ls: offensive against the Central Powers and democratic reorganization of the military command. Kerensky’s “Declaration of Soldiers Rights” included the appointment of commissars in the army to handle soldiers councils, but the councils issued orders contradicting the commanders and thus undermined the officer corps. Defeatist literature was distributed on a massive scale by radical socialists and Bolshevik agents. The Russian army began to mutiny. The Bolsheviks thoroughly expected the Provisional Government to meet their demands for an end to Russia’s involvement in WW1, distribution of lands to the peasants and reduction in factory labor hours and bread. The Provisional Government under Kerenski flatly refused. They had entered into a series of treaties with Britain and France which promised Russia a warm water seaport and sections of Persia and Turkey if they continued to support the war effort.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 ...
