Science and technology in Russia

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Shukhov Tower in Moscow.

Science and technology in Russia have developed rapidly since the Age of Enlightenment, when Peter the Great founded the Russian Academy of Sciences and Saint Petersburg State University and polymath Mikhail Lomonosov founded the Moscow State University, establishing a strong native tradition in learning and innovation.

In the 19th and 20th centuries, Russia produced many notable scientists, making important contributions in physics, astronomy, mathematics, computing, chemistry, biology, geology and geography. Russian inventors and engineers excelled in such areas as electrical engineering, shipbuilding, aerospace, weaponry, communications, IT, nuclear technology and space technology.

More recently, the crisis of the 1990s led to the drastic reduction of state support for science and technology, leading many Russian scientists and university graduates to move to Western Europe or the United States. In the 2000s, on the wave of a new economic boom, the situation has improved, and the Russian government launched a campaign aimed into modernisation and innovation with mixed success.

History

Main articles: Timeline of Russian inventions and technology records, Russian scientists, and Russian inventors

 

Mikhail Lomonosov, Russian polymath scientist, inventor, poet and artist, the founder of Moscow State University.

At the start of the 18th century the reforms of Peter the Great (founder of the Russian Academy of Sciences and Saint Petersburg State University) and the work of such champions as polymath Mikhail Lomonosov (the founder of Moscow State University) gave a great boost to the development of science and innovation in Russia.

Many famous Russian scientists and inventors were émigrés, like Igor Sikorsky, credited with the invention of the first helicopters, Vladimir Zworykin, often called the father of TV, chemist Ilya Prigogine, noted for his work on dissipative structures and complex systems (1977 Nobel Prize for Chemistry), economists Simon Kuznets (1971 Nobel Prize) and Wassily Leontief (1973 Nobel Prize), physicist Georgiy Gamov (an author of the Big Bang theory), engineer Alexander M. Poniatoff, who created the world's first rotary head recorder and social scientist Pitirim Sorokin who played an important role in development of sociology in the US. Many foreigners such as Leonhard Euler and Alfred Nobel worked in Russia for a long time.

Despite many technological achievements in the 19th and 20th centuries, since the time of Brezhnev stagnation Russia has lagged significantly behind the West in a number of technologies, especially those concerning energy conservation and consumer goods production. The crisis of the 1990s led to the drastic reduction of state support for science. Many Russian scientists and university graduates left Russia for Europe or United States; this migration is known as a "brain drain".

In the 2000s, on the wave of a new economic boom, the situation in the Russian science and technology has improved, and the government launched a campaign to encourage modernisation and innovation. Russian President Dmitry Medvedev formulated the top five priorities for the country's technological development: energy efficiency, IT (including both common products and the products combined with space technology), nuclear energy and pharmaceuticals. Some progress already has been achieved, with Russia's having nearly completed GLONASS, the only global satellite navigation system apart from American GPS, European Galileo and Chinese BeiDou, and Russia's being the only country constructing mobile nuclear plants.

Science and education

Main articles: Russian Academy of Sciences, Education in Russia, and List of Russian scientists

Physics

Main article: List of Russian physicists

The Russian physics school began to develop after Lomonosov who proposed the law of conservation of matter preceding the energy conservation law. Early in the development of electrodynamics, Vasily Petrov discovered the electric arc effect in 1802 and Heinrich Lenz discovered the important law named in his honor. Nikolay Umov discovered a fundamental concept of the Umov–Poynting vector and was the first scientist to indicate an interrelation between mass and energy, proposing the formula ${\displaystyle E=km{c}^2}$ as early as in 1873. Alexander Popov was among the inventors of radio.

During the 20th century, Russian and Soviet scientists were among the world leaders in physics. Alexander Friedmann was the first scientist to propose an expanding universe model in 1922 which greatly influenced cosmology in the 20th century. Georgiy Gamov proposed the theory of the alpha decay of a nucleus via tunnelling (1928) and was an author of the Big Bang theory. Dmitri Ivanenko was the first to propose the proton-neutron model of atomic nuclei (1932) and nuclear shell model (1932).

