Group+3-+Lenin



Lenin, or “Vladimir Ilyich Ulyahov” which was his real name, was an ambitious man. He was born April 22 1870 in the small town of Sibirsk of the Russian Empire. He came from a middle class background and was well educated which greatly improved his chances of success later in life. The hatred he felt toward the totalitarian Tsar government was strengthened many times over when as a seventeen year old boy he watched his brother Alexander hang for a part in a plot to assassinate Tsar Alexander the third. Lenin was smarter than his brother, for although his hatred of the Tsar was just as strong as his brother's he realized that terrorism would never fix the problem. Instead he believed it would have to be up to the peasants. That they would have to rise up, forcibly seize power, and establish socialism. Lenin was not shamed by the fact that he was a nobleman by birth and did not attempt to hid the fact upon his success. Nevertheless he strongly believed that intellectuals from the social class were key upon bringing political ideas to the working-class. Lenin’s ideology was based on the work of Karl Marx, and Friedrich Engels, Lenin was also heavily influenced by his brother older Alexander. Alexander was educated at the Simbirsk Gymnasium. His headmaster was F. I. Kerensky, the father of Alexander Kerensky, a member of the Socialist Revolutionary Party. He became involved in politics and eventually joined the People’s Will group that had been responsible for the assassination of Alexander II. During his childhood Lenin was exposed to many conservative views during his studies, he did not agree with the political system of the Russian of the time, and he despised the conservative methods. He was always a good student and managed to exceed, Lenin found interest in politics at a very young age, and started reading. At the age of seventeen Lenin read the novel __What is to be done?__ By Nikolai Chernyshevsky, along with his older brother and Karl Marx, Chernyshevsky was the strongest influence on his political perspective. In 1887 his brother’s group planned to murder Alexander III. The conspirators were captured before they could carry out the deed. Alexander was found guilty and sentenced to death. Alexander was hung May 5th. 1887. Lenin decided to study law and attended the Kazan University, while at university he was directed towards politics. He had the same ambitions as his older brother, and was expelled from Kazan University for contributing in rebellious protests. Lenin decided to move to the capital and most industrialized city in Russia, St. Petersburg. After passing his law exams in 1891, Lenin started practicing law in Samara. After completing his studies, Lenin was persuaded to continue on with his passion of politics. In 1893 he returned to St. Petersburg. In 1985 Lenin went to Switzerland to meet with George Plekhano, Pavel Axelrod, Vera Zasulich, and Lev Deich, whom were all members of the Liberation of Labour, a group whose interests were shared with Lenin. This group argued that it would be impossible to overthrow Russia's authoritarian government and replace it with peasant. The Liberation of Labour also wrote many different books, trying to convince the population of Russia that a Marxist Revolution would heavily benefit the nation. They had strong belief that a revolution would not occur without the understanding of capitalism. When Lenin returned to St. Petersburg, he and a group of friends, including Jules Martov, and Nadezhda Kruspskaya formed the Union of Struggle for the Emancipation of the Working Class. Both of his colleagues, Martov, and Kruspslaya were educated in the political field and had strong opinions for the new political system of communism. In 1896, Lenin was arrested by the Tsar’s police while preparing a revolutionary newspaper named the Worker’s Cause. After a year of questioning, Lenin was then exiled to Siberia. The on-going revolution propaganda caused a lot of Marxist groups to be formed, these groups soon merged and created the Russian Social Democratic Party Labour Party. During his time in exile his Nadezhda Kruspskaya joined him, and they got married in 1898. During his time in exile, Lenin didn’t stop practicing his interest, he started to write about his ideas, and what needs to be done. Lenin wrote The Development of Capitalism in Russia, The Tasks of Russian Social Democrats. In 1900 Lenin was released from exile and wanted to continue his work, he and his wife decided to leave for Geneva, because he was not allowed to stay in Russia. Lenin was joined by Jules Martov, George Plekhanov, Pavel Axelrod and many other members of the Liberation of Labour. They gathered together to publish their own journal the Iskra. Many other Marxists discovered this and were interested other activists that took part in this journal. Leon Trotsky a significant figure in the on-coming events also took part in making the journal. The newspaper became the official journal for the Social Democratic Labour Party, and at this point the Social Democratic Labour had became a lot bigger and was reading itself to overthrow the autocracy in Russia. In 1902 Lenin published a pamphlet, What Is To Be Done? Where he argued for a party of professional revolutionaries dedicated to the overthrow of Tsarism. He continued to argue the case for a small party of activists with a large fringe of non-party sympathizers and supporters at the Second Congress of the Social Democratic Labour Party held in London in 1903. His own friend and a member of the group, Jules Martoy, disagreed with Lenin’s ideas saying that it would be better to have a larger party of activists. Martov won the vote but Lenin was enraged and did not accept the results. Lenin then decided to create his own faction known as the Bolsheviks.

