MENSCEVISMO. – By m. Soviet theory sometimes means the Second International, revisionist and reformist, but in the strict sense it means the faction of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party led by Plechanov, Martov, and others and opposed to the Bolshevik faction. Already at the time of the Party’s foundation, at the Second Congress held in London in 1903, the separation between the Menshevik and Bolshevik factions took place; the occasion for the separation was provided by the organization’s statutes (v. LENIN).
The following ten years were occupied by discussions focusing chiefly on tactical problems: against Lenin’s thesis of an alliance between workers and peasants, the Mensheviks preferred an alliance with the bourgeoisie, since they were of the opinion that, before socialism could be introduced in Russia, a capitalist evolution was necessary; when, after the failed revolution of 1905–1906, the Duma (parliament) was convened, broad Menshevik circles advocated the liquidation of the illegal organizations (or liquidatorism). The definitive separation between the two factions took place at the Party Conference held in Prague in 1912; from then on they each went their own way as separate parties until, after the victory of the October Revolution, with the dissolution of all the other parties, the Menshevik Party too was dissolved. A portion of its adherents emigrated: the organ «Socialističeskij Vestnik» (U.S.A.) constitutes a spiritual centre of m.
Gustavo A. Wetter