“BOLSHEVIK” AND “BOLSHEVISM” derive from the Russian word that means “majority.” In historical terms, Bolshevik was first employed to describe people associated with a splinter group formed in 1903 within the Russian Social Democratic Labor Party (a Marxist organization formed in Minsk, Russia, in 1898), a group formed at the party's congress in London, England, when many of the organization's leaders decided to support the ideas of a young intellectual, Vladimir Lenin. Those in the party who did not support Lenin were known as the Mensheviks, or “minority,” and were led by Julius Martov. Arguably, the most famous of the Bolsheviks was its first leader, Lenin, a revolutionary heavily influenced by the work of Karl Marx. The term “Bolshevik” also has a derivative meaning and ...