Vladimir Lenin

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Vladimir Lenin
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Vladimir Ilyich Lenin
Владимир Ильич Ленин
Vladimir Lenin
Chairman of the Council of People's Commissars
In office
November 8, 1917 – January 21, 1924
Preceded by Alexander Kerensky (President of the Provisional Government)
Succeeded by Alexey Ivanovich Rykov
Born April 22, 1870(1870-04-22)
Simbirsk, Imperial Russia
Died January 21, 1924 (aged 53)
Moscow, Russian SFSR
Nationality Russian
Political party Bolshevik Party
Profession Politician, revolutionary

Vladimir Ilyich Lenin (Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov) Russian: Влади́мир Ильи́ч Улья́нов, IPA: [vlʌˈdʲimʲɪr ɪˈlʲitɕ uˈlʲanəf], better known by the alias Lenin (help·info) (Ленин) (April 22, 1870 – January 21, 1924), was a Russian revolutionary, a communist politician, the main leader of the October Revolution, the first head of the Russian Soviet Socialist Republic and from 1922, the first de facto leader of the Soviet Union, and the primary theorist of Leninism, an extension of Marxist theory.
Contents
[hide]

* 1 Biography
o 1.1 Early life
o 1.2 Revolutionary activity, travel and exile
o 1.3 Return to Russia
o 1.4 Head of the Soviet state
o 1.5 Creation of the secret police
o 1.6 Assassination attempts
o 1.7 Lenin and the Red Terror
o 1.8 Russian Communist Party and civil war
o 1.9 Lenin's stance on anti-Semitism
o 1.10 Later life
o 1.11 After death
o 1.12 Censorship of Lenin in the Soviet Union
* 2 See also
* 3 Notes
* 4 Further reading
* 5 External links
o 5.1 Selected works

[edit] Biography

[edit] Early life
Vladimir Ulyanov (Lenin) circa 1887.
Vladimir Ulyanov (Lenin) circa 1887.

Born in Simbirsk, Russian Empire (now Ulyanovsk), Lenin was the son of Ilya Nikolaevich Ulyanov and Maria Alexandrovna Ulyanova. His father was a successful Russian official in public education who worked for progressive democracy and free universal education in Russia. The family was of mixed ethnicity, his ancestry being "Russian, Kalmyk, Jewish,[1] German and Swedish, and possibly others" according to biographer Dmitri Volkogonov.[2] Lenin was baptized into the Russian Orthodox Church.

In 1886, Lenin's father died of a cerebral hemorrhage, and, in May 1887, his eldest brother, Alexander Ulyanov, was arrested and hanged for participating in a terrorist bomb plot threatening the life of Tsar Alexander III. His sister Anna, who was with Alexander at the time of his arrest, was banished to his family estate in the village of Kokushkino, about 40 km (25 mi) from Kazan. This event radicalized Lenin, and his official Soviet biographies describe it as central to the revolutionary track of his life. It is also significant, perhaps, that this emotional upheaval transpired in the same year as that which saw him enroll at the Kazan State University. A famous painting by Belousov, "We Will Follow a Different Path", reprinted in millions of Soviet textbooks, depicted young Lenin and his mother grieving the loss of his elder brother. The phrase "We will follow a different path" refers to Lenin choosing a Marxist approach to popular revolution, instead of anarchist or individualist methods. As Lenin became interested in Marxism, he was involved in student protests and was subsequently arrested. He was then expelled from Kazan University for his political ideas. He continued to study independently, however, and it was during this period of exile that he first familiarised himself with Karl Marx's Das Kapital. Lenin was later permitted to continue his studies, this time at the University of Saint Petersburg, and, by 1891, had been admitted to the Bar.[3] He also distinguished himself in Latin and Greek, and learned German, French and English [citation needed].

[edit] Revolutionary activity, travel and exile
Lenin's mug shot, December 1895.
Lenin's mug shot, December 1895.

Lenin practiced as a lawyer for some years in the poor town of Samara before moving to St Petersburg in 1893. Rather than pursuing a legal career, he became increasingly involved in revolutionary propaganda efforts, joining the local Marxist group. On December 7, 1895, Lenin was arrested, held by authorities for fourteen months and then released and exiled to the village of Shushenskoye in Siberia, where he mingled with such notable Marxists as Georgy Plekhanov.

In July 1898, Lenin married socialist activist Nadezhda Krupskaya and he published the book The Development of Capitalism in Russia in April of 1899.[4] In 1900, his exile came to an end, and he began his travels throughout Russia and the rest of Europe. Lenin lived in Zurich, Geneva (where he lectured and studied at Geneva State University), Munich, Prague, Vienna, Manchester and London, and, during this time, he co-founded the newspaper Iskra ("The Spark") with Julius Martov, who later became a leading opponent. He also wrote several articles and books related to the revolutionary movement, striving to recruit future Social Democrats. He began using various aliases, finally settling upon "Lenin" — "N. Lenin" in full.

Lenin was active in the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party (RSDLP; РСДРП in Russian) and, in 1903, led the Bolshevik faction after a split with the Mensheviks. The names 'Bolshevik', or 'Majority' and 'Menshevik', or 'Minority', referred to the narrow outvoting of the Mensheviks in the decision to limit party membership to revolutionary professionals, rather than including sympathisers. The division was inspired partly by Lenin's pamphlet What is to be Done?, which focused on his revolutionary strategy. It is said to have been one of the most influential pamphlets in pre-revolutionary Russia, with Lenin himself claiming that three out of five workers had either read it or had had it read to them.[5] In 1906, Lenin was elected to the Presidium of the RSDLP — but, almost from then right up until the revolutions of 1917, he spent the majority of his time exiled in Europe, where, despite a hard and bitter existence, he managed to continue his political writings.

This self-imposed exile began in 1907, when he moved to Finland for security reasons. In response to philosophical debates on the proper course of a socialist revolution, Lenin completed Materialism and Empirio-criticism in 1909 — a work which became fundamental in the Marxist-Leninist philosophy. Lenin continued to travel in Europe and participated in many socialist meetings and activities, including the Prague Party Conference of 1912. When Inessa Armand left Russia and settled in Paris, she met Lenin and other Bolsheviks living in exile, and it is believed that she was Lenin's lover during this time. As writer Neil Harding, points out [6]however, although much has been made of this relationship, despite the "slender stock of evidence ... we still have no evidence that they were sexually intimate".
House where Lenin lived in 1916 in Zurich, Switzerland.
House where Lenin lived in 1916 in Zurich, Switzerland.

