Disputes about Lenin's personality and his influence on history have not subsided to this day. Some praise him, others attribute to him all existing sins. We will try to avoid extremes and briefly tell you what Lenin is famous for and what mark he left on history.
Origin of Lenin
Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov, whom the world knows today as Lenin, was born on April 22, 1870. His father was an inspector of public schools in the Simbirsk province, and his grandfather was a former serf. The subject of controversy and debate is Lenin's nationality. There is no reliable information about whether he himself attached any significance to this. His family included representatives of Russians, Jews, Kalmyks, Germans, Swedes and Chuvashs.
Vladimir Ilyich's brother, Alexander, found himself in the ranks of the conspirators who were preparing an attempt on the life of the emperor. For this, the young man was executed, which was a heavy blow for the whole family. Perhaps it was this event that led Lenin on the path of revolution.
The beginning of revolutionary activity
In 1892-1893 Lenin became a supporter of social democratic ideas. He believed that Russian workers should overthrow the tsarist government and lead their country, and then the whole world, to a communist revolution. Other Marxists were not so decisive. They believed that Russia was not ready for such radical changes, that its proletariat was too weak, and the material base for new production relations was not yet ripe. Lenin, on the other hand, preferred to ignore the concerns of his contemporaries and believed that the most important thing was to make a revolution.
Vladimir Ilyich contributed to the fact that disparate revolutionary circles became a single “Union of Struggle for the Liberation of the Working Class.” This organization was very active in propaganda activities. In 1895, Lenin, like many other members of the Union, was arrested. In 1897 he was sent into exile to the village of Shushenskoye. In 1898, he entered into an official marriage with his companion N. Krupskaya. At the request of the police chief, they even got married, although they were atheists. One of the exiles made them wedding rings from a copper coin.
In exile, Lenin advised peasants on legal issues, prepared documents for them, established connections with Social Democrats in large cities, and also wrote many of his fundamental works. Later he settled in Pskov, published the newspaper Iskra, the magazine Zarya, organized the second congress of the RSDLP, drew up the party charter and work plan. During the revolution of 1905-1907. he was in Switzerland. Many party members were arrested, as a result of which the leadership passed to Lenin. A long period of emigration begins. In January 1917, in Switzerland, he says that he does not hope to live to see the coming great revolution, but believes that the current young generation will see it. Soon the February Revolution takes place in Russia, which Lenin considered a conspiracy of “Anglo-French imperialists.”
Rise to power
April 3 (16) Lenin returns to his homeland. Speaking at the Finland Station, he called for a “social revolution.” Such radicalism confused even his devoted supporters. In the famous “April Theses” he proclaims a course towards the transition of the bourgeois revolution to the proletarian one.
Lenin becomes the leader of the October armed uprising. The seizure of power was successful, as the country was experiencing an acute economic, political and military crisis. How old was Lenin when he made the revolution? He was 47, but he fought for his ideas with youthful uncompromisingness.
In 1917, contemporaries did not take the revolution seriously. They called it a coup and considered it a misunderstanding - accidental and temporary. But no matter how we evaluate Lenin’s personality today, one thing cannot be taken away from him: he was able to feel the pain points of the people and subtly played on this. He understood that ordinary people were most concerned about two issues: the distribution of land and the conclusion of peace. The elite called Lenin's supporters German spies and accused them of treason. But for ordinary people, traitors were those who drove soldiers to war and did not give land to peasants. Having come to power, the Bolsheviks began to eliminate the chaos in which the country was mired after the February Revolution. They countered the anarchy and squabbles in the ranks of their opponents with order - and it naturally won.
In December 1922, Lenin's health deteriorated. During this period, he dictated a number of notes, including the famous “Letter to the Congress.” Some are inclined to look at this document as Lenin's will. They argue that if the country had continued to follow the real Leninist path, then many problems would not have arisen. If we adhere to this point of view, then Stalin deviated from the precepts of his predecessor, for which the entire people paid.
Lenin's key statements in the letter boil down to the following:
- difficulties in relations between Stalin and Trotsky threaten the unity of the party;
- perhaps Stalin will not be able to use power carefully enough;
- Trotsky is a very capable man, but overly self-confident.
In recent years, some historians have begun to doubt that the famous letter was actually dictated by Lenin and attribute the authorship to N. Krupskaya. This issue will obviously be the subject of debate for a long time.
When Lenin died, the New Economic Policy was replaced by Stalin's radical industrialization. Because of this, Lenin and Stalin are sometimes contrasted on the principle of “good versus bad.” But Lenin himself viewed the NEP as a temporary measure. In addition, Stalin's NKVD is the heir to Lenin's VKCh. History does not know the subjunctive mood, so we can evaluate Lenin only by his achievements.
For many people of the older generation, the leader of the revolution remains a great personality. They remember Lenin's birthday and believe that his path was in many ways correct. Well, the younger generation still has to give an objective assessment of his activities and do everything to prevent future leaders from repeating his mistakes.
Lenin wrote hundreds of works, even his biographical chronicle. Many readers know not only every day, but also almost an hour of his life. And it still remains a mystery how this man, who spent almost the entire beginning of the twentieth century abroad (until one thousand nine hundred and seventeen) managed to lead the Russian revolution, come to power at the head of his party and, most importantly, retain it. The years of Lenin's reign begin with the year when the Great Revolution took place. Bloody event for Russia!
A kind old man who loved children and peasants so much, but most of all abroad
In Soviet Russia, everyone was fed the image of the great leader - the kind grandfather Lenin. A dear old man who loved the proletariat infinitely. But what did this good-natured old man, who really loved spending time abroad, think about the people, as well as the unfortunate residents of Russia? Vladimir Ilyich quite openly promotes the idea that the authorities need not only to intimidate the defeated country and its people. The population needs to be broken!
Simply conquering the Russian Empire was not enough for bankers such as Schiff, Morgan, and Warburg. They needed guarantees that this great country would not rise again. It will not capture the route along which bread came from Turkey to Europe. They had to be sure that the Russian peasant would not further ruin the British wheat producer.
