ABSTRACT This study investigates the impact of factionalism on the survival of social movements under state repression. Shifting the focus from mobilisation to survival as the dependent variable, it proposes a theory that maximalist movements with high factionalism are more likely to survive repression than seemingly unified movements due to their capacity for resource and tactic diversification. Utilising the NAVCO 2.1 dataset, this research tests the proposed theory and evaluates two alternative explanations: repression severity and movement violence. Survival analysis and logistic regression models suggest that greater factionalism enhances movement survival, while repression severity and movement violence have no significant effect. These findings challenge conventional wisdom and highlight the potential benefits of factionalism for movement resilience. It discusses additional dimensions of repression and their potential interactive effects with factionalism to further elucidate the complex dynamics of the repression-survival relationship.