When the First World War began in 1914, and the large Social Democratic parties of Europe (at that time self-described as Marxist, and including luminaries such as Karl Kautsky) supported their various countries' war efforts, Lenin was absolutely stunned, refusing to believe at first that the German Social Democrats had voted for war credits. This led him to a final split with the Second International, which was composed of these parties. Lenin (against the war in his belief that the peasants and workers were fighting the battle of the bourgeoisie for them) adopted the stance that what he described as an "imperialist war" ought to be turned into a civil war between the classes. As war broke out, Lenin was briefly detained by the Austrian authorities in the town of Poronin, where he was residing at the time. On 5 September 1914 Lenin moved to neutral Switzerland, residing first at Berne and then Zurich [7]. In 1915 he attended the anti-war Zimmerwald Conference, convened in the Swiss town of that name. Lenin was the main leader of the Zimmerwald Left.

In 1916 Lenin wrote the important theoretical work Imperialism, the Highest Stage of Capitalism. In this work Lenin argues that the merging of banks and industrial cartels give rise to finance capital. According to Lenin, in the last stage of capitalism, in pursuit of greater profits than the home market can offer, capital is exported. This leads to the division of the world between international monopolist firms and to European states colonizing large parts of the world in support of their businesses. Imperialism is thus an advanced stage of capitalism, one relying on the rise of monopolies and on the export of capital (rather than goods), and of which colonialism is one feature[8].

[edit] Return to Russia
Locomotive of Lenin's train, on which he arrived at Finland Station, Petrograd in April, 1917.
Locomotive of Lenin's train, on which he arrived at Finland Station, Petrograd in April, 1917.

The 1917 February Revolution in Russia and the overthrow of Czar Nicholas II caught Lenin by surprise. He realized that he must return to Russia as soon as possible, but this was problematic, as he was isolated in neutral Switzerland as the First World War raged throughout neighboring states. The Swiss communist Fritz Platten nonetheless managed to negotiate with the German government for Lenin and his company to travel through Germany by rail, on the so-called "sealed train". The German government clearly hoped Lenin's return would create political unrest back in Russia, which would help to end the war on the Eastern front, allowing Germany to concentrate on defeating the Western allies. Once through Germany, Lenin continued by ferry to Sweden; the remainder of the journey through Scandinavia was subsequently arranged by Swedish communists Otto Grimlund and Ture Nerman.

On April 16, 1917 Lenin arrived by train to a tumultuous reception at Finland Station, in Petrograd.[9] He immediately took a leading role within the Bolshevik movement, publishing the April Theses,[10] which called for an uncompromising opposition to the provisional government. Initially, Lenin isolated his party through this lurch to the left. However, this uncompromising stand meant that the Bolsheviks were to become the obvious home for all those who became disillusioned with the provisional government, and with the "luxury of opposition" the Bolsheviks did not have to assume responsibility for any policies implemented by the government.[11]
Lenin disguised as "Vilén", wearing a wig and with his beard shaved off. Finland, August 11, 1917.
Lenin disguised as "Vilén", wearing a wig and with his beard shaved off. Finland, August 11, 1917.

Meanwhile, Aleksandr Kerensky, Grigory Aleksinsky and other opponents of the Bolsheviks accused them and Lenin in particular of being paid German agents.[12] In response Leon Trotsky, formerly a Menshevik, but now moving closer to the Bolshevik position, made a defensive speech on July 17, saying:
“ An intolerable atmosphere has been created, in which you as well as we are choking. They are throwing dirty accusations at Lenin and Zinoviev. Lenin has fought thirty years for the revolution. I have fought twenty years against the oppression of the people. And we cannot but cherish a hatred for German militarism. ... I have been sentenced by a German court to eight months’ imprisonment for my struggle against German militarism. This everybody knows. Let nobody in this hall say that we are hirelings of Germany.[13] ”

After a failed Bolshevik rising in July, Lenin fled to Finland for safety. Here he wrote "State and Revolution,"[14] which called for a new form of government based on workers' councils, or soviets elected and revocable at all moments by the workers. He returned to Petrograd in October, inspiring the October Revolution with the slogan "All Power to the Soviets!" Lenin directed the overthrow of the Provisional Government from the Smolny Institute from the 6th to the 8th of November 1917. The storming and capitulation of the Winter Palace on the night of the 7th to 8th of November marked the beginning of Soviet rule.

[edit] Head of the Soviet state

On November 8, 1917, Lenin was elected as the Chairman of the Council of People's Commissars by the Russian Congress of Soviets.

"Communism is Soviet power plus the electrification of the entire country,"[15] Lenin said, emphasizing the importance of bringing electricity to all corners of Russia and modernizing industry and agriculture:
“ We must show the peasants that the organization of industry on the basis of modern, advanced technology, on electrification which will provide a link between town and country, will put an end to the division between town and country, will make it possible to raise the level of culture in the countryside and to overcome, even in the most remote corners of land, backwardness, ignorance, poverty, disease, and barbarism.[16] ”

He initiated and supervised devising and realization of the GOELRO plan, the first-ever Soviet project for national economic recovery and development. He was very concerned about creating a free universal health care system for all, the rights of women, and teaching the illiterate Russian people to read and write.[17] But first and foremost, the new Bolshevik government needed to take Russia out of the World War.

Faced with the threat of a continuing German advance eastwards, Lenin argued that Russia should immediately sign a peace treaty. Other Bolshevik leaders, such as Bukharin, advocated continuing the war as a means of fomenting revolution in Germany. Trotsky, who led the negotiations, advocated an intermediate position, of "No War, No Peace", calling for a peace treaty only on the conditions that no territorial gains on either side be consolidated. After the negotiations collapsed, the Germans renewed their advance, resulting in the loss of much of Russia's western territory. As a result of this turn of events, Lenin's position consequently gained the support of the majority in the Bolshevik leadership. On March 3, 1918, Lenin removed Russia from World War I by agreeing to the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk, under which Russia lost significant territories in Europe.
Joseph Stalin, Vladimir Lenin and Mikhail Kalinin 1919.
Joseph Stalin, Vladimir Lenin and Mikhail Kalinin 1919.