Destruction of the market economy
It was important to the authorities of the United States of America and Great Britain that the Russians did not begin expanding into the Far East again. In this regard, Vladimir Lenin, having finished with the Russian intelligentsia, takes on the peasantry. It must be said that in the first years of Lenin’s reign there was no famine in the villages. Interruptions occurred only in St. Petersburg.
But Vladimir Ilyich, who knew perfectly well that food policy can only work effectively in conditions of famine, decides to organize it himself. During Lenin's reign, the state's food market was virtually destroyed. He introduces executions for private trade. This is what helps create hunger in big cities. His next step was to incite anger towards the peasants among the working class, based on the fact that the latter did not want to provide bread to the cities.
Surrender bread or live into the ground
Hiding behind an artificially created famine, the Bolsheviks began a war with villages and villages. Food detachments began to be sent there to seize grain reserves. Because of this, famine is now starting in the villages as well. The process of confiscation of bread itself took place in the most terrible way.
A well-armed detachment with a machine gun appeared in the village, the peasants were herded into livestock and demanded to hand over all the grain they had. And when he was not there, because this was not the first food detachment, they took the first man and buried him alive in the ground. Vladimir Ilyich loved his people very much!
A terrible famine in the once richest empire
Thanks to the efforts of the Bolsheviks, a terrible famine began during Lenin's reign. And this despite the fact that even before the revolution, the Russian Empire could not only feed itself, but also undermine grain production in England. Now the people were forced to survive by picking berries and mushrooms, and sometimes even quinoa. The management knew this very well, since it was the fruit of their labor. But, according to Trotsky, this was not yet a famine. He cited the example of Jerusalem when Titus took it. Then Jewish mothers ate their own children.
But in fact, there were no problems with bread supplies in Russia. Those who served Vladimir Ilyich faithfully were paid in gold and fed to their fill. The famine helped set off not only workers and peasants, but also the plunder of Russian churches. During Lenin's reign, Russian churches were not only burned; first, representatives of the new government plundered church property.
Popular uprisings against usurpers
It should be noted that the peasants offered fierce resistance to the regime of Vladimir Ilyich. Mass uprisings broke out throughout the state. People driven to despair began to take up arms. Fiery hatred of the Bolsheviks grew everywhere.
It became clear to the Russian people that enemies had seized power in the state. In one thousand nine hundred and eighteen, the Tambov province rebelled. Its population was about four million. And from the twentieth, the Tambov People's Republic and the partisan region arose with their three armies of thirty regiments of peasants.
More than two million people died as a result of the mass peasant uprisings. Almost the same thing happened throughout the country. These were the results of Lenin's reign. The common people resisted the new usurper power as best they could. And, characteristically, the Red Army suffered its main losses not in battles with the White Guard, but precisely in the war against its own population - the peasants.
The date of Lenin's reign is connected with which was supposed to liberate the common people from the autocracy of the kings. But what was the main reason for the coup became clear after the first months of Vladimir Ilyich’s leadership. Lenin very harshly, bloodily and stubbornly solved his task - to destroy the Russian state, Russian power.
Every schoolchild, studying the history of Russia, meets a person like Vladimir Ilyich Lenin. But what outstanding thing did he do that his personality is familiar to all people, and not only Russians?
Lenin became leader of the proletariat, the most famous politician in the world. It is with his image that the concept of a true leader can be associated.
Vladimir Ulyanov (this is his real name) was born in 1870, into an ordinary intelligent family, his father was a school inspector, his mother was a school teacher. Vova grew up in a large family, he was the third child and, like his brother and sister, received a lot of attention and care, because his mother refused to work in order to raise her children properly.
From childhood he showed leader inclinations, strived to be the best in everything. He learned to read early, and for a five-year-old boy he knew so much that he received the nickname “a walking encyclopedia.” At school he was an exemplary student, distinguished by accuracy, diligence in completing work, and constantly brought home certificates and certificates of merit.
He graduated from the gymnasium very honorably, and Vladimir decided to go to Kazan University to study law. At the same time, an event occurred that completely turned the young man’s life upside down: Alexander, older brother was executed for involvement in the assassination attempt on Alexander III.
This became the basis for hating the tsarist system and organizing, as a first-year student, a revolutionary organization. For similar activities Ulyanov expelled and sent into exile, to a godforsaken village in the Kazan region.
In order to divert her son's attention from the revolutionary movement, the mother, who inherited a large estate in the Simbirsk province, sends Vladimir to manage it. But this does not prevent people from agitating against capitalism, creating Protestant movements.
After some time, in 1891, Ulyanov passed all the exams of the Imperial St. Petersburg University ahead of schedule and received law degree. After 2 years, he moved to Leningrad and began working on a program for creating a Social Democratic Party.
In the organisation " Union of Struggle for the Liberation of the Working Class“Ulyanov unites all circles of Marxists, all together they work to implement the overthrow of the autocracy. Having created the newspaper “Iskra”, Ulyanov signed the name “Lenin”, which later became his pseudonym. Through his articles, Lenin engaged in agitation of the population.
Later, Vladimir Lenin headed the congress of the Russian Social Democratic Workers' Party, which was divided into the Bolsheviks - people who shared Lenin's ideas and followed them - and the Mensheviks - opponents of Lenin's ideas.
During the Russian Revolution, Lenin was in exile in Switzerland, where he pondered plan for organizing an armed uprising.
At the same time, the very first revolution took place in Russia, caused by the reluctance of the authorities to implement reforms of a liberal nature, the miserable condition of the peasant class and the lack of rights among the working population. Vladimir Ilyich was interested in suppressing the first Russian revolution, since it alienated citizens from achieving and proclaiming socialism.
To correct this, Lenin came to St. Petersburg again and agitated the peasant population, winning him over to his side, to organize an armed uprising. It was recommended to stock up on weapons to attack government officials.
Lenin wanted his like-minded people to unite, and that’s what happened, but he himself was sent to prison because he was suspected of spying on Russia. In 1917, he still managed to return and hold a solemn meeting with the people, at which the leader called for participation in the revolution of socialism.
