Mensheviks: The Other Revolutionaries
The Great Split: Bolsheviks vs. Mensheviks
Imagine a large school club planning a big change for the school. Some members, the Bolsheviks (meaning "majority"), want a small, strict group of dedicated leaders to make quick, decisive moves. Others, the Mensheviks (meaning "minority"), believe the club should be open to many more students, work more democratically, and wait for the right moment when more students are ready for change. This was the core of the split at the 1903 Second Party Congress.
The disagreement was over a single, seemingly small point in the party rules: who could be a member. Lenin's formulation required members to be professional revolutionaries actively working under party direction. Martov's more flexible version allowed for sympathizers who cooperated with the party. When a key vote went Martov's way, Lenin maneuvered to win a later vote on the party's central committee, after which his faction took the name "Bolsheviks" (Majoritarians), leaving Martov's group as the "Mensheviks" (Minoritarians). This moment set two different political paths.
| Aspect | Bolsheviks | Mensheviks |
|---|---|---|
| Meaning of Name | "Majority" (after a 1903 vote) | "Minority" (after the same vote) |
| Key Leader | Vladimir Lenin | Julius Martov |
| Party Structure | Small, disciplined, secretive party of professional revolutionaries. | Broad, open, democratic party working with trade unions and other groups. |
| Revolutionary Strategy | Seize power immediately through an armed uprising led by the party. | First, support a bourgeois[4] revolution to develop capitalism; then, later, a socialist revolution. |
| Alliances | Distrust of other parties. Aimed for a dictatorship of the proletariat[5] alone. | Cooperate with liberal and bourgeois parties in a temporary alliance. |
| Main Support Base | Urban workers, soldiers, and radical intellectuals. | Skilled workers, some intellectuals, and parts of the middle class. |
Menshevik Ideology: A Step-by-Step Approach to Socialism
The Mensheviks were orthodox Marxists. They believed in the historical stages theory of Karl Marx, which stated that societies had to progress through specific phases: feudalism, then capitalism, and only then socialism. Russia in 1905 was seen as still stuck between feudalism and capitalism. Therefore, the Mensheviks argued, the immediate task was not a socialist revolution, but a "bourgeois-democratic" one.
This revolution would overthrow the Tsar, establish a democratic republic, guarantee civil rights, and allow capitalism to develop fully. They believed this phase was necessary to create a large, educated, and organized working class (the proletariat). Only after decades of capitalist development and democratic practice would the conditions be ripe for a socialist revolution led by the workers.
This step-by-step belief made them natural collaborators with other anti-Tsarist forces like the liberal Constitutional Democrats (Kadets). They saw the working class as the leader of the democratic revolution, but in alliance with the bourgeoisie. This was their fatal flaw in 1917: when the moment for decisive action came, they hesitated, stuck in their theoretical framework, while the Bolsheviks acted.
1917: The Mensheviks' Rise and Catastrophic Fall
The year 1917 was the ultimate test for both factions. When the February Revolution[6] overthrew the Tsar, it was a spontaneous uprising, not led by any single party. A new government, the Provisional Government[7], was formed by liberal and moderate politicians. At the same time, workers and soldiers formed their own councils, called Soviets.
The Mensheviks were initially hugely influential. They dominated the key Petrograd Soviet. Yet, they made a critical decision: they refused to take state power themselves, believing it was the time for the bourgeoisie to lead. Instead, they chose to "support" the Provisional Government critically, a policy known as "conditional support."
As the year progressed, the Provisional Government, led by Alexander Kerensky (a Socialist Revolutionary who worked closely with Mensheviks), failed to end the deeply unpopular war with Germany or solve land and food crises. The Bolsheviks, with their simple slogan of "Peace, Land, and Bread" and "All Power to the Soviets," grew rapidly in popularity.
In September 1917, a right-wing military coup (the Kornilov Affair) threatened the government. The Bolsheviks helped organize armed workers to defeat it, gaining more credibility and weapons. The Mensheviks were caught in the middle, defending a failing government. When Lenin ordered the Bolsheviks to seize power in October (the Bolshevik Revolution), the Mensheviks were powerless to stop it. They condemned the coup but were shouted down in the Soviet Congress.
