http://europeanhistory.about.com/od/russiaandukraine/a/Who-Were-The-Mensheviks-And-Bolsheviks.htm
By Robert Wilde, About.com Guide
The Menshevik and Bolsheviks were factions within the Russian Social-Democratic Workers’ Party. They aimed to bring revolution to Russia by following the ideas of socialist theoretician Karl Marx. One, the Bolsheviks, successfully seized power in the Russian Revolution of 1917.
Origins of the Split
In 1898, Russian Marxists had organised the Russian Social-Democratic Labour Party; this was illegal in Russia itself, as where all political parties. A congress was organised, but had only nine socialist attendees at most, and these were quickly arrested. In 1903, the Party held a second congress to debate events and actions with just over fifty people. Here Lenin argued for a party composed only of professional revolutionaries, to give the movement a core of experts rather than a mass of amateurs; he was opposed by a faction led by L. Martov, which wanted a model of mass membership like other, western European social-democratic parties.
The result was a division between the two camps. Lenin and his supporters gained a majority on the central committee and, even though it was only a temporary majority and his faction was firmly in the minority, they took for themselves the name Bolshevik, meaning ‘Those of the Majority. Their opponents, the faction led by Martov, thus became known as Mensheviks, ‘those of the Minority’, despite being the overall larger faction. This split was not initially seen as either a problem or a permanent division, although it puzzled grass roots socialists in Russia. Almost from the start the split was over being for or against Lenin, and the politics formed around this.
Divisions Expand
The Mensheviks argued against Lenin’s centralized, dictatorial party model. Lenin and the Bolsheviks argued for socialism by revolution, while the Mensheviks argued for the pursuit of democratic goals. Lenin wanted socialism to be put in immediate place with only one revolution, but the Mensheviks were willing – indeed, they believed it necessary – to work with middle class / bourgeois groups to create a liberal and capitalist regime in Russia as a first step to a later socialist revolution. Both were involved in the 1905 revolution and the St. Petersburg Soviet, and the Mensheviks tried to work in the resulting Russian Duma. The Bolsheviks only joined later Dumas when Lenin had a change of heart; they also raised funds through overtly criminal acts.
The split in the party was made permanent in 1912 by Lenin, who formed his own Bolshevik party. This was particularly small and alienated many former Bolsheviks, but regrew in popularity among ever more radicalized workers who saw the Mensheviks as too safe. The worker’s movements experienced a renaissance in 1912 after the massacre of five hundred miners at a protest on the Lena River, and thousands of strikes involving millions of workers followed. However, when the Bolsheviks opposed World War 1, and Russian efforts in it, they were made pariahs in the socialist movement.
The Revolution of 1917
Both Bolsheviks and Mensheviks were active in Russia in the lead up to, and events of, the February Revolution of 1917. At first the Bolsheviks supported the Provisional Government and considered merging with the Mensheviks, but then Lenin arrived back from exile and stamped his views firmly on the party. Indeed, while the Bolsheviks were riven by factions, it was Lenin who always won and gave direction. The Mensheviks divided over what to do, and the Bolsheviks – with one clear leader in Lenin - found themselves growing in popularity, aided by Lenin’s positions on peace, bread and land. They also gained supporters because they remained radical, anti-war and separate from the ruling coalition which was seen to fail.
Bolshevik membership grew from a couple of tens of thousands at the time of the first revolution to over a quarter of a million by October. They gained majorities on key Soviets, and were in a position to seize power in October. It was these Bolsheviks who would form the new Russian government and transform into the party which ruled until the end of the Cold War, although it went through several name changes and shed most of the original key revolutionaries. The Mensheviks tried to organise an opposition party, but they were crushed in the early 1920s.
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