A picture of Lenin at about 39 years of age.

For a short biography of Lenin go to Biography.com

Lenin

By P.C.

On the Volga

It seems fitting that a man who would change Russian history forever would be born and live on the Volga River. The Volga River is considered the heart and soul of the Russian people. This was the birth place of the future leader of the Russian Revolution and the heart of the Communist Russia that would change the face of the 20th world forever and almost lead to the destruction of the entire world. This man was Vladimir Lenin. Lenin was born the town of Simbirsk near the Volga. Originally his name was Vladimir Ulyanov, the third of six children born to an educational director who opened 450 public schools and tutored countless poor and remedial students who wouldn’t have normally had the attention. Vladimir was a short, loud and chubby child. He was a born leader that always seemed to starting a game or playing war. According to Elyse Topalian, he always played Abraham Lincoln giving orders to generals Grant and Sherman (11). Lenin was a very good student. Also according to Topalian, he achieved all fives on his report card except for logic (a five is equivalent of an A) (12). Lenin’s family also had a massive collection of books in their library at home. This contained not only Russian standards; it also contained standards of world literature. This learning environment definitely stimulated Lenin and helped his thirst for knowledge that led him to revolutionary writings.

Lenin's role model

Lenin’s radical path started when his brother Alex renounced his faith in the Russian Orthodox Church much to the dismay to his father, a devout Russian Orthodox. Soon after that Vladimir adopted his brother’s atheistic philosophies. After his father’s death Vladimir’s idolization of his brother grew; more and more, Lenin was becoming a revolutionary (a sharp contrast to his studious past).To understand some of the ways that Lenin became a revolutionary, one must understand his brother’s revolutionary ventures. Olivia Coolidge wrote, “Yet it is our first glimpse of the nature of the man who was to come that he made no vow to revenge the death of his childhood hero” (30). His brother became involved in student protest and meetings. He eventually became a terrorist for the People’s Will Party. Some of the party’s desires were free popular elections, equal rights for all citizens, nationalization of land and industry, free education, and freedom for all political prisoners. Their target was Czar Alexander III (the same party had killed Alexander II), they failed and his brother was hanged. According to Coolidge, Vladimir then took up the mantle of revolutionary, supposedly uttering the words, “Well, then we shall not take that road. We shall take a different road” (30)

Revolutionary Beginnings

ccording to Coolidge, Vladimir then took up the mantle of revolutionary, supposedly uttering the words, “Well, then we shall not take that road. We shall take a different road” (30).He enrolled in Kazan University (where his father had gone to college) and studied law. He attended anti-government rallies, was elected to a committee of students who petitioned the provincial leader and was kicked out. He still graduated and started practicing law in the town of Samara. Here, according to Coolidge, he started to study under members of the People’s Will Party, who had recently returned from Siberian exile (31). Coolidge also wrote that after the party split apart, the void in Lenin’s life was filled by Marx. Lenin’s thirst for learning and solid learning methods made it easy for him to soak up the information that Marxian works had given to him. Furthermore, according to Coolidge, Lenin felt too big for the small town of Samara. He felt that St. Petersburg was the right place for him to go (32). While in St. Petersburg his first writing, a review of an article, was spread through the city and a young girl named Nadezhda Krupskaya read it. She was supposedly very impressed and desired to meet him. They met and began a long, professional and personal relationship.

The Spark

Then his career started (with the help of Nadezhda). He helped many workers study Marxian works, laying the ground work for a mass movement. He also had some competition with the Populist Party (although it focused on the peasants not the working class). Coolidge notes that the government was far more worried about the Populists and this helped the Marxists gain some momentum without tough scrutiny (33). During this time, he circulated several small pamphlets to factory workers. Then, he started writing his first major work, The Worker’s Cause. The authorities stopped the production and arrested Lenin. It was deemed too revolutionary and printing had to be stopped. He was exiled to Siberia for three years. Soon after, Krupskaya was arrested and finagled her way into being exiled with Lenin. They married each other in Siberia. Meanwhile, abroad in Germany the socialist controlled government was passing laws that were leading some (like revisionist author Bernstein, who wrote Evolutionary Socialism) to believe that a peaceful revolution could be accomplished. According to Coolidge, Lenin was infuriated and increasingly impatient. He followed Marx who thought true socialism was only possible with a violent revolution (36). He was released from Siberia and permitted to leave the country were he started his important magazine The Spark. Coolidge adds “The most difficult problem [. . . ] was a disagreement with the leading Marxist exiles, particularly Plekanov, which nearly wrecked the paper before it began” (37). This paper did exactly what it intended to do. It created a stronger Marxist party in Russia and along with one of his most important works, What’s to Be Done, created a strong following among the workers in Russia. He began working under the pseudonym that would stick, Lenin. He had always used a myriad of pseudonyms while working on his writings; after he started using Lenin those others were discarded. Lenin was slowly becoming a force in Marxian circles and was mentioned along with other famous Marxists. In exile Lenin met fellow revolutionary Lev Bronstein, who became known as Leon Trotsky. According to Coolidge, Lenin saw the exact qualities he desired in a comrade in Trotsky and invited him on The Spark staff located now in London (40).