The Provisional Government was arrested, and Lenin became the head of the Council of People's Commissars. After this, the Russian Socialist Federative Soviet Republic was officially formed, the head of which was Vladimir Ilyich Lenin.
Lenin's actions it is impossible to give an unambiguous positive or negative assessment, since the necessary changes in the state and violent ones were observed, such as the execution of the royal family of Nicholas II in Yekaterinburg, in the Ipatiev house. Opponents of Vladimir Lenin's ideas were easily shot, officially allowing the death penalty.
In this way, the power of the leader of the proletariat was strengthened. The Russian Orthodox Church was badly damaged, and believers became the main enemies, against whom they used violence, forced them to abandon their previous ideas and work for the good of communism.
Lenin Vladimir Ilyich- Russian revolutionary, organizer and leader of the October Revolution of 1917, the largest theorist of Marxism, the first chairman of the Council of People's Commissars of the RSFSR, the creator of the world's first socialist state.
Childhood, family, education
Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov (Lenin) was born on April 22, 1870 in the city of Simbirsk (now Ulyanovsk).
Father - Ulyanov Ilya Nikolaevich- educator, paid great attention to the education of non-Russian peoples of the Volga region, organized public schools for children. He rose to the rank of actual state councilor, which allowed him to receive the title of nobility.
Mother - Maria Alexandrovna Ulyanova(née Blank) - passed the exams for the title of primary school teacher as an external student. She devoted herself entirely to raising children, of whom there were four in the family.
Vladimir Lenin's paternal grandfather - Nikolay Vasilievich Ulyanov- was the son of a serf. He died when Ilya Nikolaevich was still a child. In an orphaned family, his younger brother Ilya was raised and educated by his older brother Vasily, a clerk at the Astrakhan company Sapozhnikov Brothers.
Maternal grandfather - Alexander Dmitrievich Blank- a doctor by training. He married Anna Grigorievna Grosskopf(the Grosskopf family had Swedish and German roots). Doctor Blank, after resigning, was assigned to the Kazan nobility. Soon he acquired the Kukushkino estate and became a landowner. Maria Alexandrovna lost her mother early and she and her sisters were raised by her mother’s sister. The aunt taught the children music and foreign languages.
Having married Ilya Nikolaevich, Maria Alexandrovna completely devoted herself to her family. And although she was an emancipated woman, she was an impeccable housewife. Being highly educated, Maria Alexandrovna studied music and foreign languages with children. Vladimir was fluent in German and French, but spoke English less well. Living surrounded by Russian nature, Vladimir Ulyanov loved his native culture, but also paid tribute to Western thought.
His father died when Vladimir Ulyanov was 16 years old. Maria Alexandrovna managed the family budget until her death in 1916.
Vladimir was the third child in the family. At the gymnasium, Volodya was the first student. By the way, the director of the gymnasium was Fyodor Mikhailovich Kerensky, father Alexander Kerensky, the future head of the Provisional Government.
The gymnasium gave young Vladimir Lenin a solid foundation of knowledge. Vladimir Ilyich treated his studies with truly German pedantry. Notebooks, books - everything is in the neatest condition. Of the subjects, high school student Vladimir Ulyanov was most interested in philosophy and political economy, although he also had excellent grades in the exact sciences.
In 1887, Vladimir Ulyanov graduated from high school with a gold medal. But these last years were a difficult ordeal for the family. His father recently died (1886), and then a new misfortune befell him - he was arrested Alexandra Ulyanova, the elder brother of Vladimir Ilyich Lenin in connection with the attempt on the life of the Tsar. In 1887, Alexander was executed as a participant in the Narodnaya Volya conspiracy; this became a deep tragedy for the entire Ulyanov family.
Formation of views
After graduating from high school, Vladimir Ilyich Lenin entered the law faculty of Kazan University. After the tragic death of his brother, as stated in the biography of the future leader of the proletariat, Vladimir Ulyanov began to think about his views and also began to get involved in politics. Of course, young Vladimir Lenin was already under the control of the authorities because of his brother, so he was expelled from the university for participating in liberal meetings.
Lenin Vladimir Ilyich was exiled to his mother’s estate Kukushkino. It was here that the revolutionary consciousness of the young man began to take shape. He read a lot - Pisareva, Nechaeva, Chernyshevsky. Years later, Lenin said: “The novel What Is To Be Done deeply plowed me.”
In 1889, the Ulyanov family moved to Samara. The so-called index fell into the hands of Vladimir Ilyich Fedoseeva- one of the first propagandists of Marxism in Russia. This was a list of Marxist literature recommended for self-education.
In September 1891, Vladimir Ulyanov took an external course at the Faculty of Law at St. Petersburg University, and in 1892 he took a job as an assistant sworn attorney in Samara. However, Lenin was bored with this work, Vladimir Ilyich did not prove himself as a lawyer, and, without working even a year, he left for St. Petersburg in 1893. There Vladimir began to attend the Marxist student association of the Technological Institute.
Vladimir Lenin had a remarkable quality in his character: he knew how to listen and easily learned new things. Except Marx, Ulyanov-Lenin admired the ideas for some time Plekhanov, however, even then he felt a certain political strength in himself and began to criticize the former populist-Black Peredelist. When Vladimir Ilyich Lenin met abroad with members of the “Emancipation of Labor” group in 1895, Plekhanov, having listened to the passionate speeches of the young revolutionary, called him “rather a Blanquist than a Marxist.”
Political activity and party work
In the same 1895, Lenin, together with Martov organized the St. Petersburg “Union of Struggle for the Liberation of the Working Class.” Naturally, after some time, many members of the “Union” were arrested. Vladimir Ilyich also came under arrest. At first, Ulyanov was kept in prison for more than a year, and in March 1897 he was exiled to the village of Shushenskoye for three years. Here in July 1898 Lenin Vladimir Ilyich married Nadezhda Konstantinovna Krupskaya, also exiled in the case of the St. Petersburg “Union of Struggle for the Liberation of the Working Class.”
