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Bolsheviki

Bolsheviki

9.9
People who followed Lenin and took power in Russia in 1917
  • noun
  • /ˌboʊlʃəˈviːki/
  • Archaic
translation icon : bolchevique
  • In 1917, the Bolsheviki launched a successful revolution that transformed Russia.

That's what Marx, and then later the Bolsheviks have in mind.

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Examples

  • And of course, in October, the Bolsheviks, after one attempt that failed, the Bolsheviks seized power.

  • And one of the things that the Bolsheviks did was clamp down on intellectual life.

  • At that point, all the burden of fighting against the Bolsheviks will fall on Poland.

  • After the war, after everything calmed down and the Bolsheviks were out of there, Japan started a new government.

  • But what I heard was the Bolsheviki traded some Finnish professors for the release of John Reed.

  • So Russians were starving, freezing and dying even after the Bolsheviks had taken control.

  • And this was the preparation of what became the coup, the October coup, when the Bolsheviks seized power.

  • The first issue of the Liberator was largely devoted to events in Russia and included Reed's "Red Russia - The Triumph of the Bolsheviki."

    Academic text (2002)
  • So there's a coup by Lenin's group known as the Bolsheviks against all the other socialists.

  • The Bolsheviki aimed to establish a socialist state following the overthrow of the provisional government.

Synonyms

Bolshevik
vsBolsheviki
3 9.0

A person who was part of the Russian revolutionary group that took power in 1917

is limited to party members who led the 1917 revolution not general radicals
Bolshevist
vsBolsheviki
9.9

A person who belonged to the Russian party that followed Lenin and took power in 1917

is about members who led the 1917 revolution rather than just following Lenin

Surface Forms

Bolsheviki singular
Bolsheviks plural

Morphology

Bolsheviki = Bolshevik (semi-transparent) = Bolshevik + i

The word is the plural of 'Bolshevik' using a Russian-style plural '-i'; the meaning is clear if the base is known, but the foreign plural ending may be unfamiliar to learners.

Etymology

Bolsheviki comes from the Russian word bol'shevik, based on bol'sh meaning 'more' or 'big', so it originally meant 'the majority'. Think of English 'big' or 'bigger' to remember that Bolsheviki were the larger, majority faction of the Russian party that led the 1917 revolution.