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FACTIONAL
DIFFERENCES
The essential
differences between the Bolsheviks and the Mensheviks appeared more clearly in
subsequent years, when an apparent agreement on a Marxist programme—the
overthrow of tsarism, the establishment of constitutional government, and,
finally, the overthrow of capitalism and the establishment of a Communist
society—resulted in wide variations in practice. The Bolsheviks supported the
immediate objectives only insofar as they led in the direction of the final
revolutionary aim. The Mensheviks, however, believing that Russia was not ready
for revolution, placed the emphasis on reform, especially the establishment of
constitutional government. Neither faction played a dominant role in the
revolution that followed the defeat of Russia in the war with Japan in 1905. The
workers' soviets (legislative bodies) were formed spontaneously, and Lenin
failed at first to realize their importance. Leon Trotsky, who, as chairman of
the St Petersburg Soviet, was the active leader of their revolution, was neither
Bolshevik nor Menshevik, but stood between the two factions, striving to unite
them. When, as a result of the revolution, a parliament, called the Duma, was
established later in 1905, the Bolsheviks preferred at times to boycott it and
at other times used it as a forum from which to agitate, whereas the Mensheviks
hoped to build the strength of the antitsarists within it.
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