Atlas / Comparisons / Bolsheviks vs Jacobins
Bolsheviks and Jacobins
Measured distance across six axes
The same broad family. They agree within three points on CU, AU, SC, ID, CH. They diverge by eight points or more on EC.
Axis by axis
| Axis | RSDLP(b) | The Mountain | Gap | Reading | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| EC · Economic organisation | −09 | +01 | 10 | Diverges | Carries the disagreement. Any claim that these two are alike has to explain this. |
| CU · Social and cultural order | −05 | −06 | 1 | Agrees | Effectively the same position. Not what an argument between them is about. |
| AU · Organisation of power | +08 | +08 | 0 | Agrees | Effectively the same position. Not what an argument between them is about. |
| SC · Scale of decision | +07 | +09 | 2 | Agrees | Effectively the same position. Not what an argument between them is about. |
| ID · Rule of membership | −07 | −06 | 1 | Agrees | Effectively the same position. Not what an argument between them is about. |
| CH · Method and tempo | +10 | +09 | 1 | Agrees | Effectively the same position. Not what an argument between them is about. |
Each axis runs from −10 to +10; the distance is the straight-line separation across all six at once, out of a maximum of 49.0. How the scoring works →
The evidence behind the widest gaps
A distance figure is worth nothing unless the scores behind it can be checked. These are the artefacts supporting the axes that separate these two most.
RSDLP(b) · EC −09
Banks, land and large industry were taken into state ownership within a year of the seizure of power.
- Documented act or statuteThe Decree on Land abolished private landownership in November 1917.
- Documented act or statuteBanks were nationalised in December 1917 and large-scale industry in June 1918.
The Mountain · EC +01
Coded near the centre, which is the most counter-intuitive placement in the dataset and the most important.
- Documented act or statuteThe General Maximum of 1793 fixed prices and wages but did not abolish private property.
- Documented act or statuteChurch and émigré lands were sold to private buyers rather than held in common.
What this comparison does not establish
Proximity means similarity of stated position. It carries no claim about competence, circumstance, scale of operation, or what either organisation actually did to the people under it. Two organisations can sit close together and produce entirely different histories, because those things are not on any axis and could not be.
Bolsheviks
1903–1924 · Russia
A disciplined vanguard party seizes power in the name of the working class and imposes socialism from above.
Jacobins
1792–1794 · France
Republic of virtue, popular sovereignty, universal male suffrage, secularisation, revolutionary emergency government.
Distance is not the whole answer. Two organisations can sit the same distance apart for entirely different reasons, and the reason is the content of any claim about them. Open the comparison in the atlas to weight the axes yourself.
Open in the atlas