Mensheviks
Mensheviks in Russian history, one of two factions, with the Bolsheviks, within the Russian Social Democratic party. The Mensheviks, led by Julius Martov, were willing to work with other parties to achieve constitutional government for Russia. The Mensheviks believed a socialist revolution could not immediately follow the overthrow of the czarist government; they were willing to allow the liberals to create a capitalist but democratic government in the first period after a Russian revolution. Unlike the Bolsheviks, the Mensheviks wanted to keep party membership open to any Russian who supported Marxism.
Lenin labeled the group the Mensheviks (members of the minority) and his own group the Bolsheviks (members of the majority) after Martov's group was outvoted on certain issues at the 1903 party congress (meeting), although on many other issues Martov's faction had won the most votes. After 1903 the Mensheviks were in fact the majority group. When the Bolsheviks seized power in the Russian Revolution in 1917 and took control of the party, the Mensheviks disbanded as a political group, and most members left Russia or joined the new Communist (Bolshevik) party.