The Russian Constituent Assembly was shut down during its first session January 19 and the bolsheviks in alliance with the left Socialist Revolutionaries then relied on support from the soviets.

The Bolsheviks had formed a coalition government with the left wing of the Socialist Revolutionaries. However, their coalition collapsed after the Social Revolutionaries opposed the Brest-Litovsk treaty, and joined other parties in seeking to overthrow the Bolshevik government. Lenin responded to these efforts by a policy of wholesale persecution, which included jailing some of the members of the opposing parties.

From early 1918, Lenin campaigned for a single individual (accountable to the state to which the workers could ask for measures) to be put in charge of each enterprise (workers having to obey him until it was changed by the state), contrary to most conceptions of workers' self-management, but absolutely essential for efficiency and expertise according to Lenin (it was argued by most proponents of self-management that the intention behind this move was to strengthen state control over labour and that the failures of self-management were mostly because of lack of resources —a problem the government itself could not solve as his licensing for a month of all workers of most factories proved). As S.A. Smith wrote: "By the end of the civil war, not much was left of the democratic forms of industrial administration promoted by the factory committees in 1917, but the government argued that this did not matter since industry had passed into the ownership of a workers' state."

Lenin had a certain admiration for the Irish socialist revolutionary James Connolly, and the Soviet Union was the first country to recognize the Irish Republic which fought a war of independence against Britain. He would often meet with the famous revolutionary's son, Roddy Connolly and developed a close friendship with him.

[edit] Creation of the secret police

Main article: Cheka

Lenin in his Kremlin office, 1918.
Lenin in his Kremlin office, 1918.

To protect the newly-established Bolshevik government from counterrevolutionaries and other political opponents, the Bolsheviks created a secret police, the Cheka. The Bolsheviks had planned to hold a trial for the former Tsar, but in July 1918, when the White Army was advancing on Yekaterinburg where the former royal family was being held, Sverdlov acceded to the request of the local Soviet to execute the Tsar right away, rather than having him freed by the Whites. The Tsar and the rest of his immediate family were executed, though whether this was a decision of the central government or the local Soviet remains the subject of historical dispute. Lenin was informed about the execution only after it had taken place, but did not criticise it.[18] Censorship was quickly imposed, and it was up to the Cheka to confiscate the literature of dissident workers: "[O]n 17 November the Central Executive Committee passed a decree giving the bolsheviks control over all newsprint and wide powers of closing down newspapers critical of the regime..." (Leonard Shapiro, The Communist Party of the Soviet Union). Workers were re-forming independent soviets; the Cheka broke them up. Independent newspapers criticized Lenin's government; the Cheka closed them down, until the Bolshevik-controlled Pravda and Izvestia had a monopoly on the supply of news. Shapiro asserts that "The refusal to come to terms with the socialists and the dispersal of the Constituent Assembly led to the logical result that revolutionary terror would now be directed not only against traditional enemies, such as the bourgeoisie or right-wing opponents, but against anyone, be he socialist, worker or peasant, who opposed Bolshevik rule."[19]

[edit] Assassination attempts
Lenin and Fritz Platten in 1919.
Lenin and Fritz Platten in 1919.

On January 14, 1918, an assassination attempt was made against Lenin’s car in Petrograd by unknown gunmen. Lenin and Fritz Platten were in the back of the car together, after having given a public speech. When the shooting started, "Platten grabbed Lenin by the head and pushed him down. ... Platten’s hand was covered in blood, having been grazed by a bullet as he was shielding Lenin."[20]

On August 30, 1918, Fanya Kaplan, a member of the Socialist Revolutionary Party, approached Lenin after he had spoken at a meeting and was on the way to his car. He had his foot on the running board. She called out to Lenin, who turned to answer. She immediately fired three shots hitting Lenin twice: one bullet, relatively harmless, lodged in the arm; the second round, more seriously entering at the juncture of the Lenin's jaw and neck, the third shot striking a woman who was talking with Lenin when the shooting began.[21] Lenin fell to the ground, unconscious. Lenin was taken to his apartment in the Kremlin, refusing to venture to a hospital since he believed that other assassins would be waiting there. Doctors were summoned but decided that it was too dangerous to remove the bullets. While Lenin began his slow recovery Pravda ridiculed Kaplan as a latter-day Charlotte Corday; assuring its readers that immediately after the shooting: "Lenin, shot through twice, with pierced lungs, spilling blood, refuses help and goes on his own. The next morning, still threatened with death, he reads papers, listens, learns, observes to see that the engine of the locomotive that carries us towards global revolution has not stopped working..."[22] Although Lenin had no "pierced lungs", the potentially fatal neck-jaw wound had allowed blood to enter one of his lungs, which is still a very serious condition.[23]

Other than similar exhortation by the press, little was revealed to the Russian public — either about the attempted assassination, the suspect, or Lenin's condition. Historian Richard Pipes wrote, "The impression one gains ... is that the Bolsheviks deliberately underplayed the event to convince the public that whatever happened to Lenin, they were firmly in control."[citation needed]

Popular reaction to the assassination attempt on Lenin was described at the time by Leonid Krasin, who wrote to his wife on 7 Sept 1918:

"As it happens, the attempt to kill Lenin has made him much more popular than he was. One hears a great many people who are far from having any sympathy with the Bolsheviks, saying that it would be an absolute disaster if Lenin had succumbed to his wounds, as it was first thought he would. And they are quite right, for in the midst of all this chaos and confusion he is the backbone of the new body politic, the main support on which everything rests"[24]

A personal cult of Lenin, which he himself tried to discourage, began with this incident[25]. Lenin's health declined from this point. It is believed by some that the incident contributed to his later strokes.

