Concept
Bolshevism
Overview
Bolshevism (derived from Bolshevik) is a revolutionary socialist Soviet Leninist, and later Marxist–Leninist, current of political thought and political regime that is associated with the formation of a rigidly centralized, cohesive and disciplined party of social revolution, and is focused on overthrowing the existing capitalist state system, seizing power and establishing the "dictatorship of the proletariat".
Bolshevism originated at the beginning of the 20th century in the Russian Empire, and was associated with the activities of the Bolshevik faction within the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party led by Vladimir Lenin, Bolshevism's main theorist. Other theoreticians included Joseph Stalin, Leon Trotsky, Nikolai Bukharin and Yevgeni Preobrazhensky. While Bolshevism was based on Marxist philosophy, it also absorbed elements of the ideology and practice of the socialist revolutionaries of the second half of the 19th century, such as Sergey Nechaev, Pyotr Tkachev, and Nikolay Chernyshevsky, and was influenced by Russian agrarian socialist movements like the Narodniks.
In October 1917, the Bolshevik Party won a majority in the revolutionary workers' councils (soviets) which had been formed throughout Russia following the February Revolution. It subsequently organized the October Revolution, which overthrew the Provisional Government and replaced it with a state power under the control of the soviets, led by the Bolsheviks along with other left-wing socialists.
Some researchers attribute to Bolshevik theory the program of Joseph Stalin, who headed the All–Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks) and at the same time possessed full state power in the Soviet Union. However, others (both Stalin's contemporaries and later) do not confuse "Bolshevism" and "Stalinism" proper, considering them to be multidirectional (revolutionary and thermidorian) phenomena.
The expression "Bolshevism", and later "Communism", has become established in Western historiography in the sense of a certain set of features of Soviet power in a certain political period. At present, the name "Bolsheviks" is actively used by various groups of Marxist–Leninists and Trotskyists.
Overview adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0; see the article history for authors).
In the original texts
Passages from public-domain books where Bolshevism is discussed.
Among religions, Bolshevism is to be reckoned with Mohammedanism rather than with Christianity and Buddhism. Christianity and Buddhism are primarily personal religions, with mystical doctrines and a love of contemplation.
Bertrand Russell, The Practice and Theory of Bolshevism
names the idea; states what it is; the book is about it; opens on it
For these reasons, it is not likely that Bolshevism as a creed will make much progress in China proper. But Bolshevism as a political force is not the same thing as Bolshevism as a creed. The arguments which proved successful with the Ameer of Afghanistan or the nomads of Mongolia were probably different from those employed in discussion with Mr. Lansbury. The Asiatic expansion of Bolshevik influence is not a…
Bertrand Russell, The Problem of China
names the idea; opens on it
Man, at last the master of his own form of social organization, becomes at the same time the lord over Nature, his own master--free. To accomplish this act of universal emancipation is the historical mission of the modern proletariat. To thoroughly comprehend the historical conditions and thus the very nature of this act, to impart to the now oppressed proletarian class a full knowledge of the conditions and of the…
Friedrich Engels, Socialism, Utopian and Scientific
states what it is; author linked in the graph
I must call attention to the fact, by the way, that the views here set out were, for by far the most part, developed and established by Marx, and only to a very slight degree by myself, so that it is understood that I have not represented them without his knowledge. I read the entire manuscript to him before sending it to press and the tenth chapter of the section on Political Economy was written by Marx and…
Friedrich Engels, Landmarks of Scientific Socialism
states what it is; author linked in the graph
Naturally, inevitably, the students of political science have been preoccupied with this great historic phenomenon, and their intellectual activities have been directed to its systematic formulation. Because the contemporary progressive movement was to establish the unified state against the inertia of minor social units and against the ambitions of rivals for power, political theory developed the dogma of the…
John Dewey, Reconstruction in Philosophy
author linked in the graph
Philosophers who discussed Bolshevism
- Hans Kelsen
- John Dewey
- Jürgen Habermas
- Dwight Macdonald
- Alexander Bogdanov
- Georgi Plekhanov
- Georges Sorel
- Emma Goldman
- Wincenty Lutosławski
- Martin Heidegger and Nazism
Related ideas
- Vladimir Lenin
- Fascism
- Marxists Internet Archive
- Joseph Stalin
- Rosa Luxemburg
- German philosophy
- Leon Trotsky
- Social democracy
- Leninism
- Sociology
- Marxism
- Russian Empire
- Marxism–Leninism
- October Revolution
- Republicanism
- Soviet Union
- Stalinism
- Anatoly Lunacharsky
- Council communism
- Nazism
- Nikolai Trubetzkoy
- Western Europe
- Eduard Bernstein
- Nikolay Chernyshevsky
Opposing perspectives
Place in the tradition
Part of Anarchism.