Probably the most important factor was Lenin himself. He was a driven man who believed that those who would lead the workers had to be an educated elite capable of doing things that an uneducated majority could not. He also developed a set of beliefs that would appeal to the working class.
The Bolsheviks did not have an ideology that stressed high ideals. They had an immediate programme for the time when they would attain power but had made few plans for what to do after they had gained power. In the immediate aftermath of getting power, the Bolsheviks promised that they would take Russia out of World War One and sue for peace with the Germans, they would redistribute land to the peasants and give them power within their rural communities and they would set up workers soviets in factories which would work to improve the working conditions and general lifestyles of those who worked in the industrial cities. Such a mixture of beliefs was genuinely popular in both urban and rural areas and it also ensured that the Bolsheviks appealed to the two largest social groups in Russia.
Whereas the Mensheviks were unwilling to force through events, the Bolsheviks were the opposite. Lenin believed that not even the masses could be relied on to move in the way he wished – therefore, the Bolsheviks had to be the party that initiated action.
To Lenin, practical issues were more important than the development of ideological theories. Whereas the masses could assist in practical issues, they almost certainly would not understand theoretical debate nor understand why time was being wasted on theory. Lenin always had one goal – to achieve his