[edit] Lenin and the Red Terror
Lenin with Trotsky and soldiers in Petrograd, 1921.
Lenin with Trotsky and soldiers in Petrograd, 1921.

Following the assassination attempt on Lenin, and the successful assassination of Petrograd chief of secret police Moisei Uritsky, Stalin, in a telegram to Lenin, argued that a policy of "open and systematic mass terror" be instigated against "those responsible". Lenin and the other Bolsheviks agreed, and instructed Felix Dzerzhinsky, whom Lenin had appointed to head the Cheka in 1917, to commence a "Red Terror", which was officially announced to the public on September 1, 1918, by the Bolshevik newspaper, Krasnaya Gazeta.[26] Scholars estimate that between 1918–1921 up to 200,000 were executed. During the Civil War, atrocities were carried out by both Reds and Whites.[27]

According to the Black Book of Communism, in May 1919 there were 16,000 people in labor camps based on the old Tsarist katorga labor camps, and in September 1921 there were more than 70,000.[28] Lenin's Hanging Order documents that Lenin himself ordered terror:[29] The text is as follows[30][31]:

11 VIII 1918

Send to Penza To Comrades Kuraev, Bosh, Minkin and other Penza communists

Comrades! The revolt by the five kulak volosts must be suppressed without mercy. The interest of the entire revolution demands this, because we have now before us our final decisive battle "with the kulaks." We need to set an example.

1) You need to hang (hang without fail, so that the public sees) at least 100 notorious kulaks, the rich, and the bloodsuckers.
2) Publish their names.
3) Take away all of their grain.
4) Execute the hostages — in accordance with yesterday's telegram.

This needs to be accomplished in such a way, that people for hundreds of miles around will see, tremble, know and scream out: let's choke and strangle those blood-sucking kulaks.

Telegraph us acknowledging receipt and execution of this.

Yours, Lenin

P.S. Use your toughest people for this.

According to Orlando Figes, Lenin had always been an advocate of "mass terror against enemies of the revolution" and was open about his view that the proletarian state was a system of organized violence against the capitalist establishment. Figes also claims that the terror, while encouraged by the Bolsheviks, had its roots in a popular anger against the privileged.[32] When Kamenev and Bukharin tried to curb the "excesses" of the Cheka in late 1918, it was Lenin who defended it.[33] Lenin remained an advocate of mass terror. In a letter of March 19, 1922, to Molotov and the members of the Politburo, following an uprising by the clergy in the town of Shuia, Lenin outlined a brutal plan of action against the clergy and their followers, who were defying the government decree to remove church valuables: "We must (...) put down all resistance with such brutality that they will not forget it for several decades. (...) The greater the number of representatives of the reactionary clergy and reactionary bourgeoise we succeed in executing (...) the better."[34]

Like Stalin during the Great Purge, Lenin also signed off on lists of people to be executed. For example, in September 1918, 25 former tsarist ministers and high civil servants along with 765 so-called White Guards were shot in Moscow. Lenin personally signed the execution lists.[35]

[edit] Russian Communist Party and civil war
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Further information: On the Allies invasion of Russia: Polar Bear Expedition, North Russia Campaign, American Expeditionary Force Siberia

Lenin giving a speech.
Lenin giving a speech.

In March 1919, Lenin and other Bolshevik leaders met with revolutionary socialists from around the world and formed the Communist International. Members of the Communist International, including Lenin and the Bolsheviks themselves, broke off from the broader socialist movement. From that point onwards, they would become known as communists. In Russia, the Bolshevik Party was renamed the "Russian Communist Party (Bolsheviks)," which eventually became the CPSU.

Meanwhile, the civil war raged across Russia. A wide variety of political movements and their supporters took up arms to support or overthrow the Soviet government. Although many different factions were involved in the civil war, the two main forces were the Red Army (communists) and the White Army (traditionalists). Foreign powers such as France, Britain, the United States and Japan also intervened in this war (on behalf of the White Army), though their impact was peripheral at best. Eventually, the more organizationally proficient Red Army, led by Leon Trotsky, won the civil war, defeating the White Russian forces and their allies in 1920. Smaller battles continued for several more years, however.

The civil war has been described as one "unprecedented for its savagery," with mass executions and other atrocities committed by both sides. Between battles, executions, famine and epidemics, many millions would perish.[36]

In late 1919, successes against the White Russian forces convinced Lenin that it was time to spread the revolution to the West, by force if necessary. When the newly independent Second Polish Republic began securing its eastern territories annexed by Russia in the partitions of Poland in the late 18th century, it clashed with Bolshevik forces for dominance in these areas, which led to the outbreak of the Polish-Soviet War in 1919. With the revolution in Germany and the Spartacist League on the rise, Lenin viewed this as the perfect time and place to "probe Europe with the bayonets of the Red Army." Lenin saw Poland as the bridge that the Red Army would have to cross in order to link up the Russian Revolution with the communist supporters in the German Revolution, and to assist other communist movements in Western Europe. However the defeat of Soviet Russia in the Polish-Soviet War invalidated these plans.
Lenin addressing a crowd.
Lenin addressing a crowd.

Lenin was a harsh critic of imperialism.[37] In 1917 he declared the unconditional right of self-determination and separation for national minorities and oppressed nations. However, when the Russian Civil War was won he used military force to assimilate the newly independent states of Armenia, Georgia, and Azerbaijan.[38] He argued that the inclusion of those countries into the newly emerging Soviet government would shelter them from capitalist imperial ambitions.[citation needed]

During the civil war, as an attempt to maintain food supply to the cities and the army in the conditions of economic collapse, the Bolsheviks adopted the policy of war communism. That involved "requisitioning" supplies from the peasantry for little or nothing in exchange. This led the peasants to drastically reduce their crop production. Additionally, according to the official Bolshevik view which is still shared by some Marxists,[39] rich peasants (kulaks) withheld grain in order to increase their profits — statistics indicate that most of the grain and the other food supplies passed through the black market.[40] Then, the Bolshevik requisitions came to affect the food that peasants had grown for their own subsistence and their seed grain. The resulting conflicts began with the Cheka and the army shooting hostages, and, according to The Black Book of Communism, ended with a second full-scale civil war against the peasantry, including the use of poison gas, death camps, and deportations. The same source emphasizes that in 1920, Lenin ordered increased emphasis on the food requisitioning from the peasantry, at the same time as the Cheka gave detailed reports about the large scale famine.[41] The long war and a drought in 1921 also contributed to the famine. Estimates on the deaths from this famine are between 3 and 10 million.[8][9].
"Comrade Lenin Cleanses the Earth of Filth", a Communist poster from 1920.
"Comrade Lenin Cleanses the Earth of Filth", a Communist poster from 1920.

