Lenin

The Life and Times of Vladimir Lenin

The Russian Revolution, we know how it began, why it began, and the outcome of it. We know that without it Russia would have not become to powerhouse that it was during World War II and beyond (and without it might have been completely taken over by the Nazis). However, unlike the French Revolution which had no clear leader or originator of the revolution at the very beginning of Russia’s toppling of the monarchy and rise of Communism was one man: Vladimir Ilyich Lenin. Vladimir Lenin (from now on referred to as “Lenin”) on April 22, 1870 in Simbirsk (current day Ulyanovsk) of the Russian Empire. He was born into a middle class family and had several siblings. When Lenin was 16 years old his father, Ilya Ulyanov died of brain hemorrhage. After this Lenin’s behavior became erratic confrontational, during this period he renounced his belief in God and became an atheist (a belief he would keep until his death). During this period Lenin began to have an extreme fascination with extreme leftist such as Dimitry Pisarev, Nikolay Dobrolyubov, and most importantly Karl Marx. It was during this time that Lenin’s older brother Aleksander Ulyanov joined a socialist revolutionary cell that was determined to assassinate Tsar Nicolas the II, Lenin’s brother was eventually captured and sentenced to death by hanging. Despite this and his father’s death Lenin continued studying and went to study law at Kazan University. In August of 1887 Lenin entered Judicial Faculty at Kazan University. While there he started to become very interested in his late brother’s radical ideals and as a result he began meeting with a revolutionary cell that was run by Lazar Bogoraz. In September of 1889 Lenin and his mother moved to Samara for the winter it was here that Lenin came into contact with many political dissidents and started cementing his beliefs in communism. In 1893 Lenin moved to St. Petersburg under the employment as a lawyer’s assistant. During this time he joined another revolutionary cell that like Lenin, were Marxists. He climbed their social ladder pretty quickly and became a senior member of the group. Hoping to cement ties between this group (the Social Democrats) and other leftist Marxist groups Lenin traveled to Switzerland to meet with the leaders of the Emancipation of Labor group. He then stayed there for several months before traveling to Berlin, Germany where he studied for six weeks before returning to Russia with a plethora of illegal writings from revolutionaries. Almost immediately upon his return to Russia he was constantly under surveillance from the secret police and was put under house arrest. During this time he mused the idea of a revolution that was begun by the working class and had begun work on his book The Development of Capitalism in Russia. In February of 1897 without trial, Lenin was sentenced to exile for three years In 1900 with his exile over Lenin was banned from returning to St. Petersburg instead he settled in the town of Pskov. During this time Lenin founded a newspaper called Iskra (The Spark). In July of the same year Lenin left for Western Europe, In Switzerland and Germany Lenin gave many lectures on the Russian situation and gained much support from fellow Marxists. During this time Lenin’s newspaper began publication in Munich with the first issue decrying European intervention in the Boxer Rebellion. The paper began to take off with many Marxists writers contributing to it, including a young Ukrainian by the name of Leon Trotsky. In 1903 Lenin attended the 2nd Congress of the Russian Social Democratic Labor Party in Brussels before relocating to London, England. Here is where the parties began to split between the Bolsheviks under Lenin and the Mensheviks led by Julius Martov. The break originated from a book Lenin published the year prior titled What is to Be Done? and from Lenin’s belief that a worker-peasant alliance force is what should overthrow the Tsar. In November 1905 Lenin returned to Russia to give support to the revolution happening. He shuttled between Russian and Finland to gain support for the RSDLP. However in 1907 with the Tsarist monarchy crushing the revolution he resumed his exile in Western Europe for another ten years until 1917 when after hearing of another revolution in Russia amidst WWI and the Tsar being forced to abdicate Lenin sought to find a way to return to Russia immediately (which was rather hard with WWI happening). On March 31st while in Switzerland a fellow communist named Fritz Platten obtained permission from the German Foreign Minister for Lenin to travel through Germany to Russia by train. On April 16 he