Bolsheviks and Mensheviks

From the Paper:

"Every student of the Russian Revolution is presented early on with a little word-paradox: that the Mensheviks, though their name means "minority," were the popular majority party in the revolutionary Russia of 1917, while the triumphant Bolsheviks, though their name means "majority," were actually only a minority faction when they came into power.

This paradox in naming is memorable because it effectively symbolizes a broader paradox: the victory of the Bolsheviks in the face of the broader support of the Mensheviks. Just as the Bolsheviks usurped the status of "majority" within the prewar revolutionary Social Democratic movement, so they later seemed to usurp the revolution itself. In the following pages we will examine the factors which led to the success of the Bolsheviks and the ultimate failure of the Mensheviks when the risks and ..."

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