A Scientific Analogy: Political Factions as Chemical Reactions
We can understand the Bolshevik and Menshevik strategies through a simple chemical analogy. Think of the revolutionary situation in Russia as a highly reactive chemical mixture.
- The Menshevik Approach (Catalyst): They believed a successful revolution needed a catalyst—the developed capitalist stage—to proceed correctly and completely. Their role was to guide and moderate the reaction, ensuring it followed the proper sequence. The formula might look like this: $Feudalism \xrightarrow[Catalyst]{Bourgeois\ Revolution} Capitalism \xrightarrow{Time\ \&\ Development} Socialism$. They wanted to control the rate and products of the reaction.
- The Bolshevik Approach (Chain Reaction/Explosion): Lenin believed you could bypass steps and force the final product through a concentrated application of energy and a pure reactant (the vanguard party). Their method was like initiating a rapid, uncontrolled chain reaction or explosion: $Feudalism \xrightarrow[Vanguard\ Party]{Violent\ Energy} Socialism$. The goal was immediate transformation, regardless of the theoretical "required" intermediate stages.
In 1917, the societal "pressure" and "temperature" were extremely high (war, famine, anger). The Bolsheviks provided the spark for the explosive reaction. The Mensheviks, trying to apply their catalytic theory in a lab that was already overheating, were swept away by the blast.
Important Questions
Who were some key Menshevik leaders besides Julius Martov?
Other important figures included:
George Plekhanov: Often called the "father of Russian Marxism," he initially sided with the Bolsheviks but later became a leading Menshevik critic of Lenin's methods.
Irakli Tsereteli: A leading figure in the Petrograd Soviet in 1917 who championed the policy of supporting the Provisional Government.
Fyodor Dan: A prominent theorist and leader in the later years of the movement, who continued to oppose Bolshevik rule from exile.
What happened to the Mensheviks after the Bolshevik Revolution?
Their fate was grim. After a brief period of tolerated opposition, the Bolshevik government under Lenin increasingly suppressed all rival parties. Many Mensheviks were arrested, exiled internally, or forced to emigrate. Some were later executed during Stalin's Great Purges in the 1930s. A few briefly participated in Soviet institutions but were eventually completely eradicated as an organized political force within Russia by the early 1920s. Their legacy lived on in the writings of exiled members and in critical analyses of the Soviet system.
Were the Mensheviks "weak" or simply wrong?
This is a major historical debate. Critics say their commitment to theory over the raw realities of 1917 made them indecisive and weak. They had mass support in the Soviets early on but failed to use it to shape events decisively. Defenders argue they were not weak but principled democrats who believed in due process, alliances, and historical laws. They were "wrong" in the sense that their predictions about Russia's development were overturned by the violent, unprecedented action of the Bolsheviks, which broke the Marxist "rules" they believed in. In a chaotic revolutionary situation, their moderation and legalism became a fatal disadvantage.
Footnote
[1] Russian Revolution: The series of revolutions in 1917 that first overthrew the Tsarist autocracy (February Revolution) and later brought the Bolsheviks to power (October Revolution).
[2] Russian Social Democratic Labour Party (RSDLP): The Marxist political party founded in 1898, which later split into the Bolshevik and Menshevik factions.
[3] Socialism: A political and economic theory advocating that the means of production, distribution, and exchange should be owned or regulated by the community as a whole.
[4] Bourgeois: Relating to the middle class, typically with reference to its perceived materialistic values or conventional attitudes. In Marxism, it refers to the capitalist class who own most of society's wealth and means of production.
[5] Dictatorship of the Proletariat: A Marxist concept meaning the period after a socialist revolution where the working class holds political power to suppress the former ruling class and build a new society.
[6] February Revolution: The revolution of March 1917 (February in the old Russian calendar) that led to the abdication of Tsar Nicholas II and the establishment of the Provisional Government.
[7] Provisional Government: The temporary government that ruled Russia between the fall of the Tsar in February 1917 and the Bolshevik takeover in October 1917.