Bolsheviks

Lenin revolution
Lessons of Russia's October 1917 revolution (Part II) — What kind of revolutionary organisation?
For those who want to end capitalist rule, much can still be learnt from the October Revolution because its experience critically poses key political questions. The second in this two-part series by Jonathan Strauss seeks to respond to the question: What can it tell us about organising for social change?
red guard bolshevik revolution
Lessons of Russia's October 1917 revolution (Part I) — Coup or mass insurrection?
For those who want to end capitalist rule, much can still be learnt from the October Revolution because its experience critically poses key political questions. The first in this two-part series by Jonathan Strauss seeks to respond to the question: Was the October Revolution a coup?
Mirsaid Sultan-Galiev
Mirsaid Sultan-Galiev: Pioneering Bolshevik theorist of imperialism, national liberation and socialism
Rohini Hensman — Given his prominence as a high-ranking Bolshevik, Mirsaid Sultan-Galiev is very little known. This is a pity, because there is much we can learn from his writings as well as his practice even today.
Iulii Martov
The lost voice of Iulii Martov
Paul Kellogg — To students of twentieth-century Russian history, the name Vladimir Il’ich Lenin is a constant, and inevitable, presence. But the name Iulii Osipovich Tsederbaum—better known through the pseudonym “Iulii Martov”—is either entirely absent from view or present only as a mysterious, and often unsavoury, figure.
Menshevism: The Girondins of 1917
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By Doug Enaa Greene April 25, 2018 — Links International Journal of Socialist Renewal reposted from Left Voice with the author's permission — Whatever their differences, Lenin, Plekhanov, Martov, and Trotsky all saw the Russian Revolution as following in the experience of the French Revolution of 1789. The Russian revolutionaries also modeled themselves on the different parties of the French Revolution, whether consciously or unconsciously, as guides for action. Lenin and the Bolsheviks believed they were modern-day Jacobins – stalwart revolutionaries who would organize the working class and take power. By contrast, the Mensheviks were moderate Girondins. Menshevism was committed to gradualism and opposed to the “historical impatience” of a socialist revolution. Like the Girondins, the Mensheviks were honorable, but like their predecessors, they lacked faith in the revolutionary abilities of the people. That was the root of their failure in 1917.
Pravda: ‘Mandate for Soviet Elections’
 
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Introduction by John Riddell

April 2, 2017 — Links International Journal of Socialist Renewal reposted from John Riddell's Marxist Essays and Commentary website — The following declaration appeared 7 May 1917 on the front page of the Bolshevik newspaper Pravda under the title, Draft of a mandate for use in electing delegates to the Soviet of Worker and Soldier Deputies. This Mandate marked the first appearance of the slogan “All power to the soviets” in an official party statement. Its purpose was to help the soviet constituency distinguish genuine revolutionary candidates from revolutionaries in name only.

A revolutionary line of march: ‘Old Bolshevism’ in early 1917 re-examined
 
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Before Lenin: Bolshevik theory and practice in February 1917 revisited
 
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Petrograd protesters on 23 February
 

By Eric Blanc

March 1, 2017 — Links International Journal of Socialist Renewal reposted from Historical Materialism — Assessing Bolshevik policy before Lenin’s return to Russia in April 1917 has long been one of the most heated historiographic controversies in the socialist movement.