The Dawn OF the Bolshevik Era and the 1905 revolution

In 1903, the Russian Social Democratic Party met. They set up a constitution and a program. The Spark was in control of the movement (Lenin made sure of this). With a Socialist Church in London as the backdrop, Lenin set up the Bolsheviks as his side of the Party against the Mensheviks. The Mensheviks wanted a large member ruling party with more democratic ideals. The Bolsheviks wanted a small, well-disciplined, and elite ruling party. According to Coolidge, instead of comprising some of his ideals he split the party into the two aforementioned parties and effectively fired himself from The Spark that he helped create because this paper was controlled by the Mensheviks (53). Two years later, a mass demonstration had started in Russia with workers peacefully. They asked the absent czar for standard labor demands such as an eight hour day, minimum wage, no overtime, and a representative assembly. The military massacred the demonstrators in what became known as “Bloody Sunday”. Only Trotsky left for Russia (Trotsky had disassociated himself with the two parties). All workers went on strike, called for a revolution and had elected members of a soviet (or ruling body). The leader of the soviet Revolution in St. Petersburg became Trotsky and the other Marxists were still in exile. Lenin arrived too late and couldn’t prevent the Revolutionaries from being crushed by the middle class and the government.

The Final Revolution

The World War had very much hurt the rule of the Czar. The government led by a “miracle worker” named Rasputin (who used the Czar as a puppet for his political gain). In 1916 Rasputin was murdered and the Czar abdicated a year later. The Duma set up a provincial government led by Menshevik, Alexander Kerensky. Coincidently, Kerensky grew up in the same town as Lenin did. Lenin and the others needed to get back to Russia and succeeded with the help of the Germans. Some of the Russians did not like his dealings with the Germans and Lenin was not sure what kind of welcome he would receive. He received a hero’s welcome and completely ignored the ExCom (or ruling body) which was led Kerensky. Lenin met with the Bolsheviks at their headquarters and advised that the workers take the factories and destroy capitalism. He believed capitalism was supported by the current government, who was also to be overthrown. He said there should be a government ruled by the workers and a civil war must ensue. Lenin and Trotsky joined together. Trotsky‘s popularity could only help Lenin’s cause. The German socialists helped fund the Bolshevik’s cause and Lenin was happy to use the money. Even though he disagreed with their form of socialism, LeniN felt that intermingling with the Germans would help spread the revolution. The Petersburg Soviet swung Bolshevik. Trotsky became president and although he was publicly supportive of Lenin, they had a rivalry brewing. Kerensky was defeated and Lenin signed the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk with Germany. The treaty ended Russia’s part in the war; a war that Lenin had vehemently despised. It was also a war against Germany, who helped support the Bolsheviks during the Revolution. The Bolsheviks took over the right wing and left the capital. Lenin took power and moved the capital to Moscow were he eliminated the opposition, by killing them, exiling them or forcing them to switch parties. He organized the terrorist Cheka, abolished the police and developed a very tyrannical government which took control of everything. Religion was denied, industry was taken over, banks were nationalized, tribunals instead of courts were installed, marriage was downgraded, and divorces were easily received. Lenin skewed Marx’s ideas to fit his ideas the best. As Coolidge remarks , he changed the words of Marx “dictatorship of the proletariat” to “dictatorship for the proletariat”( 96 ). Coolidge further remarked that Lenin was much more pragmatic, than Marx. Lenin realized that true communism would never be achieved the way Marx had wanted it. So he used Marx as a rallying cry, even though some of Lenin’s ideas were his own spin on Marxism (95-96). The post revolutionary world was very harsh and poor. Lenin was more totalitarian than the Czar was.