The long years of war, the Bolshevik policy of war communism, the Russian famine of 1921, and the encirclement of hostile governments took their toll on Russia, however, and much of the country lay in ruins. There were many peasant uprisings, the largest being the Tambov rebellion. After an uprising by the sailors at Kronstadt in March 1921, Lenin replaced the policy of War Communism with the New Economic Policy (NEP), in a successful attempt to rebuild industry and especially agriculture. The new policy was based on a recognition of political and economic realities, though it was intended merely as a tactical retreat from the socialist ideal. The whole policy was later reversed by Stalin.

[edit] Lenin's stance on anti-Semitism

On a gramophone recording in 1919, Lenin stated:
“ The Tsarist police, in alliance with the landowners and the capitalists, organized pogroms against the Jews. The landowners and capitalists tried to divert the hatred of the workers and peasants who were tortured by want against the Jews. ... Only the most ignorant and downtrodden people can believe the lies and slander that are spread about the Jews. ... It is not the Jews who are the enemies of the working people. The enemies of the workers are the capitalists of all countries. Among the Jews there are working people, and they form the majority. They are our brothers, who, like us, are oppressed by capital; they are our comrades in the struggle for socialism. Among the Jews there are kulaks, exploiters and capitalists, just as there are among the Russians, and among people of all nations... Rich Jews, like rich Russians, and the rich in all countries, are in alliance to oppress, crush, rob and disunite the workers... Shame on accursed Tsarism which tortured and persecuted the Jews. Shame on those who foment hatred towards the Jews, who foment hatred towards other nations.[42] ”

While Lenin remained opposed to outward forms of anti-semitism (and all forms of racism), allowing Jewish people to rise to the highest offices in both party and state, certain historians such as Dmitri Volkogonov argue that the record of his government in this regard was highly uneven. It is claimed that Lenin was aware of pogroms carried out by units of the Red Army during the war with Poland, though the whole issue was effectively ignored [43]. Dmitri Volkogonov generalizes that "While condemning anti-Semitism in general, Lenin was unable to analyse, let alone eradicate, its prevalence in Soviet society"[43]. Likewise, the hostility of the Soviet regime towards all religion made no exception for Judaism, and the 1921 campaign against religion saw the seizure of many synagogues (whether this should be regarded as anti-Semitism is a matter of definition).

However, according to Jewish historian Zvi Gitelman: "Never before in Russian history — and never subsequently has a government made such an effort to uproot and stamp out anti-Semitism".[44]

[edit] Later life
Kamenev and Lenin at Gorki Leninskiye, 1922.
Kamenev and Lenin at Gorki Leninskiye, 1922.

Lenin's health had already been severely damaged by the strains of revolution and war. The assassination attempt earlier in his life also added to his health problems. The bullet was still lodged in his neck, too close to his spine for medical techniques of the time to remove. In May 1922, Lenin had his first stroke. He was left partially paralyzed on his right side, and his role in government declined. After the second stroke in December of the same year, he resigned from active politics. In March 1923, he suffered his third stroke and was left bedridden for the remainder of his life, no longer able to speak.
Soviet residents hold up a sign reading "Lenin is our immortality" in this image from a piece of footage presumably shot after news of Lenin's death.
Soviet residents hold up a sign reading "Lenin is our immortality" in this image from a piece of footage presumably shot after news of Lenin's death.

After his first stroke, Lenin dictated several papers regarding the government to his wife. Most famous of these is Lenin's Testament, which was partially inspired by the 1922 Georgian Affair and among other things criticized top-ranking communists, including Joseph Stalin, Grigory Zinoviev, Lev Kamenev, Nikolai Bukharin and Leon Trotsky. Of Stalin, who had been the Communist Party's general secretary since April 1922, Lenin said that he had "unlimited authority concentrated in his hands" and suggested that "comrades think about a way of removing Stalin from that post." Upon Lenin's death, his wife mailed his Testament to the central committee, to be read at the 13th Party Congress in May 1924. However, the committee and especially the ruling "triumvirate" — Stalin, Kamenev and Zinoviev — had a vested interest in not releasing the will to the wider public. The central committee justified this by stating that Lenin had been mentally ill in his final years and, as such, his final judgments were not to be trusted. [citation needed] Lenin's Testament was first officially published in 1925 in the United States by Max Eastman. In the same year, Trotsky wrote an article that downplayed its significance, stating that Lenin's notes should not be regarded as a "will" and had neither been concealed nor violated.[45] He did invoke it in his polemic against Stalin on later occasions, while in exile.[46][47]

Lenin died on January 21, 1924, aged 53. Rumors of Lenin having syphilis sprang up shortly after his death. The official cause given for Lenin's death was cerebral arteriosclerosis, or a fourth stroke. But out of the 27 physicians who treated him, only eight signed onto that conclusion in his autopsy report. Therefore, several other theories regarding his death have been put forward.

Documents released after the fall of the U.S.S.R., along with memoirs of Lenin's physicians, suggest that Lenin was treated for syphilis as early as 1895. Documents suggest that Alexei Abrikosov, the pathologist in charge of the autopsy, was ordered to prove that Lenin did not die of syphilis. Abrikosov did not mention syphilis in the autopsy; however, the blood-vessel damage, the paralysis and other incapacities he cited are typical of syphilis. Upon a second release of the autopsy report, none of the organs, major arteries, or brain areas usually affected by syphilis were cited. In 1923, Lenin's doctors treated him with Salvarsan, the only drug at the time specifically used to treat syphilis, and potassium iodide, which was customary at the time in treating the disease. [citation needed]

Although he might have had syphilis, he had no visible lesions anywhere on his body that normally accompany the later stages of the disease. Most historians still agree that the most likely cause of his death was a stroke induced by the bullet still lodged in his neck from the assassination attempt.
Lenin's body in the Lenin Mausoleum, Moscow.
Lenin's body in the Lenin Mausoleum, Moscow.

