Lenin,+Trotsky,+and+the+Bolsheviks+vs.+the+Mensheviks

=__** Vladimir Ilyich Lenin **__= Vladimir Ilyich Lenin(born with the family name Ulianov which was later changed to Lenin) was born in the Russian city of Ulyanovsk on 22 April 1870. Lenin was born into an upper-middle class family. Lenin’s father, Ilya Ulianov, was a government educater under tsar Alexander III. Growing up, Lenin had no associations with the working class or their revolutionary ideas. Lenin was pulled into the Revolutionary movement by several factors. First in 1886, the Russian government threatened to force Lenins father to retire early because they were unhappy with the material he was teaching. A few months later Ilya died of a brain hemorrhage. Then in 1887, his brother was executed and his sister was exiled in for plotting to kill the tsar. Lenin’s brother was quoted saying he wanted “political freedom” for all Russians. These two events changed Lenin’s mind about the reactionary Russian government.

Lenin enrolled in the Kazan University where he was first exposed to the works of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. Six months after his enrollment in the Kazan University, Lenin was expelled because of his involvement in a student riot and labeled as a terrorist. Three years later Lenin completed his degree in law at the university of St. Petersberg. For the next few years, Lenin practiced law, spread revolutionary propaganda, and studied Marxism. In 1897, He was exiled under charges of a plot against tsar Alexander III. After his exile he left Russia and traveled Europe, developing his political theses

He returned to Russia to lead the Russian Social Democratic Labor party(RSDLP) in the 1905 Revolution. He left Russia again to travel the world and write Marxist books and articles protesting the world war. He returned to Russia after Nicholas II abdicated. He then recruited Leon Trotsky for the Bolshevik movement and started a the Revolution.

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="With all my might I urge comrades to realize that everything now hangs by a thread; that we are confronted by problems which are not to be solved by conferences or congresses (even congresses of Soviets), but exclusively by peoples, by the masses, by the struggle of the armed people."=

= Leon Trotsky = Leon Trotsky was born in 1879 in the Russian city of Yanovka. Trotsky grew up in a jewish family and spoke Ukrainian. In 1888 Trotsky was sent to school in Odessa. There he was forced to learn Russian by the government and to assimilate to the culture. This was Trotsky's first exposure to the injustices of imperial Russia. Throughout the 1890's Trotsky was exiled and imprisoned numerous times for his revolutionary activity. During this time Trotsky studied Marxism and adopted its ideas. In 1898 Trotsky was imprisoned during the first session of the RSDLP. He unofficially joined the party and became part of the revolution. In 1902 Trotsky escaped from prison in Siberia and joined the RSDLP. During the 1903 Second Congress Trotsky and the Mensheviks broke off from the Bolsheviks. This split was caused by Trotsky's wish to have a total democracy within the revolution. He didn't believe that the revolution should be under the leadership of beaurocrats. He wanted to give complete power to the people. After the first revolution failed and World War I ended, Trotsky was persuaded by Lenin to join the Bolshevik cause. He realized that a true democracy was not practical during a revolution. He created the Red Army and over the next few years took over Russia.

"There is a limit to the application of democratic methods. You can inquire of all the passengers as to what type of car they like to ride in, but it is impossible to question them as to whether to apply the brakes when the train is at full speed and accident threatens." -Trotsky speaking on the limited uses for democracy.



= Russian Social Democratic Labor party =

= = The Russian Social Democratic Labor Party(RSDLP) was started in Minsk in 1898. The organization was started to unite the various left-wing soviet factions in Russia. The party followed the teachings of Karl Marx and Fredrich Engels. The objective of the RSDLP was to give the power of Imperial Russia to the Industrial working class. Many of the actions of the party were illegal under the Russian tsar any amny of the early leaders, including Lenin were exiled. The party eventually broke into two groups: the Bolsheviks(majority) and the Mensheviks(minority). = Bolsheviks = = = The Bolsheviks were created in the second congress of the RSDLP in 1903. The Bolsheviks were led by Lenin. They believed in a working class revolution like all Marxists but they revised Karl Marx's idea of class warfare. The Bolsheviks believed that a proletariat revolution would only be successful if it had the leadership of a small dedicated elitist class. Lenin saw himself as the head of this group. He knew that the peasants were the backbone of a successful revolution but that they would only look for short term gain. Lenin thought that the idea of a broad democracy was idealy good but was inpractical within a revolution. Before the October Revolution Lenin convinced Trotsky to join the Bolsheviks. This superior leadership allowed the Bolsheviks to take over Russia. = “Urban bourgeois democrats in Russia have not subordinated the entire economy to themselves and are, therefore, not capable of independent revolutionary initiative, as was the case in bourgeois revolutions in previous centuries; at the same time the peasantry, who constitute the overwhelming majority of the small producers, are only just beginning to emerge from the economic and social conditions of pre-bourgeois production, and are, therefore, still less suited for the role of an independent leader of the revolution.” = = Mensheviks = The Mensheviks were originally led by Leon Trotsky. The group was created in 1903 during the second congress of the RSDLP in London. The Mensheviks believed that the leaders of the revolution should be elected by the prolelariat masses. They believed that a pure democracy was the best way to truley serve the interests of the working class. In 1817 the Mensheviks lost their leader Leon Trotsky to the Bolsheviks. They were divided and lacked leadership. During the Russian civil war pockets of Menshevik supporters were eliminated one by one by the Bolsheviks.
 * -Lenin on the need for a small elitist class to lead the Revolution **