Alright, first off - the difference between the Bolsheviks and the Mensheviks was not the view that collaboration with the economic ruling class was futile. Left-SRs, Bolsheviks, and Mensheviks all agreed that cooperation with the bourgeoisie was unnecessary. Bolsheviks demanded a narrow ‘vanguard’ party, Mensheviks demanded an ‘open’ workers’ party, and Left-SRs desired a parliamentary democracy without anti-intellectualism.
Second, the Bolsheviks absolutely betrayed the revolution unless your view is that the revolution’s purpose was to create an anti-democratic terror state (yes, under Lenin, even before Stalin worsened the situation) which oppressed the workers and the peasants and dictated terms at the point of a gun. One might regard this, even, as the natural conclusion of a faction which thought that concentrating powers into the hands of a small number of people in total agreement with each other (as per ‘democratic centralism’) was core to the functioning of their ideal revolutionary government.
Third, the Bolsheviks changed their view on cooperating with the bourgeoisie with the NEP, so clearly it was not THAT important to refrain from collaboration.
Fourth, a tankie is someone who supports authoritarian states simply because they profess a purportedly-left-wing ideology, regardless of their actual actions or effects - like the Bolsheviks rolling tanks into Hungary in 1956 to crush the extremely dangerous and reactionary demand of (checks notes) workers’ democracy.
Fifth, every goddamn time tankies and other leftists ‘ally’ with each other, it ends with the MLs backstabbing the other leftists at the first opportunity - very often before the reactionaries are even dealt with, for that matter. Most of us are wary of volunteering for a bullet in the back of the head, and that’s all that allying with tankies results in.
Alright, first off - the difference between the Bolsheviks and the Mensheviks was not the view that collaboration with the economic ruling class was futile. Left-SRs, Bolsheviks, and Mensheviks all agreed that cooperation with the bourgeoisie was unnecessary. Bolsheviks demanded a narrow ‘vanguard’ party, Mensheviks demanded an ‘open’ workers’ party, and Left-SRs desired a parliamentary democracy without anti-intellectualism.
Second, the Bolsheviks absolutely betrayed the revolution unless your view is that the revolution’s purpose was to create an anti-democratic terror state (yes, under Lenin, even before Stalin worsened the situation) which oppressed the workers and the peasants and dictated terms at the point of a gun. One might regard this, even, as the natural conclusion of a faction which thought that concentrating powers into the hands of a small number of people in total agreement with each other (as per ‘democratic centralism’) was core to the functioning of their ideal revolutionary government.
Third, the Bolsheviks changed their view on cooperating with the bourgeoisie with the NEP, so clearly it was not THAT important to refrain from collaboration.
Fourth, a tankie is someone who supports authoritarian states simply because they profess a purportedly-left-wing ideology, regardless of their actual actions or effects - like the Bolsheviks rolling tanks into Hungary in 1956 to crush the extremely dangerous and reactionary demand of (checks notes) workers’ democracy.
Fifth, every goddamn time tankies and other leftists ‘ally’ with each other, it ends with the MLs backstabbing the other leftists at the first opportunity - very often before the reactionaries are even dealt with, for that matter. Most of us are wary of volunteering for a bullet in the back of the head, and that’s all that allying with tankies results in.