The city of Petrograd was renamed Leningrad in his honor three days after Lenin's death. This remained the name of the city until the collapse and liquidation of the Soviet Union in 1991, when it reverted to its original name, St Petersburg.

During the early 1920s the Russian movement of cosmism was so popular that Leonid Krasin and Alexander Bogdanov proposed to cryonically preserve Lenin's body in order to revive him in the future.[48] Necessary equipment was purchased abroad, but for a variety of reasons the plan was not realized.[49] Instead his body was embalmed and placed on permanent exhibition in the Lenin Mausoleum in Moscow on January 27, 1924.

[edit] After death
The Lenin Mausoleum at Red Square, Moscow.

The Lenin Mausoleum at Red Square, Moscow.

Lenin's preserved body is on permanent display at the Lenin Mausoleum in Moscow. Because of Lenin's unique role in the creation of the first Communist state, and despite his expressed wish shortly before his death that no memorials be created for him, his character was elevated over time to the point of near religious reverence. By the 1980s, every city in the Soviet Union had a statue of Lenin in its central square, either a Lenin street or a Lenin Square near the center, and often 20 or more smaller statues and busts throughout its territory. Collective farms, medals, hybrids of wheat, and even an asteroid were named after him. Nursery children were taught stories about "grandpa Lenin".

Since the fall of the Soviet Union, the level of reverence for Lenin in post-Soviet republics has fallen considerably, though he is still considered an important figure by generations who grew up during the Soviet period.[50] Most statues of Lenin have been torn down in Eastern Europe, but many still remain in Russia. The city of Leningrad returned to its original name, St Petersburg, but the surrounding Leningrad Oblast still carries his name. The citizens of Ulyanovsk, Lenin's birthplace, have so far resisted all attempts to revert its name to Simbirsk. The subject of interring Lenin's body has been a recurring topic for the past several years in Russia.

[edit] Censorship of Lenin in the Soviet Union

Lenin's writings were carefully censored under the Soviet regime after his death. In the early 1930s, it became accepted dogma under Stalin to assume that neither Lenin nor the Central Committee could ever be wrong. Therefore, it was necessary to remove evidence of situations where they had actually disagreed, since in those situations it was impossible for both to have been right at the same time. Trotsky was a particularly vocal critic of these practices, which he saw as a form of deification of a mere human being who could, and did, make mistakes.[51] Later, even the fifth "complete" Soviet edition of Lenin's works (published in 55 thick volumes between 1958 and 1965) left out parts that either contradicted dogma or showed their author in too poor a light.[52]

[edit] See also

* Leningrad
* List of statues of Lenin
* Russian Revolution of 1917
* Russian Civil War
* Leninism
* State terrorism
* Enemy of the people
* Anti-Leninism
* Lenin's national policy
* Lenin's Hanging Order
* Human rights in the Soviet Union
* Black book of communism
* Famines in Russia and the USSR

