Someone who is a follower of
Bolshevism. Along with
Menshevism, these constituted the two branches of
Russian socialism from
1903 until
Lenin emerged as undisputed leader in the
Russian Civil War of 1918-20.
The name arose from the Russian
Social Democratic Labor party, which convened secretly in
Minsk in
1898, and later in
Brussels and then
London in
1903. Lenin's party had a majority, and were therefore known as
Bolsheviki (members of the majority), while
Menshevik meant those who were in the minority.
Lenin's party favored a small class of professional revolutionaries to take over power, while the Mensheviks favored a more open and loosely organized party. The Bolsheviks also favored rule by the
proletariat, while the Mensheviks favored an
intermediate rule by the
bourgeois. While both participated on the same side in the
Russian Revolution of 1905, they later split into separate parties until the Mensheviks were suppressed in 1921.
Leon Trotsky was originally a Menshevik, but later switched to the Bolshevik camp.