In exile, Ulyanov-Lenin could use the rich Krasnoyarsk library of the Russian bibliophile and merchant of the Second Guild Gennady Yudin. Lenin Vladimir Ilyich wrote more than 30 articles, as well as a solid work “The Development of Capitalism in Russia”.
After the end of his exile in 1900, Lenin went abroad. Vladimir Ilyich lived in Germany, visited London and Geneva. The future leader of the world proletariat came up with a plan to create a Social Democratic Party as an organization of professional revolutionaries. Ulyanov perfectly understood the role of the media, so he made the all-Russian newspaper Iskra the core of the party. It was then that articles appeared in the newspaper signed with the pseudonym Lenin.
In July-August 1903, the second congress of the Russian Social Democratic Party (RSDLP), prepared by Lenin, Plekhanov and Martov, took place. Meetings of the congress began to be held in Brussels, but then, after a ban by the Belgian police, they were moved to London. It was at this congress that the party split into two factions - the Bolsheviks (those who were attracted by Lenin’s idea of seizing power by armed means) and the Mensheviks (Plekhanov, Martov and their supporters were inclined towards classical European social democracy). But Lenin Vladimir Ilyich did not want to follow the parliamentary path. He was confident that tsarism would not give up power voluntarily, and therefore it could only be taken away through an armed uprising. According to N.A. Berdyaeva Vladimir Lenin was a theorist of revolution, unlike Georgy Plekhanov, a theorist of Marxism.
Like-minded people of Vladimir Ilyich considered him an unbalanced person by nature. Maksim Gorky characterized him as “the creator of constant squabbles in the party.” Yes, and his comrade Leon Trotsky spoke about some of Lenin’s actions “... the squabble that master Lenin systematically incites in these cases.” And in fact, for example, in 1907, Lenin’s resolution of the fifth congress of the RSDLP led to confrontation with almost all Russian parties. Vladimir Ilyich Lenin resolutely fought against the Mensheviks, Bolshevik liquidators, Bolshevik otzovists, God-seekers, God-builders, and Trotskyists. The factional struggle of the pre-October period reached its climax at the Prague Conference (1912), at which, in the words of Vladimir Lenin, “they put an end to the liquidationist and otzovist scum.” From that moment on, the word “Bolsheviks” was added to the name of the party - RSDLP (b). Also, Lenin Vladimir Ilyich managed to reorient the non-factional newspaper Pravda (published by L.D. Trotsky since 1908), becoming the actual editor. On May 5, 1912, a legal Bolshevik newspaper was published under the same name.
Revolutionary situation, "April Theses"
When the February Revolution occurred, Lenin was not in Russia. Having learned about the revolution, Vladimir Ilyich immediately telegraphed a member of the Petrograd committee of the RSDLP (b) A.G. Shlyapnikov: “No contacts with other parties!” During this period, he wrote “Letters from Afar,” in which he analyzed the situation in Russia. Vladimir Ilyich spoke with conviction about the inevitable development of the bourgeois revolution into a socialist revolution. Many people disagreed with him. Members of the Central Committee Kamenev, And Joseph Stalin headed for an alliance with the Mensheviks, because they believed that Lenin’s “Letters from Afar” spoke of Vladimir Ilyich’s isolation from Russian realities. Only four of the five letters were published in the Pravda newspaper, and even those with banknotes. By the way, despite his long absence, Vladimir Ilyich Lenin had an excellent understanding of the revolutionary situation in Russia and in his letters he presciently predicted the result.
On April 3, 1917, Vladimir Ilyich Lenin arrived in Russia. The Petrograd Soviet, the majority of which were Mensheviks and Socialist Revolutionaries, organized a ceremonial meeting for him, notes Lenin’s biography on Wikipedia. Seeing the guard of honor lined up, Vladimir Ilyich said to his wife: “Nadyusha, now they’ll arrest me.” But, seeing that people were greeting him, Lenin climbed onto an armored car and gave a fiery speech, ending with the glory: “Long live the world socialist revolution!”
Then Vladimir Ilyich proposed a program for the transition from the bourgeois-democratic revolution to the socialist revolution under the slogan “All power to the Soviets” (“April Theses”). The “April Theses” published in Pravda seemed too radical even to close associates. In his report, Lenin sharply opposed the expansion of the bourgeois-democratic revolution, announced the slogans: “No support for the Provisional Government” and “all power to the Soviets.” Vladimir Ilyich Lenin proclaimed a course for the development of the bourgeois revolution into a proletarian revolution with the subsequent liquidation of the army, police and bureaucracy.
Without Lenin there would have been no October 1917
On July 7, the Provisional Government ordered the arrest of Lenin and a number of prominent Bolsheviks on charges of treason and organizing an armed uprising. Lenin changed 17 safe houses, then together with Zinoviev was hiding not far from Petrograd - in a hut on Lake Razliv. In August, he disappeared into the territory of the Grand Duchy of Finland, where he lived until the beginning of October in Yalkala, Helsingfors and Vyborg.
At the beginning of autumn, Lenin was in Finland. From there, in letters, he hurried his comrades to prepare an armed uprising. Famous words: “Delay is like death!” frightened with their radicalism. However, in October, Vladimir Ilyich returned to Petrograd to lead the uprising, organized by the chairman of the Petrograd Soviet, Leon Trotsky.
On the morning of October 25 (November 7, New Year’s Day), Lenin wrote an appeal “To the Citizens of Russia”: “The Provisional Government has been overthrown!”, although at that moment the Provisional Government was still meeting in the Winter Palace. But Lenin was not interested in such trifles. Vladimir Ilyich wrote decrees about peace, about land. On the night of October 25-26, the Provisional Government was arrested.
Lenin described his condition with these words: “Es Schwindelt” (dizziness). Leon Trotsky noted: “If there had not been Lenin, there would have been no October.”
After the revolution
It was during this period that the most difficult times came. Political maneuvers began among Lenin's associates. Vladimir Ilyich was elected chairman of the Council of People's Commissars. One of the first steps of the Leninist government was the abolition of freedom of speech (opposition newspapers were closed). And the promises related to bread and peace were impossible to fulfill at that moment.
