There were two main communist groups in the Russian Revolution: the Mensheviks and the Bolsheviks, each with their own interpretation of Socialism. The Mensheviks believed in the eventual establishment of Socialism and a long interval of collaboration between the bourgeois (class between middle and wealthy classes) and the proletariat (working class). They also believed that the party should have a broad membership including everyone who supported their views. However, the Bolsheviks believed that the bourgeois supremacy would be brief and that the proletariat would be propelled by the party towards the final stage of the revolution. Lenin argued …show more content…
When the Second All Russian Congress of Soviets was due to meet in November, the Bolsheviks decided that they would challenge the Provisional Government. Lenin returned to Petrograd from exile again in disguise. The total Government forces in the city were two thousand inexperienced soldiers and a women’s battalion against the over two hundred thousand Red Guards also in the city. By the next day, the Bolsheviks were in power, the war for Russia was over and the Russian Civil War was about to begin (Simpson, 1996, pg.