Mensheviks and Bolsheviks: common features and differences. Who were the Bolsheviks

The difference between the Bolsheviks and the Mensheviks is simple.. (They are all Social Democrats) The Bolsheviks  kept the course the unfolding of the revolution, the overthrow of tsarism by means of armed insurrection, the hegemony of the working class, the isolation of the cadet bourgeoisie, the alliance with the peasantry, the creation of a temporary revolutionary government from representatives of workers and peasants, and the revolution. Mensheviks-to curtail the revolution.  Instead of overthrowing tsarism by rebellion, they proposed its reform and "Improvement" , instead of the hegemony of the proletariat - hegemony of the liberal bourgeoisie, instead of an alliance with the peasantry -   union with the cadet bourgeoisie, instead of the provisional revolutionary government - State Duma as a center "Revolutionary forces"  countries.  This cent of the country's revolutionary forces is especially amazing. The mess in the minds is the same if you believe in it. After 1907, Lenin put forward his theory. According to this theory, the main thing is the revolution of the union of workers and peasants, in order to avoid capitalism. For its success there was no need (and no opportunity) to wait for capitalism in Russia to exhaust its potential as an engine in the development of productive forces. And most importantly, in the specific historical conditions of Russia, a sure catastrophe threatened the liberal-bourgeois statehood.  therefore the Bolsheviks headed for the revolution and power of the Soviets.  And is not Lenin right? Give me one criterion for the foundation for the development of capitalism in Russia, at least one. Call me? You, as adults, understand that capitalism is a derivative of Protestantism and a certain mentality created by Protestantism. This, if you will, is a special view of the world, of the role of man in history, of faith, of collectivism, and ...
Let us leave historiosophy alone.
The Bolsheviks generally went so far as to deny patriotism. Here is a populist M.V. Butashevich-Petrashevsky:-“Socialism is a cosmopolitan doctrine that stands above nationalities: for a socialist, the difference in nationalities disappears, there are only people”. Populist P. L. Lavrov: - "Nationality itself" is not an enemy of socialism as a modern state; it is nothing more than an accidental allowance or an accidental hindrance to the activities of socialism "  Narodnik L. N. Tkachev: - "the socialist ... on the one hand ... should contribute to everything that favors the elimination of the partitions that divide peoples, everything that smoothes and weakens national characteristics; on the other, he must most energetically counteract everything that strengthens and develops these features. And he cannot do otherwise. "
As you see, cosmopolitanism grew and expanded. This cosmopolitanism developed within the framework of socialism (both foreign and domestic) not by chance. He was due the idea of \u200b\u200bthe predominance of the social principle.  And this idea sounds constantly today-OPPORTUNISM BETWEEN OTHER! What is the fact? Different social groups in different countries and different nations are one and the same. Everywhere there is its own aristocracy, its merchants, its wage workers. Differences between them nationally specificwhich is protected by the state. It is the state, rising above social groups with their narrow interests, that is capable of seeing and expressing the common that is inherent in the aristocrat, entrepreneur and worker. This general distinguishes them from aristocrats, employers and workers who belong to a different people. If either the society rises above the state ( socialism), or a group of its individuals ( liberalism), then the peoples cease to notice the difference between social groups in their country and abroad. They will inevitably strive for cosmopolitan mocking. And parties that put forward the idea of \u200b\u200ba predominance of social or personal principles will inevitably act as cosmopolitan parties. Do you understand the process? It is clear why the resistance of nationalities is so strong? And here the very question arises to which the anarchists were looking for the answer, but what is the state then?
Group “Emancipation of labor”, headed by former populist G.V. Plekhanov, the beginning of the RSDLP in Russia. In 1898, the First Congress of the Russian Social Democratic Labor Party (RSDLP) takes place. This is the same Plekhanov who knew by heart Marx and Engels, and yet, as he did not seek a meeting with his idol, everything was in vain. The theoretician is still the one forgotten today and deservedly. But, he went down in history as the founder of Marxism in the country. And enough of him. It is from here that those legs of the future Trotskyism-adherents of the present, without cuts, of Marxism, grew. The victory of the socialist revolution is possible only after capitalism has completely exhausted its potentials and turned the majority into the proletariat. (A wonderful mechanism for the protection of capitalism — and when I wrote articles about Marxism, they often answered that it was created just for that. I think I refuted this belief then) Only after that, the proletarian majority will easily overthrow the bourgeoisie. ( "Right"  wing of the RSDLP, "Mensheviks" G.V. Plekhanov, P. B. Axelrod, Yu. O. Martov-the period of development of capitalism should be long enough. For a long time, power should belong to the bourgeoisie, which will overthrow the autocracy with the help of the working class (the Mensheviks did not consider the peasantry to be a revolutionary force) and carry out the necessary liberal-democratic transformations)

And there he was "centrist"-L. D. Trotsky,  who generally did not rely on either the bourgeoisie or the peasantry. He placed his aspirations only on the Western proletariat. Begs in the language of the SR. No way without it. IN 1901-1906  the Party of Socialist Revolutionaries is formed (AKP, leaders - V. M. Chernov, N. D. Avksentiev) Unlike the old Narodniks, the Socialist-Revolutionaries recognized that Russia had nevertheless entered the capitalist period of its development. But, at the same time, they believed that capitalism itself affected Russian society very superficially. This is especially true for villages where the community and small-scale peasant farming, for the most part, labor, are preserved. It is in the agrarian sphere that the birth of new socialist relations will take place, which will become possible due to the nationalization of the land, its leveling distribution and subsequent cooperation.  Throughout its existence, various leftists and "rights"  groups, of which there were many (maximalists, Socialist-Revolutionaries, internationalists, people's socialists).
Just now I don’t see stories about how the Socialist Revolutionaries and Mensheviks were much more left than the Bolsheviks, who, in order to maintain their power, had to strengthen the influence of state mechanisms. These were for weakening the state in favor of public structures. At the same time, the Socialist-Revolutionary Mensheviks even reproached the Bolsheviks for the revival of autocracy and national isolationism (according to them, the movement towards socialism was possible only as a movement of the entire world proletariat, which has yet to be fully formed). And that’s not all. Their fury was caused by the use in the Red Army of military specialists who began their careers back in tsarist times. In this they “Petrochemical”  Trotsky himself, who (for reasons of pragmatism) was a supporter of the active involvement of specialists. At the meeting All-Russian Central Executive Committee of April 22, 1918  sentence Trotsky  the use of officers and generals of the old army was met with criticism as "Left Communists"so The "right"  Mensheviks. The leaders of the latter - F. Dan and Martov accused the Bolsheviks almost of a bloc with "Counter-revolutionary militarism". BUT Martov  generally suspected Trotsky  in that he clears the way for Kornilova.
Let's open the Menshevik newspaper "Forward"  for April 1918. "The policy of the Soviet government, alien from the very beginning of a truly proletarian character, has lately been more openly embarking on an agreement with the bourgeoisie and is clearly taking on an anti-labor character ... This policy threatens to deprive the proletariat of its main achievements in the economic field and make it a victim of unlimited exploitation by the bourgeoisie" .  Oh how!

And now what is socialism according to Soviet.  What did it happen in the USSR? ...

The Russian Social Democrats loudly declared themselves in the mid-90s. XIX century Loud polemic with liberal populism. In December 1900, the first issue of the all-Russian Iskra Social Democratic newspaper went abroad. The RSDLP program adopted at the congress consisted of 2 parts. The minimum program determined the tasks of the party at the stage of bourgeois-democratic revolution. It provided: in the sphere of political transformations, the overthrow of the autocracy and the establishment of a democratic republic; in the working matter -8 hour slave day; in the peasantry, the return to the peasants of cuts and the abolition of redemption payments. The maximum program, which defined the establishment of the dictatorship of the proletariat as the main, ultimate goal of the party, put the RSDLP in a completely special position, turning it into an extreme, extremist organization, not prone to concessions and compromises. The fact that the program was adopted by the congress maximum solemnly marked the victory of Lenin and his supporters. When the central organ — the Iskra newspaper — was elected to the Central Committee and the editors, the supporters of V. I. Lenin received the majority and began to be called “Bolsheviks,” and their opponents “Mensheviks.” Bolsheviks.Bolshevism was a continuation of the radical line in the Russian liberation movement and incorporated elements of the ideology and practice of revolutionaries in the second half of the 19th century. (N.G. Chernyshevsky, P.N. Tkachev, S.G. Nechaev, "Russian Jacobins"); at the same time, he absolutized (following not so much the ideas of K. Marx as K. Kautsky and G.V. Plekhanov) the experience of the Great French Revolution, primarily of the period of the Jacobin dictatorship. The composition of the leadership of the Bolsheviks was not stable: the history of Bolshevism is characterized by constant changes in the immediate environment of Lenin, the only leader and ideologist recognized by all Bolsheviks. At the first stage of the formation of Bolshevism, G.M. Krzhizhanovsky, L.B. Krasin, V.A. Noskov, A.A. Bogdanov, A.V. Lunacharsky and others; almost all of them at different times were declared insufficiently consistent by the Bolsheviks or “conciliators”.