[edit] Notes

1. ^ Yuri Slezkine, The Jewish Century. Princeton University Press, 2004. "But of course the most sensitive "nationality" [ethnicity] of all was Lenin's. In 1924, Lenin's sister Anna discovered that their maternal grandfather, Aleksandr Dmitrievich Blank, had been born Srul (Israel), the son of Moshko Itskovich Blank, in the shtetl Starokonstantinov [Old Konstantinov] in Volynia [Volhynia, now Ukraine]. When Kamenev found out, he said, "I've always though so," to which Bukharin allegedly replied: "Who cares what you think? The question is, what are we going to do?" What "they," or rather, the Party through the Lenin Institute, did was proclaim this fact "inappropriate for publication" and decree that it be "kept secret." In 1932 and again in 1934, Anna Ilinichna [Lenin's sister] begged Stalin to reconsider, claiming that her discovery was, on the one hand, an important scientific confirmation of the "exceptional ability of the Semitic tribe" and "the extraordinarily beneficial influence of its blood on the offspring of mixed marriages"; and, on the other, a potent weapon against anti-Semitism "owing to the prestige and love that [Vladimir] Ilich [Lenin] enjoys among the masses." Lenin's own Jewishness, she argued, was the best proof of the accuracy of his view that the Jewish nation possessed a peculiar "'tenacity' in struggle" and a highly revolutionary disposition. "Generally speaking," she concluded, "I do not understand what reasons we, as Communists, may have for concealing this fact. Logically, this does not follow from the recognition of the full equality of all nationalities." Stalin's response was an order to "keep absolutely quiet." Anna Ilinichna did. The enemies of the regime were deprived of additional anti-Semitic ammunition" (pgs. 245–246) — "All advanced Jews supported assimilation, according to Lenin, but it is also true that many of the "great leaders of democracy and socialism" came from "the best representatives of the Jewish world." Lenin himself did [have Jewish ancestry], through his maternal grandfather, although he probably did not know it. When his sister, Anna, found out, she wrote to Stalin that she was not surprised, and "this fact" was "another proof of the exceptional ability of the Semitic tribe," and that Lenin had always contrasted "what he called its 'tenacity' in struggle with the more sluggish and lackadaisical Russian character." (p. 163) — "And in 1965, all archival documents relating to Lenin's Jewish grandfather were ordered "removed without leaving any copies." (pg. 338)
2. ^ Volkogonov, Dmitri (1994). Lenin — A New Biography. Free Press, p. 8. ISBN 0-02-933435-7.
3. ^ Service, Robert. Lenin: A Biography. ISBN 0-330-49139-3.
4. ^ Lenin, V.I. (Written in 1896–1899; First printed in book form in March 1899; Published according to the text of the second edition, 1908). The Development of Capitalism in Russia: The Process of the Formation of a Home Market for Large-Scale Industry. Retrieved on 2007-03-16.
5. ^ What is to be done?
6. ^ Neil Harding, Lenin's Political Thought (1986), p250
7. ^ Ronald W. Clark (1988) Lenin: the Man Behind the Mask: 154
8. ^ Paul Bowles (2007) Capitalism. Pearson: Harlow: 93
9. ^ Alan Moorehead, The Russian Revolution. New York: Harper (1958), pp. 183–187
10. ^ April Theses
11. ^ Read, Christopher (1996). From Tsar to Soviets: The Russian People and Their Revolution, 1917–21. Oxford University Press, pp. 151–153. ISBN 0-19-521241-X.
12. ^ (Russian) Biography of Grigory Aleksinsky at Hrono.ru
13. ^ Trotsky, Leon. The Month of The Great Slander. The History of the Russian Revolution; Volume 2,Chapter 27.
14. ^ Lenin, Vladimir (1917). The State and Revolution.
15. ^ Lenin "Collected Works", vol. 31, page 516.
16. ^ Lenin "Collected Works", vol. 30, page 335.
17. ^ Archive of Lenin's works
18. ^ King, Greg and Wilson, Penny (2003). The Fate of the Romanovs. Wiley. ISBN 0-471-20768-3.
19. ^ Vladimir Ilyich Lenin moved to St. Petersburg, Russia in 1893. Instead of pursuing a legal career he became involved in revolutionary practices. He was arrested for his crimes for 14 months and exiled to Siberia. When his exile ended he studied in Germany where he learned about the Marxist philosophy.[1]
20. ^ Volkogonov, Dimitri. Lenin — A New Biography, p. 229. ISBN 0-02-933435-7.
21. ^ Pipes, Richard, The Russian Revolution,(Vintage Books, 1990) p.807
22. ^ Ibid. p. 809
23. ^ Dr. V. Bonch-Bruevich, Lenin's attending physician, in Tri Pokusheniia na V. Lenina 1924.
24. ^ Lubov Krassin (1929) Leonid Krassin: His Life and Work, by his wife. Skeffington: London
25. ^ Ronald Clark (1988) Lenin: The Man Behind the Mask: 373
26. ^ [2]
27. ^ [3]
28. ^ Black Book of Communism, p. 80
29. ^ [4]
30. ^ [5]
31. ^ [6]
32. ^ Figes, Orlando (1998). A People's Tragedy: The Russian Revolution: 1891–1924. Penguin, pp. 524–525. ISBN 0-14-024364-X.
33. ^ Figes, Orlando (1998). A People's Tragedy: The Russian Revolution: 1891–1924. Penguin, p. 649. ISBN 0-14-024364-X.
34. ^ Pipes, Richard (1996). The Unknown Lenin: From the Secret Archive. Yale University Press, pp. 152–154. ISBN 0-300-06919-7.
35. ^ Gellately, Robert (2007). Lenin, Stalin, and Hitler: The Age of Social Catastrophe. Knopf, p. 57. ISBN 1400040051.
36. ^ Lincoln, W. Bruce (1999). Red Victory: A History of the Russian Civil War. Da Capo Press. ISBN 0-306-80909-5.
37. ^ Lenin, Vladimir (1915). The Revolutionary Proletariat and the Right of Nations to Self-Determination.
38. ^ Pipes, Richard (1994). Russia Under the Bolshevik Regime. Vintage, p. 141–166. ISBN 0679761845.
39. ^ An exchange of letters on the BBC documentary Lenin’s Secret Files. World Socialist Web Site (1998-03-06). Retrieved on 2007-03-16.
40. ^ Carr, E.H. (1966). The Bolshevik Revolution 1917–1923, Part 2, p. 233. Chase, W.J. (1987). Workers, Society and the Soviet State: Labour and Life in Moscow 1918–1929, pp. 26–27. Nove, A. (1982). An Economic History of the USSR, p. 62. [7] Flewers, Paul, War Communism in Retrospect].
41. ^ Black Book of Communism p. 92–97, 116–121.
42. ^ Lenin, Vladimir (1919). Anti-Jewish Pogroms. Speeches On Gramophone Records.
43. ^ a b Dmitrij Volkogonov: Lenin. Počátek teroru. Dialog, Liberec 1996, p. 173.
44. ^ Gutelman, Zvi; Curtis, M. (ed.) (1986). Antisemitism in the Contemporary World. Westview Press, pp. 189–190. ISBN 0-8133-0157-2.
45. ^ Trotsky, L.D.: ‘Concerning Eastman’s Book ‘Since Lenin Died’’, in: ‘Bolshevik’, 16; 1 Sept, 1925; p. 68.Concerning Eastman’s Book ‘Since Lenin Died’ that downplayed its significance.
“ In several parts of his book Eastman says that the Central Committee concealed from the Party a number of exceptionally important documents written by Lenin in the last period of his life (it is a matter of letters on the national question, the so-called ‘will’, and others); there can be no other name for this than slander against the Central Committee of our Party. ... Vladimir Ilyich did not leave any "will", and the very character of his attitude towards the Party, as well as the character of the Party itself, precluded any possibility of such a ‘will’. What is usually referred to as a ‘will’ in the émigré and foreign bourgeois and Menshevik press (in a manner garbled beyond recognition) is one of Vladimir Ilyich’s letters containing advice on organisational matters. The 13th Congress of the Party paid the closest attention to that letter, as to all of the others, and drew from it the conclusions appropriate to the conditions and circumstances of the time. All talk about concealing or violating a ‘will’ is a malicious invention. ”
46. ^ Trotsky, Leon (1932). [http://www.marxists.org/archive/trotsky/1932/12/lenin.htm On the Suppressed Testament of Lenin]. The Marxists Internet Archive. Retrieved on 2007-03-16.
47. ^ Trotsky, Leon. 1930. My Life. The Marxists Internet Archive
48. ^ See the article: А.М. и А.А. Панченко «Осьмое чудо света», in the book Панченко А.М. О русской истории и культуре. St. Petersburg: Azbuka, 2003. Page 433.
49. ^ Ibidem.
50. ^ Pipes, Richard (May/June 2004). "Flight From Freedom: What Russians Think and Want". Foreign Affairs.
51. ^ Trotsky, Leon (1930). Volume Three: The Triumph of the Soviets; Appendix No. 1.
52. ^ Figes, Orlando (October 27, 1996). "Censored by His Own Regime". The New York Times.

