Biography Category
Name :
V. I. Lenin
Date :
Views :
982
Category :
Birth Date :
10/04/1870
Birth Place :
town of Simbirsk
Death Date :
January 21, 1924
Czar Alexander III died in 1894, and his son, Nicholas II, became Czar. In 1895, Vladimir succeeded in getting a passport and traveled to France, Germany and Switzerland to contact other Marxists. Back home, he intensified his effort to establish a Marxist Party. He founded "The League of Struggle for the Emancipation of the Working Class." The police kept an eye on Vladimir’s league and in an early morning raid on December 1895, arrested Vladimir along with other leading members of the league. Vladimir was kept for 14 months in solitary confinement. But, despite the grim prison conditions, he continued to direct the Marxist organizations outside and also wrote a number of papers. In February 1897, the authorities sentenced Vladimir to exile for three years in Eastern Siberia. Exile in Siberia did not mean imprisonment. The government paid Vladimir a small allowance, and he rented quarters near Abakan. He continued his revolutionary writings and in 1898, married Nadezhda Krupskaya.[br /]
[br /]
[b]Middle Years (1900-1921)[/b][br /]
[br /]
In 1898, while Vladimir was in exile, a number of secret Marxist groups in Russia joined and formed the Russian Social Democratic Labor Party. After Vladimir’s exile ended in January 1900, he got permission from the government to leave Russia. He left the country and was joined later by Krupskaya in Munich, Germany. He helped found the party newspaper Iskra with Georgy Plekhanov, Yury Martov, Paul Axelrod, Vera Zasulich and Alexandr Potresov. The editors of Iskra also published Zarya, which dealt with Marxist theory. It was in Zarya in 1901 that Vladimir Ulyanov began using the name Lenin. Many revolutionaries changed their names to confuse the police.[br /]
[br /]
Iskra’s success in recruiting Russian intellectuals to Marxism led Lenin and his comrades to believe that the time was ripe to establish a revolutionary Marxist party that would weld together all the disparate Marxist groups at home and abroad. An abortive First Congress, held in 1898 in Minsk, had failed to achieve this objective, for most of the delegates were arrested shortly after the Congress. The organizing committee of the Second Congress decided to convene the Congress in Brussels in 1903, but police pressure forced it to be transferred to London. The Congressional sessions wore on for nearly three weeks. The key questions centered on the relation between the party and the proletariat.[br /]
[br /]
In 1903, the Russian Social Democratic labor party split into two groups, apparently over a dispute about membership. Lenin became the leader of the bloshinstvo (majority), or, as this group came to be known, the Bolsheviks. The other group became known as menshinstvo (minority), or Mensheviks. The Bolsheviks wanted to limit the party membership to a small number of full-time revolutionaries. The Mensheviks wanted fewer restrictions on party membership and preferred democratic practices to secret plotting. "Give us an organization of revolutionaries, "Lenin exclaimed, "and we will overturn Russia !"[br /]
[br /]
Lenin spared no effort to build just this kind of party over the next 20 years, despite fierce attacks on his position by some of his closest comrades.[br /]
[br /]
The differences between Lenin and the Mensheviks became sharper in the Revolution of 1905 and its aftermath, when Lenin moved to a distinctly original view on two issues : class alignments in the revolution and the character of the post – revolutionary regime. The outbreak of the revolution, in January 1905, found Lenin in Switzerland, and he did not return to Russia until November. On November 8, he returned to Petersburg. He vigorously directed the activities of both the Central and St Perersburg Bolshevik Committees, and prepared for an armed uprising. Intensified police persecution in late summer of 1906 forced Lenin to go abroad once again, this time to Finland.[br /]
[br /]
From 1906 to 1908, Lenin spent most of his time writing revolutionary pamphlets, and attending party Congresses in England, Germany and Sweden. Lenin found it too difficult to carry on revolutionary activities in Russia.[br /]
[br /]
His main purpose was to keep the Bolshevik organization together. In the spring of 1907, Lenin attended one of the stormiest, exhausting and most critical meeting where he dominated by the force and brutality of his arguments and the sheer weight of his personality.[br /]
[br /]
In December 1908, Lenin reached Paris with his wife and mother-in-law. He spent a night or two at a hotel where his sister Maria was staying while pursuing her studies. Soon he shifted to a predominantly bourgeios neighborhood, which was quiet and secluded. There they lived the life of gypsies. Lenin also set up a printing press for printing magazines to be smuggled to Russia. Very soon, he had to confront a rebellion in the ranks of the Bolsheviks attending the Fifth Conference of the Social Democratic Party. Some of the former revolutionaries were no longer prepared to follow him along the "hard" road of insurrection and armed uprising. Instead, they wanted to liquidate the extreme left wing of the party and wanted to substitute a more tolerant approach to the problems.[br /]
[br /]
In the spring of 1910, Lenin's calm bourgeois existence which had by now regulated like a clock, came to an end. He was seen in the company of a woman who was not his wife. Her name was Elisabeth Armand, a mother of five children and a woman of formidable charm. Elisabeth was known for her exploits and Lenin regarded her as a tried and devoted revolutionary. She had worked as a courier for the Bolsheviks and was arrested many times and was exiled for two years. [br /]
[br /]
In April 1912, in St Petersburg, several Bolsheviks established Pravda (Truth), a revolutionary newspaper that sold openly and Lenin became its chief contributor.[br /]
[br /]
World War I began two years later. Germany declared war on Russia on August 1, 1914. The war took Lenin unawares. As a Russian living on Austrian soil, Lenin was in a precarious situation. He immediately sought the assistance of Ganetsky, an Austrian. Ganetsky telegraphed for assistance to a Social Democratic member of parliament in Vienna. But he was unable to act in time. The police searched Lenin’s house and found a notebook full of diagrams – statistics circled and boxed by Lenin pertaining to battle plans. He was ordered to take a train and surrender to the gendarmery at Nowy Targ. Lenin was released on August 19, on the intervention of Victor Adler, a socialist deputy, who met the Interior Minister and convinced him that Lenin was an enemy of the tsarist government.[br /]
[br /]
The Austrian Government arranged for Lenin to go to Switzerland, which did not take part in the war. The Russian revolutionaries split into two groups, one group favored a Russian victory. The group headed by Lenin, worked for Russia’s defeat. Through these opposing policies, both aimed for the goal of world revolution. After the war began, Germany supplied money to some revolutionaries including Lenin. The Germans hoped the revolutionaries, would weaken the Russian war effort. In 1915, Lenin promised the Germans that if he came to power, he would sign a peace treaty.[br /]
[br /]
On September 5, 1915, Lenin attended an international socialist conference convened by the Italian Socialist Party at Zimmerwald, near Berne. In a short manifesto signed by eight delegates, he proposed a new slogan – "civil war, not civil peace". He also put forward some new proposals, but they were defeated. In January 1916, Lenin and Krupskaya went to live in Zurich. [br /]
[br /]
By 1917, Russia was losing the war. Unrest mounted, and food shortages ran high. Russian workers went on strike. By March 9, about 200,000 strikers were demonstrating in the capital. The soldiers refused to maintain order. Soviets (councils) of workers and soldiers had sprung up in Russia during the revolution of 1905. On March 12, 1917, a group called the Soviet of Workers’ and Soldiers Deputies was established in Petrograd.[br /]
[br /]
Czar Nicholas II gave up the throne on March 15, and a democratic government was established. For a time, the Petrograd Soviet shared control of Russia with the Government. But the Bolsheviks soon demanded "all power to the Soviets".[br /]
[br /]
[br /]
[br /]
[b]Middle Years (1900-1921)[/b][br /]
[br /]
In 1898, while Vladimir was in exile, a number of secret Marxist groups in Russia joined and formed the Russian Social Democratic Labor Party. After Vladimir’s exile ended in January 1900, he got permission from the government to leave Russia. He left the country and was joined later by Krupskaya in Munich, Germany. He helped found the party newspaper Iskra with Georgy Plekhanov, Yury Martov, Paul Axelrod, Vera Zasulich and Alexandr Potresov. The editors of Iskra also published Zarya, which dealt with Marxist theory. It was in Zarya in 1901 that Vladimir Ulyanov began using the name Lenin. Many revolutionaries changed their names to confuse the police.[br /]
[br /]
Iskra’s success in recruiting Russian intellectuals to Marxism led Lenin and his comrades to believe that the time was ripe to establish a revolutionary Marxist party that would weld together all the disparate Marxist groups at home and abroad. An abortive First Congress, held in 1898 in Minsk, had failed to achieve this objective, for most of the delegates were arrested shortly after the Congress. The organizing committee of the Second Congress decided to convene the Congress in Brussels in 1903, but police pressure forced it to be transferred to London. The Congressional sessions wore on for nearly three weeks. The key questions centered on the relation between the party and the proletariat.[br /]
[br /]
In 1903, the Russian Social Democratic labor party split into two groups, apparently over a dispute about membership. Lenin became the leader of the bloshinstvo (majority), or, as this group came to be known, the Bolsheviks. The other group became known as menshinstvo (minority), or Mensheviks. The Bolsheviks wanted to limit the party membership to a small number of full-time revolutionaries. The Mensheviks wanted fewer restrictions on party membership and preferred democratic practices to secret plotting. "Give us an organization of revolutionaries, "Lenin exclaimed, "and we will overturn Russia !"[br /]
[br /]
Lenin spared no effort to build just this kind of party over the next 20 years, despite fierce attacks on his position by some of his closest comrades.[br /]
[br /]
The differences between Lenin and the Mensheviks became sharper in the Revolution of 1905 and its aftermath, when Lenin moved to a distinctly original view on two issues : class alignments in the revolution and the character of the post – revolutionary regime. The outbreak of the revolution, in January 1905, found Lenin in Switzerland, and he did not return to Russia until November. On November 8, he returned to Petersburg. He vigorously directed the activities of both the Central and St Perersburg Bolshevik Committees, and prepared for an armed uprising. Intensified police persecution in late summer of 1906 forced Lenin to go abroad once again, this time to Finland.[br /]
[br /]
From 1906 to 1908, Lenin spent most of his time writing revolutionary pamphlets, and attending party Congresses in England, Germany and Sweden. Lenin found it too difficult to carry on revolutionary activities in Russia.[br /]
[br /]
His main purpose was to keep the Bolshevik organization together. In the spring of 1907, Lenin attended one of the stormiest, exhausting and most critical meeting where he dominated by the force and brutality of his arguments and the sheer weight of his personality.[br /]
[br /]
In December 1908, Lenin reached Paris with his wife and mother-in-law. He spent a night or two at a hotel where his sister Maria was staying while pursuing her studies. Soon he shifted to a predominantly bourgeios neighborhood, which was quiet and secluded. There they lived the life of gypsies. Lenin also set up a printing press for printing magazines to be smuggled to Russia. Very soon, he had to confront a rebellion in the ranks of the Bolsheviks attending the Fifth Conference of the Social Democratic Party. Some of the former revolutionaries were no longer prepared to follow him along the "hard" road of insurrection and armed uprising. Instead, they wanted to liquidate the extreme left wing of the party and wanted to substitute a more tolerant approach to the problems.[br /]
[br /]
In the spring of 1910, Lenin's calm bourgeois existence which had by now regulated like a clock, came to an end. He was seen in the company of a woman who was not his wife. Her name was Elisabeth Armand, a mother of five children and a woman of formidable charm. Elisabeth was known for her exploits and Lenin regarded her as a tried and devoted revolutionary. She had worked as a courier for the Bolsheviks and was arrested many times and was exiled for two years. [br /]
[br /]
In April 1912, in St Petersburg, several Bolsheviks established Pravda (Truth), a revolutionary newspaper that sold openly and Lenin became its chief contributor.[br /]
[br /]
