At the
Second Congress of the Social Democratic
Labour Party in London in 1903, there
was a dispute between Vladimir Lenin and
Julius Martov, two of SDLP's leaders.
Lenin argued for a small party of professional revolutionaries with
a large fringe of non-party sympathizers and supporters. Martov disagreed
believing it was better to have a large party of activists.
Julius
Martov based his ideas on the socialist parties that existed in
other European countries such as the British
Labour Party. Lenin argued that the situation was different in
Russia as it was illegal to form socialist political parties under
the Tsar's autocratic government. At the end of the debate Martov
won the vote 28-23 . Vladimir Lenin was
unwilling to accept the result and formed a faction known as the Bolsheviks.
Those who remained loyal to Martov became known as Mensheviks.
Gregory
Zinoviev, Anatoli Lunacharsky,
Joseph Stalin, Mikhail
Lashevich, Nadezhda Krupskaya,
Mikhail Frunze, Alexei
Rykov, Yakov Sverdlov, Lev
Kamenev, Maxim Litvinov, Vladimir
Antonov, Felix Dzerzhinsky, Gregory
Ordzhonikidze and Alexander Bogdanov
joined the Bolsheviks. Whereas George
Plekhanov, Pavel Axelrod, Leon
Trotsky, Lev Deich, Vladimir
Antonov-Ovseenko,
Vera Zasulich, Irakli
Tsereteli, Moisei Uritsky, Noi
Zhordania and Fedor Dan supported Julius
Martov.
The SDLP
journal, Iskra remained under the
control of the Mensheviks so Vladimir
Lenin, with the help of Anatoli Lunacharsky,
Alexander Bogdanov, Lev
Kamenev and Gregory Zinoviev, established
a Bolshevik newspaper, Vperyod
(Forward).
The Bolsheviks
played little part in the 1905 Revolution
because most of their leaders were living in exile. The
Mensheviks, did make gains in the
soviets and the trade
union movement.
In
1907 Vladimir
Lenin abandoned
hope for an imminent armed uprising and called on Bolsheviks
in Russia to participate in the elections for the Third
Duma. Lenin also spent a great deal of time finding ways of raising
money for the party. He secured large donations from Maxim
Gorky and Sava Morozov, the Moscow
millionaire.
This
was not the party's main source of income. The armed hold-ups of Bolshevik
gangs provided much more. One raid on the Tiflis Post Office raised
250,000 roubles. The gang used bombs during the robbery and several
people were killed. When George Plekhanov,
one of the leaders of the Mensheviks,
heard that the Bolsheviks were behind the robbery he declared: "The
whole affair is so outrageous that it is really high time for us to
break off all relations with the Bolsheviks."
Lenin,
and his two loyal assistants, Gregory Zinoviev
and Lev Kamenev, used this money to print
revolutionary literature and newspapers such as Zvezda.
Some money was used to gain control some of the unions that were emerging
in Russia's main industrial cities. One of Lenin's agents, Roman
Malinovsky,
was elected as general secretary of the St Petersburg Metalworkers'
Union.
In 1911
the Bolseviks made plans to capture control of the Social
Democratic Labour Party at the conference to be held in Prague
in January, 1912. This move was unsuccessful and the party split and
after that date the Bolsheviks
maintained
a completely separate existence from the Mensheviks.
The Bolsheviks now took the name the Russian Social Democratic Workers'
Party.
At the
conference Lenin suggested that Roman
Malinovsky should join the Bolshevik Central Committee. Some party
members opposed this move, claiming that there were rumours that Malinovsky
was an Okhrana agent. Lenin pointed out
that these stories had come from Julius Martov
and Fedor Dan, two Menshevik
leaders.
He refused to believe the charges and advocated that Malinovsky should
also be a Bolshevik candidate for
the Duma. After being elected in October,
1912, Malinovsky became the leader of the group of six Bolshevik deputies.