Nikolay Bogolyubov suggested a triplet quark model, introducing a new quantum degree of freedom (later called as color charge) for quarks and formulated a microscopic theory of superconductivity. Lev Landau made fundamental contributions to many areas of theoretical physics, and was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1962. Nikolai Basov and Alexander Prokhorov were co-inventors of lasers and masers, winning the Nobel Prize in Physics 1964. Igor Tamm, Andrei Sakharov and Lev Artsimovich developed the idea of tokamak for controlled nuclear fusion and created its first prototype, which finally led to the modern ITER project. Yevgeny Zavoisky discovered electron paramagnetic resonance, which plays an important role in studying chemical species. Zhores Alferov greatly contributed to the creation of modern heterostructure physics and electronics which find many applications in modern life: from CD and DVD players to fiber optic transceivers (Nobel Prize in Physics, 2000). In 2010 two Russian-born and educated physicists Konstantin Novoselov and Andre Geim were awarded with the Nobel Prize in Physics for their work in graphene, a material which may have important applications in electronics, aviation and medicine.

Kunstkamera building, the first headquarters of the Russian Academy of Sciences in Saint Petersburg.

A number of achievements of Russian/Soviet scientists remained unknown to general public due to security considerations or bureaucratic obstacles. For example, the first design of magnetic resonance imaging was proposed by Vladislav Ivanov in 1960 but was not realized at that time.

Mathematics

Main article: List of Russian mathematicians

In mathematics Nikolai Lobachevsky, a Copernicus of geometry, founded the non-Euclidean geometry playing an important role in modern physics. In the 19th century international recognition was also gained by such mathematicians as Mikhail Ostrogradsky and Sofia Kovalevskaya, the first major Russian female mathematician, responsible for important original contributions to analysis, differential equations and mechanics, and the first woman appointed to a full professorship in Northern Europe. Yevgraf Fyodorov was a founder of the modern structural crystallography (Fedorov group). After such prominent scientists as Chebyshev the Russian mathematical school became one of the most influential in the world and was represented by numerous figures greatly contributing to different fields of mathematics, physics and computing sciences. Chebyshev's students included Aleksandr Lyapunov who founded the modern stability theory (lately developed by such scientists as Aleksandr Andronov and Vladimir Arnold), and Andrey Markov who developed the theory of Markov chains, playing a central role in information sciences and modern applied mathematics.

At the beginning of the 20th century Nikolai Zhukovsky and Sergei Chaplygin were among founding fathers of the modern aero- and hydrodynamics and Vladimir Kotelnikov was a pioneer in information theory by independently proposing the fundamental sampling theorem. Andrei Kolmogorov, a leading mathematician of the 20th century, developed the foundation of the modern theory of probability and made other key contributions to broadest range of mathematical branches, such as turbulence, mathematical logic, topology, differential equations, set theory, automata theory, information theory, theory of algorithms, dynamical systems, stochastic processes, theory of integration, classical mechanics, mathematical linguistics, mathematical biology and applied sciences. Israel Gelfand is credited with many important discoveries in algebra, topology, mathematical physics and applied sciences. Sergei Sobolev developed the theory of Sobolev space which played an extremely important role in formation of modern mathematical views and introduced the notion of distributions generalizing ideas of Newton and Leibniz.

Such mathematicians as Lev Pontryagin, who made major contributions to topology and functional analysis and a founder of the modern optimal control theory, Andrey Tychonoff, who was the author of the "central theorem" of general topology, Pavel Alexandrov, a very important figure in topology of the 20th century, and many others made fundamental contributions to different fields of mathematics. Nine Soviet/Russian mathematicians were awarded with Fields Medal, a most prestigious award in mathematics. Recently Grigori Perelman was offered the first ever Clay Millennium Prize Problems award for his final proof of the Poincaré conjecture in 2002.

