Who were the bolsheviks and what did they want?
No, Bolsheviks were not peasants. They were a radical party that focused on urban areas. Bolsheviks were one of two strands of a larger party formed at the beginning of the 20th century–the Social Democrats. The Social Democrats were revolutionary and wanted to focus their energy on the growing urban areas. The Social Revolutionaries were the group that focused on rural land equalization. Anyway, The Social Democrats split– Mensheviks–softer on revolution, thought Russia could ease its way into a government much like some of the Western ideas of socialism Bolsheviks–harder on revolution. They advocated a “vanguard” — a tightly centralized elite to lead the workers to revolution. The main leader of the Bolsheviks was a guy named Ulianov (he is known to us now as Vladimir Lenin). Lenin found himself in exile, but the Bolsheviks continued, despite Nicholas II’s repression. When Nicholas abdicated and a provisional government was set up, the Bolsheviks were one of the many parties to