[edit] Further reading

* Cliff, Tony (1986). Building the Party: Lenin, 1893–1914. Haymarket Books. ISBN 1-931859-01-9.
* Fischer, Louis (2001). The Life of Lenin. Orion Publishing Co.. ISBN 1-84212-230-4.
* Gellately, Robert (2007). Lenin, Stalin, and Hitler: The Age of Social Catastrophe. Knopf. ISBN 1400040051.
* Gooding, John (2002). Socialism In Russia: Lenin and His Legacy, 1890–1991. Palgrave Macmillan. ISBN 0-333-97235-X.
* Lenin, Vladimir (2002). Revolution at the Gates: A Selection of Writings from February to October 1917 by V. I. Lenin. Verso Books. ISBN 1-85984-661-0.
* Kolakowski, Leszek and Falla, P. S. (2005). Main Currents of Marxism. W. W. Norton & Company. ISBN 0-393-06054-3.
* Pannekoek, Anton, and Richey, Lance Byron (2003). Lenin as Philosopher. Marquette University Press. ISBN 0-87462-654-4.
* Payne, Robert (1967). The Life And Death Of Lenin. Simon & Schuster. ISBN 0-671-41640-5.
* Pipes, Richard (1999). The Unknown Lenin: From the Secret Archive. Yale University Press. ISBN 0-300-07662-2.
* Service, Robert (2002). Lenin: A Biography. Belknap Press. ISBN 0-674-00828-6.
* Shub, David (1965). Lenin: A Biography. Penguin Books. ISBN 0-14-020809-7.
* Toynbee, Arnold (July 1970). "A Centenary View of Lenin". International Affairs 46 (3): 490–500. DOI:10.2307/2613225.
* Trotsky, Leon (1971). On Lenin: Notes Towards a Biography. Harrap Publishing. ISBN 0-245-50302-1.
* Tucker, Robert C. (1975). The Lenin Anthology. W. W. Norton & Company. ISBN 0-393-09236-4.
* Volkogonov, Dmitri (2006). Lenin: A New Biography. Free Press. ISBN 0-02-933435-7. Dmitrij Volkogonov: Lenin. Počátek teroru. Dialog, Liberec 1996, 399 pp. (Czech edition)

[edit] External links
Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to:
Vladimir Lenin
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Vladimir Lenin
Wikimedia Commons has media related to:
Vladimir Lenin

* Marxists.org Lenin Internet Archive — Extensive compendium of writings, a biography, and many photographs
* Article on Lenin written by Trotsky for the Encyclopedia Britannica
* Reminiscences of Lenin by N. K. Krupskaya
* Impressions of Soviet Russia, by John Dewey
* Information on Lenin's Grave
* The Lenin Museum in Tampere, Finland
* Lenin and the First Communist Revolutions
* Lenin Internet Archive Biography includes interviews with Lenin and essays on the leader
* Mirrors of Moscow: Nikolai Lenin by Louise Bryant

[edit] Selected works

* The Development of Capitalism in Russia
* What is to be Done? [10]
* One Step Forward, Two Steps Back
* Two Tactics of Social-Democracy in the Democratic Revolution
* Materialism and Empirio-Criticism
* The Right of Nations to Self-Determination
* Imperialism, the Highest Stage of Capitalism
* The State and Revolution [11]
* The Proletarian Revolution and the Renegade Kautsky
* Left-Wing Communism: An Infantile Disorder [12]
* Lenin's Testament
* Lenin's last letter to Stalin

Preceded by
Aleksandr Kerensky (as Head of the Provisional Government of 1917) Chairman of the Council of People's Commissars
1917–1924 Succeeded by
Alexey Ivanovich Rykov
[show]
v • d • e
Premiers of the Soviet Union
Lenin • Rykov • Molotov • Stalin • Malenkov • Bulganin • Khrushchev • Kosygin • Tikhonov • Ryzhkov • Pavlov • Silayev Flag of the Soviet Union
[show]
v • d • e
Historical Russian Leadership

Pre-imperial Russian Leadership (860–1721)

Russian Empire (1721–1917)
Peter I • Catherine I • Peter II • Anna Ivanovna • Ivan VI • Elizabeth • Peter III • Catherine II • Paul I • Alexander I • Nicholas I • Alexander II • Alexander III • Nicholas II

Soviet Union (1917–1991)
Vladimir Lenin • Joseph Stalin • Georgy Malenkov • Nikita Khrushchev • Leonid Brezhnev • Yuri Andropov • Konstantin Chernenko • Mikhail Gorbachev

Russian Federation (1991–present)
Boris Yeltsin • Vladimir Putin
Works of Lenin
The Development of Capitalism in Russia (1899) · What Is To Be Done? (1902) · One Step Forward, Two Steps Back (1904) · Two Tactics of Social Democracy in the Social Revolution (1905) · Materialism and Empirio-criticism (1909) · The Right of Nations to Self-Determination (1914) · Imperialism, the Highest Stage of Capitalism (1916) · State and Revolution (1917) · The Proletarian Revolution and the Renegade Kautsky · "Left Wing" Communism: An Infantile Disorder (1920)
Persondata
NAME Lenin, Vladimir Ilyich
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Vladimir Illyich Ulyanov, Владимир Ильич Ульянов (Ленин) (Russian)
SHORT DESCRIPTION Russian politician, led October Revolution
DATE OF BIRTH 22 April 1870(1870-04-22)
PLACE OF BIRTH Simbirsk, Russia
DATE OF DEATH 21 January 1924
PLACE OF DEATH Moscow, Russia

Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vladimir_Lenin"

Categories: All articles with unsourced statements | Articles with unsourced statements since March 2007 | Articles with unsourced statements since February 2007 | Vladimir Lenin | Heads of Government of the Soviet Union | Party leaders of the Soviet Union | Old Bolsheviks | Russian Revolution | Russian revolutionaries | Marxist theorists | People of the Russian Civil War | Comintern people | Russian atheists | Russian economists | Alumni of St. Petersburg State University | Cause of death disputed | 1870 births | 1924 deaths
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