Before October
1903
Bolsheviks and Mensheviks split
The name “Bolshevik” began as a vote count at a small congress, not as a description of Russia.
At the Second Congress of the Russian Social Democratic Labor Party, in Brussels and then London, Vladimir Lenin’s side won a key vote on membership rules. Bolshevik means “one of the majority,” Menshevik “one of the minority.” Within a year the labels were tribal and the “majority” was often a minority of actual Russian socialists.
The argument was about what kind of party should make a revolution. Lenin wanted a tight, disciplined organization of professional revolutionaries. Julius Martov wanted a broader party. That organizational idea — a party that judges members by obedience — is the seed of later bans on factions, show trials, and the habit of calling disagreement treason.
Where to check it · Lenin’s What Is to Be Done? (1902); congress protocols; Leonard Schapiro, The Communist Party of the Soviet Union.