World War I began two years later. Germany declared war on Russia on August 1, 1914. The war took Lenin unawares. As a Russian living on Austrian soil, Lenin was in a precarious situation. He immediately sought the assistance of Ganetsky, an Austrian. Ganetsky telegraphed for assistance to a Social Democratic member of parliament in Vienna. But he was unable to act in time. The police searched Lenin’s house and found a notebook full of diagrams – statistics circled and boxed by Lenin pertaining to battle plans. He was ordered to take a train and surrender to the gendarmery at Nowy Targ. Lenin was released on August 19, on the intervention of Victor Adler, a socialist deputy, who met the Interior Minister and convinced him that Lenin was an enemy of the tsarist government.[br /]
[br /]
The Austrian Government arranged for Lenin to go to Switzerland, which did not take part in the war. The Russian revolutionaries split into two groups, one group favored a Russian victory. The group headed by Lenin, worked for Russia’s defeat. Through these opposing policies, both aimed for the goal of world revolution. After the war began, Germany supplied money to some revolutionaries including Lenin. The Germans hoped the revolutionaries, would weaken the Russian war effort. In 1915, Lenin promised the Germans that if he came to power, he would sign a peace treaty.[br /]
[br /]
On September 5, 1915, Lenin attended an international socialist conference convened by the Italian Socialist Party at Zimmerwald, near Berne. In a short manifesto signed by eight delegates, he proposed a new slogan – "civil war, not civil peace". He also put forward some new proposals, but they were defeated. In January 1916, Lenin and Krupskaya went to live in Zurich. [br /]
[br /]
By 1917, Russia was losing the war. Unrest mounted, and food shortages ran high. Russian workers went on strike. By March 9, about 200,000 strikers were demonstrating in the capital. The soldiers refused to maintain order. Soviets (councils) of workers and soldiers had sprung up in Russia during the revolution of 1905. On March 12, 1917, a group called the Soviet of Workers’ and Soldiers Deputies was established in Petrograd.[br /]
[br /]
Czar Nicholas II gave up the throne on March 15, and a democratic government was established. For a time, the Petrograd Soviet shared control of Russia with the Government. But the Bolsheviks soon demanded "all power to the Soviets".[br /]
[br /]
[br /]
[b]Early life[/b][br /]
[br /]
Lenin was born on April 22, 1870, in Simbirsk (now Ulyanovsk), a quiet little town on the Volga in Russia. His real name was Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov. He adopted the name Lenin in 1901. The name may refer to the river Lena of Siberia. [br /]
[br /]
His father, Ilya Nikolayevich Ulyanov, was a teacher who became director of schools in Simbirsk province. He inherited his father’s dark complexion, high cheek bones, and dark brown eyes. His mother, Maria Aleksandrovna Blank was the daughter of a doctor. An educated woman, she was devoted to her children. The Ulyanovs had six children, all of whom, with the exception of Olga who died early, embraced the cause of the revolution. There were besides Vladimir, his brothers Alexander and Dmitri and sisters Anna and Maria. It is said that Vladimir was an unruly, noisy child, given to tantrums. His tantrums were sometimes violent, and often accompanied by acts of cruelty. There was something very set and determined in his occasional destructive frenzies, and was punished more than any of the other children by being made to sit still in the black armchair in his father’s study. It was a punishment he took lightly, for he simply curled up and went to sleep. [br /]
[br /]
Vladimir learnt to read when he was five years old. A teacher paid regular visits to the Ulyanov household to tutor him and the other children. Vladimir entered school (the Simbirsk gymnasium), at the age of nine. Highly gifted and diligent, and well prepared at home, he made excellent progress, and showed a keen interest in literature, history and languages, including Latin and Greek. He could freely translate the ancient classics and spoke and read in several modern European languages. All this helped to develop in him a comprehensive knowledge.[br /]
[br /]
Vladimir had a pleasant childhood and often imitated his brother Alexander, four years older. Vladimir swam, hiked, fished, hunted and played chess. His sister Anna recalled that he had no close friends. Alexander was quiet and reserved, with a peculiarly studious expression even as a child, while Vladimir on the other hand was an unruly, noisy child, given to tantrums. His sister Anna remembered that Vladimir was always breaking Alexander's toys. Alexander was scrupulously truthful, but Vladimir could cheerfully tell lies. When he was eight, his father took the children to Kazan to visit one of their aunts. When he was playing a game with his cousins, he accidentally pushed a table and a decanter smashed to the floor. When their aunt asked as to who had done it, all including Vladimir said that they were innocent. Some months later, Vladimir suddenly burst into tears and confessed to his mother what he had done.[br /]
[br /]
During Vladimir’s youth, Russia was generally quiet and peaceful. The Russian government was an autocracy. Czar Alexander III had usurped power in 1881 after murdering his father Alexander II. Alexander III did not change some of the schemes his father had introduced, but added few more. Russia was rapidly becoming an industrial country, though living standards remained low and the people starved.[br /]
[br /]
Even in his early youth, Vladimir was able to discern the reactionary character of the political and social system in Tsarist Russia. His own observations, complemented by the stories his father related after visiting a few villages, the shocking scenes of misery and the suffering of the downtrodden ignorant peasants and workingmen, moved him and his brothers and sisters to protest against social and national inequality. They vowed to dedicate their lives to the emancipation of the working people. Vladimir, intellectually gifted, physically strong; and reared in a warm, loving home, early on displayed a voracious passion for learning. Vladimir had displayed his revolutionary sentiments in his school compositions. In 1887, Vladimir Ulyanov completed his course at the gymnasium and was the only pupil in his class to receive a gold medal for outstanding ability. He distinguished himself in Latin and Greek and seemed destined for the life of a classical scholar. At 16, nothing in Vladimir indicated a future rebel, still less a professional revolutionary – except, perhaps his turn to atheism.[br /]
[br /]
Now an adolescent, Vladimir suffered two blows that influenced his subsequent decision to take the path of revolution. First, his father was threatened shortly before his untimely death with premature retirement by a reactionary government that had grown fearful of the spread of public education. Then, in 1887, his beloved eldest brother, Alexander, a student at the University of St Petersburg (later renamed Leningrad State University), was hanged for conspiring with a revolutionary terrorist group to assassinate Czar Alexander III. Suddenly, at the age of 17, Vladimir became the male head of the family, now stigmatized as having reared a "state criminal". Vladimir loved and greatly respected Alexander, with whom he often discussed social and political subjects, though for reasons of secrecy,
the latter had never spoken of his revolutionary activity to anyone in the family.Though a 17-year-old schoolboy, stunned by his brother’s execution, and honoring him for his courage, young Vladimir arrived at an important conclusion that was to shape all his future activity.[br /]
[br /]
To continue his education, Vladimir decided to enroll at Kazan University’s Department of Law, as he was convinced that "it is the time now to study law and political economy." It is noteworthy that he took the same decision as Marx once did : Marx had chosen a university law course and subsequently devoted all of his life to the study of political economy. Following Vladimir’s enrolment at the University in 1887, the Ulyanovs moved to Kazan, modestly surviving on the pension granted to them after the death of Ilya Nikolyevich Ulyanov. However, Vladimir’s University career was cut short when he was arrested and jailed for taking part in a revolutionary student demonstration, protesting the lack of freedom in school. He was banished from Kazan to his grandfather’s estate in the village of Kokushkino, where his older sister Anna had already been ordered by the police to reside. In the autumn of 1888, he was allowed to return to Kazan, but failed to gain re-admission to the University. He was also denied a passport for traveling abroad.[br /]
[br /]
During this period of enforced idleness, he met exiled revolutionaries of the older generation and avidly read political literature, especially Karl Marx’s Das Kapital. He had a high opinion of G V Plekhanov, a Marxist theoretician and propagandist who in 1883 had organized the first Russian Marxist group – "Emancipation of Labor" – in Geneva. In Kazan, Vladimir joined a Marxist group, organized by N Y Fedoseyev, one of Russia’s first Marxists. Marxist studies were in its infancy in Russia. The works that referred to them were banned; and the name Marx or the word "Marxist" was not supposed to appear in the press. Between 1830 to 1840, German had been the language of the Russian elite; now it became that of the first Marxists. Vladimir, therefore, had direct access to the sources. He wrote numerous expositions for the student circles, and he was also the Russian translator for the Communist Manifesto.[br /]
[br /]
Of great importance in the formation of Vladimir’s Marxist outlook were the four years he spent in the city of Samara, where the Ulyanovs moved in September 1889. In summer, the family lived at a farmstead near the village of Alakayevka. In the spring of 1890, Vladimir was permitted to take examinations for a degree in law at the St Petersburg University. The University admitted Vladimir as a student, but he was not permitted to attend classes. However, he was allowed to study on his own and take examinations. He completed the entire course in the space of 18 months of intensive study at home and passed with honors in November 1891. After the police finally waived their political objections, Vladimir was admitted to the bar and practiced law in Samara in 1892-93, his clients being mainly poor peasants and artists. In his experiences while practicing law, he acquired an intense loathing for the class bias of the legal system and a lifelong revulsion for lawyers, even those who claimed to be social Democrats. Though he practiced law for a while, he comprised its first Marxist study group, to whose members he read a number of papers. Among Samara’s Marxists, he quickly gained the reputation of being a capable theoretician and organizer. The works by a man of less than 24 marked a decisive turn in the history of Russian thought. They did not appear openly until much later; but from the moment of their publication, in lectures, in extracts, and in copies, they exercised by their logic an enormous effect on Samara and later on St Petersburg.[br /]
[br /]
Law proved to be an extremely useful cover for a revolutionary activist. He moved to St Petersburg (from 1914 to 1924 known as Petrograd; from 1924 to 1991 known as Leningrad) in August 1893, and while working as a public defender, associated with revolutionary Marxist circles. Vladimir’s arrival in St Petersburg, capital of the Russian Empire and a center of social and political activities, initiated of new chapter in his life, one of direct effort to organize a Marxist party in Russia. After his arrival in St Petersburg, Vladimir established contacts with the group of Marxist students at the Technological Institute. It was at one of the gatherings of Marxists in the city that Vladimir met Nadezhda Konstantinovna Krupskaya, who was then a teacher at a Sunday school for factory workers, an acquaintance that blossomed into lifelong love.[br /]
[br /]
Czar Alexander III died in 1894, and his son, Nicholas II, became Czar. In 1895, Vladimir succeeded in getting a passport and traveled to France, Germany and Switzerland to contact other Marxists. Back home, he intensified his effort to establish a Marxist Party. He founded "The League of Struggle for the Emancipation of the Working Class." The police kept an eye on Vladimir’s league and in an early morning raid on December 1895, arrested Vladimir along with other leading members of the league. Vladimir was kept for 14 months in solitary confinement. But, despite the grim prison conditions, he continued to direct the Marxist organizations outside and also wrote a number of papers. In February 1897, the authorities sentenced Vladimir to exile for three years in Eastern Siberia. Exile in Siberia did not mean imprisonment. The government paid Vladimir a small allowance, and he rented quarters near Abakan. He continued his revolutionary writings and in 1898, married Nadezhda Krupskaya.[br /]
[br /]
[b]Middle Years (1900-1921)[/b][br /]
[br /]
