Bolsheviks
 Vladimir Lenin, a foundational Marxist theorist and revolutionary, rallying other Bolsheviks. | |
| Class represented | Proletariat |
|---|---|
| Position | Far-left |
| Major figures |
Vladimir Lenin Joseph Stalin Others... |
| Related tendencies |
Communism Marxism–Leninism |
| Organizations |
 Russian Social Democratic Labor Party All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks) |
The Bolsheviks[a] were a communist revolutionary movement which emerged in Russia at the beginning of the 20th century. The Bolsheviks were organized as a party of a new type under the theoretical and political leadership of Vladimir Lenin and others, being established at a time when the contradictions of world imperialism were becoming intensified and socialist revolution was becoming a practical question. The Bolsheviks distinguished themselves with their consistent adherence to proletarian internationalism and opposition to the opportunism of other organization such as those of the Second International. The Bolsheviks would initially organize themselves in the Russian Social Democratic Labor Party, but would eventually form a new communist party which would later be named the All-Union Communist Party in 1912 following a conclusive split with the Mensheviks and other factions. The Bolsheviks would become the vanguard of the working class within its country and led the Great October Socialist Revolution in 1917, which would result in the formation of the Russian Soviet Republic and later the Soviet Union in 1922, among the first socialist states to exist.[1]
The ideological basis of this movement, Bolshevism (later to be developed into Leninism with the contributions of Joseph Stalin), would emerge as a distinctive tendency within the socialist movement after the Bolsheviks split with the Mensheviks at the 2nd Congress of the RSDLP in 1903. The Bolsheviks adhered to political, organizational, and tactical principles such as democratic centralism, consistent internationalism, social revolution, and the need for a dictatorship of the proletariat.
After the death of Lenin in 1924, leadership of the Bolsheviks was given to Joseph Stalin, who continued in Lenin's path in socialist construction and synthesized his theory into the framework of Marxism–Leninism. The Bolsheviks would be disbanded in the 1950s following the death of Stalin and revisionist counter-revolution in the Soviet Union. However, the actions and developments made by the Bolsheviks and its leaders remains of great importance to the international communist and working class movement into the present day.[2]
See also
- Great October Socialist Revolution
- Russian Social Democratic Labor Party
- All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks)
References
- ↑ History of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (Bolsheviks), Ch. 2, FORMATION OF THE RUSSIAN SOCIAL-DEMOCRATIC LABOUR PARTY. APPEARANCE OF THE BOLSHEVIK AND THE MENSHEVIK GROUPS WITHIN THE PARTY (1901–1904) (1939). Available on the Marxists Internet Archive.
- ↑ Vladimir Lenin (1920). Left-Wing Communism: An Infantile Disorder, Ch. 1. In What Sense We Can Speak of the International Significance of the Russian Revolution. Available on the Marxists Internet Archive.
Notes
- ↑ Russian: большевики, bolsheviki.