The Old Bolsheviks (Russian: ста́рый большеви́к, romanized: stary bolshevik), 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 Russian 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.