Bolshevik

Bolshevik was a faction of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party (RSDLP) that emerged in the early 20th century. The term, meaning "majority," referred to Lenin's supporters after a 1903 split at the party’s Second Congress, which produced two factions: Bolsheviks and Mensheviks. The Bolsheviks advocated a centralized, tightly organized party of professional revolutionaries and the strategy of democratic centralism, arguing that a vanguard party was needed to bring about socialist change amid Russia's autocracy.

They pursued a revolutionary program that favored rapid action, land reform, and nationalization of industry after seizing power. They differed from the more gradualist Mensheviks, who favored broader party membership and slower transition to socialism.

In 1917, the Bolsheviks led the October Revolution, overthrowing the Provisional Government in Petrograd and establishing Soviet power. They consolidated control during the Russian Civil War (1918–1922) and laid the foundations of a one-party state that evolved into the Soviet Union. The party was renamed the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU) in 1925, and the label Bolshevik gradually ceased to be used as an official designation, though it remains common in historical accounts.

Prominent Bolsheviks included Vladimir Lenin, Leon Trotsky, and other early leaders such as Grigori Zinoviev, Lev Kamenev, and Nikolai Krupskaya. The Bolshevik movement influenced socialist and communist movements worldwide, though its methods and governance, including suppression of opposition and centralized authority, remain controversial.