Under these conditions, Germany entered into negotiations with Russia, but put forward territorial demands. These demands were discussed by the new government. The signing of the Brest-Litovsk Peace Treaty with Germany (March 1918) was not accepted by many. However, despite the fact that Lenin was in the minority, the so-called “shameful” Brest-Litovsk Peace was signed.
Vladimir Ilyich found himself alone. But he didn't give up. He firmly stated that he would leave if his proposals were not accepted. And he won because he was a generally recognized leader.
Professor at Harvard University Richard Pipes wrote*: “By shrewdly accepting a humiliating peace, which allowed him to gain the necessary time and then collapsed under the influence of its own gravity, Lenin earned the widespread trust of the Bolsheviks. When they tore up the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk on November 13, 1918, followed by Germany’s capitulation to the Western allies, Lenin’s authority was elevated to unprecedented heights in the Bolshevik movement.”
Civil War, War Communism
So, Vladimir Ilyich Lenin became the head of the Russian state. After the victory in the revolution, Lenin enjoyed enormous authority among his comrades. He was elected chairman of the Council of People's Commissars and chairman of the Labor and Defense Council. He achieved the seizure of power - the previous state structure was completely destroyed. To build a new system, peace is needed, but there was none.
Economic devastation, a deep social, national, political and ideological split in Russian society caused the outbreak of a civil war throughout Russia between the armed forces of the Soviet government, the White movement and the separatists with the intervention of the Central Powers and the Entente. The Bolsheviks were merciless towards their enemies. However, their enemies showed no mercy to them.
August 30 at the Mikhelson plant in Moscow Fanny Kaplan committed a terrorist act - she shot at Lenin. True, there were rumors that it was not she who shot the leader of the world revolution, but she was punished for the crime. Who actually shot Vladimir Ilyich is still unknown for certain. In response to this and to the murder of the chairman of the Petrograd Cheka Uritsky The "Red Terror" began.
It was declared by the Decree of the Council of People's Commissars of the RSFSR dated September 5, 1918 “On Red Terror” and terminated on November 6, 1918. In an atmosphere of growing terror, the construction of the first concentration camps and forced mobilization into the army began. In such a difficult situation, Vladimir Ilyich tried to solve his main task - to move towards the construction of communism in Russia.
On November 21, 1918, Lenin signed the decree of the Council of People's Commissars “On organizing the supply of the population with all products and items for personal use and household use.” Trade was prohibited, commodity-money relations were replaced by natural exchange (for example, a sewing machine was exchanged for a bag of flour). The state introduced food appropriation.
Vladimir Ilyich Lenin introduced labor conscription: free public works. Everyone except members of the RSDLP (b), in parallel with their main work, had to take part in restoring roads, collecting firewood, etc. The poet also participated in such work Alexander Blok, and academician Sergey Oldenburg. People worked 14-16 hours.
Vladimir Ilyich did not trust the intelligentsia, although he himself belonged to this class. There are documents that confirm that it was on Lenin’s orders that many scientific and cultural figures were sent abroad.
As for national policy, Vladimir Ilyich insisted on the democratic “right of nations to self-determination.” In December 1922, the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics was created.
Creation of the Red Army
With the outbreak of the Civil War and intervention, Lenin personally took part in the creation of a regular Red Army. He understood that the seized power had to be saved. Vladimir Ilyich monitored the progress of mobilization, weapons and equipment, and managed to organize work in the rear (food supply). He managed to persuade some tsarist specialists to go over to the side of the Bolsheviks. The commander-in-chief of the naval forces, Leon Trotsky, who was appointed by him, competently conducted military operations.
Despite the difficult situation, the sailors' mutiny in Kronstadt, and peasant uprisings against the policies of military communism in 1921, the Bolsheviks were able to retain power.
New Economic Policy
English writer H.G. Wells called Vladimir Ilyich Lenin a “Kremlin dreamer,” but in fact the proletarian leader was not like that. He saw that the country's economy was in a catastrophic situation. At the 10th Party Congress in March 1921, at the insistence of Lenin, “war communism” was abolished and food allocation was replaced by a food tax.
Lenin put forward a program of “new economic policy”; a special GOELRO commission was created to develop a project for the electrification of Russia. Vladimir Ilyich believed that in anticipation of the world proletarian revolution, the state should keep all large industry in its hands and build socialism, according to Lenin’s biography on Wikipedia.
Vladimir Ilyich wanted to stabilize the situation in Russia at all costs. The NEP immediately produced positive results. The process of rapid restoration of the national economy began.
Disease. "Lenin's Testament"
On May 25, 1922, Lenin suffered his first stroke. The right side of his body was paralyzed and he could not speak. However, in October 1922, he gradually returned to business. Lenin's last public speech took place on November 20, 1922 at the plenum of the Moscow Soviet.
The next stroke occurred in December 1922. And the third stroke, which occurred in March 1923, turned out to be the most severe. On May 15, 1923, due to illness, Vladimir Ilyich moved to the Gorki estate near Moscow.
What happened among his comrades? There was a fierce struggle for leadership among party members. The main rivals were Trotsky and Stalin.
By the way, even at the beginning of 1923, Lenin was seriously concerned about a possible split in the Central Committee. In his “Letter to the Congress” (the so-called “Lenin’s Testament”) he gave characteristics to the leading figures of the Central Committee. Vladimir Ilyich proposed removing Joseph Stalin from the post of General Secretary. The letter was announced in 1924 before the XIII Congress of the RCP (b) N.K. Krupskaya.
Another concern of the leader was the exorbitantly enlarged and useless apparatus - unprofessional and illiterate.
In his last works, Vladimir Ilyich Lenin soberly raised the question of the need to “recognize a radical change in our entire point of view on socialism” (“we have failed”). But Lenin’s condition also worsened due to the political isolation into which he fell through the efforts of Stalin and other party comrades. Perhaps, having rethought a lot, Vladimir Ilyich wanted to have time to correct his mistakes.
