Mensheviks

The Mensheviks were a faction of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party (RSDLP) that emerged in 1903 following a split at the party’s Second Congress in London. The name, meaning “minority” in Russian, arose from the way their opponents labeled the faction led by Julius Martov; Lenin’s supporters took the name Bolsheviks, meaning “those with the majority,” a label that persisted even as actual majorities shifted over time. The Mensheviks advocated a broad, inclusive party of workers and sympathizers and favored a gradual, parliamentary road to socialist reform, emphasizing mass organization, legal political activity, and alliances with liberal and peasant forces during a democratic revolution.

Ideologically, the Mensheviks promoted a slower, more orthodox Marxist approach than the Bolsheviks, criticizing rapid, centralized seizure of power and urging patience for building a socialist movement through-wide participation and gradual change. They played a prominent role in the 1905 Revolution and helped shape early socialist thought in Russia and among émigré communities abroad.

In 1917, after the February Revolution, the Mensheviks supported the Provisional Government as the interim authority and opposed Lenin’s call for soviet power in October. Following the Bolshevik seizure of power, Menshevik organizations were banned, and many leaders were arrested, exiled, or executed in the ensuing years. Notable figures include Georgi Plekhanov, Julius Martov, Pavel Axelrod, and Vera Zasulich.

The Mensheviks left a lasting legacy in debates over party organization, mass politics, and the relationship between reform and revolution within Marxist socialist thought, though their influence waned after 1917.