WHAT IS A BOLSHEVIK?

Evening Post, Volume XCV, Issue 45, 21 February 1918, Page 11

WHAT IS A BOLSHEVIK?

Sir,—One of the interesting points which those who read the news telegrams now coming through cannot, fail to notice is the number of times changes occur in' the names of new parties or new movements as time passes. A striking instance, and one, fortunately, with an easy explanation, is that change in the title of the people at present dominating Russia. * At first the cables were full of the doings of the "Maximalists," and then, for some reason, which was not readily apparent to people out here, the name was changed to "Bolshevik." "Bolshevik" is derived from the Russian word meaning majority, and "Maximalist" is an inaccurate translation of the word into English. Again, the people opposed to the Bolsheviks have' been described, though not often,, as "Minimalists," and this again is an in- ' accurate translation of the Russian "Menshovik," which means nothing more \ lhan a member of the minority. The explanation is all the more interesting,, in that, besides giving a meaning to what appeared to be merely^ arbitrary titles, it directs attention to an anomaly. Recent despatches seem to show that it is the Mensheviks, and not the Bolsheviks'who are in the majority, though the latter, by reason of their having secured the seat of Government, and having a backing of a considerable proportion of the soldiery, have, for the time, succeeded in:, dominating a people who are beginning'to realise that, however alluring the doctrines of anarchy may be in the abstract, they are- exceeding bad bases for the erection of any stable form of government.—l am, etc.,

HOWARD O. J...WILSON; 19,611 February.