bolshevism
/ˈbɒlʃəˌvɪz(ə)m/
bolshevism means the strategy used by the Bolsheviks in attempting to gain power in Russia. It carries an Arena rating of 1171, earned across 150 head-to-head judged battles.
Among words judged in Lexicurio's Arena, bolshevism ranks #1,418 of 17,127 for Words That Escaped Their Books, #1,642 of 17,128 for Most Ponderous Words, #1,900 of 17,131 for Scariest Words, #2,474 of 17,104 for Most Storied Words.
bolshevism is pronounced /ˈbɒlʃəˌvɪz(ə)m/.
Why “bolshevism” is a great word
BOLSHEVISM — [Noun] The revolutionary Marxist-Leninist political ideology and strategy of the Bolshevik faction, which became the governing doctrine of the Soviet Union. From Russian большеви́зм (bolʹševízm), from большинство (bolʹšinstvo, "majority") + -и́зм (-ízm, "-ism"), referring to the majority faction at the 1903 party congress; большинство is from большо́й (bolʹšój, "great, large") + -ство (-stvo, noun-forming suffix). First recorded in English use c. 1917. Unlike "Menshevism," its gradualist rival within Russian socialism, or the broader theoretical field of "Marxism," Bolshevism is the doctrine of the disciplined vanguard seizing history by its throat. It is the smell of printer’s ink on clandestine pamphlets, the frozen breath of orators on Petrograd street corners, and the relentless, bureaucratic machinery that replaced the Tsar’s eagles with red stars. A political theory born from a claim to represent the many inevitably becomes the meticulous craft of the few.
Etymology
Borrowed from Russian большеви́зм (bolʹševízm, “Bolshevism”), from большинство (bolʹšinstvo, “majority, most”) (referring to the fact that the Bolshevik faction of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party won on the majority of the important issues at the 2nd Congress of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party in 1903) + -и́зм (-ízm, “-ism”, suffix forming the names of systems, schools of thought or theories based on the names of their subjects or objects). большинство is derived from большо́й (bolʹšój, “great, large”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *bel-) + -ство (-stvo, suffix forming a neuter noun, usually an abstract noun denoting a relation, social status, scientific discipline, quality or state) (from Proto-Slavic *-ьstvo (suffix forming nouns denoting a condition or state
noun
- The strategy used by the Bolsheviks in attempting to gain power in Russia.
- The Communist political ideology adopted by the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics; Marxism-Leninism.
Definitions & examples from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 3.0).
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