Mensheviks . The most prominent figures of Menshevism were Yu.O. Martov, P. B. Axelrod, F.I. Dan, G.V. Plekhanov, A.N. Potresov, N.N. Zhordania, I.G. Tsereteli, N.S. Chkheidze, however, their tactical and organizational views at various stages of the revolutionary movement often did not coincide. The faction lacked strict organizational unity and single-handed leadership: the Mensheviks constantly split into groups that occupied various political positions and waged an intense struggle between themselves. The most important task of the Social Democrats, the Mensheviks considered the organization of workers on a broad class basis. With the beginning of the Russo-Japanese War of 1904 - 1905 the Menshevik Iskra put forward the slogans of the struggle for the immediate conclusion of peace and the convening of a Constituent Assembly. At the heart of the tactics of the Mensheviks in the period 1905-1907. lay views on the bourgeoisie as the driving force of the revolution, which should lead the liberation movement in the country. In their opinion, the proletariat should not strive for power, since objective conditions for this have not yet developed. According to the Mensheviks, the revolution of 1905-1907. was bourgeois in its socio-economic content. However, unlike the Bolsheviks, the Mensheviks declared that any removal of the bourgeoisie from the revolutionary movement would lead to its weakening. In their view, in the event of the victory of the revolution, the proletariat must support the most radical part of the bourgeoisie. The Mensheviks warned the workers against a possible attempt to seize power, which, they claimed, would be a tragic mistake. The key point of the Menshevik concept of revolution was the opposition of the bourgeoisie to the peasantry. The peasantry, in the opinion of the Mensheviks, although it is capable of “moving” the revolution, will greatly complicate the achievement of victory by its spontaneous rebellion and political unconsciousness. Thus, the Mensheviks put forward the provision of two "parallel revolutions" - urban and rural. The Mensheviks saw the solution of the agrarian question in the municipalization of land: they proposed to legalize private ownership of allotments belonging to peasants when transferring landowner land to the possession of local governments (municipalities). The Mensheviks believed that, firstly, with a similar solution to the peasant question, agrarian reform could be carried out regardless of the outcome of the revolution, resolving the issue of power and, secondly, transferring land to municipalities (zemstvos or newly created territorial authorities) would strengthen them financially, contributed to democratization and increase their role in public life. The Mensheviks believed that the victory of the revolution can be achieved not only as a result of a popular uprising, the possibility of which they allowed, but also as a result of the actions of a representative institution that would take the initiative to convene a nationwide Constituent Assembly. The second path seemed preferable to the Mensheviks.

At one time, the RSDLP (Russian Social Democratic Labor Party), formed in 1989 at the Minsk Congress, suffered extremely unpleasant and numerous losses. Production died, the crisis completely engulfed the organization, forcing society in 1903 at the Second Congress in Brussels to split into two opposing groups. Lenin and Martov did not agree with the views of the management of membership, so they themselves became leaders of associations, which subsequently served as the reason for the formation of abbreviations in the form of a small letter "b" and "m".

The history of the Bolsheviks is still covered with some secrets and secrets, but today we already have the opportunity to at least partially find out what happened during the collapse of the RSDLP.

What caused the contention?

It is impossible to find out the exact cause of the events in history. The official version of the split of the RSDLP  there was a disagreement between the two sides regarding the solution of important organizational issues that were put forward in the struggle against the monarchical system of government and foundations. Both Lenin and Martov agreed that internal changes in Russia require a network of world proletarian revolutions, especially in well-developed economies. In this case, one can only count on a wave of uprisings both in the native state and in countries that are lower in social level.

Despite the fact that the two sides had the same goal, disagreement lay in the method of obtaining the desired. Julius Osipovich Martov advocated the ideas of European countries, based on legal ways of gaining power and government. While Vladimir Ilyich argued that only by active actions and terror can we get an impact on the Russian state.

Differences between Bolsheviks and Mensheviks:

• closed organization with strict discipline;
• opposed democratic conditions.

Differences of the Mensheviks:

• guided by the experience of Western governments and supported the democratic foundations of society;
• agrarian reforms.

In the end, Martov won the discussion, inviting everyone to an underground and quiet struggle, which served to split the organization. Lenin called his people the Bolsheviks, and Julius Osipovich made concessions, agreeing to the name "Mensheviks." Many believe that this was his mistake, as the word Bolsheviks evoked among people associations with something powerful and huge. While the Mensheviks were not taken seriously due to considerations of something small and hardly so impressive.

It is unlikely that in those years there were terms like “commercial brand”, “marketing” and “advertising”. But only the ingenious ingenious name of the group led to popularity in narrow circles and the status of a trusting organization. Vladimir Ilyich’s talent, of course, manifested itself in those very minutes when, with unpretentious and simple slogans, he was able to offer ordinary people obsolete from the time of the French Revolution ideas of equality and fraternity.

People were impressed by the big words propagated by the Bolsheviks, symbolism that inspires power and radicalism - a five-pointed star, a sickle and a hammer with a red color on the background immediately fell in love with a large number of residents of the Russian state.

Where did the money come from for the activities of the Bolsheviks

When the organization was divided into several groups, there was an urgent need to raise additional finance to support its revolution. And the methods for obtaining the necessary money also differed among the Bolsheviks and Mensheviks. The difference between the Bolsheviks and the Mensheviks in this regard is more radical and illegal actions.

If the Mensheviks came to a membership fee in the organization, then the Bolsheviks were not limited to investing members, they did not disdain bank robberies. For example, in 1907, one of such operations brought the Bolsheviks more than two hundred and fifty thousand rubles, which greatly outraged the Mensheviks. Unfortunately, Lenin regularly carried out a large number of such crimes.

But the revolution was not the only waste for the Bolshevik party. Vladimir Ilyich was deeply convinced that only people who are completely passionate about their business can bring good results to the coup. This means that the composition of the Bolsheviks had to receive a guaranteed salary so that workers could fulfill their duties all day. Compensation in the form of cash incentives  supporters of radical views really liked it, therefore, over a short period of time, the number of parties increased markedly, and the activity of the wing significantly improved its quality.

In addition, significant expenses brought printing brochures and leafletsthat party partners tried to distribute throughout the state in various cities at strikes and rallies. This also reveals a characteristic difference between the Bolsheviks and the Mensheviks, since their funding went to completely different needs.

The ideas of the two parties have become so dissimilar and even contradictory that Martov’s followers decided not to take part in the party Third Congress of the RSDLP. It took place in 1905 in England. Despite the fact that some Mensheviks took part in the First Russian Revolution, Martov still did not support armed uprisings.

Ideas and principles of the Bolsheviks

It seemed that people of such radical and significantly different from democratic and liberal views could not have principles. For the first time, one could notice the ideological glimpses and human morality of Lenin before the start of the First World War. At that time, the party leader lived in Austria and at the next meeting in Bern, he expressed his opinion about the impending conflict.

Vladimir Ilyich is pretty sharply spoke out against the war  and all who support it, since in this way they betrayed the proletariat. Therefore, Lenin was very surprised when it turned out that most socialists supported military activity. The party leader tried to prevent a split between people and was very afraid of the Civil War.

Lenin used all perseverance and self-organization in order not to relax discipline in the party. Another difference can be considered that the Bolsheviks went to their goals by any means. Therefore, sometimes Lenin could give up his political or moral views for the good of his party. Similar schemes were often used by him. to attract new people, especially among the poor. Sweet words about the fact that after the revolution their life will improve, forced people to join the party.

