Menshevik

Meaning

Noun

• A member of the gradualist or moderate wing of the Russian Social Democratic Workers' 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.

Origin

• Borrowed from Russian меньшеви́к, derived from меньшинство́, formed in turn from Russian ме́ньше, the comparative of ма́лый.