The Bolshevik Centre was a select group of
Bolshevik
The Bolsheviks (russian: Большевики́, from большинство́ ''bol'shinstvó'', 'majority'),; derived from ''bol'shinstvó'' (большинство́), "majority", literally meaning "one of the majority". also known in English ...
s that led the organization in secret. The Centre conducted its activities in secret in part so as to avoid the prohibition by the
Russian Social Democratic Labour Party ("RSDLP") on separate committees outside of the RSDLP.
The Bolshevik Centre emerged from the group that ran the newspaper Proletarian. It was initially charged with the collection and disbursement of the funds for revolutionary propaganda. It operated illegally after the RSDLP dissolved it through a Central Committee joint plenum decision made in February 1910.
The Bolshevik Centre was headed by a "Finance Group" consisting of
Vladimir Lenin
Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov. ( 1870 – 21 January 1924), better known as Vladimir Lenin,. was a Russian revolutionary, politician, and political theorist. He served as the first and founding head of government of Soviet Russia from 1917 to 1 ...
,
Leonid Krasin
Leonid Borisovich Krasin (russian: Леони́д Бори́сович Кра́син; 15 July 1870 – 24 November 1926) was a Russian Soviet politician, engineer, social entrepreneur, Bolshevik revolutionary politician and a Soviet diplomat. In ...
and
Alexander Bogdanov. Other members included Viktor Taratuta,
Lev Kamenev,
Virgil Shantser,
Grigory Zinoviev, and V.A. Desnitsky.
The group was involved in the attempt to unify the Party funds in a wider move to consolidate the Bolsheviks. An account stated that Lenin dominated this group through his connivance with Taratuta, Manev, and Zinoviev.
There were instances, however, when the Bolshevik Centre contradicted Lenin. This was demonstrated in its actions concerning the newspapers ''Proletarian'', ''
Pravda
''Pravda'' ( rus, Правда, p=ˈpravdə, a=Ru-правда.ogg, "Truth") is a Russian broadsheet newspaper, and was the official newspaper of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, when it was one of the most influential papers in the ...
'', and the creation of a St. Petersburg newspaper.
References
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Bolsheviks
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