arrived at the Petrograd station as was meted with much enthusiasm with sailors, workers, and soldiers bearing red flags (which by now was common for welcoming home political exiles). Almost immediately after his return in Petrograd riots started spontaneously happening throughout Russia, which resulted in the July Day Riots. As a result the Provisional Russian Government immediately banned the Bolshevik Party and issued an arrest warrant for Lenin. During this point Lenin fled (again) to Finland and thought on the July Riots coming to the conclusion that the Provisional Government must be overthrown by via an armed revolution. Returning to Russia in October Lenin directed the disbandment of the Provisional Government, the October Revolution was rather peaceful and at this point it was apparent that Lenin and the Soviets had complete control of Russia’s government. However, not all of the Russian socialist movement was behind Lenin; the Mensheviks in particular were very disapproving of Lenin and the Soviets and walked out of the first session of the Congress of Soviets. At the Congress Lenin was unanimously elected to become the head of government of Russia, almost immediately in January 1918 Lenin withdrew the Soviet Union from WWI with the Brest-Litovsk Treaty which worked considerably in Lenin’s favor as it allowed him to focus on fighting those still loyal to the former government and monarchy (The Whites) while not having to deal with Germany. Even with the backdrop of the Civil war Lenin was able to bring Russia’s industry up into the 20th Century in a way very similar to the Industrial Revolution of Victorian England. Along with this Lenin also established free universal health care and universal free education systems as well as instigated civil rights for women, all of these were very revolutionary for the time and increased the way of life for Russians by tenfold. However, with all this greatness all came at a very brutal price. Under Lenin’s rule he established the Cheka (short for Extraordinary Commission) to serve as a secret service and were essentially used to make sure all media was portraying Lenin in a positive light and to harass enemies to Lenin’s cause such as the bourgeoisie and right-wing political opponents. A year after their formation (1918) Lenin banned any media from reporting negatively on their actions stating “A good communist is also a good Chekist.” In 1918 Lenin was the target of a failed assassination attempt by a Socialist Revolutionary by the name of Fanya Kaplan. In response to this assassination attempt Lenin under the suggestion from one of his top allies Joseph Stalin began what Stalin suggested an “open and systematic terror against those responsible”. Lenin authorized the executions of 25 Tsarist ministers, civil servants, and 765 White Guards. In September of 1918 Lenin ordered the killing of the Russian Royal Family, which at the time was living in exile in Siberia. Lenin’s savage power led many to believe that Lenin was beginning a terrorist rule over Russia with many politicians such as Lev Kamenev and Nikolai Burkharin attempting to curb Lenin’s power. Lenin overruled them and in 1921 gave the Cheka the ability to carry out death penalties where they saw fit to do so. The Whites now backed by many nations of the world attempted to usurp Lenin in the great Russian Civil War due to their lack of support within the country and their inability to successfully carry out class warfare due to being outnumbered. By September 1921 over 65,000 people had been killed due to Lenin’s “Red Terror” At the height of this terror in 1920 Lenin began to fall into declining health and in 1922 suffered a stroke, which left him unable to speak for several weeks. In December of the same year Lenin suffered his second stroke and afterwards disappeared from the public eye. During this time Lenin began to think of possible candidates to succeed him. He firmly believed that Stalin should not be his successor and should be removed from power immediately. On January 24, 1924 Lenin died at his estate in Gorki. In the four-day period before his funeral 900,000 mourners viewed his body in the Hall of Columns. Alexi Rykov succeeded Lenin in March of 1924. Leninwas able to bring Russia into the 20th century through the ideals of Communism and without him Russia probably would not have become the nation that it is today but he brought it at an incredibly cost and through sheer terror, though that is not to say of what would come later in the former of Stalin’s purges, but that topic is for another time.

The Life and Times of Vladimir Lenin

Dylan Kielman

Hi-307
Professor Dr. Pursell
31 March 2013