Bolshevik
From Simple English Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
A Bolshevik was a Russian Communist.
The Russian Social Democratic Workers Party was a Marxist political party. In 1903 at the Party Congress members disagreed with each other on a seemingly minor issue of organisation. The Party ended up dividing into two groups, the Bolsheviks were one group. They were called Bolsheviks because it means "those who are more." Vladimir Ilyich Lenin was the leader of the Bolshevik group. The other group in the split were known as the Mensheviks - meaning "The Minority" lead by figures such as Martov, Axelrod and Dan. Though the Bolsheviks were called "those who are more", before 1917 there more Mensheviks most of the time. Many socialists were afraid that Lenin liked to control things too much.
In 1905 the Bolshevik group became a separate political party, the RSDLP (B) the 'B' in brackets standing for 'Bolsheviki'.
After the February Revolution some of the Mensheviks, had taken position's in the Provisional Government. Lenin said socialists must oppose the Provisional Government. Soon the government started to make mistakes and people began to think Lenin was right. Because of this many Mensheviks joined Bolsheviks.
The Bolsheviks led the October Revolution in Russia in 1917. They said they created the world's first Workers State. Soon, however, the government started to control what people could say. The Mensheviks opposed the government led by the Bolsheviks. Many ended up in prison. After that they opposed the Bolsheviks from outside Russia, in exile.
After the Revolution, the Bolshevik Party decided to call itself "the Communist Party".