In modern society, of course, there is a lot of misunderstanding about who the Bolsheviks are. Someone presents them in the form of deceivers that they were ready to make any sacrifices in order to achieve their goals. Someone saw in them heroes who worked hard for the prosperity of the Russian state and the creation of better living conditions for ordinary people. In any case, the first thing to remember is the organization that wanted remove all the ruling people and put in their place new people.

Under the slogans, beautiful brochures and promises that they offered ordinary people to completely change their living conditions, their faith in their own strength was so great that they easily received support from citizens.

The Bolsheviks were an organization of communists. In addition, they received part of the funding. from German sponsors, which was advantageous in removing Russia from the war. This significant amount helped the party to develop in terms of advertising and PR.

It is worthwhile to understand that in political science it is customary to call some organizations right or left. The left advocates for social equality, it was to them that the Bolsheviks belonged.

The dispute at the Stockholm congress

In Stockholm to 1906 there was a congress of the RSDLP, where a decision was made by the leaders of the two groups to try to find compromises in their judgments and to meet each other. It was clear that the Bolsheviks and Mensheviks had many attractive proposals for each of the parties, and this cooperation was beneficial to everyone. At first, it seemed that everything was going well, and soon they were even going to celebrate the mutual rapprochement of the two rival parties. However, one issue that was on the agenda created some disagreement between the leaders, and a debate began. The question that made Lenin and Martov argue was about the possibility of people joining parties and their contribution to the organization’s work.

• Vladimir Ilyich believed that only full-fledged work and dedication of a person to the cause could produce noticeable and substantial results, while the Mensheviks rejected this idea.
• Martov was sure that one idea and consciousness was enough for a person to be part of the party.

Outwardly, this question seems simple. Even without reaching agreement, it is unlikely that it can do much harm. However, behind this wording one could discern the hidden meaning of the opinion of each of the party leaders. Lenin wanted to get an organization that has a clear structure and hierarchy. is he insisted on strict discipline and rejectionthat turned the party into a kind of army. Martov, however, omitted everything to a simple intelligentsia. After they voted, it was decided that Lenin's proposal would be involved. In history, this meant the victory of the Bolsheviks.

Mensheviks gaining political strength and initiative

The February revolution made the state weak. While all organizations and political parties were moving away from the coup, the Mensheviks were able to quickly orient and direct their energy in the right direction. Thus, after a short period of time, the Mensheviks became the most influential and visible in the state.

It is worth noting that the parties of the Bolsheviks and Mensheviks did not take part in this revolution, therefore the uprising was a surprise to them. Of course, both of them assumed such a result in their immediate plans, but when the situation happened, the leaders showed some confusion and lack of understanding of what to do next. The Mensheviks managed to cope with inaction faster, and 1917 was the time for them when they were able to register as a separate political force.

Although the Mensheviks were experiencing their best time, unfortunately, many of Martov’s followers decided to switch to the Leninist side. The consignment lost its most prominent figuresfinding themselves in the minority before the Bolsheviks.

In October 1917, the Bolsheviks carried out a coup. The Mensheviks extremely condemned such actions, trying in every possible way to achieve their former control over the state, but everything was already useless. The Mensheviks clearly lost. And besides this, some of their organizations and institutions were dissolved by orders of the new government.

When the political situation became more or less calm, the remaining composition of the Mensheviks had to join the new government. When the Bolsheviks became entrenched in government and began to more actively lead the main political places, persecution and struggle against political migrants of the former anti-Leninist wing began. Since 1919 it has been accepted the decision to eliminate all former Mensheviks by shooting.

In modern man, the word "Bolshevik" is not in vain associated with the vivid symbolism of the proletariat "Hammer and Sickle", because at one time they bribed a large number of ordinary people. It is very difficult now to answer the question of who the Bolsheviks are — heroes or swindlers. Each has his own point of view, and any opinion, whether supporting the policies of Lenin and the Bolsheviks or opposing the militant policies of communism, can be correct. It is worth remembering that this is all - the history of the native state. Whether their actions are wrong or reckless, you still need to know them.

Bolshevik is a member of the left (revolutionary) wing of the RSDLP after the party split into Bolsheviks and Mensheviks. Subsequently, the Bolsheviks became a separate party of the RSDLP (b). The word "Bolshevik" reflects the fact that Lenin's supporters were in the majority in the election of governing bodies at the second party congress in 1903, it became synonymous with the words: "Marxist", "revolutionary", "Leninist", and later the word "communist" . Menshevik is a member of the moderate wing of the Russian Social Democratic Labor Party, led by Yu.O. Martov. The split of the RSDLP into Bolsheviks and Mensheviks occurred at the Second Congress of the RSDLP, when voting on the 1st paragraph of the party’s charter. V.I. Lenin wanted to create a cohesive, militant, clearly organized, disciplined proletarian party. The Martovites stood for a freer association. When voting, the Leninists received a majority, so they began to be called Bolsheviks. The Martovites were called the Mensheviks. In the future, these groups tried to unite, then diverged, but, as it turned out, the split was final, although there were repeatedly transitions from the Mensheviks to the Bolsheviks, for example, L.D. Trotsky, and vice versa. Unlike the Bolsheviks, the Mensheviks did not establish a state dictatorship and are not famous for such famous historical figures as V.I. Lenin and I.V. Stalin (Trotsky began to play a major historical role when he became a Bolshevik), but their ideological and theoretical level, like as a rule, was above the Bolshevik. If among the old Bolsheviks except Lenin, Stalin and N. I. Bukharin there were practically no major ideologists and theorists - Marxists, then among the Mensheviks we can name the names of the theorists of Marxism G. V. Plekhanov, Yu. O. Martov, N. C. Chkheidze, F.I. Dana. However, under Russian conditions, the political influence of the Mensheviks was less significant than that of the Bolsheviks. Only after the February Revolution did the Mensheviks gain enormous influence in the Soviets (the role of N. S. Chkheidze, I. G. Tsereteli, F. I. Dan, M. I. Lieber should be especially noted here). After the October Revolution, the role of the Mensheviks came to naught. Party activities were either banned or allowed until finally banned. The fate of the majority of the Mensheviks was unenviable - some of them were subjected to repression during the "Red Terror" of the Civil War, some organized the "White Terror", others had to emigrate, some were repressed during the reprisal against the so-called. "The Union Bureau of the Central Committee of the Mensheviks." The “Great Terror” of 1936–1938 finally set the point. Nevertheless, some Mensheviks who officially changed their beliefs managed to survive and even achieve significant positions, for example, A. Y. Vyshinsky, who became the Prosecutor General, later Minister of Foreign Affairs and a candidate member of the Presidium (Politburo) of the CPSU Central Committee, also made I. M. Maysky, A.A. Troyanovsky. The Mensheviks in Georgia achieved great success. On May 26, 1918, they declared Georgia an independent republic. N. N. Zhordania became the head of the government; Chkheidze and Tsereteli played an important role. However, in 1921, the Red Army occupied Georgia and established Soviet power there. Unlike the Bolsheviks, until the 19th party congress, they called themselves so officially (RSDLP (b) -RKP (b) -VKP (b), where (b) meant "Bolsheviks") the word "Menshevik" was always informal - the party always called social democratic.