In 1898, while Vladimir was in exile, a number of secret Marxist groups in Russia joined and formed the Russian Social Democratic Labor Party. After Vladimir’s exile ended in January 1900, he got permission from the government to leave Russia. He left the country and was joined later by Krupskaya in Munich, Germany. He helped found the party newspaper Iskra with Georgy Plekhanov, Yury Martov, Paul Axelrod, Vera Zasulich and Alexandr Potresov. The editors of Iskra also published Zarya, which dealt with Marxist theory. It was in Zarya in 1901 that Vladimir Ulyanov began using the name Lenin. Many revolutionaries changed their names to confuse the police.[br /]
[br /]
Iskra’s success in recruiting Russian intellectuals to Marxism led Lenin and his comrades to believe that the time was ripe to establish a revolutionary Marxist party that would weld together all the disparate Marxist groups at home and abroad. An abortive First Congress, held in 1898 in Minsk, had failed to achieve this objective, for most of the delegates were arrested shortly after the Congress. The organizing committee of the Second Congress decided to convene the Congress in Brussels in 1903, but police pressure forced it to be transferred to London. The Congressional sessions wore on for nearly three weeks. The key questions centered on the relation between the party and the proletariat.[br /]
[br /]
In 1903, the Russian Social Democratic labor party split into two groups, apparently over a dispute about membership. Lenin became the leader of the bloshinstvo (majority), or, as this group came to be known, the Bolsheviks. The other group became known as menshinstvo (minority), or Mensheviks. The Bolsheviks wanted to limit the party membership to a small number of full-time revolutionaries. The Mensheviks wanted fewer restrictions on party membership and preferred democratic practices to secret plotting. "Give us an organization of revolutionaries, "Lenin exclaimed, "and we will overturn Russia !"[br /]
[br /]
Lenin spared no effort to build just this kind of party over the next 20 years, despite fierce attacks on his position by some of his closest comrades.[br /]
[br /]
The differences between Lenin and the Mensheviks became sharper in the Revolution of 1905 and its aftermath, when Lenin moved to a distinctly original view on two issues : class alignments in the revolution and the character of the post – revolutionary regime. The outbreak of the revolution, in January 1905, found Lenin in Switzerland, and he did not return to Russia until November. On November 8, he returned to Petersburg. He vigorously directed the activities of both the Central and St Perersburg Bolshevik Committees, and prepared for an armed uprising. Intensified police persecution in late summer of 1906 forced Lenin to go abroad once again, this time to Finland.[br /]
[br /]
From 1906 to 1908, Lenin spent most of his time writing revolutionary pamphlets, and attending party Congresses in England, Germany and Sweden. Lenin found it too difficult to carry on revolutionary activities in Russia.[br /]
[br /]
His main purpose was to keep the Bolshevik organization together. In the spring of 1907, Lenin attended one of the stormiest, exhausting and most critical meeting where he dominated by the force and brutality of his arguments and the sheer weight of his personality.[br /]
[br /]
In December 1908, Lenin reached Paris with his wife and mother-in-law. He spent a night or two at a hotel where his sister Maria was staying while pursuing her studies. Soon he shifted to a predominantly bourgeios neighborhood, which was quiet and secluded. There they lived the life of gypsies. Lenin also set up a printing press for printing magazines to be smuggled to Russia. Very soon, he had to confront a rebellion in the ranks of the Bolsheviks attending the Fifth Conference of the Social Democratic Party. Some of the former revolutionaries were no longer prepared to follow him along the "hard" road of insurrection and armed uprising. Instead, they wanted to liquidate the extreme left wing of the party and wanted to substitute a more tolerant approach to the problems.[br /]
[br /]
In the spring of 1910, Lenin's calm bourgeois existence which had by now regulated like a clock, came to an end. He was seen in the company of a woman who was not his wife. Her name was Elisabeth Armand, a mother of five children and a woman of formidable charm. Elisabeth was known for her exploits and Lenin regarded her as a tried and devoted revolutionary. She had worked as a courier for the Bolsheviks and was arrested many times and was exiled for two years.[br /]
[br /]
In April 1912, in St Petersburg, several Bolsheviks established Pravda (Truth), a revolutionary newspaper that sold openly and Lenin became its chief contributor.[br /]
[br /]
World War I began two years later. Germany declared war on Russia on August 1, 1914. The war took Lenin unawares. As a Russian living on Austrian soil, Lenin was in a precarious situation. He immediately sought the assistance of Ganetsky, an Austrian. Ganetsky telegraphed for assistance to a Social Democratic member of parliament in Vienna. But he was unable to act in time. The police searched Lenin’s house and found a notebook full of diagrams – statistics circled and boxed by Lenin pertaining to battle plans. He was ordered to take a train and surrender to the gendarmery at Nowy Targ. Lenin was released on August 19, on the intervention of Victor Adler, a socialist deputy, who met the Interior Minister and convinced him that Lenin was an enemy of the tsarist government.[br /]
[br /]
The Austrian Government arranged for Lenin to go to Switzerland, which did not take part in the war. The Russian revolutionaries split into two groups, one group favored a Russian victory. The group headed by Lenin, worked for Russia’s defeat. Through these opposing policies, both aimed for the goal of world revolution. After the war began, Germany supplied money to some revolutionaries including Lenin. The Germans hoped the revolutionaries, would weaken the Russian war effort. In 1915, Lenin promised the Germans that if he came to power, he would sign a peace treaty.[br /]
[br /]
On September 5, 1915, Lenin attended an international socialist conference convened by the Italian Socialist Party at Zimmerwald, near Berne. In a short manifesto signed by eight delegates, he proposed a new slogan – "civil war, not civil peace". He also put forward some new proposals, but they were defeated. In January 1916, Lenin and Krupskaya went to live in Zurich.[br /]
[br /]
By 1917, Russia was losing the war. Unrest mounted, and food shortages ran high. Russian workers went on strike. By March 9, about 200,000 strikers were demonstrating in the capital. The soldiers refused to maintain order. Soviets (councils) of workers and soldiers had sprung up in Russia during the revolution of 1905. On March 12, 1917, a group called the Soviet of Workers’ and Soldiers Deputies was established in Petrograd.[br /]
[br /]
Czar Nicholas II gave up the throne on March 15, and a democratic government was established. For a time, the Petrograd Soviet shared control of Russia with the Government. But the Bolsheviks soon demanded "all power to the Soviets".[br /]
[br /]
Nothing about the revolution had followed the pattern expected by the revolutionaries. The Bolsheviks were disorganized and only a few of them had taken part in it. Lenin was in Switzerland and most of the other top leaders were in Siberia. The exiled rushed back from Siberia. Lenin and a group of Bolsheviks returned from Switzerland. Lenin arrived in Petrograd on April 16, 1917, and received a herds welcome. [br /]
[br /]
Lenin called for an end to the war, government ownership of all land and the overthrow of the government. The Bolsheviks regarded these proposals as too extreme. Lenin quickly regained party leadership, but he was not able to seize the government. In July 1917, following an unsuccessful Bolshevik uprising, the government was reorganized under Alexander Kerensky. On July 19, the government accused Lenin of being a German agent and ordered his arrest. Lenin fled to Finland. While in Finland, Lenin wrote The State and Revolution (1917) and told in this pamphlet how to organize a revolution. In September 1917, Lenin declared that the time for speech making was over. It was time for action. "History will not forgive us if we do not assume power now", said Lenin. In October 1917, Lenin returned to Petrograd. He urged the central committee to begin a revolt immediately. Kerensky’s government and leadership were weak. The Bolsheviks decided to act. With little violence, the Bolsheviks seized Petrograd on Nevember 7 (October 25 on the ancient Russian Calendar). Kerensky fled. Thenceforth, the Bolsheviks controlled the Russian government. They had come to power with the help of a simple slogan : "Bread, Peace, Land". This slogan had little to do with the theories of Marx. But it had real meaning to starving housewives and their families, soldiers sick of war, and peasants hungry for land.[br /]
[br /]
The second All – Russian Congress of Soviets opened on November 8, 1917, with delegates from most parts of the country. Lenin was made chairman of the council and thus became head of the new Soviet State. On his first appearance before the Congress, Lenin requested permission to ask Germany for a three-month halt to the war. He also asked for the abolition of private land-ownership. The Congress approved both requests. The Bolsheviks started peace talks with Germany, and nationalized all privately owned land.[br /]
[br /]
Lenin hardly had time to get settled when he found himself battling to stay in power. The Russian army had fallen apart, the Germans were advancing into Russia, and forces that opposed the Bolsheviks were gathering in many parts of the country. Lenin forced Russia to withdraw from the war. On March 3, 1918, Russia signed the peace treaty of Brest–Litovsk. Russia gave Germany large territories and also promised them raw materials. On their part, the Germans helped to keep Lenin in power.[br /]
[br /]
In December 1917, Lenin established the "Cheka" – a political police force – and set up rule by terror. Those who opposed the Bolshevik Government were imprisoned or murdered. In July 1918, the Bolsheviks killed Czar Nicholas II and his family. Lenin described his own dictatorship as "power, based directly upon force, and unrestricted by any laws".[br /]
[br /]
On August 30, 1918, after speaking to workers at a Moscow factory, two bullets hit Lenin. It took him several weeks to recover. Dora Kaplan, the assassin, was executed. To discourage other attempts, the Bolsheviks executed hundreds of so-called "hostages".[br /]
[br /]
The revolution had spread quickly in the large cities of Central Russia. But resistance in distant regions developed into civil war. In January 1918, Lenin formed the Red Army, named after the color of the flag of the World Communist Movement. By 1920, the Bolsheviks had won the deciding battles and by 1922 the war ended.[br /]
[br /]
The Russian economy had collapsed. Industrial output was negligible. Agricultural production had fallen disastrously. Millions of Russians had died or fled abroad. But the Communist government survived.[br /]
[br /]
Even during the civil war, Lenin did not lose sight of his goal, that of a Communist World Revolution. In 1919, he had organized Comintern (Communist International). The Comintern formed parties in all parts of the world and helped to gain international support for the Bolsheviks during the civil war.[br /]
[br /]
[b]Last Years[/b][br /]
[br /]
After the civil war, Lenin took extreme measures to keep control of his weakened country. In March 1921, he introduced a program called the New Economic Policy (NEP). This program replaced many of the socialist measures started at the beginning of his rule. Lenin asked England, France, Germany and the US for credit, trade and diplomatic recognition. But these nations were unwilling to deal with the Bolshevik government which had refused to pay Russia’s debts and which favored a world revolution. By 1919, no major country maintained diplomatic relations with the Soviet government. But after the New Economic Policy was incorporated, most European states resumed diplomatic relations.[br /]
[br /]
By this time, Lenin’s health had been shattered by the strain of revolution and war. He was ill by November 1921. In April 1922, his doctors extracted from his neck one of the bullets he had received from an assassin’s gun. In May 1922, Lenin suffered a stroke. He worked on against his doctor’s advice[br /]
[br /]
Lenin was concerned about the direction the revolution was taking. He began to challenge some basic ideas of the Bolshevik government. Shortly before the stroke, Lenin appointed Joseph Stalin as his successor. Lenin liked him because Stalin knew how to get things done. Stalin was hard-working, ambitious and supremely competent. After Lenin’s death, it was Stalin who came to power in Communist Russia.[br /]
[br /]
In December 1922, Lenin suffered a second stroke. On March 9, 1923, Lenin had a third stroke and lost his power to speak clearly. From this time on, Lenin required constant care. His political activity ended. He suffered yet another stroke on the morning of January 21, 1924, and died that evening in the village of Gorky (now known as Gorki Leninskiye). The government preserved his body by embalming. Lenin’s tomb, at the Red Square in Moscow, is one of the country’s most honored monuments.[br /]
[br /]
