(Russian, ‘a member of the majority’) The wing of the Social Democratic Party in Russia which, from 1903, and under the leadership of Lenin, favoured revolutionary tactics. Their opponents, the Mensheviks (‘members of the minority’), led by Martov and Georgi Plekhanov, favoured a loosely organized mass labour party, in which workers had more influence, and which was prepared to collaborate with the liberal bourgeoisie against the Tsarist autocracy. After the abortive Russian Revolution of 1905 Bolshevik leaders fled abroad, having made little appeal to the peasantry, and it was the Mensheviks led by Kerensky who joined the Provisional Government, following the February Russian Revolution in 1917. The infiltration by Bolsheviks into soviets and factory committees contributed to the success of the October Revolution. During the Russian Civil War the Bolsheviks succeeded in seizing control of the country from other revolutionary groups. In 1918 they changed their name to the Russian Communist Party. The Mensheviks were formally suppressed in 1922.