The Old Bolsheviks (), also called the Old Bolshevik Guard or Old Party Guard, were members of the Bolshevik faction of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party prior to the October Revolution of 1917. Many Old Bolsheviks became leading politicians and bureaucrats in the Soviet Union and the ruling Communist Party. While some died over the years from natural causes, many were removed from power, imprisoned in gulags or executed by the late 1930s, as a result of the Great Purge by Joseph Stalin.
Initially, the term "Old Bolshevik" referred to Bolsheviks who joined the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party before 1905. On February 13, 1922, under the chairmanship of the Old Bolshevik historian Mikhail Olminsky, the at the Istpart (Commission on the Study of the History of the October Revolution and RCP(b)) was established. The first Statute required membership before January 1, 1905, with admission in some cases of other Social Democrats with the same career time who later joined the Bolsheviks. Initially there were 64 members. Later it was renamed the All-Union Society. The 1931 Statute had a requirement of a continuous party membership of at least 18 years, with exceptions to be granted by the Society Presidium (approved by the Society Council). By 1934, there were over 2,000 members. The All-Union Society was self-dissolved in 1935, announcing that "it has completed its tasks". Vladimir Lenin wrote about the "enormous, undivided authority of that thinnest layer, which can be called the old party guard". Old Bolsheviks that were part of Lenin's inner circle or directly worked with him formed a sub-designation known as the "Lenin Guard" (, ).
Vadim Rogovin cites the statistics published by the 13th Congress of the Russian Communist Party (Bolsheviks) that, in 1924, of 600,000 Party members, 0.6% joined before 1905, 2% joined in 1906âÂÂ1916 and less than 9% joined in 1917.
By the end of the Russian Revolution in 1923, Old Bolsheviks filled many of the powerful positions in the state apparatus of the Soviet Union, its constituent republics, and the ruling All-Union Communist Party. Stalin, himself an Old Bolshevik, feared that Old Bolsheviks were potential usurpers who could use their prestige to depose him. Stalin used the assassination of Sergei Kirov in 1934 as a pretext to purge the party and removed a large part of the surviving Old Bolsheviks from positions of power during the Great Purge from 1936 to 1938. Purged Old Bolsheviks were condemned in a series of show trials such as the Moscow Trials, and then executed for treason or imprisoned the Gulag system of labor camps. By 1938, the number of Old Bolsheviks who remained in power (other than Stalin himself) was small, and the vacant positions were filled by a younger generation of party members who were considered to be more loyal to Stalin himself.
In his memoirs, Nikita Khrushchev argued that Stalin's widespread purges of the "most advanced nucleus of people" among the Old Bolsheviks and leading figures in the military and scientific fields had "undoubtedly" weakened the nation.
Various things in the Soviet Union had the name Old Bolshevik, such as a publishing house, several steamships, motorboats, kolkhozes and populated places.
This list lists Old Bolsheviks according to the original definition, i.e., those who joined the Bolshevik faction before 1 January 1905.