- Menshevik
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/men"sheuh vik/; Russ. /myin shi vyeek"/, n., pl. Mensheviks, Mensheviki /-vik'ee, -vee'kee/; Russ. /-vyi kyee"/.a member of the Russian Social-Democratic Workers' party in opposition to the Bolsheviks: advocated gradual development of full socialism through parliamentary government and cooperation with bourgeois parties; absorbed into the Communist party formed in 1918.Also, menshevik.[1905-10; < Russ men'shevík, equiv. to mén'sh(ii) lesser (comp. of málen'kii small; cf. men'shinstvó minority) + -evik, var. of -ovik n. suffix]
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Member of the non-Leninist wing of the Russian Social-Democratic Workers' Party.The group evolved in 1903 when L. Martov called for a mass party modeled after western European groups, as opposed to Vladimir Ilich Lenin's plan to restrict the party to professional revolutionaries. When Lenin's followers obtained a majority on the party central committee, they called themselves Bolsheviks ("those of the majority"), and Martov and his group became the Mensheviks ("those of the minority"). The Mensheviks played active roles in the Russian Revolution of 1905 and in the St. Petersburg soviet, but they became divided over World War I and later by the Russian Revolution of 1917. They attempted to form a legal opposition party but in 1922 were permanently suppressed.* * *
(Russian: One of the Minority),plural Mensheviks, or Mensheviki,member of the non-Leninist wing of the Russian Social-Democratic Workers' Party, which evolved into a separate organization. It originated when a dispute over party membership requirements arose at the 1903 congress of the Social-Democratic Party. One group, led by L. Martov, opposed Lenin's (Lenin, Vladimir Ilich) plan for a party restricted to professional revolutionaries and called for a mass party modelled after western European social-democratic parties.When Lenin's followers obtained a temporary majority on the central committee and on the editorial board of the newspaper Iskra, they appropriated for themselves the name Bolshevik (Those of the Majority); Martov and his followers became the Mensheviks. After the 1903 congress the differences between the two factions grew. In addition to disapproving of Lenin's emphasis on the dictatorial role of a highly centralized party, the Mensheviks maintained that the proletariat could not (nor should it) dominate a bourgeois revolution; therefore, unlike the Bolsheviks, they were willing to work with the bourgeois left to establish a liberal, capitalist regime, which they considered to be a necessary precursor to a Socialist society. They played active roles in the 1905 revolution, particularly in the St. Petersburg soviet, but afterward, like the Bolsheviks, they participated in the Dumas (parliaments), believing their success to be a step toward the creation of a democratic government. In 1912 the Social-Democratic Party was definitively split by Lenin; in 1914 the Mensheviks themselves became divided in their attitudes toward World War I.Although they assumed leading roles in the soviets and provisional governments, created after the February Revolution (1917), and formally set up their own party in August, they were not sufficiently united to maintain a dominant position in the political developments of 1917. After the Bolshevik Revolution (October), they attempted to form a legal opposition but in 1922 were permanently suppressed; many Mensheviks went into exile.* * *
Universalium. 2010.
