Posted by Murrisk on October 08, 2001 at 21:26:13:
In 1903, the Russian Social Democratic Party held its congress-in-exile in Brussels. The question of membership qualifications was hot topic and it split the party. Lenin (Vladimir Ulianov) with a slim majority seized control of the Central Committee and took the name Bolsheviki (those in the majority). Lenin gave the command for the start of the Bolshevik revolution on October 24, 1917. The U.S. and other western nations supported the Whites against the Reds in the subsequent civil war which claimed an estimated 8 million lives. Some 8,500 U.S. troops fought and lost in Russia before peace with its new shadows returned to that stricken country.
Lenin's older brother Aleksander, who was executed in 1887 for his attempt on the life of the tsar, described his reasons thus:- "Terror...is the only form of struggle to which a minority, strong only in terms of its spiritual strength and in its knowledge of its spiritual strength... can resort. There will always be small groups of men and women who are so dedicated to their ideas.....that it will not be a sacrifice for them to die for their beliefs". Some things don't change.