Editing Bolshevism (section)

==Support for the Bolsheviks by the people==
[[File:19190525-Lenin and bolshevik leaders on Red square.jpg|thumb|Lenin at the Red Square, 1919]]
According to the British historian [[Orlando Figes]], the opinion that the Bolsheviks were raised to the top of power by massive popular support for their party is not true and is a delusion. According to Figes, the [[October Revolution|October Uprising in Petrograd]] was a coup d'état supported by only a small part of the population. Figes explains the success of the Bolsheviks by the fact that the latter were the only political party that uncompromisingly advocated the slogan "all power to the Soviets", which gained great popularity in 1917 after the unsuccessful [[Kornilov affair|Revolt of General Kornilov]]. As Figes points out, in the fall of 1917, there was a stream of resolutions from factories, from villages, from army units, calling for the formation of a Soviet government. At the same time, the authors of the resolutions understood "the power of the Soviets" as the [[All-Russian Congress of Soviets|All–Russian Council]] with the participation of all socialist parties.{{sfn|Brenton|2017|loc=Orlando Figes. Lenin And the Revolution|p=160}}

Meanwhile, the commitment of the Bolsheviks to the principle of Soviet power was not at all so unconditional. In July 1917, when the Bolshevik Party was unable to obtain a majority in the Soviets of Workers' and Soldiers' Deputies, it "temporarily removed" the slogan "all Power to the Soviets!". After the October coup, during the so–called "[[Establishment of Soviet power in Russia (1917–1918)|triumphal march of Soviet power]]" in those cases when individual Soviets did not agree to become the organs of the dictatorship of the Russian Social–Democratic Workers' Party (Bolsheviks), the Bolsheviks did not hesitate to disperse them and replace them by emergency bodies – [[Revolutionary committee (Soviet)|revolutionary committees]], military revolutionary committees, etc.<ref>[https://www.academia.edu/4007881 Pavel Kostogryzov. Bolsheviks and Soviets: Dynamics of Relations During the Period of "Triumphal Procession" and "Strengthening of Soviet Power" (On the Materials of the Urals) // Problems of the History of Society, State and Law. Digest of Articles. 1st Edition. Yekaterinburg: Ural State Law Academy, 2013 – Pages 289–309]</ref>

Alexander Parvus wrote in 1918:{{sfn|Parvus|2017|p=107}}

{{Quote|The present Soviets terrorize not only the reactionaries and capitalists, but also the democratically inclined bourgeoisie and even all socialist workers' organizations that disagree with their opinion. They dispersed the [[Russian Constituent Assembly|Constituent Assembly]] and are holding on, having lost their moral authority in the eyes of the masses, exclusively with bayonets.}}

===Supporters and opponents===
[[File:Programme of the Russian Communist Party (Bolsheviks) approved at the 8th Party Congress (1919).jpg|thumb|200px|Program of the Russian Communist Party (Bolsheviks), 1919]]

The Bolsheviks were supported, although not without criticism of their political practice,{{sfn|Plimak|2004|p=189–198}}<ref>Some of the mistakes of this criticism were examined by [[György Lukács|Georg Lukács]] in his work «Critical Notes on the Brochure of Rosa Luxemburg "Russian Revolution"» // Georg Lukacs. History and Class Consciousness. Moscow: Logos–Altera, 2003. Pages 346–365</ref> by [[Left-wing politics|left–wing]] theorists in Europe, such as [[Rosa Luxemburg]] and [[Karl Liebknecht]].

At the same time, this political trend rejected the [[Centrism|centrist]] [[Social democracy|social democrats]], for example, [[Karl Kautsky]]<ref>[[Karl Kautsky]]. [http://revarchiv.narod.ru/kautsky/oeuvre/fromdemocracy.html From Democracy to State Slavery]</ref> and the extreme left supporters of "[[Council communism|workers' council communism]]", for example, [[Otto Rühle (politician, 1874)|Otto Rühle]]<ref>[[Otto Rühle (politician, 1874)|Otto Rühle]]. [http://www.avtonom.org/lib/theory/leftcom/ruhle1.html The Fight Against Fascism Begins With the Fight Against Bolshevism]</ref><ref>[[Otto Rühle (politician, 1874)|Otto Rühle]]. [http://revolt.anho.org/archives/267 The Main Questions of the Organization] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090524070802/http://revolt.anho.org/archives/267 |date=May 24, 2009 }}</ref> and [[Antonie Pannekoek]].<ref>[[Antonie Pannekoek]]. [http://www.left-dis.nl/r/apparty.htm "Party and Class"]</ref> The answer to the extreme leftist criticism was given by Lenin in the brochure "Childhood Illness of "Leftism" in Communism", in turn [[Antonie Pannekoek]] answered to Vladimir Lenin in the work "World Revolution and Communist Tactics".

