Describe the history of the Socialist Movement in Russia.
Answer:
In 1898, the Russian Social Democratic Workers Party was formed on the lines of Karl Marx. Some socialists formed the Socialists Revolutionary Party in 1900, to struggle for peasants’ rights and demanded that land belonging to nobles be transferred to peasants. Lenin felt that these were peasants who were poor as well as rich, so they could not all be a part of the socialist movement. Lenin, who formed the Bolshevik group felt that in a society like Tsarist Russia, party should be disciplined and should control its members number and quality, whereas Mensheviks thought that the party should be open to all. The party was divided over the strategy of organisation, Bolsheviks and Mensheviks. Bolsheviks were led by Lenin and Mensheviks by Kerensky.