The word Bolshevik, an emotionally charged term in English, is derived from an ordinary word in Russian, bol'she, "bigger, more," the comparative form of bol'sho, "big." The plural form Bol'sheviki was the name given to the majority faction at the Second Congress of the Russian Social Democratic Workers' Party in 1903 (the term is first recorded in English in
1907). The smaller faction was known as Men'sheviki, from men'she, "less, smaller," the comparative of
maly, "little, few." The Bol'sheviki, who sided with
Lenin in
the split that followed the Congress, subsequently became the Russian
Communist Party. In 1952 the word Bol'shevik was dropped as an official term in the Soviet Union, but it had long since passed into other languages, including English.
