ABSTRACT
The Bolsheviks originated as part of a broader Marxist political party, set up by Lenin, Martov and Plekhanov in 1898. Known as the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party (RSDLP), this united a number of smaller
Marxist radical groups that had, since the early 1880s, been emerging in Russia as an alternative form of radicalism to the essentially peasantbased populist movement. The RSDLP promoted the Marxist vision of the overthrow of capitalism, the creation of the ‘dictatorship of the proletariat’ and the eventual achievement of the ‘classless society’; these ideas were publicised through Iskra (The Spark). From the start, however, Lenin pressed for a distinctive and active strategy, which he outlined in his pamphlet What Is to Be Done? (1902). By the time of the Second Congress of the RSDLP in 1903 these had been formalised into a disciplined and conspiratorial party structure and an acceleration of the process of revolutionary change. The moderate tendency within the RSDLP, led by Martov, favoured a more open, democratic and evolutionary role for Russian Marxism.
