# Are modern Communist Parties still divided into Bolsheviks and Mensheviks? **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [January 25, 2025, 9:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-modern-communist-parties-still-divided-into-bolsheviks-and-mensheviks/1013398 "2025-01-25T21:21:52Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![rippingtons\_fan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rippingtons_fan/32/11767_2.png) [@rippingtons\_fan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rippingtons_fan)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2025, 9:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-modern-communist-parties-still-divided-into-bolsheviks-and-mensheviks/1013398/1 "2025-01-25T21:21:52Z")
Is Bolshevik and Menshevik still a thing in modern Communist Parties or are they obsolete terms nowadays? ---
**Author:** ![dolphinboy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dolphinboy/32/330_2.png) [@dolphinboy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dolphinboy)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2025, 9:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-modern-communist-parties-still-divided-into-bolsheviks-and-mensheviks/1013398/2 "2025-01-25T21:28:44Z")
It looks like the Mensheviks may be no more. According to the [Menshevik wiki page](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mensheviks), “Menshevism was finally made illegal after the [Kronstadt uprising](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kronstadt_rebellion) of 1921. A number of prominent Mensheviks emigrated thereafter. Martov went to Germany, where he established the paper _Socialist Messenger_. He died in 1923.” I think the Bolsheviks just became “Communists”. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2025, 5:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-modern-communist-parties-still-divided-into-bolsheviks-and-mensheviks/1013398/3 "2025-01-26T17:30:07Z")
Are there any modern Communist Parties, at all? ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2025, 5:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-modern-communist-parties-still-divided-into-bolsheviks-and-mensheviks/1013398/4 "2025-01-26T17:32:50Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > Are there any modern Communist Parties Certainly. [We have one in the U.S.](https://www.cpusa.org/). And, of course, several countries, including China and Cuba, are still run by organizations which title themselves Communist Parties – though one might argue whether they are still true to the original ideals of Communism, versus just being authoritarian governments. ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2025, 10:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-modern-communist-parties-still-divided-into-bolsheviks-and-mensheviks/1013398/5 "2025-01-26T22:48:54Z")
> [@rippingtons\_fan](#): > > Is Bolshevik and Menshevik still a thing in modern Communist Parties or are they obsolete terms nowadays? The Bolsheviks and Mensheviks were specific political organizations consisting of specific people. The weren’t philosophies. ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2025, 11:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-modern-communist-parties-still-divided-into-bolsheviks-and-mensheviks/1013398/6 "2025-01-26T23:12:36Z")
They stem from the Russian communist party conference of 1903. The two wings had different ideas, but Lenin’s faction won a majority. He immediately named his side Bolsheviks – meaning ‘majority’ – and the Mensheviks got their name from the Russian word for “minority.” The names stuck, even though the two factions varied as majority and minority over the years. The Mensheviks eventually lost out to Lenin and the faction was banned. Note that the terms only existed in Russia. Communists outside of Russia didn’t have that differentiation. ---
**Author:** ![DPRK](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/4491bb/32.png) [@DPRK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DPRK)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2025, 2:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-modern-communist-parties-still-divided-into-bolsheviks-and-mensheviks/1013398/7 "2025-01-27T14:10:30Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > Are there any modern Communist Parties, at all? Can you name some modern democratic countries that do _not_ have a communist party? If there is political freedom, that means they are not banned. Which is not the same as saying they are not going to splinter, merge, or necessarily get even 1% of the votes. ---
**Author:** ![Mops](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mops/32/16494_2.png) [@Mops](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mops)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2025, 7:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-modern-communist-parties-still-divided-into-bolsheviks-and-mensheviks/1013398/8 "2025-01-29T07:48:38Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > Are there any modern Communist Parties, at all? Sure. In fact it is only in countries calling themselves Communist that there is only one of them. In larger Western countries there are multiple ones, hating each others’ guts. For example in Germany on the federal ballot there is the DKP (that was loyal to the leadership of the CPSU as long as that still existed) and the MLPD (which argues that the Soviet Union deviated from the true path with Khrushchev). In my youth there was a multiplicity of Communist groups in Germany - Brezhnevites, Stalinists, Trotskyites, Leninists, Maoists, Titoists, Hoxhaists, also the ‘undogmatic’ i.e. unaffiliated groups. ---
**Author:** ![PatrickLondon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/patricklondon/32/4422_2.png) [@PatrickLondon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PatrickLondon)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2025, 8:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-modern-communist-parties-still-divided-into-bolsheviks-and-mensheviks/1013398/9 "2025-01-29T08:18:46Z")
> [@RealityChuck](#): > > Communists outside of Russia didn’t have that differentiation. Communists only became organised and labelled as Communists after the Bolshevik Revolution and founded the Communist International. Communist parties outside Russia were only founded from 1919/20 onwards. Before that, they were largely within the Social Democratic Party in their country, though these were starting to split, chiefly over attitudes to WW1. ---
**Author:** ![Spoons](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spoons/32/3141_2.png) [@Spoons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoons)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2025, 9:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-modern-communist-parties-still-divided-into-bolsheviks-and-mensheviks/1013398/10 "2025-01-29T09:20:31Z")
> [@Mops](#): > > In larger Western countries there are multiple ones, hating each others’ guts. In Canada, we have the Communist Party of Canada: [https://communist-party.ca/](https://communist-party.ca/) And we have the Marxist-Leninist Party of Canada: > **[Parti marxiste-léniniste du Canada](https://cpcml.ca/)** They don’t like each other much. In any event, they rarely get more than 10,000 votes combined, in a federal election.