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][3]
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.
- ↑ Vladimir Lenin (1918). The Proletarian Revolution and the Renegade Kautsky, What is Internationalism?. Available on the Marxists Internet Archive.
"Bolshevism has popularised throughout the world the idea of the “dictatorship of the proletariat”, has translated these words from the Latin, first into Russian, and then into all the languages of the world, and has shown by the example of Soviet government that the workers and poor peasants, even of a backward country, even with the least experience, education and habits of organisation, have been able for a whole year, amidst gigantic difficulties and amidst a struggle against the exploiters (who were supported by the bourgeoisie of the whole world), to maintain the power of the working people, to create a democracy that is immeasurably higher and broader than all previous democracies in the world, and to the creative work of tens of millions of workers and peasants for the practical construction of socialism.
Bolshevism has actually helped to develop the proletarian revolution in Europe and America more powerfully than any party in any other country has so far succeeded in doing. While the workers of the whole world are realising more and more clearly every day that the tactics of the Scheidemanns and Kautskys have not delivered them from the imperialist war and from wage-slavery to the imperialist bourgeoisie, and that these tactics cannot serve as a model for all countries, the mass of workers in all countries are realising more and more clearly every day that Bolshevism has indicated the right road of escape from the horrors of war and imperialism, that Bolshevism can serve as a model of tactics for all.
Notes
- ↑ Russian: большевики, bolsheviki.