Menshevik - Wiktionary, the free dictionary

Borrowed from Russian меньшеви́к (menʹševík), derived from меньшинство́ (menʹšinstvó, “minority”), formed in turn from Russian ме́ньше (ménʹše), the comparative of ма́лый (mályj, “little”).^[1]

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈmɛnʃəvɪk/

Menshevik (plural Mensheviks or Mensheviki)

1. (now chiefly historical) A member of the gradualist or moderate wing of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party during the years preceding the Russian Revolution, when they split with the Bolsheviks; or a member of a later independent moderate-Marxist party formed in 1917. [from 20th c.]

   • 1985, Peter Carey, Illywhacker, Faber and Faber 2003, page 259:

     ‘Better an ultra-leftist than a Menshevik,’ said Rosa Kaletsky.

   • 2015 October 28, Ted Cruz, quotee, “Transcript: Read the Full Text of the CNBC Republican Debate in Boulder”, in Time‎^[1]:

     Let me be clear. The men and women on this stage have more ideas, more experience, more common sense than every participant in the Democratic debate. That debate reflected a debate between the Bolsheviks and the Mensheviks.

• Bolshevik