The last year of Lenin’s political life, when he fought to eradicate abuses of his socialist ideals and the corruption of power, may well have been his greatest. Whether the history of the Soviet Union would have been fundamentally different, had he survived beyond his 54th birthday, no one can say with certainty.[br /]
[br /]
[br /]
[br /]
Lenin was born on April 22, 1870, in Simbirsk (now Ulyanovsk), a quiet little town on the Volga in Russia. His real name was Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov. He adopted the name Lenin in 1901. The name may refer to the river Lena of Siberia. [br /]
[br /]
His father, Ilya Nikolayevich Ulyanov, was a teacher who became director of schools in Simbirsk province. He inherited his father’s dark complexion, high cheek bones, and dark brown eyes. His mother, Maria Aleksandrovna Blank was the daughter of a doctor. An educated woman, she was devoted to her children. The Ulyanovs had six children, all of whom, with the exception of Olga who died early, embraced the cause of the revolution. There were besides Vladimir, his brothers Alexander and Dmitri and sisters Anna and Maria. It is said that Vladimir was an unruly, noisy child, given to tantrums. His tantrums were sometimes violent, and often accompanied by acts of cruelty. There was something very set and determined in his occasional destructive frenzies, and was punished more than any of the other children by being made to sit still in the black armchair in his father’s study. It was a punishment he took lightly, for he simply curled up and went to sleep. [br /]
[br /]
Vladimir learnt to read when he was five years old. A teacher paid regular visits to the Ulyanov household to tutor him and the other children. Vladimir entered school (the Simbirsk gymnasium), at the age of nine. Highly gifted and diligent, and well prepared at home, he made excellent progress, and showed a keen interest in literature, history and languages, including Latin and Greek. He could freely translate the ancient classics and spoke and read in several modern European languages. All this helped to develop in him a comprehensive knowledge.[br /]
[br /]
Vladimir had a pleasant childhood and often imitated his brother Alexander, four years older. Vladimir swam, hiked, fished, hunted and played chess. His sister Anna recalled that he had no close friends. Alexander was quiet and reserved, with a peculiarly studious expression even as a child, while Vladimir on the other hand was an unruly, noisy child, given to tantrums. His sister Anna remembered that Vladimir was always breaking Alexander's toys. Alexander was scrupulously truthful, but Vladimir could cheerfully tell lies. When he was eight, his father took the children to Kazan to visit one of their aunts. When he was playing a game with his cousins, he accidentally pushed a table and a decanter smashed to the floor. When their aunt asked as to who had done it, all including Vladimir said that they were innocent. Some months later, Vladimir suddenly burst into tears and confessed to his mother what he had done.[br /]
[br /]
During Vladimir’s youth, Russia was generally quiet and peaceful. The Russian government was an autocracy. Czar Alexander III had usurped power in 1881 after murdering his father Alexander II. Alexander III did not change some of the schemes his father had introduced, but added few more. Russia was rapidly becoming an industrial country, though living standards remained low and the people starved.[br /]
[br /]
Even in his early youth, Vladimir was able to discern the reactionary character of the political and social system in Tsarist Russia. His own observations, complemented by the stories his father related after visiting a few villages, the shocking scenes of misery and the suffering of the downtrodden ignorant peasants and workingmen, moved him and his brothers and sisters to protest against social and national inequality. They vowed to dedicate their lives to the emancipation of the working people. Vladimir, intellectually gifted, physically strong; and reared in a warm, loving home, early on displayed a voracious passion for learning. Vladimir had displayed his revolutionary sentiments in his school compositions. In 1887, Vladimir Ulyanov completed his course at the gymnasium and was the only pupil in his class to receive a gold medal for outstanding ability. He distinguished himself in Latin and Greek and seemed destined for the life of a classical scholar. At 16, nothing in Vladimir indicated a future rebel, still less a professional revolutionary – except, perhaps his turn to atheism.[br /]
[br /]
Now an adolescent, Vladimir suffered two blows that influenced his subsequent decision to take the path of revolution. First, his father was threatened shortly before his untimely death with premature retirement by a reactionary government that had grown fearful of the spread of public education. Then, in 1887, his beloved eldest brother, Alexander, a student at the University of St Petersburg (later renamed Leningrad State University), was hanged for conspiring with a revolutionary terrorist group to assassinate Czar Alexander III. Suddenly, at the age of 17, Vladimir became the male head of the family, now stigmatized as having reared a "state criminal". Vladimir loved and greatly respected Alexander, with whom he often discussed social and political subjects, though for reasons of secrecy,
the latter had never spoken of his revolutionary activity to anyone in the family.Though a 17-year-old schoolboy, stunned by his brother’s execution, and honoring him for his courage, young Vladimir arrived at an important conclusion that was to shape all his future activity.[br /]
[br /]
To continue his education, Vladimir decided to enroll at Kazan University’s Department of Law, as he was convinced that "it is the time now to study law and political economy." It is noteworthy that he took the same decision as Marx once did : Marx had chosen a university law course and subsequently devoted all of his life to the study of political economy. Following Vladimir’s enrolment at the University in 1887, the Ulyanovs moved to Kazan, modestly surviving on the pension granted to them after the death of Ilya Nikolyevich Ulyanov. However, Vladimir’s University career was cut short when he was arrested and jailed for taking part in a revolutionary student demonstration, protesting the lack of freedom in school. He was banished from Kazan to his grandfather’s estate in the village of Kokushkino, where his older sister Anna had already been ordered by the police to reside. In the autumn of 1888, he was allowed to return to Kazan, but failed to gain re-admission to the University. He was also denied a passport for traveling abroad.[br /]
[br /]
During this period of enforced idleness, he met exiled revolutionaries of the older generation and avidly read political literature, especially Karl Marx’s Das Kapital. He had a high opinion of G V Plekhanov, a Marxist theoretician and propagandist who in 1883 had organized the first Russian Marxist group – "Emancipation of Labor" – in Geneva. In Kazan, Vladimir joined a Marxist group, organized by N Y Fedoseyev, one of Russia’s first Marxists. Marxist studies were in its infancy in Russia. The works that referred to them were banned; and the name Marx or the word "Marxist" was not supposed to appear in the press. Between 1830 to 1840, German had been the language of the Russian elite; now it became that of the first Marxists. Vladimir, therefore, had direct access to the sources. He wrote numerous expositions for the student circles, and he was also the Russian translator for the Communist Manifesto.[br /]
[br /]
Of great importance in the formation of Vladimir’s Marxist outlook were the four years he spent in the city of Samara, where the Ulyanovs moved in September 1889. In summer, the family lived at a farmstead near the village of Alakayevka. In the spring of 1890, Vladimir was permitted to take examinations for a degree in law at the St Petersburg University. The University admitted Vladimir as a student, but he was not permitted to attend classes. However, he was allowed to study on his own and take examinations. He completed the entire course in the space of 18 months of intensive study at home and passed with honors in November 1891. After the police finally waived their political objections, Vladimir was admitted to the bar and practiced law in Samara in 1892-93, his clients being mainly poor peasants and artists. In his experiences while practicing law, he acquired an intense loathing for the class bias of the legal system and a lifelong revulsion for lawyers, even those who claimed to be social Democrats. Though he practiced law for a while, he comprised its first Marxist study group, to whose members he read a number of papers. Among Samara’s Marxists, he quickly gained the reputation of being a capable theoretician and organizer. The works by a man of less than 24 marked a decisive turn in the history of Russian thought. They did not appear openly until much later; but from the moment of their publication, in lectures, in extracts, and in copies, they exercised by their logic an enormous effect on Samara and later on St Petersburg.[br /]
[br /]
Law proved to be an extremely useful cover for a revolutionary activist. He moved to St Petersburg (from 1914 to 1924 known as Petrograd; from 1924 to 1991 known as Leningrad) in August 1893, and while working as a public defender, associated with revolutionary Marxist circles. Vladimir’s arrival in St Petersburg, capital of the Russian Empire and a center of social and political activities, initiated of new chapter in his life, one of direct effort to organize a Marxist party in Russia. After his arrival in St Petersburg, Vladimir established contacts with the group of Marxist students at the Technological Institute. It was at one of the gatherings of Marxists in the city that Vladimir met Nadezhda Konstantinovna Krupskaya, who was then a teacher at a Sunday school for factory workers, an acquaintance that blossomed into lifelong love.[br /]
[br /]
Czar Alexander III died in 1894, and his son, Nicholas II, became Czar. In 1895, Vladimir succeeded in getting a passport and traveled to France, Germany and Switzerland to contact other Marxists. Back home, he intensified his effort to establish a Marxist Party. He founded "The League of Struggle for the Emancipation of the Working Class." The police kept an eye on Vladimir’s league and in an early morning raid on December 1895, arrested Vladimir along with other leading members of the league. Vladimir was kept for 14 months in solitary confinement. But, despite the grim prison conditions, he continued to direct the Marxist organizations outside and also wrote a number of papers. In February 1897, the authorities sentenced Vladimir to exile for three years in Eastern Siberia. Exile in Siberia did not mean imprisonment. The government paid Vladimir a small allowance, and he rented quarters near Abakan. He continued his revolutionary writings and in 1898, married Nadezhda Krupskaya.[br /]
[br /]
[b]Middle Years (1900-1921)[/b][br /]
[br /]
In 1898, while Vladimir was in exile, a number of secret Marxist groups in Russia joined and formed the Russian Social Democratic Labor Party. After Vladimir’s exile ended in January 1900, he got permission from the government to leave Russia. He left the country and was joined later by Krupskaya in Munich, Germany. He helped found the party newspaper Iskra with Georgy Plekhanov, Yury Martov, Paul Axelrod, Vera Zasulich and Alexandr Potresov. The editors of Iskra also published Zarya, which dealt with Marxist theory. It was in Zarya in 1901 that Vladimir Ulyanov began using the name Lenin. Many revolutionaries changed their names to confuse the police.[br /]
[br /]
Iskra’s success in recruiting Russian intellectuals to Marxism led Lenin and his comrades to believe that the time was ripe to establish a revolutionary Marxist party that would weld together all the disparate Marxist groups at home and abroad. An abortive First Congress, held in 1898 in Minsk, had failed to achieve this objective, for most of the delegates were arrested shortly after the Congress. The organizing committee of the Second Congress decided to convene the Congress in Brussels in 1903, but police pressure forced it to be transferred to London. The Congressional sessions wore on for nearly three weeks. The key questions centered on the relation between the party and the proletariat.[br /]
[br /]
In 1903, the Russian Social Democratic labor party split into two groups, apparently over a dispute about membership. Lenin became the leader of the bloshinstvo (majority), or, as this group came to be known, the Bolsheviks. The other group became known as menshinstvo (minority), or Mensheviks. The Bolsheviks wanted to limit the party membership to a small number of full-time revolutionaries. The Mensheviks wanted fewer restrictions on party membership and preferred democratic practices to secret plotting. "Give us an organization of revolutionaries, "Lenin exclaimed, "and we will overturn Russia !"[br /]
[br /]
Lenin spared no effort to build just this kind of party over the next 20 years, despite fierce attacks on his position by some of his closest comrades.[br /]
[br /]