In the 1920s and 1930s, the [[Left Opposition]] to [[Joseph Stalin|Stalin]] adopted the self–designation "[[Bolsheviks|Bolshevik]]–[[Leninism|Leninists]]", thereby emphasizing its continuity with the revolutionary tradition as opposed to [[Thermidor]]ian [[Stalinism]]. After the [[Great Purge|political trials of the 1930s]], most of the "Leninist Guards" were [[Political repression|repressed]]. Proceeding from this, there is an opinion that Bolshevism as a phenomenon has left the historical scene:<ref name="Tarasov"/>
{{quote|...[Stalin] managed to destroy almost all of [[Vladimir Lenin|Lenin]]'s comrades–in–arms in [[Soviet Union|Russia]], becoming by 1928–1939 "the Russian Bonaparte–[[Maximilien Robespierre|Robespierre]]" in the country, "especially double types of cultures of the [[Feudalism|pre–bourgeois order]], that is, the cultures of the [[Chinovnik|bureaucratic]], [[serfdom]]" (and [[Terrorism|terrorist]] – we add), which [[Vladimir Lenin|Lenin]] feared so much, grew up in the country.<ref>Vladimir Lenin. Full Composition of Writings. Volume 45. Pages 389</ref>{{sfn|Plimak|2004|p=289}}}}

But on the other hand, a number of scientists are of the opinion that Bolshevism has undergone changes over time, and as a phenomenon, it ended only in the early 1990s.<ref name="ioffe">Heinrich Ioffe. [http://www.nkj.ru/archive/articles/1345/ The Rise and Fall of Bolshevism]</ref>

Some modern scholars agree that Bolshevism:

{{Quote|...was a desperate attempt to escape from the world of the [[Bourgeoisie|bourgeois]] and [[Burgher (title)|philistine]]. (This, incidentally, refutes the assertion that Bolshevism is equated with [[fascism]]. Fascism, unlike Bolshevism, was based on philistinism – its flesh and spirit).<ref name="ioffe"/>}}

In Western political science, some authors analyze Bolshevism from the standpoint of similarities and differences with [[fascism]] and [[Nazism]].<ref>Zwei Gesichter des Totalitarismus: Bolschewismus und Nationalsozialismus im Vergleich; 16 Skizzen / Leonid Luks. — Köln [u.a.]: Böhlau, 2007. — 306 S.; 23 cm. — {{ISBN|978-3-412-20007-7}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.politstudies.ru/N2004fulltext/1991/4/6.htm|title=Archived copy (I)|access-date=August 23, 2020|archive-date=June 5, 2009|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090605215839/http://www.politstudies.ru/N2004fulltext/1991/4/6.htm}} {{cite web|url=http://www.politstudies.ru/N2004fulltext/1991/3/6.htm|title=Archived Copy (II)|access-date=August 23, 2020|archive-date=June 5, 2009|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090605221908/http://www.politstudies.ru/N2004fulltext/1991/3/6.htm}} Leonid Lux. Communist Theorists About Fascism: Insights And Miscalculations</ref>

According to [[Sociology|sociologist]] Boris Kagarlitsky, one of the central contradictions of the post–revolutionary policy of the Bolsheviks is defined as a consequence of the historically developed socio–political situation in Russia:

{{Quote|But events did not develop at the will of one person or even one party. Both Lenin himself and his comrades were already hostages of the revolutionary process, which was moving forward according to its own logic. To win in the struggle that had begun, they had to do what they themselves did not expect of themselves, to build a [[State (polity)|state]] that only partially met their ideas about what to strive for, but which allowed the revolution to survive and win.<ref>[[Boris Kagarlitsky]]. Marxism: Not Recommended for Teaching. Moscow: Algorithm, Eksmo, 2005. Page 55</ref>}}

In journalism, some authors also understand it as a synonym for extreme extremism, ideological fanaticism, intolerance, and a propensity for violence.<ref>The Latest Philosophical Dictionary / Compiled by Alexander Gritsanov – Minsk: V. M. Skakun Publishing House, 1999 – 896 Pages</ref>

===Social democratic views===
Bolshevism was criticized by the [[Social democracy|Social Democrats]]. Thus, the famous Social Democrat [[Alexander Parvus]] wrote in 1918:{{sfn|Parvus|2017|p=109}}
{{quote|If [[Marxism]] is a reflection of the social history of [[Western Europe]], refracted through the prism of [[German philosophy]], then Bolshevism is Marxism, emasculated by amateurs and refracted through the prism of Russian ignorance.}}

===Criticism and historical estimates===
According to the philosopher and linguist [[Nikolai Trubetzkoy|Nikolay Trubetskoy]]:

{{Quote|text=The positive significance of Bolshevism may be that having removed the mask and showed everyone [[Satan]] in his undisguised form, he led many through confidence in the reality of Satan to faith in God.|author="We and Others", ''Eurasian Times'', Berlin, 1925}}

The authors of ''[[The Black Book of Communism]]'' note:<ref name="BB1"/>

{{Quote|From the moment of its organizational formation in 1903, this party differed from all other currents of both Russian and world social democracy primarily by its voluntarist strategy of overthrowing the existing order and its concept of party organization – a rigidly structured, disciplined one, consisting of selected professional revolutionaries, parties are the antipode of vague mass parties, widely open to sympathizers, to the struggle of opinions and discussions, that is, the way the Russian Mensheviks and almost all European Social Democrats were.}}

Russian President [[Vladimir Putin]], answering questions in the [[Federation Council (Russia)|Federation Council]] on June 27, 2012, accused the Bolshevik leadership of betraying national interests – "the Bolsheviks committed an act of [[Treason|national betrayal]]..." as a result of which Russia lost the [[First World War]] – "...the result of the betrayal of the [[Council of People's Commissars of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic|then government]]".<ref>{{cite web|url=http://izvestia.ru/news/528739|title=Putin Accused the Bolsheviks of National Treason|date=June 27, 2012|publisher=[[Izvestia|News]]}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://izvestia.ru/news/528844|title=Honor the Losers|author=Boris Mezhuev|date=June 28, 2012|publisher=News}}</ref>