On
the outbreak of the First World War Lenin was
living in Galicia in Austria. He was arrested in August, 1914 as a
Russian spy, but after a brief imprisonment he was allowed to move
to Switzerland. At a meeting of Bolsheviks at Berne he outlined his
views on the war. He branded the conflict as imperialist and those
socialists who supported the war were betraying the proletariat.
Lenin
was appalled by the decision of most socialists in Europe to support
the war effort. He now devoted his energies to campaign to turn the
"imperialist war into a civil war". This included the publication
of his book, Imperialism: The Highest Stage
of Capitalism. Along with his close collaborators, Gregory
Zinoviev and Lev Kamenev, Lenin arranged
for the distribution of propaganda that urged Allied troops to turn
their rifles against their officers and start a socialist revolution.
On
26th February, 1917, Nicholas II ordered
the Duma to close down. Members refused
and they continued to meet and discuss what they should do. Michael
Rodzianko, President of the Duma, sent a telegram to the Tsar
suggesting that he appoint a new government led by someone who had
the confidence of the people. When the Tsar did not reply, the Duma
nominated a Provisional Government
headed by Prince George Lvov.
The High Command of the Russian
Army
now feared a violent revolution and on 28th February
suggested that Nicholas II
should abdicate in favour of a more popular member of the royal family.
Attempts were now made to persuade Grand Duke Michael Alexandrovich
to accept the throne. He refused and on the 1st March, 1917, the Tsar
abdicated leaving the Provisional
Government in control of the country.
Vladimir
Lenin and other Bolsheviks living in exile were now desperate
to return to Russia to help shape the future of the country. The German
Foreign Ministry, who hoped that Lenin's presence in Russia would
help bring the war on the Eastern Front
to an end, provided a special train for Lenin and 27 other Bolsheviks
to travel to Petrograd.
When
Lenin returned to Russia on 3rd April, 1917, 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.
Some Mensheviks
such as Leon Trotsky and Alexandra
Kollontai , agreed with this view and now joined the Bolsheviks.
Vladimir
Lenin
accused those Bolsheviks
who were still supporting the Provisional
Government
of betraying socialism and suggested that they should leave the party.
Some took Lenin's advice, arguing that any attempt at revolution at
this stage was bound to fail and would lead to another repressive,
authoritarian Russian government.
Joseph
Stalin, who had been one of the first Bolsheviks to get to Petrograd
after being released from prison in Siberia. He was in a difficult
position because as one of the editors of Pravda
he had been supporting the Provisional
Government.
Stalin had two main options open to him: he could oppose Lenin and
challenge him for the leadership of the party, or he could change
his mind about supporting the Provisional
Government
and remain loyal to Lenin.
After
ten days of silence, Stalin made his move. In Pravda
he
wrote an article dismissing the idea of working with the Provisional
Government.
He condemned left-wing members of the government such as Alexander
Kerensky and Victor
Chernov as counter-revolutionaries, and urged the
peasants to form committees to prepare
to takeover the land for themselves.
On
8th July, 1917, Alexander Kerensky became
the new leader of the Provisional Government.
In the Duma he had been leader of the moderate
socialists and had been seen as the champion of the working-class.
However, Kerensky, like his predecessor, George
Lvov, was unwilling to end the war. In fact, soon after taking
office, he announced a new summer offensive.
Vladimir
Lenin welcomed these developments and it became clear to Alexander
Kerensky that the Bolshevik posed
a real threat to his government. On 19th July, Kerensky gave orders
for the arrest of Lenin as well as Gregory
Zinoviev, Lev Kamenev, Anatoli
Lunacharsky, and Alexandra Kollontai.
The Bolshevik headquarters at the Kshesinsky Palace, was also occupied
by government troops.
A
Bolshevik spy
in the Ministry of Justice discovered what was going to happen and
Vladimir Lenin was
able to escape to nearby Finland where he was hidden by a secret socialist,
the Helsinki chief of police. While in Finland he completed State
and Revolution. In the book Lenin explained his ideas of
the kind socialist government he would like to see in Russia.
