At the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, Russian Social Democrats, who held Marxist positions, united into the Russian Social Democratic Labor Party. But already at the second party congress, held in 1903, the revolutionaries disagreed and split into two factions: the Mensheviks and the Bolsheviks.
How the Mensheviks appeared
The second congress of the RSDLP was held in Brussels and London in July 1903. When the question of elections of central party bodies appeared on the agenda, the majority were supporters of V. I. Lenin, and supporters of his opponent Yu. O. Martov were in the minority. This is how the Menshevik and Bolshevik factions were formed in the Social Democratic Party of Russia.
Winning that historic vote allowed Lenin to call his faction “Bolsheviks,” which was a winning move in the ideological struggle against his opponents. Martov's supporters had no choice but to recognize themselves as "Mensheviks." However, it should be noted in fairness that in the future Lenin's faction often found itself in a de facto minority, although the term "Bolsheviks" was assigned to the faction forever.
The formation of factions was caused by fundamental differences in views on the building of the party that existed between the leaders of the Social Democrats. Lenin wanted to see in the party a militant and united organization of the proletariat. Martov's supporters strove to create an amorphous association in which membership would be wide enough.
The Mensheviks did not accept the strict centralization of the party and did not want to endow the Central Committee with broad powers.
Struggle between Bolsheviks and Mensheviks
Differences in views between representatives of the two factions of the Social Democratic Party were traced right up to the victory of the Bolsheviks in the October Revolution. Lenin's supporters under his leadership waged an irreconcilable struggle against the Mensheviks, trying at the same time to preserve the unity of the party.
When the first Russian revolution of 1905-1907 suffered defeat, some of the Mensheviks began to convince party members that it was necessary to break with underground activities and switch exclusively to legal forms of work. Supporters of this opinion began to be called "liquidators".
Prominent representatives of the "liquidationist" movement were P. B. Axelrod and A. N. Potresov.
The clash of opposing views between the factions became very clear when the First World War began. Among the Mensheviks, "defensist" views were rapidly gaining strength. G. V. Plekhanov and A. N. Potresov, for example, recognized the war as defensive for Russia and considered the possible defeat a national tragedy.
IN AND. Lenin, in turn, sharply criticized the "defencists", believing that the party under these conditions should seek the defeat of its government and contribute to the development of the world war into a civil war, the goal of which would be the victory of the proletariat and the establishment of socialism in the country.
After the victory of the February bourgeois revolution, some Mensheviks became members of the new Provisional Government, and also enjoyed serious influence in the Soviets. Many Mensheviks strongly condemned the seizure of power by the Bolsheviks, which took place in October 1917. Subsequently, representatives of Menshevism were persecuted and repressed by the new Bolshevik government.