The differences between Lenin and the Mensheviks became sharper in the Revolution of 1905 and its aftermath, when Lenin moved to a distinctly original view on two issues : class alignments in the revolution and the character of the post – revolutionary regime. The outbreak of the revolution, in January 1905, found Lenin in Switzerland, and he did not return to Russia until November. On November 8, he returned to Petersburg. He vigorously directed the activities of both the Central and St Perersburg Bolshevik Committees, and prepared for an armed uprising. Intensified police persecution in late summer of 1906 forced Lenin to go abroad once again, this time to Finland.[br /]
[br /]
From 1906 to 1908, Lenin spent most of his time writing revolutionary pamphlets, and attending party Congresses in England, Germany and Sweden. Lenin found it too difficult to carry on revolutionary activities in Russia.[br /]
[br /]
His main purpose was to keep the Bolshevik organization together. In the spring of 1907, Lenin attended one of the stormiest, exhausting and most critical meeting where he dominated by the force and brutality of his arguments and the sheer weight of his personality.[br /]
[br /]
In December 1908, Lenin reached Paris with his wife and mother-in-law. He spent a night or two at a hotel where his sister Maria was staying while pursuing her studies. Soon he shifted to a predominantly bourgeios neighborhood, which was quiet and secluded. There they lived the life of gypsies. Lenin also set up a printing press for printing magazines to be smuggled to Russia. Very soon, he had to confront a rebellion in the ranks of the Bolsheviks attending the Fifth Conference of the Social Democratic Party. Some of the former revolutionaries were no longer prepared to follow him along the "hard" road of insurrection and armed uprising. Instead, they wanted to liquidate the extreme left wing of the party and wanted to substitute a more tolerant approach to the problems.[br /]
[br /]
In the spring of 1910, Lenin's calm bourgeois existence which had by now regulated like a clock, came to an end. He was seen in the company of a woman who was not his wife. Her name was Elisabeth Armand, a mother of five children and a woman of formidable charm. Elisabeth was known for her exploits and Lenin regarded her as a tried and devoted revolutionary. She had worked as a courier for the Bolsheviks and was arrested many times and was exiled for two years.[br /]
[br /]
In April 1912, in St Petersburg, several Bolsheviks established Pravda (Truth), a revolutionary newspaper that sold openly and Lenin became its chief contributor.[br /]
[br /]
World War I began two years later. Germany declared war on Russia on August 1, 1914. The war took Lenin unawares. As a Russian living on Austrian soil, Lenin was in a precarious situation. He immediately sought the assistance of Ganetsky, an Austrian. Ganetsky telegraphed for assistance to a Social Democratic member of parliament in Vienna. But he was unable to act in time. The police searched Lenin’s house and found a notebook full of diagrams – statistics circled and boxed by Lenin pertaining to battle plans. He was ordered to take a train and surrender to the gendarmery at Nowy Targ. Lenin was released on August 19, on the intervention of Victor Adler, a socialist deputy, who met the Interior Minister and convinced him that Lenin was an enemy of the tsarist government.[br /]
[br /]
The Austrian Government arranged for Lenin to go to Switzerland, which did not take part in the war. The Russian revolutionaries split into two groups, one group favored a Russian victory. The group headed by Lenin, worked for Russia’s defeat. Through these opposing policies, both aimed for the goal of world revolution. After the war began, Germany supplied money to some revolutionaries including Lenin. The Germans hoped the revolutionaries, would weaken the Russian war effort. In 1915, Lenin promised the Germans that if he came to power, he would sign a peace treaty.[br /]
[br /]
On September 5, 1915, Lenin attended an international socialist conference convened by the Italian Socialist Party at Zimmerwald, near Berne. In a short manifesto signed by eight delegates, he proposed a new slogan – "civil war, not civil peace". He also put forward some new proposals, but they were defeated. In January 1916, Lenin and Krupskaya went to live in Zurich.[br /]
[br /]
By 1917, Russia was losing the war. Unrest mounted, and food shortages ran high. Russian workers went on strike. By March 9, about 200,000 strikers were demonstrating in the capital. The soldiers refused to maintain order. Soviets (councils) of workers and soldiers had sprung up in Russia during the revolution of 1905. On March 12, 1917, a group called the Soviet of Workers’ and Soldiers Deputies was established in Petrograd.[br /]
[br /]
Czar Nicholas II gave up the throne on March 15, and a democratic government was established. For a time, the Petrograd Soviet shared control of Russia with the Government. But the Bolsheviks soon demanded "all power to the Soviets".[br /]
[br /]
Nothing about the revolution had followed the pattern expected by the revolutionaries. The Bolsheviks were disorganized and only a few of them had taken part in it. Lenin was in Switzerland and most of the other top leaders were in Siberia. The exiled rushed back from Siberia. Lenin and a group of Bolsheviks returned from Switzerland. Lenin arrived in Petrograd on April 16, 1917, and received a herds welcome. [br /]
[br /]
Lenin called for an end to the war, government ownership of all land and the overthrow of the government. The Bolsheviks regarded these proposals as too extreme. Lenin quickly regained party leadership, but he was not able to seize the government. In July 1917, following an unsuccessful Bolshevik uprising, the government was reorganized under Alexander Kerensky. On July 19, the government accused Lenin of being a German agent and ordered his arrest. Lenin fled to Finland. While in Finland, Lenin wrote The State and Revolution (1917) and told in this pamphlet how to organize a revolution. In September 1917, Lenin declared that the time for speech making was over. It was time for action. "History will not forgive us if we do not assume power now", said Lenin. In October 1917, Lenin returned to Petrograd. He urged the central committee to begin a revolt immediately. Kerensky’s government and leadership were weak. The Bolsheviks decided to act. With little violence, the Bolsheviks seized Petrograd on Nevember 7 (October 25 on the ancient Russian Calendar). Kerensky fled. Thenceforth, the Bolsheviks controlled the Russian government. They had come to power with the help of a simple slogan : "Bread, Peace, Land". This slogan had little to do with the theories of Marx. But it had real meaning to starving housewives and their families, soldiers sick of war, and peasants hungry for land.[br /]
[br /]
The second All – Russian Congress of Soviets opened on November 8, 1917, with delegates from most parts of the country. Lenin was made chairman of the council and thus became head of the new Soviet State. On his first appearance before the Congress, Lenin requested permission to ask Germany for a three-month halt to the war. He also asked for the abolition of private land-ownership. The Congress approved both requests. The Bolsheviks started peace talks with Germany, and nationalized all privately owned land.[br /]
[br /]
Lenin hardly had time to get settled when he found himself battling to stay in power. The Russian army had fallen apart, the Germans were advancing into Russia, and forces that opposed the Bolsheviks were gathering in many parts of the country. Lenin forced Russia to withdraw from the war. On March 3, 1918, Russia signed the peace treaty of Brest–Litovsk. Russia gave Germany large territories and also promised them raw materials. On their part, the Germans helped to keep Lenin in power.[br /]
[br /]
In December 1917, Lenin established the "Cheka" – a political police force – and set up rule by terror. Those who opposed the Bolshevik Government were imprisoned or murdered. In July 1918, the Bolsheviks killed Czar Nicholas II and his family. Lenin described his own dictatorship as "power, based directly upon force, and unrestricted by any laws".[br /]
[br /]
On August 30, 1918, after speaking to workers at a Moscow factory, two bullets hit Lenin. It took him several weeks to recover. Dora Kaplan, the assassin, was executed. To discourage other attempts, the Bolsheviks executed hundreds of so-called "hostages".[br /]
[br /]
The revolution had spread quickly in the large cities of Central Russia. But resistance in distant regions developed into civil war. In January 1918, Lenin formed the Red Army, named after the color of the flag of the World Communist Movement. By 1920, the Bolsheviks had won the deciding battles and by 1922 the war ended.[br /]
[br /]
The Russian economy had collapsed. Industrial output was negligible. Agricultural production had fallen disastrously. Millions of Russians had died or fled abroad. But the Communist government survived.[br /]
[br /]
Even during the civil war, Lenin did not lose sight of his goal, that of a Communist World Revolution. In 1919, he had organized Comintern (Communist International). The Comintern formed parties in all parts of the world and helped to gain international support for the Bolsheviks during the civil war.[br /]
[br /]
[b]Last Years[/b][br /]
[br /]
After the civil war, Lenin took extreme measures to keep control of his weakened country. In March 1921, he introduced a program called the New Economic Policy (NEP). This program replaced many of the socialist measures started at the beginning of his rule. Lenin asked England, France, Germany and the US for credit, trade and diplomatic recognition. But these nations were unwilling to deal with the Bolshevik government which had refused to pay Russia’s debts and which favored a world revolution. By 1919, no major country maintained diplomatic relations with the Soviet government. But after the New Economic Policy was incorporated, most European states resumed diplomatic relations.[br /]
[br /]
By this time, Lenin’s health had been shattered by the strain of revolution and war. He was ill by November 1921. In April 1922, his doctors extracted from his neck one of the bullets he had received from an assassin’s gun. In May 1922, Lenin suffered a stroke. He worked on against his doctor’s advice[br /]
[br /]
Lenin was concerned about the direction the revolution was taking. He began to challenge some basic ideas of the Bolshevik government. Shortly before the stroke, Lenin appointed Joseph Stalin as his successor. Lenin liked him because Stalin knew how to get things done. Stalin was hard-working, ambitious and supremely competent. After Lenin’s death, it was Stalin who came to power in Communist Russia.[br /]
[br /]
In December 1922, Lenin suffered a second stroke. On March 9, 1923, Lenin had a third stroke and lost his power to speak clearly. From this time on, Lenin required constant care. His political activity ended. He suffered yet another stroke on the morning of January 21, 1924, and died that evening in the village of Gorky (now known as Gorki Leninskiye). The government preserved his body by embalming. Lenin’s tomb, at the Red Square in Moscow, is one of the country’s most honored monuments.[br /]
[br /]
The last year of Lenin’s political life, when he fought to eradicate abuses of his socialist ideals and the corruption of power, may well have been his greatest. Whether the history of the Soviet Union would have been fundamentally different, had he survived beyond his 54th birthday, no one can say with certainty.[br /]
[br /]
[br /]
Lenin was history’s first Marxist and working class leader to head the popular movement that put into practice the scientific theories of Communism. He was the first to direct a victorious proletarian revolution, and the first leader of a Socialist state.[br /]
[br /]
More than half a century has passed since Lenin died. But even today as the famous Soviet poet Vladimir Mayakovsky says,[br /]
[br /]
"Lenin [br /]
is how [br /]
the must live of all living.[br /]
Our weapon, [br /]
Our knowledge, [br /]
Our power."[br /]
[br /]
If the Bolshevik Revolution is – as some people have termed it – the most significant political event of the 20th century, then Lenin surely must be regarded as the century’s most significant political leader. Even among non-Communist scholars, he has been regarded as one of the greatest revolutionary leaders and statesmen in history, as well as the greatest Socialist thinker since Marx.[br /]
[br /]
[br /]
[br /]
More than half a century has passed since Lenin died. But even today as the famous Soviet poet Vladimir Mayakovsky says,[br /]
[br /]
"Lenin [br /]
is how [br /]
the must live of all living.[br /]
Our weapon, [br /]
Our knowledge, [br /]
Our power."[br /]
[br /]
If the Bolshevik Revolution is – as some people have termed it – the most significant political event of the 20th century, then Lenin surely must be regarded as the century’s most significant political leader. Even among non-Communist scholars, he has been regarded as one of the greatest revolutionary leaders and statesmen in history, as well as the greatest Socialist thinker since Marx.[br /]
[br /]
[br /]
1870 Born in the town of Simbirsk on April 10 (New Style, April 22).[br /]
[br /]
1879 Entered school for the first time.[br /]
[br /]
January 24, 1886 Vladimir's father died.[br /]
[br /]
1887 Vladimir finished schooling.[br /]
Won a gold medal for excellence in studies.[br /]
Enrolled in the law school at Kazan University.[br /]