Astronomy

Main article: List of Russian astronomers

Chemistry

Main articles: List of Russian chemists and Pharmaceutical industry in Russia

Lomonosov was the first Russian chemist, among others he was the founder of the science of glass.

A sculpture in honor of Dmitry Mendeleev and his Periodic table in Slovakia.

Dmitry Mendeleev invented the Periodic table, that is the main framework of the modern chemistry, while Aleksandr Butlerov was one of the creators of the theory of chemical structure, playing a central role in organic chemistry. Vladimir Shukhov invented the first cracking method. Sergei Lebedev invented the first commercially viable and mass-produced type of synthetic rubber (polybutadiene synthetic rubber). Nikolay Semyonov made major contributions to explanation of the mechanism of chemical transformation (1956 Nobel Prize in Chemistry).

Biology

Main article: List of Russian biologists

In biology Dmitry Ivanovsky discovered viruses (1892) and Nikolai Lunin discovered vitamins (1881). Ivan Pavlov is widely known for first describing the phenomenon of classical conditioning and using it for studying brain functions. Ilya Mechnikov was a pioneer in investigations of the immune system (1908, Nobel Prize in Medicine). Alexander A. Maximow introduced the notion of stem cells. Alexander Oparin was a founder of the modern theory of origin of life. Nikolai Koltsov, a founder of molecular biology, proposed the idea of the molecular mechanism of heredity as early as in 1927 stating that inherited traits would be inherited via a "giant hereditary molecule" which would be made up of "two mirror strands that would replicate in a semi-conservative fashion using each strand as a template". Alexey Olovnikov suggested telomere hypothesis of aging which greatly contributed to the theory of aging and later was awarded with Nobel Prize (not shared by Olovnikov).

Electrical engineering

Main article: List of Russian electrical engineers

Nikolay Benardos introduced the arc welding, further developed by Nikolay Slavyanov, Konstantin Khrenov and other Russian engineers. Alexander Lodygin and Pavel Yablochkov were pioneers of electric lighting, and Mikhail Dolivo-Dobrovolsky invented and introduced the first three-phase electric power systems, widely used today. Oleg Losev is often considered as the inventor of the light-emitting diode (LED).

Medicine

Main article: List of Russian physicians

Economic theory and social sciences

Earth sciences

Main article: List of Russian Earth scientists

Vasily Dokuchaev (1845–1902) is credited with laying the foundations of soil science.

Vladimir Vernadsky (1863–1945) is considered one of the founders of geochemistry, biogeochemistry, and of radiogeology and deeply developed the concepts of biosphere and noosphere.

Linguistics

Main article: List of Russian linguists

Technology

Main articles: List of Russian inventors and Timeline of Russian inventions

Aviation

Main articles: Aircraft industry of Russia, United Aircraft Corporation, and List of Russian aerospace engineers

 

The Sukhoi Superjet 100 is the latest civilian product of the Russian aircraft industry.

 

Rostec headquarters in Moscow

The history of Russian aircraft engineering begins with a pioneer of aviation Alexander Mozhaysky who made his first attempt to fly in an aircraft (monoplane) of his own design as early as in 1881. In the 20th century a number of prominent Soviet aerospace engineers, inspired by the fundamental works of Nikolai Zhukovsky and Sergei Chaplygin among others, supervised the creation of many dozens of models of military and civilian aircraft and founded a number of KBs (Construction Bureaus) that now constitute the bulk of Russia's United Aircraft Corporation. A number of individual inventors also made important contributions to aircraft technology, such as Gleb Kotelnikov who invented the knapsack parachute, or Evgeniy Chertovsky who introduced the pressure suit. Theoretical works by Petr Ufimtsev played a critical role in development of stealth technology.

