile in exile, a group of thinkers inspired by the texts of Karl Marx, grouped in the recently formed Russian Social Democratic Party. In 1907 the party meets in London for its fifth Congress, which would culminate in the imposition of the motions presented by the Bolsheviks (derived from the translation of 'majority') before the Menshevik faction ('minority').

It took only 5 years for the two factions to decide to split the party due to their ideological differences, and 5 more years for the Bolsheviks to seize the power of the empire after two revolutions in the same 1917.

Under the leadership of Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov (better known as Lenin) and in the context of the First World War, the powers began to measure their forces in a century marked by international warfare.

Historical origin

To understand the origins of the Russian Social Democratic Party, we must contextualize the Empire in the second half of the 19th century.

After the unsuccessful attempt of Napoleon's invasion of Russian territory (a defeat attributed to the harsh winter), the Empire began the century by retaking the lost regions and conquering much of Eastern Europe.

This leads it to form alliances with the major powers on the continent and consolidate its "westernization." While there was a struggle between groups that proclaimed the "Europeanization" of the empire and those that promoted Russian nationalism, tsars with policies that were extreme between these two movements were succeeded.

Between 1848 and 1867 Karl Marx had published "Communist Manifesto" and the first volume of "Capital", texts that describe the decaying situation of the European proletariat in the post-industrial revolution era, and will directly influence the left thinkers of the Russian Empire. Many of these thinkers will find themselves in exile after student demonstrations and protest publications (Schulman, 2017).

The constant communication between the exiles caused them to meet in Minsk in 1898 to officially found the Russian Social Democratic Workers' Party, after the first congress that brought together different Marxist organizations.

From the second congress (one part held in Brussels and the other in London) the two main factions of the party were consolidated: the so-called Bolshevik majority led by Lenin and the Enhevik minority led by Yuli Martov (Simkin, 1997).

Differences with Mensheviks

Way of making the revolution

While the Bolsheviks hoped for a revolution of the majorities (at the hands of the proletariat led by the working class and the peasantry), the Mensheviks held that power would be seized through a long-term revolution, politically and at the hands of the Russian intellectuals.

Decision making

Lenin ceded the Bolshevik participation to a small group of intellectuals with sufficient qualifications for government decision-making.

Instead, Martov sought party affiliation from any member without distinction, including workers, peasants, and people with no political training.

About the times and the ways

Although both factions interpreted Marx's texts strictly and literally, the differences were also found when deciding the times and forms of the revolution (Cavendish, 2003).

The Bolsheviks maintained that the revolution should be immediate and with the use of force, through the dictatorship of the proletariat, allying the worker and the peasant to liquidate the landed estates and building political power from and for the proletariat.

Instead, the Mensheviks argued that the introduction of communism would be gradual and formed on the same party that was in government, democratically through elections, without the need for the use of violence and through political cooperation.

Differences during the First World War

In 1914 the "Great War" broke out and the party also had its differences over Russian participation.

Arguing that this war would be a struggle between imperialist bourgeoisie against the interests of the universal proletariat, the Bolshevik sector decides to oppose the participation of the Russian Empire.

For their part, the Mensheviks were internally differentiated. While one part positioned itself as "defensist" (participating in the war for the defense of the fatherland), another part, including its leader Martov, leaned towards the internationalist position, rejecting the war but without allying itself with the Bolsheviks.

Russian Revolution and World War I

In 1905 there was the first uprising of the century against the Tsarist policies of the Russian Empire.

The working class and the peasantry (grouped in assemblies called “Soviets”) went on strike, riots and popular unrest that led to the reform of the structure of the Empire.

A Limited Constitutional Monarchy and a Legislative Assembly (or Duma) inaugurated by Tsar Nicholas II were established, which maintained the Tsarist power in a centralized government and in continuous repression of the most vulnerable social sectors (Trueman, 2015), The Social Democratic party assumes defeat in this failed revolution and must retreat to plan a reunification of the party that will be led by the Mensheviks, who through elections win the entry of 65 deputies to the legislative assembly.

In 1907 the Tsar dissolved the Duma, brought the elected Social Democratic deputies to trial and resumed a wave of repression throughout the Empire. This returns the Social Democratic party to planning and after several failed attempts at reunification, the Bolsheviks founded their own party called the Russian Social Democratic Workers' Party.

The differences in the participation of the war motivated the Bolsheviks to organize between July and August a Sixth Congress (clandestine) promoting the armed uprising before the provisional government.

In October of that same year (1917) the Russian Revolution and the Bolshevik triumph took place, awarding Lenin the leadership of the nascent Soviet Union (USSR) and forming what will henceforth be known as the Communist Party of Russia (Britannica, 2017)

References

1. Britannica, TE (July 24, 2017). Russian Revolution of 1917. Retrieved on February 06, 2018, from Encyclopædia Britannica: britannica.com
2. Cavendish, R. (November 11, 2003). History Today. Retrieved on February 02, 2018, from History Today: historytoday.com
3. SCHULMAN, J. (December 28, 2017). Jacobin. Retrieved on February 06, 2018, from JacobinMag: jacobinmag.com
4. Simkin, J. (September 1997). Spartacus Educational. Retrieved on February 06, 2018, from Spartacus Educational: spartacus-educational.com
5. Trueman, CN (May 22, 2015). historylearningsite. Retrieved on February 06, 2018, from historylearningsite: historylearningsite.co.uk