bolshevik means A Russian communist revolutionary, a member of the Bolshevik Party in the Communist Revolution of Russia in 1917.
bolshevik is pronounced /ˈbɒlʃəvɪk/.
Why “bolshevik” is a great word
A member of the radical, majority faction of the Russian Social Democratic Party, which seized power in the 1917 Revolution and later became the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. From Russian большеви́к (bolʹševík), from большинство́ (bolʹšinstvó, "majority"). Unlike "Menshevik" (the minority faction that favored gradual reform) or the broad ideological umbrella of "communist," "Bolshevik" names a specific historical weapon forged in factional struggle—the disciplined revolutionary vanguard that traded ballots for barricades. It is the leather-jacketed commissar arriving by sealed train, the red flag hoisted over a winter palace, the particular violence of believing history has chosen you for its acceleration—the word carrying always the cold smoke of 1917, when a slim mathematical majority became a monopoly on the future.
Etymology
Borrowed from Russian большеви́к (bolʹševík), from большинство́ (bolʹšinstvó, “majority”).
noun
- A Russian communist revolutionary, a member of the Bolshevik Party in the Communist Revolution of Russia in 1917.“Мы, большевики, утверждаем, что на нашей стороне большинство настоящих, русских, партийных деятелей.”
- A member of the Communist Party that ruled the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics.
Words closest in meaning
By meaning, not spelling — each word's AI semantic fingerprint, nearest first.
- bolshevism 92% match — The strategy used by the Bolsheviks in attempting to gain power in Russia. vs bolshevik →
- menshevik 89% match — A member of the gradualist or moderate wing of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party during the years preceding the Russian Revolution, when they split with the Bolsheviks; or a member of a later independent moderate-Marxist party formed in 1917. vs bolshevik →
- leninism 83% match — A political ideology developed by Vladimir Lenin that proposes the establishment of the dictatorship of the proletariat led by a revolutionary vanguard party, as the political prelude to the establishment of communism. vs bolshevik →
- apparatchik 82% match — A member of the Soviet apparat; a Communist bureaucrat or agent. vs bolshevik →
- dekabrist 82% match — Decembrist vs bolshevik →
- sovietism 82% match — Soviet beliefs or practices. vs bolshevik →
- chistka 82% match — A political purge in Russia. vs bolshevik →
- cheka 81% match — An agent of this organization; a Chekist. vs bolshevik →