Who is mensheviks

His attitude was attacked as elitist and tyrannical. The congress decided to set up a central committee, which would oversee a new party council and a new editorial board of Iskra. Lenin was determined to gain complete control of this apparatus and succeeded in getting three Mensheviks thrown off the Iskra board. At this Martov angrily withdrew from any further involvement with the paper, leaving Lenin for the moment in command.

The meeting had a built-in Menshevik majority and Lenin, who had tried to prevent it being held and then unsuccessfully to pack it, stormed out of the room and slammed the door behind him. On November 16th he announced his resignation from the editorial board and the party council. When Lenin returned to Russia on 3rd April, , he announced what became known as the April Theses. Lenin attacked those Bolsheviks who had supported the Provisional Government.

Instead, he argued, revolutionaries should be telling the people of Russia that they should take over the control of the country. In his speech, Lenin urged the peasants to take the land from the rich landlords and the industrial workers to seize the factories. Tsereteli, who was the government's Minister of the Interior, gave the order to arrest Lenin , Leon Trotsky and other revolutionaries in July, The Mensheviks dramatically lost the support of the Russian people during the events of In the elections for the Constituent Assembly in November, , they obtained 1,, votes compared to the Bolsheviks 9,, and the Socialist Revolutionaries 16,, Julius Martov and the Mensheviks were united in their opposition to the October Revolution.

Most of them supported the Red Army against the White Army during the Russian Civil War , however, they continued to denounce the persecution of liberal newspapers, the nobility , the Cadets and the Socialist Revolutionaries. The Mensheviks, along with other opposition parties, were banned after the Kronstadt Rising. An organization of workers must be first a trade organization; secondly, it must be as broad as possible; thirdly, it must be as little secret as possible.

An organization of revolutionaries, on the contrary, must embrace primarily and chiefly people whose profession consists of revolutionary activity. In an autocratic country, the more we narrow the membership of such an organization, restricting it only to those who are professionally engaged in revolutionary activities and have received a professional training in the art of struggle against the political police, the more difficult will it be to catch such an organization.

One can say of Lenin and Martov that, even before the split, even before the Congress, Lenin was 'hard' and Martov 'soft'. And they both knew it. Lenin would glance at Martov, whom he estimated highly, with a critical and somewhat suspicious look, and Martov, feeling his glance, would look down and move his thin shoulders nervously.

How did I come to be with the 'softs' at the congress? Of the Iskra editors, my closest connections were with Martov, Zasulitch and Axelrod. Their influence over me was unquestionable. The split came unexpectedly for all the members of the congress. Lenin, the most active figure in the struggle, did not foresee it, nor had he ever desired it. Both sides were greatly upset by the course of events.

After the Congress Lenin was sick for several weeks with a nervous illness. Martov resembled a poor Russian intellectual. His face was pale, he had sunken cheeks; his scant beard was untidy. Accessed 13 Nov. Subscribe to America's largest dictionary and get thousands more definitions and advanced search—ad free!

Log in Sign Up. Menshevik noun. Save Word. Definition of Menshevik. First Known Use of Menshevik , in the meaning defined above. While Lenin wanted to pull Russia out of World War One , the Mensheviks wanted Russia to continue fighting in this highly unpopular war. As the Bolsheviks became more popular with the working class in the major cities of Russia, so the Mensheviks became less popular.

As one rose, the other had to decline. The Mensheviks also suffered from people in the party joining the Bolsheviks when it became obvious that they were winning over the people. Kerensky was from a comfortable middle class family, did not want the redistribution of land and wanted Russia to continue in the war.

To be associated with such beliefs was bound to lose the Mensheviks even more support among the workers.