mensheviks are white

Mensheviks - The moderate wing of the Russian Social Democratic Labor Party; from April 24, 1917 - the independent Russian Social Democratic Labor Party. Leaders: Yu.O. Martov, A. S. Martynov, P. B. Axelrod, G. V. Plekhanov, F. I. Dan, I. G. Tsereteli. The "Bolsheviks" - the radical (extremist) wing of the Russian Social Democratic Labor Party after its split into fractions of the "Bolsheviks" and "Mensheviks". The name "Bolsheviks" appeared after the Second Congress of the RSDLP as a group that received a majority in the elections to the Central Committee. The Bolsheviks sought to create a party of professional revolutionaries, but the Mensheviks were afraid of the criminalization of the party and were more inclined to legitimate methods of struggle against autocracy (reformism). Subsequently, a myth appeared, which was defended in many countries by anarchists and Socialist-Revolutionaries-maximalists, that the name "Bolsheviks" (translated abroad as "maximalists") came from the "maximum" program (the complete destruction of the bourgeois class and the creation of a purely working movement), and another faction supposedly were supporters of the "minimal program" of the party (supposedly defending the interests of the petty bourgeois and kulaks). In fact, the “banner of Menshevism” at the Second Congress of the RSDLP was raised by the ultra-revolutionary Trotsky, who sought to attract more members to the party, and the moderate GV Plekhanov was the most authoritative Menshevik at the congress. The formation of two Duma factions corresponds to 1910, when the Third Duma began its meeting (where, by the way, representatives of the RSDLP, and the Bolsheviks and Mensheviks, as one party) were elected. The actual split occurred much later, when at the Vienna conference of the RSDLP, convened in opposition to Prague, in August 1912 the Organizing Committee of the RSDLP was created without the participation of Leninists, but supported by the Vperyodists. On the other hand, the Prague Conference of 1912 was attended by the Menshevik party members, since Lenin sought to dissociate himself only with the liquidators, and after the outbreak of the World War also with the defenders. Finally, the Bolsheviks became a separate party of the RSDLP (b) (the name of the party was not officially adopted at the congress or conference) only in the spring of 1917, and the Mensheviks retained the name of the RSDLP. After the formation of the RSDLP (b) as a separate party, the Bolsheviks continue both legal and illegal work that they carried out earlier and do it quite successfully. They manage to create a network of illegal organizations in Russia, which, despite the huge number of provocateurs sent by the government (even the provocateur Roman Malinovsky was elected to the Central Committee of the RSDLP (b)), conducted agitation and propaganda work and introduced Bolshevik agents into legal workers' organizations. They manage to arrange the publication in Russia of the legal working newspaper Pravda. Also, the Bolsheviks participated in the elections to the IV State Duma and received 6 out of 9 seats from the working curia. All this shows that among the workers of Russia, the Bolsheviks were the most popular party. [source not specified 676 days] The First World War intensified government repressions against the Bolsheviks pursuing a defeatist policy: in July 1914, Pravda was closed, and in November of that year, the Bolshevik fraction in the State Duma was closed and exiled to Siberia. Closed and illegal organizations.

Answer left a guest

BOLSHEVIKI, representatives of the political current (fraction) in the Russian Social Democratic Labor Party (since April 1917 an independent political party), headed by V. I. Lenin (see. Communist Party of the Soviet Union). The concept of the Bolsheviks arose at the 2nd Congress of the Russian Social Democratic Labor Party (1903) after Lenin's supporters received the majority of votes (hence the Bolsheviks) and their opponents the minority (Mensheviks) during the elections to the party’s governing bodies. In 1917-52, the word Bolsheviks was included in the official name of the party - the Russian Social Democratic Labor Party (Bolsheviks), the Russian Communist Party (Bolsheviks), the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks). The 19th Party Congress (1952) decided to name it the Communist Party of the Soviet Union

MINSHEVIKI, representatives of the political current (fraction) in the RSDLP. Since 1917 - an independent political party. The concept of "Mensheviks" arose at the 2nd Congress of the RSDLP (1903), when some delegates remained in the minority on the issue of elections to the party’s governing bodies. The main ideological leaders are Yu.

L. Martov, A. S. Martynov, P. B. Axelrod, G. V. Plekhanov. They opposed strict centralism in the work of the party and the empowerment of the Central Committee with great powers. In the Revolution of 1905-07, it was believed that the proletariat should act in coalition with the liberal bourgeoisie against the autocracy; denied the revolutionary potential of the peasantry; preferred peaceful methods of activity, etc. After the February Revolution, they supported the Provisional Government. The October Revolution was not accepted, it was believed that Russia was not ripe for socialism; They believed that the Bolsheviks, realizing the failure of the undertaken socialist experiment, would retreat and seek agreement with other parties. In the Civil War, they participated in anti-Bolshevik breakthroughs and armed actions, however, they opposed the intervention of the Entente countries and the counterrevolutionary forces supported by them. In 1924, the Mensheviks as an organized force ceased to exist on the territory of the USSR. In March 1931, a falsified trial was held. The trial of the Menshevik "Union Bureau of the Central Committee of the RSDLP", whose members (14 people) were accused of espionage and sabotage and sentenced to various terms of imprisonment.

Bolsheviks and Mensheviks, similarities and differences

The Bolsheviks adopted the new theory of the Russian revolution, which was developed by Lenin after 1907. According to this theory, it was a revolution of the union of workers and peasants, aimed at avoiding capitalism. For its success there was no need (and no opportunity) to wait for capitalism in Russia to exhaust its potential as an engine in the development of productive forces. And most importantly, in the specific historical conditions of Russia, a sure catastrophe threatened the liberal-bourgeois statehood. Therefore, the Bolsheviks headed for the revolution and power of the Soviets. And it was not a doctrinal choice, it flowed from the entire history of the Russian state.

Two lines fought in the RSDLP during the revolution, the Bolshevik line and the Menshevik line. The Bolsheviks headed for the unfolding of the revolution, the overthrow of tsarism by means of an armed uprising, the hegemony of the working class, the isolation of the cadet bourgeoisie, the alliance with the peasantry, the creation of an interim revolutionary government from representatives of workers and peasants, and the revolution. The Mensheviks, on the contrary, were headed for curtailing the revolution. Instead of overthrowing tsarism through rebellion, they proposed its reform and "improvement", instead of the hegemony of the proletariat, the hegemony of the liberal bourgeoisie, instead of an alliance with the peasantry, an alliance with the Cadet bourgeoisie, and instead of the provisional revolutionary government, the State Duma as the center of the "revolutionary forces" of the country.

So the Mensheviks slipped into the swamp of compromise, becoming agents of bourgeois influence on the working class, in fact becoming agents of the bourgeoisie in the working class.

The Bolsheviks turned out to be the only revolutionary Marxist force in the party and country.

The years 1908-1912 were the most difficult period for revolutionary work. After the defeat of the revolution, in the conditions of the decline of the revolutionary movement and the fatigue of the masses, the Bolsheviks changed their tactics and moved from a direct struggle against tsarism to workarounds for this struggle. The Bolsheviks tirelessly gathered forces for a new upsurge of the revolutionary movement.

The Mensheviks in this period increasingly departed from the revolution. They become liquidators, demand to liquidate, destroy the illegal, revolutionary party of the proletariat, are increasingly openly abandoning the party’s program, the revolutionary tasks and slogans of the party, trying to organize their own reformist party, which the workers have christened the "Stolypin Labor Party". The liquidators and otzovists are united against Lenin into a common bloc, the August bloc, organized by Trotsky.

During the years of the new revolutionary upsurge (1912–1914), the Bolshevik party led the labor movement and led it under the Bolshevik slogans to a new revolution. Breaking the resistance of the liquidators and their friends - Trotskyists and otzovists, she took possession of all forms of the legal movement and made legal organizations the strongholds of her revolutionary work.

Fighting the enemies of the working class and their agents in the labor movement, the party strengthened its ranks and expanded its ties with the working class. Using the Duma tribune extensively for revolutionary agitation and creating the wonderful mass working newspaper Pravda, the party brought up a new generation of revolutionary workers, the Pravdists. This layer of workers during the years of the imperialist war remained faithful to the banner of internationalism and the proletarian revolution. He then constituted the core of the Bolshevik party in the days of the October Revolution in 1917.

On the eve of the imperialist war, the party led the revolutionary actions of the working class. These were vanguard battles, interrupted by the imperialist war, but resumed later, after three years, in order to overthrow tsarism. The Bolshevik Party entered the difficult period of the imperialist war with the unfolded banners of proletarian internationalism.

Intoxicated by the first successes of the revolution and reassured by the assurances of the Mensheviks and Socialist-Revolutionaries that everything would go well from now on, the broad masses of the petty bourgeoisie, soldiers, and also workers are imbued with confidence in the Provisional Government and support it.

The program that the Mensheviks put forward after February was completely socialist.

This is how they expressed their ideal of the future social system in the platform for elections to the Constituent Assembly: this is a system in which all social wealth, all means of production, all land, factories, factories, mines would become public property, in which all members of society, all citizens would have to work, but all would equally enjoy the benefits of nature and all that was obtained by mankind.

In a socialist society, the struggle of the classes would cease, since the classes themselves would disappear, the wars needed only by the ruling classes would cease. Humanity would become one fraternal family (Rabochaya Gazeta, July 1917, July 29).