Famous Russian airplanes include the first supersonic passenger jet Tupolev Tu-144 by Alexei Tupolev, MiG fighter aircraft series by Artem Mikoyan and Mikhail Gurevich, and Su series by Pavel Sukhoi and his followers. The MiG-15 is the jet aircraft with the world's highest production in history, while MiG-21 is the most produced supersonic aircraft. Since the World War II era the Ilyushin Il-2 bomber remains the most produced military aircraft in history. The Polikarpov Po-2 Kukuruznik is the world's most produced biplane, and the Mil Mi-8 is the most produced helicopter.

Aircraft manufacturing is one of the most science-intensive high tech sectors of modern Russian economy and employs the largest number of skilled personnel. The production and value of the military aircraft branch far outstrips other defense industry sectors, and aircraft products make up more than half of the country's arms exports. The Russian aircraft industry offers a portfolio of internationally competitive military aircraft, while new projects such as the Sukhoi Superjet 100 are hoped to revive the fortunes of the civilian aircraft segment. In 2009, companies belonging to the United Aircraft Corporation delivered 95 new fixed-wing aircraft to its customers, including 15 civilian models. In addition, the industry produced over 141 helicopters.

Space technology

Main articles: Soviet space program, Russian Federal Space Agency, and Space industry of Russia

 

Mir, Soviet and Russian space station that operated in low Earth orbit from 1986 to 2001.

Roscosmos is Russia's national space agency; while Russian achievements in the field of space technology and space exploration are traced back to Konstantin Tsiolkovsky, the father of theoretical astronautics. His works had inspired leading Soviet rocket engineers, such as Sergey Korolyov, Valentin Glushko, and many others who contributed to the success of the Soviet space program in the early stages of the Space Race and beyond.

In 1957, the first Earth-orbiting artificial satellite, Sputnik 1, was launched. In 1961, the first human trip into space was successfully made by Yuri Gagarin. Many other Soviet and Russian space exploration records ensued, including the first spacewalk performed by Alexei Leonov. Vostok 6 was the first human spaceflight to carry a woman into space (Valentina Tereshkova). Luna 9 was the first spacecraft to land on the Moon, Sputnik 2 was the first spacecraft to carry an animal (Laika), Zond 5 brought the first Earthlings (two tortoises and other life forms) to circumnavigate the Moon, Venera 7 was the first spacecraft to land on another planet (Venus), and Mars 3 was the first spacecraft to land on Mars. Lunokhod 1 was the first space exploration rover, and Salyut 1 was the world's first space station.

Russia is among the world's largest satellite launchers, and has completed the GLONASS satellite navigation system. It is developing its own fifth-generation jet fighter (Sukhoi Su-57), and has built the world's first floating nuclear power plant. Luna-Glob is a Russian Moon exploration programme, with its first mission scheduled to launch in October 2021 (Luna 25). To replace the ageing Soyuz, Roscosmos is also developing the Orel spacecraft, which could conduct its first crewed fight in 2025. In February 2019, it was announced that Russia is intending to conduct its first crewed mission to land on the Moon in 2031. In April 2021, Roscosmos declared that it is planning to quit the ISS, and will create its own space station with the aim of launching it into orbit by 2030. In June 2021, Roscosmos and China National Space Administration announced that they are jointly developing a lunar base, which is planned to be utilized from 2036.

Military

Main articles: Defence industry of Russia, Rosoboronexport, and List of Russian weaponry makers

Famous Russian battle tanks include the T-34, a well-regarded middle tank design of World War II, and further tanks of the T-series, including the most produced tank in history, the T-54/55, the first fully gas turbine tank T-80, and the most modern Russian tanks T-90 and T-14 Armata. The AK-47 and AK-74 by Mikhail Kalashnikov constitute the most widely used type of assault rifle throughout the world—so much so that more AK-type rifles have been manufactured than all other assault rifles combined. With these and other weapons Russia for a long time has been among the world's top arms suppliers, accounting for around 30% of worldwide weapons sales and exporting weapons to about 80 countries.

