Bolshevik (redirected from Bolshevistic)

Bolshevik

(Russian: “member of the majority”) Member of the wing of the Russian Social-Democratic Workers' Party led by Vladimir Ilich Lenin that seized control in the Russian Revolution of 1917. The group arose in 1903 when Lenin's followers insisted that party membership be restricted to professional or full-time revolutionaries. Though they joined with their rivals, the Mensheviks (“members of the minority”), in the Russian Revolution of 1905, the two groups later split, and in 1912 Lenin formed his own party. Its appeal grew among urban workers and soldiers during World War I. See also Communist Party, Leninism.