The hours were very long and the living quarters were overcrowded and deplorable with no sanitary facilities. Democratic Socialism was now favored by the majority of the people who wanted control over their own production in the factories. The concept of Marxism was recognized by the Russians as early as 1980. The first Marxist group was formed by Georgi Valentinovich Plekhanov, known as the “Father of Russian Marxism” in 1883. In the late 1800s, one of Plekhanov's most passionate supporters was Vladimir Lenin. Lenin admired Plekhanov as the founder of Russian Marxism and strove to master the revolutionary activity and party building Plekhanov had begun. In 1900, when Lenin founded Iskra, Plekhanov wrote for the paper, and jointly, they supported proletarian revolution backed by Marxist theory. Lenin formed another Marxist party, known as the Russian Social Democratic Party. In August 1903, the Social Democratic Party held a party in congress in London. This congress was significant not only because the entirety of the Russian socialist groups attended, but also because it marked the point of departure for the vital split among the Social Democrats into the Bolsheviks and the Mensheviks. Both the Bolsheviks and the Mensheviks were in agreement with their decision to overthrow Czardom, and to transform Russia into a democratic bourgeous republic. Their intention was to over throw it by a social revolution. They had great differences on the method used to achieve their goals. This revealed two opposing ideas concerning the personal that would make the social revolution. The Bolsheviks, were led by Lenin. Nicholas II became Tsar in 1894. He was involved in war with Japan, which ended with the signing of the Treaty of Portsmout, in 1905. Russia suffered gravely at the hands of the Japanese. This humiliation, joined with the intense unrest in Russia, forced Nicholas II to give in to some of the reformers’ wi...
