Menshevik Russia

[Falsetto]

Lets say that the Mensheviks take hold in Russia after the war, defeating the Bolsheviks in some manner. Maybe Lenin and Trotsky get hit by a train, or spontaneously combust, whatever.

What would a Menshevik Russia/Soviet Union be like? Would it's economy be at least semi-functional and basic human rights obeyed (I've heard a Menshevik Russia referred to as a "giant Sweden" somewhere)? Would it be sufficiently industrialized that it could wheather the Second World War, or it's functional equivalent?

 

[Maponus]

The Menshevik popular support base was even smaller than the Bolsheviks. They cannot come to power, at best they'll end up in coalition with the SR's. In effect, it'll just be the Provisional Government, lasting longer. They did, however, dominate an Independent Georgia before the Red Army attacked.

 

[MarkA]

The Menshevik popular support base was even smaller than the Bolsheviks. They cannot come to power, at best they'll end up in coalition with the SR's. In effect, it'll just be the Provisional Government, lasting longer. They did, however, dominate an Independent Georgia before the Red Army attacked.

The Menshevik base was larger in the Party before the split and much larger among the general populace than the Bolsheviks.

 

[Parma]

Bolsheviks were a minority, they were only called majority ( Bolshevik) due to the out come of some meeting.
In general they were regarded, even in the early 20th century, as the extreme left of the socialist movement, and for many socialist way too extreme in thier solution in elevating the labor class.
This extreme attidude was also their strength, they were utterly devoted and focussed on their goal. Victory by all means.

In many casses during revolutions the most extreme party come on top in the power strugle which is almost always inherent to revolutions like the Rusian or earlier the French (1st revolution) and later the Persian/Iranian.

The Menshevik made onebig error, and that is they continued the war, due to pressure from the Great Powers. Would they made peace then the Bolsheviks lost one of their main propagande tools and would never gained as much support as they did in OTL. But even then this fanatics would form a serious threat to any moderate Russian gouvernment.

It would be interesting to speculate how a Menshevik russia would look like.

 

[yourworstnightmare]

I think a safe bet for the Mensheviks would be to continue working with the Socialist Revolutionaries and form some kind of Left Wing Coalition (although I fear the SR would come to dominate that coalition).

 

[GiantMonkeyMan]

Could it be possible that the Menshevik and Bolshevik split not be so bitter and the two parties form a coalition of their own? In essence becoming a two-party Soviet State?

 

[Uriel]

As several posters allready said the mensheviks were the stronger party before the war.

The bolsheviks got strong only because people got more & more deseperate and they were the only ones promising immediate peace (though when the price it costed was made public this caused the Left -SR uprising almost killing the bolshevic regime).

I think the Menshevics would have had a better chance without an immediate revolution. Maybe Russia narrowly wins or the Tsar listens to Rasputina and abadons the fight. Or even better Kerenski stays in power and creates an republic.

Over time people will calm down and the radical bolshevics lose support, but the old esthablishment is irreperable damaged.

The SRs, fuzzy on anything beyond land reform and republic, might break appart, sell out or prove just plain incompetent.

The Menshevics could then take power either democraticly or through an later, less desperate revolution.

Ideologically they might develop either toward German style social-democracy or Nasser-like authoritarian development-socialism.

 

[david green]

The Mensheviks believed in a kind of passive Marxism IIRC - and therefore I think they would be looking to encourage further industrialisation in order to grow the urban working class and usher in proletarian rule.

Assuming the Bolsheviks were vapourised in some way, perhaps Russia would have followed a kind of Titoist path with workers co-operatives in control of the major industrial enterprises but a substantial petit bourgeous private sector being allowed to continue.

I could imagine Russia might still be a beacon for left wing socialists but would probably have a less interventionist role in European politics, and be less paranoid.

Of course we must remember the Social Revolutionaries were actually the most popular party - more popular than the Bolsheviks, Mensheviks or Conservatives.

 

[Dathi THorfinnsson]

Bolsheviks were a minority, they were only called majority ( Bolshevik) due to the out come of some meeting.

A majority on the staff of the party newspaper, IIRC.

 

[Hnau]

The Mensheviks were never in the position to 'take power' in Russia, they didn't think that way. It was the Bolsheviks who wanted to launch a coup, eliminate democracy and establish a dictatorship "of the masses". The Mensheviks, given all the ASB weapons and funding in the world, would ally themselves with other liberal parties and turn the country over to a democratic Constituent Assembly... in which case the Socialist-Revolutionaries would win most of the seats. The best case scenario for them is that they would form a coalition with the SRs and others favoring a democratic federation and take part in the creation of the new country.

The Mensheviks believed in a Marxist worldview but they believed that Russia had not yet fully experienced capitalism. They wanted to introduce a number of new labor reforms and after that let capitalistic democratic forces shape the country's future. They'd hand the country over if they gained power. The SRs, on the other hand, would most definitely work in some socialistic measures such as a re-partition of land to the peasants and giving more political power to local seats of government (the village council). I'd bet you that within 10 years of Russian democracy most of those "Mensheviks" would disappear into new liberal democratic parties. Those who led the Bolshevik faction would be left to reclaim the "Russian Social Democratic Labour Party" as a whole, but their base of popularity would shrink very quickly without the perils of the war and with a quickly-recovering economy.

A Menshevik Russia would last a year at best before it became a 'democratic Russia'.

 

[yourworstnightmare]

The Mensheviks were actually strong in Georgia, but quite weak in Russia, having a smaller support base than the Bolsheviks. But if they worked with the Socialist Revolutionaries, they might have been allowed to become a part of an SR government. An SR Russia would be interesting.