MENSEVISM
By menshevism the Soviet theory sometimes intends the Second International, revisionist and reformist, but in the strict sense it refers to the faction of the Russian Social Democratic Workers’ Party directed by Plekhanov, 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, a separation took place between the Menshevik and the Bolshevik factions; the occasion for the separation was provided by the statute of the organization (v. LENIN).
The following ten years were occupied by discussions focusing above all 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 it would be possible to move on to socialism in Russia, a capitalist evolution was necessary. When, after the failed revolution of 1905–1906, the Duma (parliament) was convened, wide Menshevik circles adhered to the liquidation of illegal organizations (“liquidationism”). The definitive separation between the two factions occurred at the Party Conference held in Prague in 1912; from that point onward they went their separate ways as distinct parties until, after the victory of the October Revolution, with the dissolution of all other parties, the Menshevik Party was also dissolved. A portion of its adherents emigrated; the organ *Socialističeskij Vestnik* (U.S.A.) constitutes a spiritual center of menshevism.
Mensa, redaction of the — Page containing the incipit of the *Ordo ad benedicendam vernam* for the whole year — Vatican Library, cod. Urb. Lat. 111, f. 2310 (15th century).