He let anyone who was willing to stay loyal to him be a part of the Bolshevik Party. Lenin also no longer had control over the __Iskra__ and had to launch his own newspaper which he named __Vperyod__. Martov took full control of the __Iskra__ paper. Lenin was starting to have a lot more critics and people started to largely doubt him and the Bolsheviks. Lenin returned to Russia during the 1905 Revolution, but unlike the Mensheviks, he did not have a large impact and failed to gain much recognition and support from the trade union movement. Lenin was really hoping for an imminent armed uprising, but he had completely lost faith. He called amongst all the Bolsheviks in Russia to participate in the elections for the Third Duma. Once again Lenin was left with no hope and felt discouraged, in 1911, Lenin and his two assistants who helped found the Bolshevik Party, Gregory Zinoviev, and Lev Kamenev moved to France. Lenin felt as if he had freedom working outside of Russia. They set up a Bolshevik Party School where agents were trained before returning to Russia They also made plans to capture control of the Social Democratic Labour Party at the conference to be held in Prague in January, 1912. This move was unsuccessful and the party split and after that date the Bolsheviks maintained a completely separate existence from the Mensheviks. The parties were bitterly hostile to one another even though both claimed that their policies were those of the 19th Century German revolutionary Karl Marx. Throughout this time discontent within the people of Russia was growing rapidly. Once the first few battles had happened many felt that they had no business fighting in WW1 any longer and that the fighting was hurti ng the lives of everyday people. They were right. War meant there were fewer peasants to work the land and a shortage of food ensued. Most of the food that was grown had to be sent to the Troops fighting Germany. This meant the people of Russia had to go hungry from lack of food and 700% inflation that occurred on food throughout the course of the war. The Tsar also decided he was to be the armed forces “supreme commander” in 1915 which did not help because from that point onward people saw him as personally responsible for every loss (and there were many) that the army faced. Not to mention they blamed him for the conscription of some fifteen million peasants who were not properly trained for war or equipped with the fire power needed to win anything. On top of all of this peasants were suspicious Rasputin a so called monk with surprising influence within the Tsar’s royal family. Some thing had to give. Lenin was 47 years old when it did and the March (February on the old Russian calendar) began in 1917. It started with 90 000 textile workers but soon it mushroomed into something so large it was no longer in the Tsar’s control. Eve n his officers mutinied and began to protest his treatment with the rest. On the 15th of March the Tsar stepped down offering the throne to his brother who did not take it. The Romanov’s were finished; it was now the Duma’s turn. Although the party was elected into power by a select group of high up Russians it was the closest the people had ever come to experiencing having a voice or democracy. Several prominent Duma were chosen to become Russia’s provisional government and quickly began making decisions. Even the worry that they would not be supported by the Mensheviks who controlled the Petrograd Soviet was unnecessary. Both groups agreed that it was best to make Russia a democracy. They also agreed, surprisingly, that is was best for Russia to continue playing its part in the Great War. The Bolshevik party was lead by Stalin for much of this time because many of the Bolsheviks are exiled.