[br /]
1890 Admitted to St Petersburg University but was not allowed to attend classes.[br /]
[br /]
1891 Received a law degree from Petersburg University.[br /]
[br /]
1893 Joined a Marxist organization.[br /]
[br /]
1895 Founded the fighting Alliance for the working class in St Petersburg.[br /]
[br /]
1897 Was deported to Siberia.[br /]
[br /]
July 22, 1898 Married Nadezhda Krupskaya.[br /]
[br /]
1900-1905 Vladimir’s first period of exile from Russia.[br /]
[br /]
1900 The first issue of the newspaper Iskra edited by Vladimir was published. He covered the question of Finnish independence.[br /]
[br /]
1901 Began using the name Lenin.[br /]
[br /]
1903 Lenin became the leader of the Bolsheviks.[br /]
[br /]
1905 The first attempted revolution in Russia. Lenin met Stalin for the first time.[br /]
[br /]
1906 Intensified police persecution forced him to move to Finland.[br /]
[br /]
1907 Lenin took part in several party conferences in Finland. He lived in secrecy near Helsinki and later fled abroad.[br /]
December 1908 Lenin reached Paris.[br /]
[br /]
1910 Lenin seen in the company of Elisabeth Armand.[br /]
[br /]
1912 Became Pravda's chief contributor.[br /]
[br /]
August 8, 1914 Arrested at Nowy Targ.[br /]
[br /]
August 19, 1914 Lenin was released.[br /]
[br /]
September 5, 1915 Attended the Zimmerwald conference.[br /]
[br /]
1917 The second revolution in Russia, known as the February Revolution. The Bourgeoisie and the working class united to dethrone the tsar.[br /]
[br /]
April 1917 Lenin returned to St Petersburg. [br /]
[br /]
November 7, 1917 The October Revolution. Lenin assumed leadership of the Soviet government.[br /]
[br /]
December 31, 1917 The Soviet government recognized the independence of Finland.[br /]
[br /]
March 1918 The Red Treaty between the Socialist Republic of Finland and the Soviet Republic of Russia was signed. Cordial relations between the two countries were established.[br /]
[br /]
August 1918 Lenin survived an assassination bid by Dora Kaplan, but was wounded.[br /]
[br /]
1919 Organized a Comintern to run Communist parties all over the world.[br /]
[br /]
1921 Introduced the New Economic Policy.[br /]
[br /]
1918-22 Lenin led the Soviet government.[br /]
[br /]
May 1922 Lenin suffered a stroke.[br /]
[br /]
January 21, 1924 Lenin died of the fourth stroke, caused by the hardening of arteries in the brain.[br /]
[br /]
[br /]
[br /]
1879 Entered school for the first time.[br /]
[br /]
January 24, 1886 Vladimir's father died.[br /]
[br /]
1887 Vladimir finished schooling.[br /]
Won a gold medal for excellence in studies.[br /]
Enrolled in the law school at Kazan University.[br /]
[br /]
1890 Admitted to St Petersburg University but was not allowed to attend classes.[br /]
[br /]
1891 Received a law degree from Petersburg University.[br /]
[br /]
1893 Joined a Marxist organization.[br /]
[br /]
1895 Founded the fighting Alliance for the working class in St Petersburg.[br /]
[br /]
1897 Was deported to Siberia.[br /]
[br /]
July 22, 1898 Married Nadezhda Krupskaya.[br /]
[br /]
1900-1905 Vladimir’s first period of exile from Russia.[br /]
[br /]
1900 The first issue of the newspaper Iskra edited by Vladimir was published. He covered the question of Finnish independence.[br /]
[br /]
1901 Began using the name Lenin.[br /]
[br /]
1903 Lenin became the leader of the Bolsheviks.[br /]
[br /]
1905 The first attempted revolution in Russia. Lenin met Stalin for the first time.[br /]
[br /]
1906 Intensified police persecution forced him to move to Finland.[br /]
[br /]
1907 Lenin took part in several party conferences in Finland. He lived in secrecy near Helsinki and later fled abroad.[br /]
December 1908 Lenin reached Paris.[br /]
[br /]
1910 Lenin seen in the company of Elisabeth Armand.[br /]
[br /]
1912 Became Pravda's chief contributor.[br /]
[br /]
August 8, 1914 Arrested at Nowy Targ.[br /]
[br /]
August 19, 1914 Lenin was released.[br /]
[br /]
September 5, 1915 Attended the Zimmerwald conference.[br /]
[br /]
1917 The second revolution in Russia, known as the February Revolution. The Bourgeoisie and the working class united to dethrone the tsar.[br /]
[br /]
April 1917 Lenin returned to St Petersburg. [br /]
[br /]
November 7, 1917 The October Revolution. Lenin assumed leadership of the Soviet government.[br /]
[br /]
December 31, 1917 The Soviet government recognized the independence of Finland.[br /]
[br /]
March 1918 The Red Treaty between the Socialist Republic of Finland and the Soviet Republic of Russia was signed. Cordial relations between the two countries were established.[br /]
[br /]
August 1918 Lenin survived an assassination bid by Dora Kaplan, but was wounded.[br /]
[br /]
1919 Organized a Comintern to run Communist parties all over the world.[br /]
[br /]
1921 Introduced the New Economic Policy.[br /]
[br /]
1918-22 Lenin led the Soviet government.[br /]
[br /]
May 1922 Lenin suffered a stroke.[br /]
[br /]
January 21, 1924 Lenin died of the fourth stroke, caused by the hardening of arteries in the brain.[br /]
[br /]
[br /]
Lenin’s literary works assume special importance since he is considered the first and last word in Communist philosophy. He spoke with remarkable directness and forcefulness. The Communist goals and tactics are explained and constantly reiterated by Lenin himself throughout his writings. In his works Lenin defined the tasks that would face the working class when it came to power. He discussed the problems of the transition period from capitalism to socialism and examined the role of the state of the dictatorship of the proletariat. [br /]
[br /]
It was in Samara, in 1893, that he wrote the earliest of his works that has come down to us – "New Economic Developments in Peasant Life". This is the first essay of Volume I of his Collected Works and quickly gained him the reputation of being a capable theoretician and organizer.[br /]
[br /]
He published "What the ‘Friends of the People’ Are and How They Fight the Social–Democrats," in 1894. It consisted of three sections, one providing a comprehensive critique of the philosophical views of the Narodniks, the second – a critique of their economic views, and the third – a critique of their political program and tactics. This is Lenin’s first major work and a masterly Marxist analysis of Russian reality. This work furnished a powerful weapon in the effort to organize a Marxist party. It served as the ideological platform on which the revolutionary Social–Democrats united into one party. He propounded the idea of an alliance between the working class and the peasantry and other non-proletarian strata of the working masses, pointing out that this was necessary for achieving victory in the fight for democracy and socialism.[br /]
[br /]
While in prison in 1895, he wrote a number of papers, including the "Draft and Explanation of a Program for the Social–Democratic Party" and gathered material for a fundamental study of the development of capitalism in Russia.[br /]
[br /]
On May 8, 1897, Lenin began his life in exile, where he read and wrote much. In his three years in Siberia, Lenin wrote more than 30 works, all of which are of great theoretical and political significance.[br /]
[br /]
[b]The Development of Capitalism in Russia[/b][br /]
[br /]
This is one of his most fundamental works that complements Marx’s analysis of the rise and essence of capitalism. It was published legally in 1899. In this work, which is a study of Russian Economics, he argued that capitalism was rapidly destroying the peasant commune.[br /]
[br /]
Another work by Lenin, which also gained popularity among the advanced segment of the working class, was the pamphlet "The Tasks of the Russian Social–Democrats" which dealt with the question of the relationship between the democratic and socialist objectives of the proletariat, and of the Russian working-class movement.[br /]
[br /]
After Lenin’s exile ended in 1900, he went to Germany to help launch the party newspaper – Iskra (Spark).[br /]
[br /]
[i][b]Iskra[/b][/i][br /]
[br /]
Iskra was banned and had to be smuggled into Russia. It quickly became popular with the workers. Lenin, who was its actual editor, conceived Iskra. In the more than 50 articles that he published in it, he set out a program for forming a party and discussed questions of revolutionary theory and practice. The first issue came out in December 1900. Iskra successfully discharged its mission. It exposed opportunism, and rallied revolutionaries around Lenin. The editors of Iskra – Plekhanov, Martov, and three others – hoped that it would unify the Russian Marxist groups that were scattered throughout Russia and Western Europe into a cohesive Social -Democratic Party.[br /]
[br /]
[b]What Is to Be Done ?[/b][br /]
[br /]
What Is to Be Done ? Burning Questions of Our Movement, was published in Stuttgart in 1902. In it as in Iskra, Lenin attacked revisionism, social-reformism and the ‘Economists’, and discussed crucial questions of party structure, strategy and policy. He totally rejected the standpoint that the proletariat was being driven spontaneously to revolutionary socialism by capitalism and that the party’s role should be to merely coordinate the struggle of the proletariat's diverse sections on a national and international scale. He maintained that while capitalism predisposes the workers to the acceptance of socialism, it does not spontaneously make them conscious socialists. The proletariat of its own can achieve only "trade-union consciousness". Accordingly, it was necessary to institute a "party of a new type". This is the origin of Lenin’s famous theory of the Party as "Vanguard of the proletariat". He conceived of the Vanguard as a highly centralized body organized around a core of experienced professional revolutionaries. In this book, Lenin completely rejects the Western role of a democratic political party working within the framework of parliamentary democracy.[br /]
[br /]
In 1904, in Geneva, Lenin published his book One Step Forward, Two Steps Back. In this, he explained the present difference between various Capitalist and Socialist papers. He also analyzed the work of the second Congress, criticized Menshevik opportunism with regard to Party structure and developed his teaching on the proletarian party of a new type.[br /]
[br /]
Shortly after the Congress held in London in 1905, Lenin wrote his Two Tactics of Social-Democracy in the Democratic Revolution. It was written in the months after the Bloody Sunday massacre. Lenin explained that the Russian working class needed to push forward through capitalism, in order to advance their revolutionary aims. He analyzed the main difference between the decisions of the Bolshevik Congress and the Henshevik Conference, and summing up the experience of struggle showed the correctness of the Bolshevik line. For Bolsheviks, this book provided a guide to action. Lenin also put forward the position that the Russian proletariat and peasantry should unite to build a socialist society; laying aside their class differences for the time of Socialist-Democracy.[br /]
[br /]
In this book and in other writings, Lenin developed the Marxist theory of revolution, drawing the important conclusion that in the context of social development the working class possessed a power far greater than its numerical strength would suggest.[br /]
[br /]
On November 8, 1905, he arrived in St Petersburg and directed with characteristic vigor, the work of the editors of the newspapers Nperyod, Novaya Zhizn and Proletary. Novaya Zhizn (New life) was the first legal Bolshevik paper, which had close ties with party organizations and revolutionary workers. Maxim Gorky, father of proletarian literature, also wrote for the paper.[br /]
[br /]
The agrarian question was always one of Lenin’s major concerns. Many of his works deal with agrarian problems under capitalism, and the role of the working people’s movement against social oppression.[br /]
[br /]
In 1907, Lenin wrote his Agrarian Program of Social-Democracy in the First Russian Revolution, 1905-07. On the basis of the experience of that revolution, Lenin proved the necessity of confiscating big private landed estates and nationalizing all land, and the importance of these measures for involving the peasants in the struggle against Tsarist autocracy and for turning the Bourgeois democratic revolution into a socialist revolution.[br /]
[br /]
Lenin’s Materialism and Empirio-Criticism, which appeared in 1908, played an exceptionally important role in further developing Marxist philosophical thought. It provided a critical analysis of Bourgeois idealist philosophy and revisionist concepts. Of particular importance is what Lenin said about the relationship between social being and social consciousness and the class and sociological roots of various philosophies.[br /]
[br /]
In the years that followed, Lenin continued to devote great attention to philosophical problems. For a book on materialist dialectics, which he planned to write, he amassed a wealth of material that was later published under the title Philosophical Notebooks. Though he did not finish writing the book, the various notes and remarks are of tremendous significance and demonstrate the fundamental contribution Lenin made to a deeper understanding of the laws and categories of Marxist philosophy.[br /]
[br /]
[b][i]Pravda[/i][/b][br /]
[br /]
