PLEKHANOV, LENIN AND THE PATH OF RUSSIAN REVOLUTION
Thepresentpaperisfocusedon comparative study of the approaches to Russian Revolution suggested by Lenin and Plekhanov. Mensheviks shared the two-stages perspective on Russian Revolution. At the first stage the bourgeois-democratic society was expected to win, enabling Russia to overcome its lag in development from Europe. Only after capitalism in Russia would develop to the full capacity, believed Mensheviks, the preconditions to the Socialist Revolution in Russia will mature. Bolsheviks, on the contrary, departed from the idea of inability of the Russian bourgeoisie to secure construction of a bourgeois-democratic society. They recognized dependence of the bourgeoisie from tsarism which deprived it of an independent role in history. As a result, proletariat being at the head of the bourgeois-democratic Revolution, will be compelled to move to socialist changes by the objective stream of events. Lenin’s thesis of transformation of the bourgeois-democratic into the socialist revolutionwas proved by historical experience.