He begins supporting the provisional government’s policies at least partly because he does not want to cause trouble with such a powerful group. This angered many of the others who are in exile (including Lenin who was in Switzerland). He knew they had to return to Russia immediately but had a problem. In order to reach Russia he would first have to cross Germany. This, however, turned out to be less of a than it first appeared to be. The German government knew if Lenin came to power he would stop the war (pull Russia out) and then Germany would only have to worry about the Western Front. Lenin and the German government came to an agreement and an unlikely alliance was created. Lenin and 100 other Bolsheviks are given a special train to take them across Germany safely. Lenin will later, however, be accused of being in the pay of the Kaiser and of being a German spy by his enemies because of his fraternization with a country that his was currently at war with. He would, of course, vigorously deny these false claims. The Bolsheviks arrived in Petrograd in the beginning of April 1917 and Lenin instantly took advantage of the clear discontent within the peasant people. He preached hard to them promising to give them what they wanted such as peace, land and bread. Although these were simple wants they were things that the common people had not been receiving enough of under the provisional government’s policies. For although they had been popular at first deciding to continue with the war made them nearly as widely disliked as the Tsar had been. The conditions in Russia for the common people and the fact that the Bolsheviks had never supported the provisional government like the Mensheviks made it easy for Lenin to gain support. Soldiers, more than ever, began to desert the army and restlessness was growing in the people of Russia. Even so, Lenin was well aware that the time had not yet come for them to overthrow Kerensky. Many however did not see this and an event known as the ‘July days’ ensued during the month of July 1917. Many of the more than half a million protesters were armed sailors from the Kronstadt naval base. They marched toward the heart of Kerensky’s government but Kerensky the provisional government’s leader was still too powerful and over 400 of them were killed before the protest was finally put down. Trotsky, another major Bolshevik, was arrested along with many others and Lenin was forced into hiding. For the moment the party was forced to lay low. In September though things changed drastically. The Russian armies commander-in-chief general Kornilov revolted against the provisional government and ordered troops to march on Petrograd. Kerensky released over all the Bolsheviks he had detained on a promise that they would stop the attack. The Bolsheviks did just that and their Red Guard wormed their way into Kornilov’s army convincing man after man to t urn back. It worked and for the moment the provincial government was safe. After the next election though things again would be turned on their head. The Bolsheviks were incredibly popular, though never universally obviously, and won a majority in both Moscow and Petrograd. The support behind them built with this extra power and on October 20th 1917 a decision was made. They were to seize power in both Moscow and Petrograd the night before the Congress of Soviets was scheduled to meet and the date was locked in. On November 6-7 the Red Guards seized control of Petrograd and turned tried to do the same in Moscow though it took the better part of a week and 500 dead to Petrograd’s 5 before they found victory there. The Bolsheviks had now cleared the way Lenin would lead them into power. The parties dream, and Lenin’s, had been realized. They now had the control they needed to bring to light the practices and policies they wished to see enacted. They were quick to capitalize on this and Russia would be forever different. The change so quickly from Tsar’s reign to a provisional government to the Bolsheviks was finally complete.

Lenin was the leader of the Bolsheviks; their policies based on those of Karl Marx and the ideology of Communism.



He believed, that allied with the peasants, the workers of Russia should rise up against their oppressors and establish Communist society. When the Bolsheviks overthrew the more “bourgeois friendly” Mensheviks and Social Reformists, who took over the government after the revolution, they were supported by the majority of peasantry and working class. Lenin’s promise to them was defined by his slogan: “Peace, Land, and Bread”. Though the policies he imposed during his reign would waver from his ideological values this only goes to show that he was a realist and valued his cause highly.