The essence of the Menshevik choice was that they consciously refused their program, believing that the time had not come for it. In interpreting the revolution as a bourgeois revolution, they considered it necessary to support the bourgeoisie as a progressive class at the moment. The prominent Menshevik A. Ioffe wrote in May 1917: No matter how loud the revolutionary phrases are, but as long as Menshevism remains the government party of the bourgeois government, until then Menshevism is not only doomed to inaction, but it also makes a kind of idiom political hara-kiri, for it destroys the innermost essence of social democracy.

In the first months after the October Revolution bolshevik  the party severely persecuted only the “bourgeois” and monarchist groups, but also the close Menshevik Socialist Revolutionary Revolutionaries (with july 1918  - even previous partners in the government coalition - left Social Revolutionaries) However, in the difficult years of the civil war, Lenin decided to change course and go for a temporary, fraudulent reconciliation with mensheviks  and Social Revolutionaries.

In the winter of 1919, the Bolsheviks proposed legalization and cooperation in the Soviets to the Right Socialist-Revolutionaries, pointing to the liquidation of the Brest-Litovsk Treaty and the danger of a "reaction from the right."

Lenin knew the representatives of revolutionary democracy well and knew how to play on their consciousness blinded by class ideology. Recent leaders Comucha  really arrived in Moscow to fight Kolchakincluding such prominent Socialist-Revolutionaries as Volsky, Rakitnikov, Bureva, Svetitsky. Only a few, such as Zensinov  and Avksentiev  preferred to emigrate abroad.

At the Seventh Congress of Soviets, Lenin spoke with triumph about Volsky, the chairman of the Samara Komuch, to whom the Bolsheviks gave the floor at this congress.

The print organ of the Right Socialist-Revolutionaries - “The Affair of the People” —was briefly restored.

The position of "reconciliation with the Bolsheviks", with the encouragement of Lenin, was taken by the Mensheviks. In the "Socialist Herald" of March 12, 1936 F. Dan  wrote about this period: “... our party not only mercilessly excluded from its ranks all who somehow touched the support of the intervention and armed struggle against the Bolsheviks (for example, the current Soviet ambassador to England in May), but mobilized its members to fight in the ranks Red Army  against the army of the white counter-revolution ... and the statement of our party in the civil war made at the VII Congress of Soviets in 1919 by comrade Dan applauded, as the then Bolshevik press specially noted, Lenin himself. ”

Lenin always in critical moments was able to abandon his "principled positions" and in the dangerous months of 1919 deprived the white armies of a significant part of public support, creating the illusion of a "united front" against them. However, this “united front” did not last long - after the victories of the Red Army the allies from revolutionary democracy (admitted with the right of “deliberative vote” to the soviets) were again driven underground. In 1922 a well-known judicial sR process.

He joined the indirect allies of the Bolsheviks in the fall of 1919 and one of the leaders of that notorious Entente, which, according to Lenin, carried out in this "second campaign" intervention by the hands of white generals.

"Admiral Kolchak and General Denikin- said the English Prime Minister in his speech in Parliament on November 17, 1919 Lloyd George, - they are fighting not only for the destruction of the Bolsheviks and the restoration of law and order, but also for a united Russia ... It is not for me to indicate whether this slogan is in line with British policy ... One of our great statesmen, Lord Beaconsfield [Disraeli], saw in a huge, great and powerful "Russia, rolling like a glacier in the direction of Persia, Afghanistan and India, is the most formidable danger to the British Empire."

At the very beginning of 1920, the British government warned General Denikin of the termination of his support.

See Lenin. Op. Ed. IV. Volume 30, p. 211.

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BOLSHEVIKI, representatives of the political current (faction) in the Russian Social Democratic Labor Party (since April 1917 an independent political party), headed by V. I. Lenin (see. Communist Party of the Soviet Union). The concept of the Bolsheviks arose at the 2nd Congress of the Russian Social Democratic Labor Party (1903) after the election of the party’s governing bodies, Lenin’s supporters received the majority of votes (hence the Bolsheviks), their opponents were a minority (Mensheviks). In 1917-52, the word Bolsheviks was included in the official name of the party Russian Social Democratic Labor Party (Bolsheviks), Russian Communist Party (Bolsheviks), All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks). The 19th Party Congress (1952) decided to name it the Communist Party of the Soviet Union

MINSHEVIKI, representatives of the political current (fraction) in the RSDLP. Since 1917, an independent political party. The concept of the Mensheviks arose at the 2nd Congress of the RSDLP (1903), when some delegates remained in the minority on the issue of elections to the party’s governing bodies.

The main ideological leaders are Yu. L. Martov, A. S. Martynov, P. B. Axelrod, G. V. Plekhanov. They opposed strict centralism in the work of the party and the empowerment of the Central Committee with great powers. In the Revolution of 1905-07, it was believed that the proletariat should act in coalition with the liberal bourgeoisie against the autocracy; denied the revolutionary potential of the peasantry; preferred peaceful methods of activity, etc. After the February Revolution, they supported the Provisional Government. The October Revolution was not accepted, it was believed that Russia was not ripe for socialism; They believed that the Bolsheviks, realizing the failure of the undertaken socialist experiment, would retreat and seek agreement with other parties. In the Civil War, they participated in anti-Bolshevik breakthroughs and armed actions, however, they opposed the intervention of the Entente countries and the counterrevolutionary forces supported by them. In 1924, the Mensheviks as an organized force ceased to exist on the territory of the USSR. In March 1931, a falsified trial was held. The trial of the Menshevik Union Bureau of the Central Committee of the RSDLP, whose members (14 people) were accused of espionage and sabotage and sentenced to various terms of imprisonment.

According to the "History of social movements and political parties"

TOPIC: “The historical split of the RSDLP. Bolsheviks and Mensheviks

Prepared by: 1st year student,

Group No. 2

Checked:

Minsk 2004

LESSERISM.

Menshevism occupied a prominent place on the left flank of the Russian liberation movement — the current within Marxism and the Russian labor movement, the RSDLP faction, and then, in the spring of 1917, an independent Social Democratic party.

As already noted, Menshevism was born as a result of a split that occurred first among the delegates of the Second Congress of the RSDLP (June-August 1903), and then in emigrant groups and social democratic organizations in Russia itself. Its forerunners were the appearance of the so-called economists at the turn of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries and disagreements on programmatic and tactical issues within the editorial board of the Marxist newspaper Iskra. Supporters of “economism”, in particular, believed that the primary task of the Russian Marxists was to help the economic struggle of the proletariat and the participation of liberals in the opposition. They proclaimed the slogan "workers for workers", called for fighting not for the sake of future generations, but "for themselves and their children."

However, at the final stage of the 2nd Congress of the RSDLP in London, the delegates of the congress “stumbled” on organizational issues (conditions for party membership; election of a new editorial board of Iskra and the Central Committee of the RSDLP), divided into Lenin’s supporters - Bolsheviks and Martov’s supporters (Julia Osipovich Tsiderbaum ) - Mensheviks. At the same time, at the beginning it seemed that everything that had happened was the result of some tragic misunderstandings and clashes between the personal ambitions of the party leaders, that something like this had happened more than once in the 11th International and soon everything would "form." However, as the conflict developed, it became obvious that it was based on deep and very serious reasons: different views on the proletarian party and its role in the labor movement, a different approach to the issue of the mechanism of social development and prospects for the implementation of the socialist ideal in Russia, different attitudes towards Marxist teaching. To this must be added numerous tactical differences, which were especially clearly revealed during the revolution. and in the subsequent period.

The natural pluralism of approaches to resolving all issues, multiplied by the differences in the individual, social and national psychology of the participants in the revolutionary movement, as well as the extreme inconsistency and complexity of Russian reality, largely explain the incredible acuteness of the factional struggle within the RSDLP that began in the summer of 1903.

The generators of the internal party struggle were, as a rule, small emigrant colonies of Russian Marxists scattered throughout the cities of Western Europe, with their narrow group interests, petty squabbles and squabbles, which inevitably left their mark on the solution of all fundamental issues. At the same time, at first, the fractional watershed passed through intellectual circles, and then through the working environment, which was drawn into conflict with great internal resistance and tried its best to maintain the unity of the party, which was so necessary for the struggle against autocracy and the bourgeoisie. The workers often did not understand the essence of the differences that arose or considered them completely secondary, blaming the party intelligentsia for the split.

