The Mensheviks In The Russian Revolution Of 1917

With the complicated development during more than ten years since its emerge in 1903, the Menshevik party had grown to a climax in 1917. Russian Revolution of 1917 broke out just when the First World War was being in progress.The attitudes towards the war among the Mensheviks partly affected their understanding on the Russian Revolution and the future of Russia. The war exacerbated all kinds of crises of Russian state. Workers and soldiers in Petrograd went into action spontaneously, with which February Revolution began. The Mensheviks promoted the eruption of February Revolution ,and welcomed the revolution. The Mensheviks established their dominant place in 1917 after the victory of February Revolution , and had indelible effect to the Provisional Government and the Soviet. With the deepening of the war and the revolution, Mensheviks firmly insisted on their traditional revolutionary theory and reconciled with the Provisional Government. And meanwhile,they became more and more distant from the requests of the people in the war. Being confronted with more and more critical society crisis ,the threat coming from radicals and the internal disruption state, the Menshevik policy lost its direction gradually.Eventually, the Mensheviks suffered failure in the elections to the Constituent Assembly held in November.Thus their final attempt to achieve their political ideal failed,therefore the Mensheviks fell into a slump from the summit, losing their leading position in the revolution.