The fundamentals of Lenin’s policy were based on the Communist Manifesto, and so to fully comprehend the actions that he took, one must understand the ideals of the Bolshevik Party. They believed that the state would never be able to harmonize class antagonisms: as it holds power in the form of military and police forces and therefore places itself above the people. Also, the democratic state is not a representative of the majority, but of the middle class (slave owners, feudal nobility, and bourgeoisie) and has, throughout history, been used to exploit the lower class. Lenin believed that a democratic government is truly controlled by wealth, through direct corruption of officials and through alliance between government and large corporations (ie. Lobbyists). The Bolsheviks also recognize that human kind has not always been subjected to this class system, and they believe that it has moved away from being necessary in society and become a hindrance to production. Only if the proletariat can seize state power and turn the means of production into state property, will the state represent society as a whole. This cannot be done in a peaceful manner, as capitalism is an economic system based on the exploitation of the working class, and if the proles were to abolish the bourgeois state it would have to be done quickly and violently to take effect. Lenin believed this revolution would result in the proletariat as the ruling class (as they would take control of the means of production) and that the state would slowly fade out of existence.

The Bolsheviks knew that all previous revolutions had done nothing but perfect the state (the means of exploiting the working class) instead of abolishing it. At this time the Russian government had been overthrown only to have the same positions filled by the Mensheviks and Social Revolutionaries, and no outstanding reform was taking place. The proletarian “dictatorship’s” first action would be to abolish the military, make any government, judiciary, or ‘official’ position and elected one, and to centralize the national economy to a function along the lines of a postal service. They would be paid on the salary of the workingman; and this system of government, because it lacks bureaucracy, would eventually be able to dissipate. Thus, painting a picture of the ideals Lenin set forth to achieve. When Lenin came to power his first decisions were to give all of Russia’s five hundred and forty million acres to the peasants, and to end Russia’s involvement in WWI. Germany forced the Bolsheviks into signing the treaty of Bret-Litousk in which Germany claimed 28% of the population, 27% of the farmland, and 74% of iron and coal produced. This treaty was cancelled after Germany’s defeat. Next Lenin called an election for a constituent assembly, which the Social Revolutionaries won. But their heavy criticism of the Bolshevik ideal lead to the forceful dissolution of the elected assembly by said party, who, from then on would call themselves the Communist Party. Soon the secret police force, the Cheka, were instated and it seems that although this goes against Communist ideology the Bolsheviks wished to keep their new found power. As Russia was clearly divided over the actions of its state, and countries of the Triple Entente felt abandoned during WWI and threatened by the notion of Communism; soon a civil war broke out

The Red Army was created out of the old imperial forces, lead by Leon Trotsky who was appointed “People’s Commisar for War”.

They fought the White Army, whose members were of varying ideological backgrounds, but commonly opposed to Communism, as well as soldiers from Britain, France, and the US. This war lasted three years, in which class warfare came to a terrible reality. Thousands who opposed Bolshevism were massacred as well as thousands of the wealthier peasants during the “Red Terror”.

During this time Lenin also tried to implicate Communist economy, which failed miserably. He made massive seizures of food and supplies from the peasantry, leading to the famine of 1921 in which almost five million people died. Later that same year the New Economic Policy was put in place. It allowed for a more open market system than during the time of the civil war and there was even private economic activity. Taxes were lowered, and the policy of taking grain from the peasantry was abandoned. To the Bolsheviks this was seen as a painful yielding to the forces of capitalism.

Though his views were idealistic, it is clear that Lenin was very much a realist. His policies were often a reaction to the matters at hand and he was very capable of skewing the hard driving morals outlined in the Communist Manifesto to suit his political needs. As all politicians wish to maintain their grasp on power they must also maintain their grasp on reality.

// DeMarco, Neil. The World This Century. London: Collins Educational, 1987. Print.//

// “Lenin : Biography.” Spartacus Educational – Home Page. N.p., n.d. Web. 21 Oct. 2010// //  //

// “Lenin Internet Archive.” Marxists Internet Archive. N.p., n.d. Web. 21 Oct. 2010// //  //

// Skocpol, Theda. States and Social Revolutions: A Comparative Analysis of France, Russia and China. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1979. Print.//

// “SparkNotes: Vladimir Lenin.” SparkNotes: Today’s Most Popular Study Guides.// N.p., n.d. Web. 21 Oct. 2010 .//