The Succsessor

In 1922 Lenin had a stroke and many thought that Trotsky was going to be put in charge because as “The Soviet Empire” put it, “Trotsky was a brilliant writer and speaker who appeared to have the advantage at first. He had a more visible role as founder of the Red Army and as a spokesman for the regime.” However, Lenin recovered and Stalin along with others in the Government was determined to keep Trotsky out. Stalin had gained increasingly more control. Lenin despised Stalin. They disagreed on one major issue; Stalin felt that the rulings of the Russian soviet should stand for all soviets. Lenin believed in the “self – determination” of all people to make decisions. Lenin said in a January fourth, 1923 letter to the congress:

Stalin is too rude and this defect, although quite tolerable in our midst and in dealing among us Communists, becomes intolerable in a Secretary-General. That is why I suggest that the comrades think about a way of removing Stalin from that post and appointing another man in his stead who in all other respects differs from Comrade Stalin in having only one advantage, namely, that of being more tolerant, more loyal, more polite and more considerate to the comrades, less capricious, etc.

Comrade Stalin, having become Secretary-General, has unlimited authority concentrated in his hands, and I am not sure whether he will always be capable of using that authority with sufficient caution. Comrade Trotsky, on the other hand, as his struggle against the C.C. on the question of the People's Commissariat of Communications has already proved, is distinguished not only by outstanding ability. He is personally perhaps the most capable man in the present C.C., but he has displayed excessive self-assurance and shown excessive preoccupation with the purely administrative side of the work.

Lenin's Relevency Today

Lenin is also relevant today. He was responsible for many of the problems faced by the world in the 21st century. He was, in part, the cause of the nuclear arms race. The United States felt threatened by the militaristic Stalin (who succeeded Lenin). This was part of the reason why the U.S. drop the two nuclear bombs on Japan. This would serve a reminder to the U.S.S.R that the U.S had nuclear weapons and were not afraid to use them. These made the U.S.S.R increase the production of their weapons, which were already in development. This led to a chess match between the two countries. Both countries had weapons pointed at each other. Both sides had spies gathering intelligence on each other. No shots were ever fired directly between the two countries. However, Lenin’s model of government gave rise to many communist countries: China, North Korea, Vietnam, Cuba and East Germany to name a few. The United States did go to war with North Korea, Vietnam and almost with Cuba. The Bolshevik Revolution scared many in the capitalist world. After WWI, U.S. Officials tried to purge revolutionaries. After WWII, McCarthyism spread throughout the U.S. Many people were blacklisted as a result. The need for balance among the world powers, the U.S.S.R was one of them, led to the creation of the United Nations. The space program was a major part of the U.S.S.R. The Soviets were the first country in space and started a race to the moon, which the U.S won. All of these developments happened because of the Revolution and the succession of Stalin. The current North Korean conflict is a direct result of the Cold war nuclear arms race and the need for protection against the super powers. Osama Bin Laden was trained by the United States to defeat the Soviet Union. All of this happened because of the Bolshevik revolution.

more info on Lenin on Marxists.org

Revolution's Chronology

• Czar Nicolas abdicates - March 15,1917
• a provisional government led by Alexander Kerensky takes control - March 1917
• Lenin returns from exile - April 16,1917
• Bolsheviks seize control of government, Kerensky flees- November 7, 1917
• Signing of Brest-Litovsk treaty - Spring 1918
• Beginning of the Great Civil War between The bolsheviks (reds) and an opposition group (whites) - summer 0f 1818
• Bolsheviks are victorious over the whites - 1920
• Officially named U.S.S.R - 1922
• Lenin dies- 1924
• Stalin seizes complete power- 1928

My Sources

• Coolidge, Olivia. Makers of the Red Revolution. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1963.
• Lenin, Vladimir. “Letter to Congress” December 22, 1922 – January 4, 1923.March 8, 2003 http://www.marxists.org/archive/lenin/works/1922/dec/testamnt/congress.htm
• “The Soviet Empire”. 2002. March 8, 2003 http://www2.sunysuffolk.edu/westn/soviet.html
• Topalian, Elyse. V.I. Lenin. New York: Impact biography, 1983

This webpage created by P.C. for History and Thought of Western Man, Rich East High School. Last update, 27 May 2003.

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