Researchers from the University of California at Sacramento concluded that Vladimir Lenin suffered from a rare genetic disease, which resulted in “petrification” of the blood vessels in the brain. The unusual disease could have been transmitted to Vladimir Ilyich from his father, whose death also occurred at the age of 53.
"More than alive"
A personality like Vladimir Ilyich Lenin cannot be described in a short essay. Huge volumes, both documentary and fiction, have been written about his life and work. Being a politician, of course, on a global scale, Vladimir Ilyich determined the vector of development of world history of the twentieth century. Lenin achieved a brilliant victory in 1917, but as the future showed, his cause was ultimately lost.
Vladimir Lenin was respected even by his ideological opponents.
“Among a number of historians there are two opposing views on Lenin. Some present him as a soft, purely civilian man, completely devoid of military-organizational abilities, others show him as a tough, ruthless leader, a fan of violence. “Perhaps, it is difficult to fully agree with both views, although Trotsky, in his decisive actions as a narco-military commander, received the full support of Lenin in organizing iron military discipline in the army,” wrote Ian Schwartz.
Many scientists looked for the reason for Lenin's genius in the special properties of his brain. World-renowned neurophysiologist, academician Natalya Bekhtereva wrote:
— Scientists have repeatedly tried to explain the phenomenon of genius. They even wanted to create a research institute in Moscow to study the brains of gifted people during their lifetime. But neither then nor now have they found any differences between a genius and an ordinary person. I personally think it's a special brain biochemistry. As for Pushkin, for example, it was natural to “think” in rhyme. This is an “anomaly”, most likely not heritable. They say that genius and madness are similar. Madness is also the result of special brain biochemistry. A breakthrough in the study of this phenomenon will most likely occur in the field of genetics.
The issue of the reburial of Vladimir Lenin
Almost a hundred years after Lenin's death, the topic of his burial remains relevant. From time to time, there are active statements in the media regarding the reburial of Vladimir Lenin, and the demolition of the Mausoleum in general.
Leader of the LDPR Vladimir Zhirinovsky called for the burial of the body of the leader of the socialist revolution. In the spring of 2017, deputies from the LDPR and United Russia parties submitted to the State Duma a draft law that would provide a legal mechanism for burying the body of Vladimir Lenin. According to parliamentarians, the document should fill the legal gap that prevents the reburial of the remains of historical figures, and thereby “put an end to Lenin’s case.”
This became more active on the eve of the 100th anniversary of the October Revolution in Russia. In particular, the Speaker of the Federation Council Valentina Matvienko noted that the burial of the body of the founder of the Soviet state will be possible when society comes to a consensus on this issue. The head of Chechnya also proposed burying the body of the leader of the world proletariat. Ramzan Kadyrov.
— Despite the fact that in different strata of society the attitude towards Lenin is very contradictory, even purely negative, one cannot help but admit that in general a positive attitude towards him still dominates in society. And this is the historical memory and historical consciousness of the people.
In addition, it is impossible to deny that Vladimir Lenin is one of the largest political figures of the 20th century. He undoubtedly influenced the course of world history, and the evidence that he did so in a purely negative way is rather inconclusive.
Finally, it is generally accepted that the Lenin Mausoleum is an architectural masterpiece created by one of the best architects of the first half of the twentieth century - Alexey Shchusev. And this masterpiece is very tactfully and harmoniously integrated into the historical ensembles of Red Square and the side of the Moscow Kremlin facing it,” says V. Tretyakov.
The President of Russia has spoken out several times about the activities of Vladimir Lenin in recent years. Vladimir Putin. In 2016, at a meeting of the Presidential Council on Science and Education, Putin said that the actions of the leader of the revolution ultimately led to the collapse of the Soviet Union.
During the event, the head of the Kurchatov Institute Mikhail Kovalchuk, remembering Lenin, stated that “he controlled the flow of thought and only because of that, the country.” To this, the president noted that it is correct to control the flow of thought, but in the case of Vladimir Ilyich, this thought “led to the collapse of the Soviet Union.” “There were a lot of thoughts there: autonomy and so on. They planted an atomic bomb under the building called Russia, and then it exploded. And we didn’t need a world revolution. That’s the thought there,” the president was quoted as saying in the news.
In January 2018, the head of the Russian state compared the body of Vladimir Lenin, lying in the mausoleum on Red Square, with the relics of saints that are kept on Mount Athos, and noted that there were many borrowings from Christianity in communist ideology. In particular, according to Putin, the Code of the Builders of Communism was a primitive excerpt from the Bible.
*) Pipes Richard. Russian Revolution: In 3 books. Book 2. Bolsheviks in the struggle for power. 1917−1918.
Professional revolutionaries led a secret life, and often forgot their real names for a long time. Stalin, Kamo, Sverdlov, Trotsky and other ardent fighters for people's happiness, even when communicating in private, used party pseudonyms. The same fully applies to the leader of the world proletariat, the creator of the world's first state of workers and peasants. Nikolai Lenin (Ulyanov Vladimir Ilyich) appeared on the political scene almost simultaneously with the fateful 20th century for humanity. At that time he was thirty years old.
Ilyich's pseudonyms
Indeed, Ronald Reagan, exposing the machinations of world communism in his next speech (this was in the early eighties), turned out to be right, although some Soviet publications accused him of ignorance. “Not Nikolai, but Vladimir Ilyich Lenin, that’s right!” Because everyone is accustomed to precisely this combination of sounds and letters, pronounced a thousand times from the stands, replicated on posters and propaganda brochures, badges, pennants and certificates of commendation. Nevertheless, those who knew history a little better than regular propagandists and familiarized themselves with the works of the classic of Marxism could not but agree with the American president, not on the essence of his speech, of course, but regarding the accuracy of the reproduction of the party nickname.
Before going illegal, the future leader was just a student Vladimir, and even earlier - a high school student Vova and a curly-haired boy Volodya. And having already become a revolutionary, Ulyanov changed many pseudonyms, having been Vladimir Ilyin, and Jordan K. Yordanov, and K. Tulin, and Kubyshkin, and Starik, and Fyodor Petrovich, and Frey, and even the mysterious Jacob Richter. But history has left a short inscription on the mausoleum: “V. I. Lenin”, causing hostility and rejection among some, hope among others and leaving others indifferent.
