המפלגה הקומוניסטית

Communist Party of the Soviet Union

1917-1991

Leading political and ideological organization of the Soviet Union

The Communist Party exercised all effective power within the Soviet Union, and, as the oldest and for a long time the only ruling Communist party in the world, carried heavy or controlling influence over the Communist parties of other countries. Marxist socialist thinking took root in Russia in the 1880s. Led by Georgii Plekhanov, a small group of Marxists formed (1883) the League for the Emancipation of Labor, stressing the revolutionary capabilities of the growing industrial proletariat. Other groups were soon founded, the largest of which was the Jewish Bund, and in 1898 they united to form the Russian Social Democratic Labor party. The second party congress (1903) in Brussels and London split the party into factions of Bolshevism and Menshevism. The Bolsheviks, led by Vladimir Lenin, demanded a highly disciplined, centralized, and dedicated revolutionary elite rather than a mass party.