The advent of socialist ideas was also an important factor in Guria. It was noted by Grigory Aleksinsky, a Bolshevik active during the republic's existence, as "a citadel of Menshevism." Many of the leading Georgian Mensheviks, the leading faction of the Georgian Social Democrats, came from Guria; nearly 30 per cent of the Georgian delegates at the Fifth Party Congress in 1907 were from the region. Several leading Georgian Bolsheviks, the other main faction within the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party (RSDLP), were also Gurian, though the region overwhelmingly supported the Mensheviks. Many labourers who went to Batumi and Poti were exposed to socialist ideals, and participated in strikes and other labour actions led by the RSDLP; on their return to Guria they would expose the peasants to these ideas. In particular, after a strike action was broken up in Batumi in 1902, some 500 to 600 workers were forced to leave the city, with many of them going to Guria.