RSDRP

Abbreviation for the early Russian name of the ruling party in Soviet Russia and the Soviet Union – Rossiiskaja sotsial-democraticheskaja rabochaja partija (Russian Social-Democratic Workers Party.) The party was founded in 1898 and played a leading role in the October Revolution of 1917 that brought the Bolsheviks to power. After 1912, it had a reference to the word Bolshevik (“b” for Bolshevikov) in its name. In 1918, the party was renamed RCP (b).