In honor of whom is “Lenin”?
The simplest explanation for this pseudonym is its morphological relationship with the female name “Lena”. That was the name of Ulyanov’s old acquaintance, Stasova (and also his classmate Rozmirovich, his fellow chorus girl Zaretskaya... is there not enough Len in the world? You can’t even count!), who, it seems (like others), was deeply attractive to him in his youth years. But this side of the leader’s life was not taught at school, but another version became widespread. On the Siberian Lena River in 1906, certain popular unrest arose among workers in the gold mines, which ended with their armed suppression. This version of the explanation is even less worthy of attention, despite its political consistency, since the shooting of demonstrators occurred five years later than the first newspaper articles signed by N. Lenin appeared. Prophecies were repeatedly attributed to the leader of the revolution, but he was still not a clairvoyant. Predicting the global victory of communism is one thing, but anticipating a riot five years before it is quite another.
To try to explain the origin of this pseudonym, one can turn to the history of another. L.D. Bronstein became Trotsky, borrowing the surname of the head of the Odessa central. Vladlen Loginov, a historian (his name alone is worth it!) suggests that Nikolai Lenin is a very real person who lived in the Yaroslavl province. This respected man, a state councilor, died, and his children gave the passport to their friend, Vladimir Ulyanov. This was supposedly in 1900, the year of birth had to be slightly corrected, but in all other respects the chronology agrees. Photo cards weren’t glued back then.
There is also a version that simply concerns Lena - not a beautiful woman, and not the place of the bloody execution of workers, but the river, but it does not seem interesting to historians and simply curious people. Indeed, there is little romance. And what the truth is, apparently, will never be known.
Childhood and adolescence
The centenary anniversary of the proletarian leader was celebrated magnificently in 1970; many films, paintings, literary works, poems, songs and cantatas were dedicated to him. A medal was also issued, which was awarded to leaders in production. During Soviet power, a whole art direction was created, called Leniniana, and a considerable part of it described the childhood and youth years of the life of the future Bolshevik leader. What Vladimir Ilyich Lenin was like in the first years of his life is known mainly from the stories of his family members. The fact of his excellent school performance (gold medal) was documented, which gave grounds for propagandists to urge schoolchildren throughout the vast country to study only “excellently.” The city of Simbirsk, where Vladimir Ilyich Lenin was born, was renamed Ulyanovsk, and a memorial was erected there.
The father of the theorist and practitioner of the world revolution was Ilya Nikolaevich Ulyanov, an official who held the post of inspector of public education. The boy studied at the gymnasium, then entered the university of Kazan. This was in 1887, and at the same time his older brother Alexander, a Narodnaya Volya member, was accused of participating in a conspiracy, arrested and executed. Volodya also suffered, but not for his relationship with one of the terrorists who attempted to assassinate the Tsar. He himself worked in an underground circle, was exposed, expelled from the university and expelled - no, not to Siberia yet, but home. The “arbitrariness of the authorities” did not last long; a year later Ulyanov was again in Kazan, and again among his Marxist friends. Meanwhile, my mother, having become a widow, bought a small estate (the village of Alakaevka, Samara province), and the young man helps her run the business. In 1889, the whole family moved to Samara.
From Narodnaya Volya to Marxists
The young man was allowed to receive higher education. He passed the bar exams as an external student in 1891 at the law faculty of the capital's university, without completing a course of study. The first place of work was the law office of N.A. Hardin in Samara, where the young specialist had to defend the parties to civil litigation. But it was not this boring activity that captivated him. Over the course of two years of legal practice, Vladimir Ilyich completely changed his worldview and political beliefs, moving away from Narodnaya Volya and becoming a Social Democrat. The influence of Plekhanov's works in this process was great, but they were not the only ones that occupied the mind of the young Marxist.
Having left Hardin, lawyer Ulyanov goes to St. Petersburg, where he finds a new job with M. F. Volkenshtein, also a lawyer. But he is not only involved in judicial matters: the first theoretical works concerning issues of political economy, the development of capitalist relations in Russia, reforms in the countryside, etc. date back to this period. These articles are sometimes published in periodicals. In addition, Ulyanov is writing the program of the party that he plans to create.
In 1885, a group of young revolutionaries assembled an underground union for the “liberation of the working class,” among them Martov and Vladimir Ilyich. The purpose of this organization is to gather disparate circles of Marxists and lead them. This attempt ended in arrest, a year in prison and exile to the Yenisei province (the village of Shushenskoye). The then “prisoners of conscience” could not complain about the difficult conditions of detention. The main burden that V.I. Lenin experienced in those three years was the need to be content with boring lamb. However, it was possible to hunt, diversifying the menu with game. The future leader also repaired skates for children when he wanted to take a break from thinking about the struggle of the proletariat.
Lenin in exile
In 1900 Nikolai Lenin appeared. Vladimir Ilyich, whose brief biography was studied in all educational institutions of the USSR, spent most of his life abroad, in Europe. Immediately after the end of his exile, he goes to Munich, then to London and Geneva. Plekhanov, Pavel Axelrod, Vera Zasulich and other like-minded Marxists were already waiting for him there. They publish the newspaper Iskra. By the way, few people paid attention to the fact that decades later, when naming avenues and streets in part of this party printed organ, the executive committees of all cities necessarily added the word “Leninist”. The fact is that Iskra later became a Menshevik newspaper, so clarification was necessary from a political point of view.
The well-known question: “What to do?” became the title of an article that Vladimir Ilyich Lenin wrote in 1902. It was this work that marked the choice of the direction of party development for the coming years. The main thesis was the need to transform the RSDLP into a military organization bound by strict discipline and hierarchy. Many members of the party, led by Martov, spoke out against such a violation of democratic principles, for which, having lost the vote at the Third Congress (1903), they became “Mensheviks”.