The defence industry of Russia is a strategically important sector and a large employer. Russia is the second largest conventional arms exporter after the United States, with $8 billions' worth of exports in 2008. The most popular types of weaponry bought from Russia are Sukhoi and MiG fighters, air defense systems, helicopters, tanks, armored personnel carriers and infantry fighting vehicles. Aviation products make up about half of the country's arms exports. One of the industry's recent technological achievements was the maiden flight of the fifth generation fighter Sukhoi Su-57, which broke the United States' complete monopoly on development and production of fifth generation jets. The Moscow Defense Brief journal hailed the occasion as a major coup for Russia's defence industry, saying that:

{W}hile not America’s equal militarily, Russia is still a solid second in terms of defense technology, outranking both Western Europe and China and punching well above its economic weight.

Computing

Main article: Information technology in Russia

Sergei Lebedev developed one of the first universally programmable computers in continental Europe in 1950, MESM. The first ternary computer Setun was developed by Nikolay Brusentsov, together with Sergei Sobolev in 1958.

Automotive industry

Main article: Automotive industry in Russia

Niva was one of the first off-road vehicles gaining international success and is still exported to Canada, South America and Europe. KAMAZ trucks are exported to many areas of the world including Eastern Europe, Latin America, China, the Middle East, and North Africa and are persistent winners (ten times) of the famous Dakar Rally.

Railroads

Ivan Polzunov is credited with creation of the first steam engine in Russia and the first two-cylinder engine in the world.

Naval

Main articles: Shipbuilding in Russia and List of Russian naval engineers

Nuclear

Main articles: Nuclear power in Russia and Rosatom

The creation of the first nuclear power plant along with the first nuclear reactors for submarines and surface ships was directed by Igor Kurchatov. NS Lenin was the world's first nuclear-powered surface ship as well as the first nuclear-powered civilian vessel, and NS Arktika became the first surface ship to reach the North Pole.

Science and politics

Russian scientists must provide detailed reports to the Kremlin about their contacts to foreign scientists—even if these contacts are of private nature. This requirement includes even Russian scientists who work outside Russia. In addition, Russian scientists must inform the government about their plans to meet foreign scientists at least 5 days in advance.

Russia was ranked 45th in the Global Innovation Index in 2021, up from 46th in 2019.

Bolshevism

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Bolshevism (from Bolshevik) is a revolutionary socialist current of Soviet Marxist–Leninist political thought and political regime associated with the formation of a rigidly centralized, cohesive and disciplined party of social revolution, focused on overthrowing the existing capitalist state system, seizing power and establishing the "dictatorship of the proletariat".

Bolshevism originated at the beginning of the 20th century in Russia and was associated with the activities of the Bolshevik faction within the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party – and first of all, the founder of the faction, Vladimir Lenin. Remaining on the soil of Marxism, Bolshevism at the same time absorbed elements of the ideology and practice of the revolutionaries of the second half of the 19th century (Sergey Nechaev, Pyotr Tkachev, Nikolay Chernyshevsky) and had many points of contact with such domestic left–wing radical movements as populism. The main theorist of Bolshevism was Vladimir Lenin; besides him, the theoreticians of Bolshevism include Leon Trotsky, Nikolai Bukharin and Yevgeni Preobrazhensky.

In October 1917, the Bolshevik faction organized an armed uprising against the Provisional Government, formed by other (including socialist) parties and seized power (see the October Revolution).

Some researchers attribute to Bolshevik theory the program of Joseph Stalin, who headed the All–Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks) and at the same time possessed full state power in the Soviet Union. However, others (both Stalin's contemporaries and later) do not confuse "Bolshevism" and "Stalinism" proper, considering them to be multidirectional (revolutionary and thermidorian) phenomena.

The expression "Bolshevism", as well as "communism" later, has become established in Western historiography in the sense of a certain set of features of Soviet power in a certain political period. At present, the very name "Bolsheviks" is actively used by various groups of Marxist–Leninists and Trotskyists.

