Bolsheviks
The radical wing of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party, led by Vladimir Lenin, that seized power in the October Revolution of 1917. Distinguished from the Menshevik (moderate) faction by their insistence on a small, disciplined vanguard party of professional revolutionaries rather than a mass democratic party, and by their willingness to use any means necessary to seize and hold power.
The word 'Bolshevik' means 'majority' in Russian, the name stuck from a 1903 party congress vote in which Lenin's faction briefly held the majority. The Mensheviks ('minority faction') were actually larger for most of the pre-revolutionary period. The terminological irony is characteristic of Bolshevik political skill: naming matters, and 'majority' conferred legitimacy their numbers didn't support.
What distinguished the Bolsheviks: Lenin's theoretical innovation in What Is to Be Done? (1902), the vanguard party. Against Marxist orthodoxy that the working class would develop revolutionary consciousness through its own experience, Lenin argued that workers, left alone, would only develop 'trade union consciousness' (fighting for better wages within capitalism). A tightly disciplined party of professional revolutionaries, with full-time cadres, ideological training, and conspiratorial organization, must lead the working class to revolution from outside its own experience.
The seizure of power: the October 1917 revolution was less a popular uprising than a coup by a small, organized faction taking advantage of the chaos created by WWI, the February Revolution (which had removed the Tsar), and the Provisional Government's catastrophic decision to continue the war. The Bolsheviks won not because they had mass support (they received 24% in the November 1917 elections) but because they were the only organized force willing and able to seize the state apparatus.
Predictive History's analysis: the Game Theory series examines the claim, documented by historian Antony Sutton, that Western banking interests (particularly Jacob Schiff and German military intelligence) channeled funding to the Bolsheviks, arguing that capitalist powers weaponized communism to destroy rival empires and discredit social democracy. Whether or not this is fully accurate, the Bolshevik regime's early survival depended on foreign financial support and military protection that remains poorly explained by conventional historiography.
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Frequently asked questions
What made the Bolsheviks different from other socialist parties? ＋
The vanguard party concept: Lenin argued against mass democratic socialist parties, insisting that workers alone only develop trade union consciousness (fighting for better wages). A small, tightly disciplined party of professional revolutionaries, ideologically trained, conspiratorially organized, must lead the working class to revolution. This justified seizing power even without majority support: the party knows better than the class what the class needs.
How did the Bolsheviks win in 1917 with only 24% support? ＋
Organization beats numbers in a power vacuum. The February Revolution had removed the Tsar but left a weak Provisional Government committed to continuing WWI. Most socialist parties wanted to work within the new democratic system. Only the Bolsheviks were organized to seize the state apparatus directly, they controlled key Soviets, had loyal armed units (Red Guards), and moved decisively when the Provisional Government was maximally weak. The vote came after they had already taken power.