When shit hits the fan people will grant legitimacy and favor to whoever is actually getting their hands dirty and who clearly want to win by any means.
The Bolsheviks were robbing trains and kidnapping politicians. When shit hit the fan everyone flocked to them, not the liberal optics Mensheviks and other socialist parties.
If the Bolsheviks had caved and listened to these so-called “Marxists” then they would just be another delegitimized neutered party like the rest. To the extent they cared about “optics” and PR, they made it clear they were fully in opposition to all bourgeois parties of the state and highlighted their differences.
When shit hits the fan people will grant legitimacy and favor to whoever is actually getting their hands dirty and who clearly want to win by any means.
The Bolsheviks were robbing trains and kidnapping politicians. When shit hit the fan everyone flocked to them, not the liberal optics Mensheviks and other socialist parties.
If the Bolsheviks had caved and listened to these so-called “Marxists” then they would just be another delegitimized neutered party like the rest. To the extent they cared about “optics” and PR, they made it clear they were fully in opposition to all bourgeois parties of the state and highlighted their differences.