The history of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union was generally perceived as covering that of the Bolshevik faction of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party from which it evolved. The date 1912 is often identified as the time of the formation of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union as a distinct party, and its history since then can roughly be divided into the following periods: the early years of the Bolshevik Party in secrecy and exile the period of the October Revolution of 1917 consolidation of the party as the governing force of the Soviet Union the Great Purge of the 1930s the Khrushchev and Brezhnev periods (1956–1982) the Gorbachev era of reform (1985–1991), which eventually led to the break-up of the party in 1991. The history of the regional and republican branches of the party does however differ from the all-Russian and all-Union party on several points. Nomenclature With its lineal predecessors and soi-disant heirs, the party used various names in succession: 1898–1912: Russian Social Democratic Labour Party – RSDLP () 1912-1918: Russian Social Democratic Labour Party (Bolsheviks) – RSDLP(b) () 1918–1925: Russian Communist Party (Bolsheviks) () 1925–1952: All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks) () (often transliterated as VKP(b) or sometimes VCP(b)) 1952–1991: Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU) () 1991–: various, including Communist Party of the Russian Federation () Formation of RSDLP(b) In January 1912, the Bolshevik faction of the RSDLP convened a 6th All-Russian Party Conference in Prague, in the absence of their Menshevik adversaries. Over twenty Party organizations were represented. In the eyes of the Bolsheviks the conference had, therefore, the significance of a regular Party congress. In the statement of the conference which announced that the shattered central apparatus of the Party had been restored and a new Central Committee set up is the following statement: "Not only have the banner of the Russian Social-Democratic Party, its program and its revolutionary traditions survived, but so has its organization, which persecution may have undermined and weakened, but could never utterly destroy." Moreover, the conference declared the Mensheviks expelled from the party. Thus the RSDLP effectively split, with the Bolsheviks and Mensheviks constituting separate political parties (Both groups would continue to use the name "RSDLP". The Bolshevik party added "bolshevik" to their name to differentiate themselves from the Mensheviks.) In its resolution on the reports presented by the local organizations, the conference noted that "energetic