Both factions (during the split) published "revealing" literature directed against their recent comrades in struggle, sent emissaries to Russia to win the local committees of the RSDLP to their side. At the same time, with the help of Plekhanov, the Mensheviks managed to gain a foothold in the Iskra editorial board, to get two seats in the Party Council, and to achieve representation at the Amsterdam Congress of the 11th International (1904). On their side were many prominent figures in the international socialist movement, including Kautsky and Rosa Luxemburg.

After the 11th Congress of the RSDLP, the issue of party building was brought to the fore. The Mensheviks believed that German Social-Democracy could be taken as an example of a workers' party. The RSDLP, according to Axelrod, is still the proletarian party only in name and program, but not in the composition of its organizations, where the intelligentsia sets the tone. If in the West, Axelrod wrote, the processes of self-development and self-education of the working class prevail, in Russia the influence of workers of the radical intelligentsia, united in the organization of professional revolutionaries, acquires a special role. At the same time, the entire Social-Democratic Party turns into a pyramid built on a strictly hierarchical principle, on top of which are the party "clerks", and below are disenfranchised ordinary members, a kind of "cogs" and "wheels", which the ubiquitous leader manages at his own discretion center.

An even darker forecast of the uncontrolled management of the party of the Central Committee of the Leninist type was given by Plekhanov, who in November 1903 switched to the Menshevik side. He predicted, in particular, that the Bolshevik Central Committee would plant his creations everywhere and secure for himself at the new congress a completely submissive majority that would shout “Hurray!” Together and approve of any of his plans and actions.

By the way, the Mensheviks themselves were also avid centralists at that time, they did not differ in particular tolerance for the opinion of the Bolsheviks and were clearly in no hurry to form party committees on the basis of elective “from below” with the participation of workers. The Mensheviks went very slowly towards the model of democratic socialism that was later associated with Menshevism. The situation was like this: when the revolutionary movement was on the rise, the Mensheviks, trying to keep up with the mood of the workers, also began to speak and act “Bolshevik”, and, conversely, during the period of the recession of the revolution, the Bolsheviks, though belatedly, took weapons of political realism and the reasonable care of their rivals.

In addition, the Mensheviks and Bolsheviks had different types of social behavior. The former were characterized, for example, by great caution and caution in actions, a quick change of mood, a lack of strong-willed principles, and moral scrupulousness. The latter were distinguished by the well-known straightforwardness of their views and actions, impatience and assertiveness, great self-confidence, an inclination toward command methods of leadership, and illegibility in the means of achieving the goal. Of course, these differences cannot be absolutized, but the noted psychological traits can be quite clearly traced by the example of ordinary members of both factions of the RSDLP and especially their leaders.

Gradually, the differences between the Mensheviks and the Bolsheviks began to spread to the field of tactics. At the end of 1904, Iskra, on the initiative of Axelrod, the greatest tactic of Menshevism (Plekhanov later also identified with him), suggested that his supporters in Russia support the Zemstvo and urban liberal democratic opposition by organizing working demonstrations and speeches by social democratic speakers at banquets. In contrast to the Bolsheviks, who recognized only one way of revolutionaries influencing the liberals - merciless, furious criticism, the Mensheviks sincerely sought to build bridges between the participants in the liberation movement.

Thus, by 1905, Menshevism approached as a fully formed political trend with its own ideological and organizational center (Iskra editorial office), its own newspaper, a special factional discipline, and at least several thousand supporters. In 1905, Lenin was forced to admit that "the Mensheviks have more money, more literature, more transport, more agents, more names, more employees."

It would seem that the matter went to the final formation in Russia of two independent Marxist workers parties. However, under the influence of the upsurge of the revolution and the mood of ordinary social democrats from the working environment, this process began to reverse, as it were: from the summer of 1905. among the Bolsheviks and Mensheviks a strong unification movement began, and a joint congress, scheduled for December, was prevented only by a powerful wave of strikes and armed uprisings, which swept at that time in many regions of the country. Then the united Central Committee of the RSDLP was created. In April 1906, at the fourth congress of the RSDLP, the long-awaited but, as it turned out, largely formal unification of the main part of the Russian Social Democrats, including the Bolsheviks, Mensheviks, the Jewish Bund, the Social Democracy of Poland and Lithuania, as well as the Latvian Social Democracy, took place. But even after this, the Bolsheviks and Mensheviks continued to exist as independent factions, or rather, semi-parties, within the framework of the externally unified RSDLP.

Data on numbers in the underground are purely indicative, since until the spring of 1917. in the RSDLP there were not even party tickets. Nevertheless, taking as a basis the materials of the credentials committee of the Fifth Congress of the RSDLP, we can assume that in the spring of 1907 there were about 45 thousand Mensheviks in Russia, and the main centers of Menshevism were Tiflis (up to 5 thousand), Petersburg (2.8 thousand) , Kiev (2 thousand), Moscow, Kutaisi, Yuzovka (approximately 1.5 thousand each), Baku, Yekaterinoslav, Poltava, Gorlovka (1 thousand each), Rostov-on-Don (0.7 thousand)

The data on the national and social composition of the Menshevik delegates of the Fifth Congress of the RSDLP are also indicative (37% - Russians, 29% - Georgians, 23% - Jews, 6% - Ukrainians, among the Bolsheviks - Russians - 78%, Jews - 11%). Workers among the Mensheviks of the same congress were 32%, and peasant-landowners - 1% (not a single among the Bolsheviks), writers - 19% (14% from the former), people of intelligent "free" professions - 13%, students and commerce -industrial employees - 5% each.

In 1917, after the Social Democracy left the underground, both the Mensheviks and the Bolsheviks quickly became mass parties. The number of Mensheviks then reached 200 thousand people (among the Bolsheviks - 350 thousand).

The Mensheviks were drawn to that part of the literate, socially active and politicized workers who wanted to implement the Marxist revolutionary doctrine, using at the same time a minimum of violence and a maximum of legal opportunities, relying on the consciousness and initiative of the working masses themselves, and not on the actions of a narrow group of professional revolutionaries. Among the Menshevik workers, the so-called “working intelligentsia” prevailed, but among them were middle-class workers, and even a part of low-skilled workers, whom this or that local Menshevik leader was able to entice.

The most favorable period for the growth of reformist sentiments in the working environment was the period that began after the defeat of the revolution of the years, especially the time of the prewar industrial upsurge, when more and more features began to appear in the proletarian movement of Russia that brought it closer to the working movement in the West. Of great interest from this point of view is the data on labor camps for the publication and distribution of the Bolshevik, Menshevik and Socialist Revolutionary party press in 1913, which accounts for the peak in the development of Russian capitalism. Of the 3.1 thousand collective contributions, the Mensheviks account for 21%, compared with 70% for the Bolsheviks and 9% for the Social Revolutionaries. The most popular was the Mensch. The Luch newspaper was held by miners (51% of the fees), followed by metal workers and printers (26% each) and workers at railway depots and workshops (24%), while Mensheviks received only 9% from textile workers.

However, the bulk of the Mensheviks were radical intelligentsia (doctors, journalists, teachers, lawyers, etc.), students, and employees. This situation was the result of the Russian specifics of the process of combining Marxist ideology with the mass labor movement. It was held under the undivided leadership of the Social-Democratic intelligentsia, which, due to the low level of the general and political culture of the workers, immediately seized leading positions in the RSDLP, and the Bolsheviks were not much different from the smaller.

The program, strategy and tactics of the Mensheviks.

According to the program adopted at the Second Congress of the RSDLP in 1903, both factions of the Russian Social Democratic Labor Party set as their goal a revolutionary transition from capitalism to socialism, which would, in their opinion, ensure the well-being and all-round development of all members of society, and destroy its division into classes and eliminate the exploitation of man by man. The path to socialism was to begin with the proletarian revolution and the establishment of the dictatorship of the proletariat - the most organized, connected with large-scale machine production and sharing the basic socialist principles of the class of society, called upon to administer the state through its Marxist party during the entire transition period from capitalism to the new social system. Dictatorship was necessary to suppress the resistance of the exploiting classes leaving the historical arena. The proletarian revolution was conceived as a global phenomenon. Marx, Engels, and after them the theoreticians of the 2nd International believed that it would be held at short intervals in all developed European states.

