Julius Martov

Julius Martov (1873–1923) was a Russian Marxist revolutionary and leading Menshevik. He opposed Lenin’s Bolsheviks and spent his final years in exile.

Vladimir Lenin: Vladimir Lenin was a Russian revolutionary who led the Bolsheviks and the Soviet government after 1917. Martov’s longtime comrade became his chief rival over party organization and political strategy.
Russian Social Democratic Labour Party: The Russian Social Democratic Labour Party was a Marxist political party founded in 1898. Martov’s career unfolded inside the party that divided into Bolshevik and Menshevik factions.
October Revolution: The October Revolution was the Bolshevik seizure of power in Russia in 1917. Martov condemned the seizure as a political coup and rejected Bolshevik one-party rule.
Democratic centralism: Democratic centralism is a party principle combining internal discussion with binding collective decisions. Martov challenged Lenin’s centralized party model and its concentration of political authority.
Menshevism: Menshevism was a Russian Marxist political tradition that favored a broad party and a staged path to socialism. Martov’s leadership and arguments gave this tradition much of its political identity.
Georgi Plekhanov: Georgi Plekhanov was a Russian Marxist theorist who helped introduce Marxism to Russian political thought. Martov worked with Plekhanov in the émigré Marxist movement and its newspaper Iskra.
Iskra: Iskra was an émigré Marxist newspaper founded in 1900 to unite Russian socialists. Martov helped edit this paper, whose organizing network preceded the party split.
Russian Constituent Assembly: The Russian Constituent Assembly was an elected body dissolved by the Bolsheviks in January 1918. Martov opposed its forcible dissolution and defended representative socialist politics.
Vanguardism: Vanguardism is the view that a disciplined political organization should lead revolutionary change. Martov favored broader party membership than Lenin’s conception of a tightly organized revolutionary vanguard.
Social democracy: Social democracy is a political tradition pursuing social equality through democratic politics and social reform. Martov’s career connected revolutionary Marxism to debates about democratic socialist politics.

Linked from 7 pages

Petrograd SovietCompared with: His opposition highlights divisions among socialist factions represented in Soviet politics.