Factions of the RSDLP

Throughout the history, there were a number of political factions within the RSDLP (Russian Social Democratic Labor Party), in addition to the major split of Bolsheviks and Mensheviks.

Bolsheviks and Mensheviks

Factions by political stand

• Otzovists (or Recallists) were a group of radical Bolsheviks who demanded to cease all participation of the RSDLP in legal state establishments, in particular, to recall the RSDLP representatives from the State Duma, hence the name ("to recall" is otozvat in Russian). Among the prominent Otzovists were Alexander Bogdanov, Mikhail Pokrovsky, Anatoly Lunacharsky, and Andrei Bubnov.^[1][2] The debates among Boslheviks whether to boycott the new constituency of the Russian parliament known as the Third Duma started after the defeat of the revolution in mid-1907 and the adoption of a new, highly restrictive election law. ^[1]

• Liquidators (Liquidationists) maintained that with the availability of legal participation in political life, the underground revolutionary party must be liquidated.

• Ultimatists were a radical faction of Bolsheviks which demanded that an ultimatum must be sent to Bolshevik deputies of Duma demanding them to be uncompromisingly radical. While Vladimir Lenin sided with them twice (according to Julius Martov's History), he eventually denounced them, dubbing them "liquidators inside out".^[3] Ultimatists controlled the St. Petersburg Bolshevik organization until September 1909.^[2]

Factions by leader

• Leninists - associates and followers of Vladimir Lenin.
• Trotskyists - associates and followers of Leon Trotsky. In 1917 Trotsky led a Mezhraiontsy faction, which merged with Bolsheviks-Leninists.
• Plekhanovites - associates and followers of Georgi Plekhanov split into Yedinstvo faction.

References