However, before solving the tasks included in the maximum program of the RSDLP, it was necessary to carry out the minimum program: to achieve the establishment of a democratic republic in Russia and put an end to all the remnants of serfdom. Transfer landowner land to the peasants, eliminate national oppression and give all peoples the right to decide their own fate (the right to self-determination). The Social Democrats promised to improve the situation of workers: an 8-hour working day, state insurance for sickness and old age, the elimination of the system of fines, etc. All Russian citizens had to gain freedom of speech, assembly, and union.

The program developed by the Iskra editorial board was adopted almost unanimously at the second congress of the RSDLP, even before the split. In 1906, at the 4th congress, a revision (initiative of a smaller one) of the agrarian part of the program, it was about transferring landlord, treasury, specific and monastic lands to the disposal of democratically elected local governments without specifying the specific mechanism of peasant land use. In addition, in recent years before the World War, the Mensheviks showed a definite shift towards recognizing the requirements of cultural-national extraterritorial autonomy for national minorities. However, this was not officially included in the RSDLP program.

The strategy and tactics of the Mensheviks were based on the following basic principles:

1. The Marxist Labor Party sets itself only those practical tasks for which objective conditions have ripened, and do not strive, therefore, to prematurely seize power or participate in it, preferring to remain in the role of the extreme left opposition at the democratic stage of the revolution (in May 1917. they departed from this principle, becoming part of the Provisional Government)

2. The socialist revolution in Russia is a matter of a very distant future and can be accelerated only by the victory of the proletariat in the West.

3. the national front of the struggle against autocracy should include the liberal bourgeoisie, whose opposition potentials are far from exhausted

4. The peasantry, with its private-ownership instincts and tsarist illusions, cannot be a reliable long-term ally of the proletariat in the democratic revolution, not to mention the socialist revolution, although it can make a significant contribution to undermining the autocratic system.

5. The working class acts as the main force of the revolution, its initiator and example for other democratic sectors of society.

6. The party’s tactics are built in relation to the political situation in the country and provides for the possibility of using all forms of struggle, including violent ones, although preference is given to legal activity in the Duma, trade unions, cooperation, etc. Expropriation of money for the needs of the revolution and political terrorism morally -ethical considerations are recognized as unacceptable.

Denying any forms of political extremism and adventurism, the Mensheviks tried to act by constructive dialogue with any possible ally from a revolutionary or liberal camp. However, in the Russian political arena the Mensheviks until the spring of 1917. they did not meet with understanding from either the liberals or the neo-Narodniks.

The revolutionary practice of Menshevism in

Revolution raised the activities of the Mensheviks to a qualitatively new level, allowing them to leave the underground and take an active part in the leadership of the mass movement, as well as the councils of workers' deputies, in the activities of the State Duma, many trade unions and other legal organizations. They paid much attention to the leadership of the strike movement, including strikes on economic grounds. As for the village, here the success of the Mensheviks was not great: neither the forces nor the money were enough for work among the peasantry, and the village world itself remained alien and incomprehensible to the Mensheviks. With the exception of the Ukrainian Spilka, which successfully operated in the countryside and was closely associated with the Mensheviks.

Regarding armed uprisings, the Mensheviks believed that the Social Democrats still could not arm everyone, the uprisings broke out spontaneously, and therefore it was necessary to prepare the masses for them psychologically and politically. Everything else is the work of a small group of people specially allocated by the party who will be engaged in the military-technical preparation of the uprising.

Moreover, they did not shy away from specific military combat work. Iskra printed in 1905. materials with practical advice on how to conduct street battles with government troops. In addition, in the days of the Moscow December Uprising 905g. Among the 1.5-2 thousand combatants there were about 250 Mensheviks. In the future, the Mensheviks took the prospect of rebellion rather coolly, although in July 1906 at some point they again succumbed to rebel sentiments, which very soon died out.

The main line of activity of the Mensheviks was ideologically organized work among the proletarian masses. Awaken the consciousness of workers, increase the level of their political culture, stimulate initiative and creative activity.

The struggle of currents within Menshevism in the inter-revolutionary period

M. very hard experienced the victory of the counter-revolution. Their ranks were greatly thinned, organizations disintegrated, many of them were forced to leave for emigration again. Reigned apathy, despondency, disappointment in revolutionary ideals. Under these conditions, in a part of the Mensheviks that was less stable in ideological understanding, there was a desire to permanently break with underground work, to gain a foothold in legal organizations and wait there until better times. Supporters of this movement were called “liquidators” (Potresov, Axelrod, Levitsky, Cherevanin, Gavri, etc.)

The leaders of the Menshevik faction, Martov and Dan, and the official foreign organ of Menshevism, the newspaper Golos Social-Democrat, did not share the extremes of "liquidationism", they understood that they could not do without an underground organization, but they did not question organizational unity with the liquidators. At the same time, small groups of Mensheviks (under the leadership of Plekhanov), called the Menshevik party members and demanding that the illegal Social-Democratic Party be preserved at all costs, opposed the liquidators. As for Trotsky, he called for the elimination of factionalism and the unity of all currents of the RSDLP. This idea was the basis for the formation of the bloc consisting of several social-democratic organizations - the August bloc.

As a result, Menshevism approached the beginning of the First World War, largely losing its former positions in the labor movement, in particular in the trade unions. His orientation was clearly visible, his desire to imitate the European labor movement and give priority to legal proletarian organizations.

The Mensheviks did not manage to take any active part in the stormy and fleeting February events of 1917. However, the revolution quickly brought them to the forefront of political life: they seized leading positions in the executive committee of the Petrograd Soviet of Workers 'and Soldiers' Deputies, which largely determined the political situation in the country then, and in May 1917 joined the coalition Provisional Government.

In May 1917, the All-Russian Conference of the Menshevik and United Organizations of the RSDLP was held in Petrograd, and in August a unification congress was held at which the creation of the RSDLP (united) was proclaimed, although even after that several separate movements remained in the ranks of the Mensheviks: Potresov, centrist - Tsereteli, and left - Martov.

The Mensheviks did not succumb to the temptation to irresponsibly promise millions of people a socialist paradise on earth, knowing that Russia was clearly not ready for such an experiment.

As a result, M., retaining their doctrinal purity, turned out to be “out of the game” in the historical October days of 1917. War and devastation, the rampant anarchist moods, the decomposition of the army, the decline in the authority of the authorities suppressed and broke them.

Bolsheviks

Bolshevism became a synthesis of the ideas of Marxism and the Russian revolutionary tradition. In his pedigree, it is necessary to include not only Western Utopian socialists, Marx, Engels, Kautsky, but also Russian revolutionaries Pestel, Chernyshevsky, Lavrov, Tkachev, Nechaev, members of the People’s Will, the Emancipation of Labor group.

A huge role in the creation of Bolshevism was played by its main ideologist. Back in the 90s of the 19th century, Lenin was actually preparing the ideological platform for the future of Bolshevism and pondering its organizational principles.

Lenin devoted particular attention to the question of the Marxist party as the organizer and leader of the class struggle of the proletariat for a radical reorganization of society. His book “What to Do” (1902, Stuttgart) became widely known.

He highlighted the creation of an organization of professional revolutionaries who mastered the foundations of Marxist theory and skillfully conducted conspiratorial work. Under a tyrannical regime, he wrote, the smaller and more disciplined the organization, the more difficult it is to track it down, the more difficult it is to arrest its members. “Give us an organization of revolutionaries — and we will turn Russia over!” - so, to paraphrase Archimedes, Lenin formulated his answer to the question of what to do.

Severe for Lenin were. Plekhanov departed from the Bolsheviks, with his help the Mensheviks took control of the Iskra editorial board, on the pages of which Plekhanov wrote desperately about Leninist Bonapartism. In addition, Martov published a pamphlet criticizing the direction of Bolshevism towards a "state of siege". So, by 1904, Lenin remained in the minority both in the Central Committee and in the Party Council. In July 1904, the Bolshevik-conciliators and the Mensheviks made a kind of "coup" against Lenin, forbidding him to speak on behalf of the Central Committee. The conflict ended with a resolution of the Central Committee of February 7, 1905 on the exclusion of Lenin from the Central Committee and the Party Council.

