Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A member of the liberal faction of the Social Democratic Party that struggled against the Bolsheviks before and during the Russian Revolution.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • proper noun A member of the gradualist wing of the Russian Social Democratic Party during the years preceding the Russian Revolution.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun a Russian member of the liberal minority group that advocated gradual reform and opposed the Bolsheviks before and during the Russian Revolution

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Russian men'shevik, from men'she, less (from their relegation by Lenin to minority status); see mei- in Indo-European roots.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Borrowed from Russian меньшевик (men'ševik), formed on Russian меньше (men'še), the comparative of малый (malyj, "little").

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