History

Bolshevism has existed as a current of political thought and as a political party since 1903.

— Vladimir Lenin. "Childhood Disease of "Leftism" in Communism" (Full Composition of Writings). 41 (Vladimir Lenin ed.): 6.  Text

The concept of Bolshevism arose at the Second Congress of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party (1903) as a result of the split of the party into two factions: supporters of Lenin and the rest. One of the main reasons for the split was the question of a party of a new type. In the course of work on the Charter of the Russian Social Democratic Labor Party, Vladimir Lenin and Yuliy Martov proposed two different wordings of the clause on party membership. Lenin – a party member is a citizen who recognizes the program and charter, pays membership fees and works in one of the party organizations. Martov suggested limiting the charter to the first two requirements. During the elections to the central organs of the party, the majority was won by supporters of the Leninist formulation, after which Lenin began to call his faction "Bolsheviks", while Martov called his supporters "Mensheviks". Although in the subsequent history of the Russian Social Democratic Labor Party, Lenin's supporters often found themselves in the minority, they were assigned the politically advantageous name "Bolsheviks".

As Lenin's biographer Robert Service points out, the division of the newly created party into two factions "plunged Russian Marxists into a state of shock". All but the extreme left Petersburg Marxists disagreed with Lenin's party policy.

At the Fourth Congress of the Russian Social Democratic Labor Party in 1906, the organizational unity of the party was temporarily restored. At the Fifth Congress, the Central Committee was elected, which, due to disagreements between the Bolsheviks and the Mensheviks, turned out to be unworkable, and the Bolshevik Center, headed by Vladimir Lenin, which was created during the Congress by Bolshevik delegates at one of its factional meetings, arbitrarily took over the leadership of the Bolshevik organizations of the party.

At the Sixth (Prague) Conference of the Russian Social Democratic Labor Party, held on January 18–30, 1912, which constituted itself as the all–party conference of the Russian Social Democratic Labor Party and the supreme organ of the party, almost exclusively Lenin's supporters were represented. By this time, the central committee of the party had virtually ceased to exist (its last plenum was held in January 1910), and the party found itself without an official leading center. In this regard, a Bolshevik Central Committee was elected at the Prague Conference.

In 1916, Lenin wrote his work Imperialism as the Highest Stage of Capitalism, which was a major contribution to the development of classical Marxism in the new conditions. In this work the thesis about the unevenness of economic and political development of capitalism in the epoch of imperialism was expressed and theoretically grounded, which leads to the conclusion about the possibility of the victory of socialism initially in a few or in one single country, which is not yet economically developed enough – such as Russia – provided that the head of the revolutionary movement will be a disciplined avant–garde, ready to go all the way to the establishment of the dictatorship of the proletariat.

Immediately after the outbreak of the World War, Lenin and his supporters advanced the slogan of the defeat of tsarism in the war and the transformation of the imperialist war into a civil war. It was with this that Lenin's criticism of the so–called "social–chauvinists", who supported their governments in the world war, was connected. Lenin viewed the civil war as "an inevitable continuation, development and intensification of the class struggle".

By the beginning of the February Revolution, the leading figures of the Bolshevik faction were mainly in exile or in emigration, and therefore the Bolsheviks did not take an organized part in it. The Bolshevik leaders who returned from exile, who, along with the Mensheviks and Socialist Revolutionaries, became members of the Petrograd Soviet, at first tended to cooperate with the Provisional Government. From the very beginning, while still abroad, Lenin insisted on the immediate break of the Petrograd Soviet with the Provisional Government in order to actively prepare for the transition from the bourgeois–democratic to the next, "proletarian" stage of the revolution, the seizure of power and the end of the war. Returning to Russia, he came up with a new program of action for the Bolshevik party – the April Theses – in which he put on the agenda the demand for the transfer of all power to the Soviets in the interests of the proletariat and the poorest peasantry. Faced with resistance even among the representatives of "theoretical", "scientific" Bolshevism, Lenin managed to overcome it, relying on the support of the lower classes – local party organizations, adherents of immediate practical action. In the course of the unfolding controversy about the possibility of socialism in Russia, Lenin rejected all the critical arguments of the Mensheviks, socialist revolutionaries and other political opponents about the country's unpreparedness for a socialist revolution due to its economic backwardness, weakness, lack of culture and organization of the working masses, including the proletariat, about the danger the split of the revolutionary democratic forces and the inevitability of a civil war.

