Thursday, March 11, 2010

Russian Studies Trivia Question 3

What is the meaning of 'Bolsheviks'?

a. Minoritarians
b. Great Ones
c. Winners
d. Majoritarians

The answer is D, Majoritarians!

Bolsheviks, originally also Bolshevists (Russian: большевики, большевик) is derived from bol'shinstvo, "majority", which comes from bol'she, "more", the comparative form of bol'shoi, "big". The Bolsheviks were a faction of the Marxist Russian Social Democratic Labour Party (RSDLP) which split apart from the Menshevik faction at the Second Party Congress in 1903. The Bolsheviks were the majority faction in a crucial vote, hence their name. Founded by Vladimir Lenin, they were an organization of professional revolutionaries under a democratic internal hierarchy governed by the principle of democratic centralism, who considered themselves as the vanguard of the revolutionary working class of Russia. Their beliefs and practices were often referred to as Bolshevism.

Stay curious,
Team ARC

No comments:

Post a Comment