The first revolution and again a foreign land
In 1905, Vladimir Lenin comes from Switzerland to St. Petersburg. Large-scale unrest began in Russia, which with a high degree of probability could lead to a change of government. He arrived under a false name, as a foreign spy, and became involved in the work of overthrowing tsarism. The positions of the Bolshevik wing of the RSDLP were quite strong; a congress of the Central and St. Petersburg party committees was held in the capital. An armed uprising practically took place, but ended in failure. Even in the conditions of an extremely unsuccessful war with Japan, the Russian Empire found the strength to suppress unrest and restore order. The Potemkin riot was declared by Vladimir Lenin to be “undefeated territory,” and in 1907 he fled abroad again.
This fiasco greatly upset the leadership of the Bolshevik Party, but did not lead to abandonment of the fight. Conclusions were drawn about the insufficient preparedness of party structures and the need to further strengthen the military wing of the organization.
Where does the money come from?
The modern reader, aware that life abroad is expensive, often wonders about the origin of the funds needed to publish subversive periodicals. In addition, even diehard Bolsheviks are living people, and human needs are not alien to them. There are several answers to this question. Firstly, money was taken by force from individuals and organizations. These operations were called expropriations (exs), and individual Bolshevik structures were involved in these robberies (for example, the “wonderful Georgian” Joseph Dzhugashvili-Stalin carried out a unique raid on a bank in Tiflis, which was included in criminology textbooks). Secondly, the RSDLP had sponsors among Russian business people who hoped to improve their situation after the overthrow of tsarism (the most famous was the millionaire Savva Morozov, but there were others). Thirdly, information is available today about foreign intelligence support for subversive organizations. Vladimir Ilyich Lenin effectively used all channels of material supply for the party.
Personal life
Everyone knows that the leader of the world proletariat was married. He was not a handsome man, small in stature, with a thin beard and an early bald spot, but history knows many examples of great success among the ladies of the class of people and more modest appearance - just remember Napoleon, Goebbels, Chaplin or Pushkin. It is not the cover of the book that is important, but its content, and the high intelligence of the leader of the Bolshevik Party was not questioned even by his irreconcilable opponents.
Why did Nadezhda Konstantinovna captivate such an interesting man as Vladimir Ilyich Lenin? Krupskaya's biography contains many interesting facts relating, for example, to her party nicknames. Party members called her Herring, openly mocking her thinness and the peculiar look of her bulging eyes. The reason for both was quite valid (Graves' disease). She was not offended by her nickname; moreover, her character obviously had a sense of humor, otherwise her wife would not have tolerated even more humiliating treatment from her husband, who called her lamprey. More important than appearance for Ulyanov, apparently, were excellent abilities for languages, amazing efficiency, desire for self-education and devotion to the communist idea.
There were other women in his life for whom he may have had romantic feelings, but politics, of course, remained the main object of passion. The affair with I. Armand ended only with her tragic death from the flu. The wife forgave everything. She probably loved her husband, considered him a great man and worshiped him. In addition, as an intelligent woman, she correctly assessed the degree of her external attractiveness, and as a real communist, she despised jealousy and a sense of ownership. She never gave birth to children.
Based on the popular image created by the powerful Soviet propaganda machine, for a long time it was impossible to understand what kind of person Vladimir Ilyich Lenin was in real life. Interesting facts, which his closest associates told in their memoirs, speak of his sometimes unusual behavior. He, unlike Stalin, did not like to joke and took any issue seriously. An interesting incident occurred during a trip in the notorious sealed German carriage. There was only one toilet, queues arose, and V.I. Lenin solved this problem in a Bolshevik way, giving each passenger a ticket indicating the time of his visit. It is also characterized by another point concerning the wedding with Krupskaya in Shushenskoye. Vladimir Ulyanov himself forged two wedding rings from copper nickels (the couple wore them until the end of their lives). But no matter what eccentricities historical characters display, they are judged primarily by the results of their activities.
The expression “Stalinist repressions” entered the political dictionary after the 20th Congress of the CPSU. In 1962, Lenin's mausoleum was freed from the remains of the dictator who ruined millions of destinies and lives. It should, however, be taken into account that in none of his articles or speeches did J.V. Stalin ever call for mass executions or percentage destruction of the population, or give orders for the extermination of entire estates and classes in the most literal sense. But Vladimir Ilyich Lenin, whose reign coincided with the Civil War, gave such orders and demanded a report on their implementation on the ground. Millions of Russian citizens were destroyed and died involved in the fratricidal massacre, and yet they constituted the spiritual, intellectual, scientific, technical and military elite of the country. We still feel the consequences of this crime today.
Man, image and attributes of the cult
In the official mythology, instilled in place of the desecrated religion, citizens of the USSR from childhood were instilled with the idea of the great kindness that distinguished Lenin Vladimir Ilyich. The leader’s death in Gorki (1924) was declared almost a self-sacrifice; it was explained by the consequences of his injury at the Mikhelson plant in 1918. However, according to a medical report published in the Soviet press, the brain of the main practitioner of Marxism was almost petrified due to calcification of the blood vessels. A person with such a disease cannot make adequate decisions, let alone lead the state.
Official propaganda created an image that was impossible not to worship. Everything human was completely emasculated from him, Lenin’s mausoleum became a place of pilgrimage for tens and hundreds of millions of people from all over the world, the leader’s works were published (with some cuts), but few people read them, and even fewer students thought about these texts. But multi-volume collections and separate collections of articles have become an indispensable attribute of government offices. Having taken away moral guidelines and faith from the citizens, the leaders who came after them gave them a new deity, which Vladimir Ilyich Lenin became after his death. Photos and paintings replaced icons, solemn chants replaced church chorales, and banners became an analogue of banners. A tomb was erected on Red Square, which over time became a necropolis of leaders of lower rank. In Soviet times, Vladimir Ilyich Lenin’s birthday was a holiday during which one should, at least a little, symbolically, partake of free labor. Somehow, in the understanding of almost the entire world, the communist idea began to be associated with Russia, although it was our country that suffered from it more than all others. Now those who would like to somehow show their anti-Russian orientation are destroying monuments to Lenin. In vain.