In April 1917, the split of the Russian Social Democratic Labor Party was finalized. During a heated discussion at the 7th All–Russian (April) Conference of the Russian Social Democratic Labor Party (Bolsheviks) ( April 24–29), the April Theses received the support of the majority of delegates from the localities and formed the basis of the policy of the entire party. The Bolshevik faction became known as the Russian Social Democratic Labor Party (Bolsheviks).

The Russian Social Democratic Labour Party was renamed the Russian Social Democratic Labor Party (Bolsheviks) at the 7th (April) Conference in 1917. In March 1918, the party adopted the name of the Russian Communist Party (Bolsheviks), and in December 1925, the All–Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks). At the 19th Congress in October 1952, the All–Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks) was renamed the Communist Party of the Soviet Union.

In 1990, at the last, 28th Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, during the legalization of political platforms within the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, the Bolshevik Platform was formed, giving rise to several modern political parties and social movements.

Bolshevism and private property

Realizing the Leninist slogan "plunder the loot", the Bolsheviks en masse carried out a complete confiscation (expropriation) from the owners of private property, which they considered acquired through the exploitation of the working people, that is, the robbery of the workers. At the same time, the Bolsheviks never found out whether private property was obtained through their own labor, or through the exploitation of other people, whether the owners adequately paid for hired labor, what part of the confiscated private property the owner created with his own labor.

Bolsheviks and the Russian Revolution

There is an opinion that the Bolsheviks strove for revolution, regardless of the political situation and historical realities. This is how the famous Social Democrat Alexander Parvus wrote in 1918:

The essence of Bolshevism is simple – to ignite the revolution everywhere, not choosing the time, regardless of the political situation and other historical realities. Whoever is against is the enemy, and the conversation with the enemies is short – they are subject to urgent and unconditional destruction.

Support for the Bolsheviks by the people

According to the British historian Orlando Figes, the opinion that the Bolsheviks were raised to the top of power by massive popular support for their party is not true and is a delusion. According to Figes, the October Uprising in Petrograd was a coup d'état supported by only a small part of the population. Figes explains the success of the Bolsheviks by the fact that the latter were the only political party that uncompromisingly advocated the slogan "all power to the Soviets", which gained great popularity in 1917 after the unsuccessful Revolt of General Kornilov. As Figes points out, in the fall of 1917, there was a stream of resolutions from factories, from villages, from army units, calling for the formation of a Soviet government. At the same time, the authors of the resolutions understood "the power of the Soviets" as the All–Russian Council with the participation of all socialist parties.

Meanwhile, the commitment of the Bolsheviks to the principle of Soviet power was not at all so unconditional. In July 1917, when the Bolshevik Party was unable to obtain a majority in the Soviets of Workers' and Soldiers' Deputies, it "temporarily removed" the slogan "All Power to the Soviets!". After the October coup, during the so–called "triumphal march of Soviet power" in those cases when individual councils did not agree to become the organs of the dictatorship of the Russian Social–Democratic Workers' Party (Bolsheviks), the Bolsheviks did not hesitate to disperse them and replace them by emergency bodies – revolutionary committees, military revolutionary committees, etc.

Alexander Parvus wrote in 1918:

The present Soviets terrorize not only the reactionaries and capitalists, but also the democratically inclined bourgeoisie and even all socialist workers' organizations that disagree with their opinion. They dispersed the Constituent Assembly and are holding on, having lost their moral authority in the eyes of the masses, exclusively with bayonets.