After the
failure of the July Offensive on the Eastern
Front,
the prime minister, Alexander Kerensky,
replaced General Alexei
Brusilov
with General Lavr Kornilov, as Supreme
Commander of the Russian
Army.
The two men soon clashed about military policy. Kornilov wanted Kerensky
to restore the death-penalty for soldiers and to militarize the factories.
Lavr
Kornilov responded by sending troops under the leadership of General
Krymov to take control of Petrograd. Alexander
Kerensky was now in danger and was forced to ask the Soviets
and the Red Guards to protect Petrograd.
The Bolsheviks, who controlled these organizations, agreed to this
request, but Lenin made clear they would be fighting against Kornilov
rather than for Kerensky.
Within
a few days Bolsheviks had enlisted 25,000 armed recruits to defend
Petrograd. While they dug trenches and fortified the city, delegations
of soldiers were sent out to talk to the advancing troops. Meetings
were held and Kornilov's troops decided not to attack Petrograd. General
Krymov committed suicide and Kornilov was arrested and taken into
custody.
Vladimir
Lenin
now returned to Petrograd but remained in hiding. On 25th September,
Kerensky attempted to recover his left-wing support by forming a new
coalition that included more Mensheviks
and Socialist
Revolutionaries.
However, with the Bolsheviks controlling the Soviets
and now able to call on 25,000 armed militia, Kerensky's authority
had been fatally undermined.
The Bolsheviks
set up their headquarters in the Smolny Institute. The former girls'
convent school also housed the Petrograd Soviet.
Under pressure from the nobility and industrialists, Alexander
Kerensky was persuaded to take decisive action. On 22nd October
he ordered the arrest of the Military Revolutionary Committee. The
next day he closed down the Bolshevik newspapers and cut off the telephones
to the Smolny Institute.
Leon
Trotsky now urged the overthrow of the Provisional
Government. Lenin agreed and on the evening of 24th October, 1917,
orders were given for the Bolsheviks began to occupy the railway stations,
the telephone exchange and the State Bank. The following day the Red
Guards surrounded the Winter Palace. Inside was most of the country's
Cabinet, although Kerensky had managed to escape from the city.
The Winter
Palace was defended by Cossacks, some junior army officers and the
Woman's Battalion. At 9 p.m. the Aurora and
the Peter and Paul Fortress began to open fire on the palace. Little
damage was done but the action persuaded most of those defending the
building to surrender. The Red Guards,
led by Vladimir Antonov-Ovseenko, now
entered the Winter Palace and arrested the Cabinet ministers.
On 26th
October, 1917, the All-Russian Congress of Soviets met and handed
over power to the Soviet Council of People's Commissars. Vladimir
Lenin
was elected chairman and other appointments included Leon
Trotsky (Foreign Affairs) Alexei Rykov
(Internal Affairs), Anatoli Lunacharsky
(Education), Alexandra Kollontai (Social
Welfare), Felix Dzerzhinsky (Internal
Affairs), Joseph Stalin (Nationalities),
Peter Stuchka (Justice) and Vladimir
Antonov-Ovseenko
(War).
At
the Seventh Party Congress held in March, 1918, Vladimir
Lenin proposed that the party should change its name from the
Russian Social Democratic Workers' Party to the Communist
Party. He argued that the new name would indicate the am of the
Bolsheviks would be to achieve Communism as outlined by Karl
Marx and Frederick Engels in their
book, The Communist Manifesto.
(1)
Vladimir Lenin, What Is To Be
Done? (1902)
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.
(2)
After the 2nd Congress of the Social
Democratic Labour Party Leon
Trotsky wrote about why the split took place.
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.
(3)
Alexander Shotman attended the 2nd Congress of the Social
Democratic Labour Party and
after the debate joined the Bolsheviks. He explained his decision
in his book, Reminiscences of an Old Bolshevik, published in
1932.
Martov resembled a poor Russian intellectual. His face
was pale, he had sunken cheeks; his scant beard was untidy. His glasses
barely remained on his nose. His suit hung on him as on a clothes
hanger. Manuscripts and pamphlets protruded from all his pockets.