At the end of 1904, a Bolshevik center arose - the Bureau of Majority Committees with its newspaper Vperyod. Thus ended the design of the Bolshevik faction of the RSDLP.

The revolution of the years began as a natural explosion, for which the leadership of the RSDLP was unprepared. Against this background, the initiative of the Leninists, stubbornly fighting for the convening of a new party congress, impressed those who longed for decisive, energetic action.

In April 1905, delegates gathered in London for the congress, which Lenin’s supporters called the 111th congress of the RSDLP, and the Mensheviks considered it illegal.

Lenin introduced into the charter his wording of the conditions for membership in the RSDLP. The system of central organs of the Bolshevik faction changed - a single authoritative body was created - the Central Committee (Lenin, Krasin, Bogdanov, Postolovsky, Rykov). A new Bolshevik newspaper, the Proletarian, has been created.

The congress adopted all Leninist theoretical principles. The revolution taking place in Russia is bourgeois in nature, but not the bourgeoisie, but the proletariat, is most interested in its complete success. The congress called for the confiscation of landlords, state, monastic, and specific lands and for the immediate organization of revolutionary peasant committees. A course was outlined for mass political strikes and the arming of workers.

The Bolshevik congress in London and the Menshevik conference in Geneva reflected not only the fact of the split of the RSDLP. The leaders of the factions felt the disastrous confrontation, the rejection of factional policies in the field. Therefore, it was decided to unite. Moreover, the Mensheviks quickly leveled, and the Bolsheviks in the spring of 1905 started a company for the democratization of internal party life.

At the same congress, the question was raised about the eternal Russian disease, such as bureaucracy (due to the fact that there was not a single worker at the congress, only committee leaders). Party functionaries tended to break away from the masses. They are used to commanding rank-and-file party members, looking down on workers. With this in mind, Lenin demanded more involvement of workers from the machine tool in leading party bodies at all levels, reliance on youth, developing an elective beginning in the party and curbing bureaucratic tendencies. It was partially possible to do this, but the weakening of repressions by the tsarist authorities was short-lived, and the situation in the underground soon nullified all efforts to establish more democratic orders.

During the revolution, the Bolsheviks were on the rise. The revolutionary euphoria that swept over the working masses, the maximization of demands, and the awareness of one's strength were very consonant with the Bolshevik sentiments, who tried to support and inflame the revolutionary impatience in the masses, the desire for an armed struggle with the autocracy.

The Bolsheviks most seriously, unlike other organizations, approached the preparation of an armed uprising, exhibiting the largest number of combatants in the days of the December battles in Moscow. In addition, they actively participated in the leadership of the strike movement. They prevailed in the leadership of more than 40 councils of workers' deputies that arose in 1905, including Moscow, and did a lot for the development of a young trade union movement in the country.

In 1905 The federal committees of the RSDLP began to appear, at the end of December 1905 the Bolshevik Central Committee and the Menshevik Organizational Commission merged, the general newspaper Party News began to appear.

However, after the defeat of the December armed uprisings, the situation in the RSDLP began to change in favor of the Mensheviks, and already at the 4th Congress of the RSDLP in Stockholm (1906) it was already clear that there would be no peace in the party. Of the 112 delegates with a casting vote, 62 were Mensheviks. An indicator of the great changes in the RSDLP was the fact that a quarter of the delegates to the congress were represented by workers.

The 4th Congress of the RSDLP opened almost simultaneously with the start of work of the 1st State. Duma, elections to which the Bolsheviks actively boycotted. Only later did Lenin recognize this boycott as a mistake, since he did not take into account the possibility of a retreat of the revolution.

In the 11th Duma of 1907, abandoning the tactics of boycotting, the Bolsheviks received 18 deputy mandates. They considered the Duma not as an organ of constructive legislative work, but only as a platform for the propaganda of their views.

The 5th Congress of the RSDLP ended its meetings a few days before the June 3 coup. The struggle for leadership, for submission, and other similar issues again came to the fore. 300 delegates have been discussing these issues for more than two weeks. A lot of time was spent on checking mandates, working out the agenda, and muttering on private issues. The congress did not support Lenin and condemned the expropriation. Lenin tried not to tie his hands, acting according to the rule: in the name of the victory of the revolution, you can use any means. In addition, the Bolsheviks still retained the slogan of armed insurrection, although the situation in the country precluded the holding of such actions.

The largest centers of Bolshevism: Moscow (6.2), Petersburg (6), Ivanovo-Voznesensk (5), Kostroma (3), Kiev and Yekaterinburg (1.5 each), Vladimir, Yaroslavl, Bryansk (1), Saratov (850) )

The repression that hit the RSDLP after the defeat of the revolution caused the party the hardest damage. The lack of professionals has opened up additional opportunities for penetration into the party of provocateurs and their rapid advancement up.

In an atmosphere of ideological vacillation and organizational disintegration, even the Lanin team could not resist. Bogdanov posed an open challenge to Lenin, accusing him of curtailing the revolutionary banner and transferring to reformist positions. Lenin was accused of excessive enthusiasm for legalization of activities, loss of interest in the squad and propaganda in waxes, as well as personal control over the party box office. A part of the Bolsheviks organized the Forward group, opposition to Lenin. The break with Lenin turned out to be complete and final. However, the group itself soon broke up.

Later in 1910 another group broke away from the Leninists - the Bolshevik party members (Lozovsky, Rykov, Nogin, Dubrovinsky)

In January 1910 - the last attempt to unite all organizations of the RSDLP. As a result, it was decided to stop publishing the factional bodies, create a unified newspaper, Social Democrat, and transfer the money to the Central Committee. However, the implementation of these decisions did not follow, since the participants did not trust each other.

In 1911, a course was taken to revive the disintegrated organizations. They convened a general party conference. In Prague - 1912. Less than 20 delegates arrived. All national organizations, Plekhanov, and the majority of the Menshevik party members refused to participate. Trotsky was not invited to Prague at all. Nevertheless, the meeting confidently declared itself the 6th All-Party Conference of the RSDLP. Lenin almost single-handedly led its meetings. The conference noted the commitment of revolutionary Social Democracy to the basic requirements of the minimum program. Lenin always attached particular importance to the election of leading party organs. This time the Central Committee for the first time in the history of congresses and conferences of the RSDLP was unanimously elected. (Lenin, Zinoviev, Ordzhonikidze, Spandaryan, Malinovsky *, Goloshchekin, Shvartsman).

Despite the fact that the majority of Russian Social Democrats did not recognize the decisions of the Prague Conference, the resonance from it was great. Since the spring of 1912 the newspaper Pravda is published.

During World War II, dissensions were relegated to the background and the deputies of the 4th Duma adopted a general declaration condemning the war. "War to war!"

Later, Lenin and the Bolsheviks as a whole were accused of anti-patriotism, treason, betrayal of national interests (Lenin's calls for turning the imperialist war into a civil one). But there was no confirmation of this.

There was only one course — the building of socialism in the USSR, the belief in the possibility of a complete victory of socialism within the framework of one country — is greater than ever.

Their main work is going deep underground. It was hard to get in touch with Lenin, who was in exile. The Bolsheviks were not leaders of the February Revolution of 1917. Lenin found out about this as an after-fact.

Under the Bolshevik Central Committee, a Bureau of Front Front Military Organizations was formed. The Bolshevik factions acted in the soviets. Particular attention is given to factories.

The offensive on the front that failed on June 18 undermined the authority of the Provisional Government. On July 2, the cadets decided to secede from the government. The government crisis began. Part of the Bolsheviks, anarchists and some military units that were threatened with sending to the front, began to incline to an attempted armed overthrow of the Provisional Government. As a result, the demonstration on July 3-4, 1917 was not without casualties. The persecution of Lenin by the authorities began.

The strength of the Bolsheviks was that they put forward very close and understandable slogans to the majority: peace for the peoples, land for the peasants, factories for the workers, power for the soviets ...

Having shown himself in October 1917. good tactics, the Bolsheviks soon encountered great difficulties associated with their tragic miscalculations. The well-known formula of Lenin with reference to Napoleon: “First you need to get involved in a serious battle, and it will be visible there” was fraught with a huge risk, without which, incidentally, nothing great can be done in history. But another thing was also clear: after the October victory, the Bolsheviks faced severe trials.