Supporters and opponents

Program of the Russian Communist Party (Bolsheviks). 1919

The Bolsheviks were supported, although not without criticism of their political practice, by left–wing theorists in Europe, such as Rosa Luxemburg and Karl Liebknecht.

At the same time, this political trend rejected the centrist social democrats, for example, Karl Kautsky and the extreme left supporters of "workers' council communism", for example, Otto Rühle and Antonie Pannekoek. The answer to the extreme leftist criticism was given by Lenin in the brochure "Childhood Illness of "Leftism" in Communism", in turn Antonie Pannekoek answered to Vladimir Lenin in the work "World Revolution and Communist Tactics".

In the 1920s and 1930s, the Left Opposition to Stalin adopted the self–designation "Bolshevik–Leninists", thereby emphasizing its continuity with the revolutionary tradition as opposed to Thermidorian Stalinism. After the political trials of the 1930s, most of the "Leninist Guards" were repressed. Proceeding from this, there is an opinion that Bolshevism as a phenomenon has left the historical scene:

...[Stalin] managed to destroy almost all of Lenin's comrades–in–arms in Russia, becoming by 1928–1939 "the Russian Bonaparte–Robespierre" in the country, "especially double types of cultures of the pre–bourgeois order, that is, the cultures of the bureaucratic, serfdom" (and terrorist – we add), which Lenin feared so much, grew up in the country.

But on the other hand, a number of scientists are of the opinion that Bolshevism has undergone changes over time, and as a phenomenon, it ended only in the early 1990s.

Some modern scholars agree that Bolshevism...

...was a desperate attempt to escape from the world of the bourgeois and philistine. (This, incidentally, refutes the assertion that Bolshevism is equated with fascism. Fascism, unlike Bolshevism, was based on philistinism – its flesh and spirit).

In Western political science, some authors analyze Bolshevism from the standpoint of similarities and differences with fascism and Nazism.

According to sociologist Boris Kagarlitsky, one of the central contradictions of the post–revolutionary policy of the Bolsheviks is defined as a consequence of the historically developed socio–political situation in Russia:

But events did not develop at the will of one person or even one party. Both Lenin himself and his comrades were already hostages of the revolutionary process, which was moving forward according to its own logic. To win in the struggle that had begun, they had to do what they themselves did not expect of themselves, to build a state that only partially met their ideas about what to strive for, but which allowed the revolution to survive and win.

In journalism, some authors also understand it as a synonym for extreme extremism, ideological fanaticism, intolerance, and a propensity for violence.

Social democratic views

Bolshevism was criticized by the Social Democrats. Thus, the famous Social Democrat Alexander Parvus wrote in 1918:

If Marxism is a reflection of the social history of Western Europe, refracted through the prism of German philosophy, then Bolshevism is Marxism, emasculated by amateurs and refracted through the prism of Russian ignorance.

Criticism and historical estimates

• According to the philosopher and linguist Nikolay Trubetskoy:

The positive significance of Bolshevism may be that having removed the mask and showed everyone Satan in his undisguised form, he led many through confidence in the reality of Satan to faith in God.

— "We and Others", Eurasian Times, Berlin, 1925

• The authors of The Black Book of Communism note:

From the moment of its organizational formation in 1903, this party differed from all other currents of both Russian and world social democracy primarily by its voluntarist strategy of overthrowing the existing order and its concept of party organization – a rigidly structured, disciplined one, consisting of selected professional revolutionaries, parties are the antipode of vague mass parties, widely open to sympathizers, to the struggle of opinions and discussions, that is, the way the Russian Mensheviks and almost all European Social Democrats were.

• Russian President Vladimir Putin, answering questions in the Federation Council on June 27, 2012, accused the Bolshevik leadership of betraying national interests – "the Bolsheviks committed an act of national betrayal..." as a result of which Russia lost the First World War – "...the result of the betrayal of the then government".