He was stooped; one of his shoulders was higher than the other. He
had a stutter. His outward appearance was far from attractive. But
as soon as he began a fervent speech all these outer faults seemed
to vanish, and what remained was his colossal knowledge, his sharp
mind, and his fanatical devotion to the cause of the working class.
When Plekhanov
spoke, I enjoyed the beauty of his speech, the remarkable incisiveness
of his words. But when Lenin arose in opposition, I was always on
Lenin's side. Why? I cannot explain it to myself. But so it was, and
not only with me, but with my comrades and workers.
(4)
Robert Bruce Lockhart, report sent to
the British government (13th March, 1917)
So far
the people of Moscow have behaved with exemplary restraint. For the
moment, only enthusiasm prevails, and the struggle which is almost
bound to ensure between the bourgeoisie and the proletariat has not
yet made its bitterness felt.
The Socialist
Party is at present divided into two groups: the Social Democrats
and Soviet Revolutionaries. The activities of the first named are
employed almost entirely among the work people, while the Social Revolutionaries
work mainly among the peasantry.
The Social
Democrats, who are the largest party, are, however, divided into two
groups known as the Bolsheviki and the Mensheviki. The Bolsheviki
are the more extreme party. They are at heart anti-war. In Moscow
at any rate the Mensheviki represent today the majority and are more
favourable to the war.
(5)
George Buchanan, My Mission to Russia
and Other Diplomatic Memories (1922).
As regarded
the war, both Mensheviks and SRs advocated the speedy conclusion of
peace without annexations or contributions. There was, however, a
small Menshevik group, led by Plekhanov, that called on the working
classes to cooperate for the purpose of securing the victory over
Germany, which would alone guarantee Russia's new freedom. The Bolsheviks,
on the other hand, were out and out 'Defeatists'. The war had to be
brought to an end by any means and at any cost. The soldiers had to
be induced by organized propaganda to turn their arms, not against
their brothers in the enemy ranks, but against the reactionary bourgeois
governments of their own and other countries. For a Bolshevik there
was no such thing as country or patriotism.
(6)
Ernest Poole, The Village: Russian Impressions
(1918)
"These
Bolsheviks," growled a man with a square head and a short heavy
beard already half grey. "Bolsheviks, Bolsheviks - how they shout
about being free men. What do they know about being free? They know
nothing but books, they sit indoors and scribble and read and talk
like clerks - and they are so busy making us free that they have no
time to be free themselves! Let them come and find what freedom is!
We'll show them!"
(7)
Morgan Philips Price, wrote a memorandum
about the Bolsheviks on 28th October, 1917.
The soldiers
in the garrison towns in the rear follow the Bolsheviks to a man;
and small wonder; for what interest have they to leave the towns and
go to sit in trenches to fight about something that is of no interest
to them, especially when they know that at the front they will get
neither food to eat nor proper clothes against the winter cold? The
workers in the factories are also strongly inclined to go with the
Bolsheviks, because they know that only the end of the war will give
them the food, for the lack of which they are half-starving.
(8)
George Buchanan, report to the
Foreign Office sent during the summer of 1917.
The Bolsheviks,
who form a compact minority, have alone a definite political programme.
They are more active and better organized than any other group, and
until they and the ideas which they represent are finally squashed,
the country will remain a prey to anarchy and disorder.
If the
Government are not strong enough to put down the Bolsheviks by force,
at the risk of breaking altogether with the soviet, the only alternative
will be a Bolshevik Government.
(9)
Harold Williams, Daily
Chronicle (26th November, 1917)
Of constructive
power the Bolsheviks have none, but they have enormous power for destruction.
They can make a wilderness and call it peace. They can finally demoralize
the army and reduce it to a rabble of hungry, looting bands, who will
stream across the country, block the railways, reduce the civil population
to starvation and the extreme of terror, and will fight like wolves
over their prey. That they can do in the name of peace.
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