The legal Bolshevik paper Pravda was started at Lenin’s initiative and its first issue came out in St Petersburg on May 5, 1912. It provided the party with a powerful ideological weapon. In this paper, Lenin discussed major social problems in and outside Russia, explained the Party’s policies and propagated Marxism.[br /]
[br /]
Despite wartime difficulties, Lenin started the systematic publication of the paper Social-Democrat, contacted party organizations inside Russia and directed their work. On November 1, 1914, in Social-Democrat No. 33, the first wartime issue appeared. In subsequent articles and pamphlets, Lenin defined wartime strategy and tactics of the Bolsheviks and also discussed crucial theoretical issues.[br /]
[br /]
A major contribution to Marxism was Lenin’s teaching on imperialism. During the war he made a comprehensive study of imperialism’s economy and policy. His Notebooks on Imperialism, a work of great scholarship, contains quotations from 148 books and 232 articles in Russian, German, French, English and other languages.[br /]
[br /]
[b]Imperialism, the Highest Stage of Capitalism[/b][br /]
[br /]
In 1916, he wrote Imperialism, the Highest Stage of Capitalism. He revealed in this book the essence of imperialism as monopoly and state-monopoly capitalism, described its main features, and showed how the law of the uneven development of capitalism operated in the imperialist epoch. He set out to explain, first, the real causes of the war; second, why socialists had abandoned internationalism for patriotism and supported the war, and third, why revolution alone could bring about a just, democratic peace. He demonstrates that imperialism is a product of monopoly finance capitalism. At the close of the 19th century, a small number of banks had become dominant in the advanced European countries. Controlling vast quantities of ‘surplus’ capital, these banks sought major profits on investments in colonies and semi–colonies, and this intensified the race for empire among the great powers. By 1914, the race led to war. World War I was therefore imperialist in its origins and aims and deserved the condemnation of genuine socialists. Lenin said that future wars were inevitable so long as imperialism existed; imperialism was inevitable as long as capitalism existed; therefore only the overthrow of capitalism can ensure world peace. Thus, he showed how imperialism paved the way for proletarian solution.[br /]
[br /]
Lenin paid much attention to developing a theory and a program and policy of the Communist party on the national question. Before the war he wrote Critical Remarks on the National Question and The Right of Nations to Self-Determination and during the war The Socialist Revolution and the Right of Nations to Self-Determination and The Discussion on Self- Determination Summed Up. He explained the importance of the national question, and at the same time showed that it was subordinate to socialism’s supreme interests. He also called attention to the internationalist principles of the working-class movement and proletarian organizations.[br /]
[br /]
After the February Bourgeois–democratic revolution in Russia, Lenin set about analyzing[br /]
[br /]
it and charting the tasks of the working class and its party. In his Letters From Afar, he formulated the basic principles of the party’s new policy and advanced the task of striving for a triumphant socialist revolution. After the July events of 1917, Lenin wrote his thesis The Political Situation. In this, he drew the following important conclusions : dual power had come to an end; the counter-revolutionary Bourgeoisie had virtually seized all power and that the call of "All Power to the Soviets !" had become obsolete and for the time being must be laid aside.[br /]
[br /]
[b]The State and Revolution[/b][br /]
[br /]
Lenin wrote The State and Revolution in August and September 1917, when he was in hiding from persecution of the provisional Government. During this time he also wrote two pamphlets entitled The Impending Catastrophe and How to Combat It and Can the Bolsheviks Retain State Power ? They are of great theoretical and practical importance. In them, Lenin outlined the basic principles of the party’s policy in the struggle to effect a victorious socialist revolution and establish the state of the dictatorship of the proletariat. He re-affirms his total rejection of all institutions of Western democracy and emphasizes that a Leninist should participate in Western parliamentarism for one purpose alone : to bring about its ultimate destruction. In the book, he presents an unprecedented examination of what he asserts will inevitably follow the dictatorship of the proletariat. Lenin suddenly projects a Utopian vision. He predicts that once the dictatorship of the proletariat is established, and capitalism destroyed, people will be transformed. No longer will they think in a capitalistic context and as a result, they will behave in a natural ethical manner – police, courts, laws, all will become unnecessary. The entire apparatus of government will cease to exist, and only individually self-governing people will remain, each serving the common good to the extent of his ability, and each receiving according to his needs, in a perfect Communist society. The book was not printed till 1918.[br /]
[br /]
In June 1920, he wrote his famous book ‘Left Wing’ Communism – An Infantile Disorder in which he summed up the Bolshevik experience and underscored its importance for the world Communist movement. In these writings Lenin analyzed the specific features and forms of the class struggle in the transition period from capitalism to socialism and further developed the theory of the dictatorship of the proletariat. He discussed such important questions as the initial phases of Communist society, the material and technical foundations of the new society and how to build them up, and the formation of socialist and Communist social relationships.[br /]
[br /]
In late 1922 and early 1923 he dictated Pages from a Diary, On Cooperation, Our Revolution and Better Fewer, But Better, which have rightly been called Lenin’s political testament. In them he outlined a program for turning Russia into a socialist land and discussed the prospects for the world revolutionary process.[br /]
[br /]
All this shows that Leninism is an international teaching, a guide to action for working people everywhere. It is not surprising, therefore, that millions of working-men throughout the world regard Lenin as their teacher and leader.[br /]
[br /]
[br /]
[br /]
It was in Samara, in 1893, that he wrote the earliest of his works that has come down to us – "New Economic Developments in Peasant Life". This is the first essay of Volume I of his Collected Works and quickly gained him the reputation of being a capable theoretician and organizer.[br /]
[br /]
He published "What the ‘Friends of the People’ Are and How They Fight the Social–Democrats," in 1894. It consisted of three sections, one providing a comprehensive critique of the philosophical views of the Narodniks, the second – a critique of their economic views, and the third – a critique of their political program and tactics. This is Lenin’s first major work and a masterly Marxist analysis of Russian reality. This work furnished a powerful weapon in the effort to organize a Marxist party. It served as the ideological platform on which the revolutionary Social–Democrats united into one party. He propounded the idea of an alliance between the working class and the peasantry and other non-proletarian strata of the working masses, pointing out that this was necessary for achieving victory in the fight for democracy and socialism.[br /]
[br /]
While in prison in 1895, he wrote a number of papers, including the "Draft and Explanation of a Program for the Social–Democratic Party" and gathered material for a fundamental study of the development of capitalism in Russia.[br /]
[br /]
On May 8, 1897, Lenin began his life in exile, where he read and wrote much. In his three years in Siberia, Lenin wrote more than 30 works, all of which are of great theoretical and political significance.[br /]
[br /]
[b]The Development of Capitalism in Russia[/b][br /]
[br /]
This is one of his most fundamental works that complements Marx’s analysis of the rise and essence of capitalism. It was published legally in 1899. In this work, which is a study of Russian Economics, he argued that capitalism was rapidly destroying the peasant commune.[br /]
[br /]
Another work by Lenin, which also gained popularity among the advanced segment of the working class, was the pamphlet "The Tasks of the Russian Social–Democrats" which dealt with the question of the relationship between the democratic and socialist objectives of the proletariat, and of the Russian working-class movement.[br /]
[br /]
After Lenin’s exile ended in 1900, he went to Germany to help launch the party newspaper – Iskra (Spark).[br /]
[br /]
[i][b]Iskra[/b][/i][br /]
[br /]
Iskra was banned and had to be smuggled into Russia. It quickly became popular with the workers. Lenin, who was its actual editor, conceived Iskra. In the more than 50 articles that he published in it, he set out a program for forming a party and discussed questions of revolutionary theory and practice. The first issue came out in December 1900. Iskra successfully discharged its mission. It exposed opportunism, and rallied revolutionaries around Lenin. The editors of Iskra – Plekhanov, Martov, and three others – hoped that it would unify the Russian Marxist groups that were scattered throughout Russia and Western Europe into a cohesive Social -Democratic Party.[br /]
[br /]
[b]What Is to Be Done ?[/b][br /]
[br /]
What Is to Be Done ? Burning Questions of Our Movement, was published in Stuttgart in 1902. In it as in Iskra, Lenin attacked revisionism, social-reformism and the ‘Economists’, and discussed crucial questions of party structure, strategy and policy. He totally rejected the standpoint that the proletariat was being driven spontaneously to revolutionary socialism by capitalism and that the party’s role should be to merely coordinate the struggle of the proletariat's diverse sections on a national and international scale. He maintained that while capitalism predisposes the workers to the acceptance of socialism, it does not spontaneously make them conscious socialists. The proletariat of its own can achieve only "trade-union consciousness". Accordingly, it was necessary to institute a "party of a new type". This is the origin of Lenin’s famous theory of the Party as "Vanguard of the proletariat". He conceived of the Vanguard as a highly centralized body organized around a core of experienced professional revolutionaries. In this book, Lenin completely rejects the Western role of a democratic political party working within the framework of parliamentary democracy.[br /]
[br /]
In 1904, in Geneva, Lenin published his book One Step Forward, Two Steps Back. In this, he explained the present difference between various Capitalist and Socialist papers. He also analyzed the work of the second Congress, criticized Menshevik opportunism with regard to Party structure and developed his teaching on the proletarian party of a new type.[br /]
[br /]
Shortly after the Congress held in London in 1905, Lenin wrote his Two Tactics of Social-Democracy in the Democratic Revolution. It was written in the months after the Bloody Sunday massacre. Lenin explained that the Russian working class needed to push forward through capitalism, in order to advance their revolutionary aims. He analyzed the main difference between the decisions of the Bolshevik Congress and the Henshevik Conference, and summing up the experience of struggle showed the correctness of the Bolshevik line. For Bolsheviks, this book provided a guide to action. Lenin also put forward the position that the Russian proletariat and peasantry should unite to build a socialist society; laying aside their class differences for the time of Socialist-Democracy.[br /]
[br /]
In this book and in other writings, Lenin developed the Marxist theory of revolution, drawing the important conclusion that in the context of social development the working class possessed a power far greater than its numerical strength would suggest.[br /]
[br /]
On November 8, 1905, he arrived in St Petersburg and directed with characteristic vigor, the work of the editors of the newspapers Nperyod, Novaya Zhizn and Proletary. Novaya Zhizn (New life) was the first legal Bolshevik paper, which had close ties with party organizations and revolutionary workers. Maxim Gorky, father of proletarian literature, also wrote for the paper.[br /]
[br /]
The agrarian question was always one of Lenin’s major concerns. Many of his works deal with agrarian problems under capitalism, and the role of the working people’s movement against social oppression.[br /]
[br /]
In 1907, Lenin wrote his Agrarian Program of Social-Democracy in the First Russian Revolution, 1905-07. On the basis of the experience of that revolution, Lenin proved the necessity of confiscating big private landed estates and nationalizing all land, and the importance of these measures for involving the peasants in the struggle against Tsarist autocracy and for turning the Bourgeois democratic revolution into a socialist revolution.[br /]
[br /]
Lenin’s Materialism and Empirio-Criticism, which appeared in 1908, played an exceptionally important role in further developing Marxist philosophical thought. It provided a critical analysis of Bourgeois idealist philosophy and revisionist concepts. Of particular importance is what Lenin said about the relationship between social being and social consciousness and the class and sociological roots of various philosophies.[br /]
[br /]
In the years that followed, Lenin continued to devote great attention to philosophical problems. For a book on materialist dialectics, which he planned to write, he amassed a wealth of material that was later published under the title Philosophical Notebooks. Though he did not finish writing the book, the various notes and remarks are of tremendous significance and demonstrate the fundamental contribution Lenin made to a deeper understanding of the laws and categories of Marxist philosophy.[br /]
[br /]
[b][i]Pravda[/i][/b][br /]
[br /]
The legal Bolshevik paper Pravda was started at Lenin’s initiative and its first issue came out in St Petersburg on May 5, 1912. It provided the party with a powerful ideological weapon. In this paper, Lenin discussed major social problems in and outside Russia, explained the Party’s policies and propagated Marxism.[br /]
[br /]
Despite wartime difficulties, Lenin started the systematic publication of the paper Social-Democrat, contacted party organizations inside Russia and directed their work. On November 1, 1914, in Social-Democrat No. 33, the first wartime issue appeared. In subsequent articles and pamphlets, Lenin defined wartime strategy and tactics of the Bolsheviks and also discussed crucial theoretical issues.[br /]
[br /]
A major contribution to Marxism was Lenin’s teaching on imperialism. During the war he made a comprehensive study of imperialism’s economy and policy. His Notebooks on Imperialism, a work of great scholarship, contains quotations from 148 books and 232 articles in Russian, German, French, English and other languages.[br /]
[br /]
[b]Imperialism, the Highest Stage of Capitalism[/b][br /]
[br /]
In 1916, he wrote Imperialism, the Highest Stage of Capitalism. He revealed in this book the essence of imperialism as monopoly and state-monopoly capitalism, described its main features, and showed how the law of the uneven development of capitalism operated in the imperialist epoch. He set out to explain, first, the real causes of the war; second, why socialists had abandoned internationalism for patriotism and supported the war, and third, why revolution alone could bring about a just, democratic peace. He demonstrates that imperialism is a product of monopoly finance capitalism. At the close of the 19th century, a small number of banks had become dominant in the advanced European countries. Controlling vast quantities of ‘surplus’ capital, these banks sought major profits on investments in colonies and semi–colonies, and this intensified the race for empire among the great powers. By 1914, the race led to war. World War I was therefore imperialist in its origins and aims and deserved the condemnation of genuine socialists. Lenin said that future wars were inevitable so long as imperialism existed; imperialism was inevitable as long as capitalism existed; therefore only the overthrow of capitalism can ensure world peace. Thus, he showed how imperialism paved the way for proletarian solution.[br /]
[br /]
Lenin paid much attention to developing a theory and a program and policy of the Communist party on the national question. Before the war he wrote Critical Remarks on the National Question and The Right of Nations to Self-Determination and during the war The Socialist Revolution and the Right of Nations to Self-Determination and The Discussion on Self- Determination Summed Up. He explained the importance of the national question, and at the same time showed that it was subordinate to socialism’s supreme interests. He also called attention to the internationalist principles of the working-class movement and proletarian organizations.[br /]
[br /]
After the February Bourgeois–democratic revolution in Russia, Lenin set about analyzing[br /]
[br /]
it and charting the tasks of the working class and its party. In his Letters From Afar, he formulated the basic principles of the party’s new policy and advanced the task of striving for a triumphant socialist revolution. After the July events of 1917, Lenin wrote his thesis The Political Situation. In this, he drew the following important conclusions : dual power had come to an end; the counter-revolutionary Bourgeoisie had virtually seized all power and that the call of "All Power to the Soviets !" had become obsolete and for the time being must be laid aside.[br /]
[br /]
[b]The State and Revolution[/b][br /]
[br /]
Lenin wrote The State and Revolution in August and September 1917, when he was in hiding from persecution of the provisional Government. During this time he also wrote two pamphlets entitled The Impending Catastrophe and How to Combat It and Can the Bolsheviks Retain State Power ? They are of great theoretical and practical importance. In them, Lenin outlined the basic principles of the party’s policy in the struggle to effect a victorious socialist revolution and establish the state of the dictatorship of the proletariat. He re-affirms his total rejection of all institutions of Western democracy and emphasizes that a Leninist should participate in Western parliamentarism for one purpose alone : to bring about its ultimate destruction. In the book, he presents an unprecedented examination of what he asserts will inevitably follow the dictatorship of the proletariat. Lenin suddenly projects a Utopian vision. He predicts that once the dictatorship of the proletariat is established, and capitalism destroyed, people will be transformed. No longer will they think in a capitalistic context and as a result, they will behave in a natural ethical manner – police, courts, laws, all will become unnecessary. The entire apparatus of government will cease to exist, and only individually self-governing people will remain, each serving the common good to the extent of his ability, and each receiving according to his needs, in a perfect Communist society. The book was not printed till 1918.[br /]
[br /]
In June 1920, he wrote his famous book ‘Left Wing’ Communism – An Infantile Disorder in which he summed up the Bolshevik experience and underscored its importance for the world Communist movement. In these writings Lenin analyzed the specific features and forms of the class struggle in the transition period from capitalism to socialism and further developed the theory of the dictatorship of the proletariat. He discussed such important questions as the initial phases of Communist society, the material and technical foundations of the new society and how to build them up, and the formation of socialist and Communist social relationships.[br /]
[br /]
In late 1922 and early 1923 he dictated Pages from a Diary, On Cooperation, Our Revolution and Better Fewer, But Better, which have rightly been called Lenin’s political testament. In them he outlined a program for turning Russia into a socialist land and discussed the prospects for the world revolutionary process.[br /]
[br /]
All this shows that Leninism is an international teaching, a guide to action for working people everywhere. It is not surprising, therefore, that millions of working-men throughout the world regard Lenin as their teacher and leader.[br /]
[br /]
[br /]
• Authority poisons everybody, who takes authority on himself.[br /]
• When one makes a Revolution, one cannot mark time, one must always go forward – or go back. He who now talks about the “ freedom of the press” goes backward, and halts are headlong course towards socialism.[br /]
• The most important thing when ill, is to never lose heart.[br /]
• Democracy is but one form of state, and we Marxists are opposed to all and every kind of state.[br /]
• The war is relentless; it puts the alternative in a ruthless relief, either to perish, or to catch up with the advanced countries and outdistance them, too, in economic matters.[br /]
• • Democracy is not identical with the subordination of the minority to the majority. Democracy is a state recognizing the subordination of the minority to the majority, i.e. an organization for the systematic use of violence by one class against the other, by one part of the population against another.[br /]
• It is true that liberty is precious – so precious that it must be rationed.[br /]
• The suppression of the Bourgeois State by the proletarian state is impossible without a violent revolution.[br /]
• So long as the state exists there is no freedom. When there is freedom, there will be no state.[br /]
• If Socialism can only be realized when the intellectual development of all the people permits it, then we shall not see Socialism for at least five hundred years.[br /]
• One fool can ask more questions in a minute than twelve wise men can answer in an hour.[br /]
• You cannot make a revolution in white gloves.[br /]
• Down with unpartisan litterateurs ! Down with the superman of literature ! Literature must become a part of the general cause of the proletariat.[br /]
• To rely upon conviction, devotion and other excellent spiritual qualities – that is not to be taken seriously in politics.[br /]
[br /]
[br /]
• When one makes a Revolution, one cannot mark time, one must always go forward – or go back. He who now talks about the “ freedom of the press” goes backward, and halts are headlong course towards socialism.[br /]
• The most important thing when ill, is to never lose heart.[br /]
• Democracy is but one form of state, and we Marxists are opposed to all and every kind of state.[br /]
• The war is relentless; it puts the alternative in a ruthless relief, either to perish, or to catch up with the advanced countries and outdistance them, too, in economic matters.[br /]
• • Democracy is not identical with the subordination of the minority to the majority. Democracy is a state recognizing the subordination of the minority to the majority, i.e. an organization for the systematic use of violence by one class against the other, by one part of the population against another.[br /]
• It is true that liberty is precious – so precious that it must be rationed.[br /]
• The suppression of the Bourgeois State by the proletarian state is impossible without a violent revolution.[br /]
• So long as the state exists there is no freedom. When there is freedom, there will be no state.[br /]
• If Socialism can only be realized when the intellectual development of all the people permits it, then we shall not see Socialism for at least five hundred years.[br /]
• One fool can ask more questions in a minute than twelve wise men can answer in an hour.[br /]
• You cannot make a revolution in white gloves.[br /]
• Down with unpartisan litterateurs ! Down with the superman of literature ! Literature must become a part of the general cause of the proletariat.[br /]
• To rely upon conviction, devotion and other excellent spiritual qualities – that is not to be taken seriously in politics.[br /]
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The contribution made to political theory and practice by Lenin, who entered the historical scene at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, ushered in a new stage in the development of Marxism and a new phase in the international working–class movement. The significance of Lenin’s contribution to the teachings of Marx and Engels, in the fields of philosophy, political economy, or scientific Communism, is truly great and cannot be over–estimated. In carrying forward the cause of Marx and Engels and applying their ideas to the new historical epoch, Lenin formulated the answers to the most vital problems of social development. [br /]
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Associated with Lenin’s name and his teachings are the prominent revolutionary changes of the 20th century, which have altered the face of the world and mark the turn of mankind towards Socialism and Communism.[br /]
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The name of the great leader evokes the deepest of respect and sincere affection of millions all over the globe. Lenin’s ideas guide the socialist nations in their effort to build a new life. Interest in Lenin’s writings is steadily growing among the broadest of progressive circles. Lenin’s works have been translated into 125 languages (according to UNESCO figures) and they lead the world for translated literature. This convincingly shows the triumph of Lenin’s ideas throughout the world.[br /]
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Associated with Lenin’s name and his teachings are the prominent revolutionary changes of the 20th century, which have altered the face of the world and mark the turn of mankind towards Socialism and Communism.[br /]
[br /]
The name of the great leader evokes the deepest of respect and sincere affection of millions all over the globe. Lenin’s ideas guide the socialist nations in their effort to build a new life. Interest in Lenin’s writings is steadily growing among the broadest of progressive circles. Lenin’s works have been translated into 125 languages (according to UNESCO figures) and they lead the world for translated literature. This convincingly shows the triumph of Lenin’s ideas throughout the world.[br /]
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