Lenin

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Scope and content

• Since the birth of Soviet Russia, Vladimir Lenin has been viewed as a controversial figure, revered and reviled for his rigid political ideals. He continues to fascinate as a man who made history, and created the first Communist state, a model that would later be imitated by nearly half the countries in the world. Drawing on new research, including the diaries, memoirs, and personal letters of both Lenin and his friends, Victor Sebestyens biography–the first in English in nearly two decades–is not only a political examination of one of the most important historical figures of the twentieth century, but a portrait of Lenin the man. Lenin was someone who loved nature, hunting, fishing and could identify hundreds of species of plants, a despotic ruler whose closest ties and friendships were with women. The long-suppressed story of the complex love triangle Lenin had with his wife, and his mistress and comrade, reveals a different character to the coldly one-dimensional figure of the legend. Sebestyen also reveals Lenin as a ruthless and single-minded despot and a product of his time and place: a violent, tyrannical and corrupt Russia. He seized power in a coup, promised a revolution, a socialist utopia for the people, offered simple solutions to complex issues and constantly lied; in fact, what he created was more a mirror image of the Romanov autocracy. He authorized the deaths of thousands of people, and created a system based on the idea that political terror against opponents was justified for the greater ideal. One of his old comrades who had once admired him said he desired the good… but created evil. And that would include his invention of Stalin, who would take Lenins system of the gulag and the secret police to new heights– Provided by publisher.

LC Subjects

• Lenin, Vladimir Ilʹich, 1870-1924–Influence.
• Lenin, Vladimir Ilʹich, 1870-1924–Political and social views.
• Lenin, Vladimir Ilʹich, 1870-1924–Relations with women.
• Lenin, Vladimir Ilʹich, 1870-1924–Psychology.
• Revolutionaries–Soviet Union–Biography.
• Dictators–Soviet Union–Biography.
• State-sponsored terrorism–Soviet Union–History.
• Soviet Union–Politics and government–1917-1936.

Other Subjects

• BIOGRAPHY & AUTOBIOGRAPHY / Historical.
• HISTORY / Europe / Russia & the Former Soviet Union.

Date Posted:      December 14, 2017
Reviewed by Joseph C. Goulden[1]
Let not October pass by without proper notice of the 100th anniversary of one of the greater calamities of modern history: the seizure of control of Russia on Oct. 25, 1917, by what became the Communist Party.
As biographer Victor Sebestyen writes in his horrifying biography of Vladimir Lenin, under communism millions of people were killed, jailed or sent into the great maw of the gulag. The estimated body count, in Russia and the rest of the world, is in multi-digit territory.
Should we fret about communism now that the Soviet Union and its subsidiaries are defunct? Think again. Recent public opinions show that some 80 percent of Russians look with favor upon Joseph Stalin, Lenins successor as dictator. President Vladimir Putin recently spent millions restoring Lenins tomb in Moscowan artifice that Mr. Sebestyen labels as part shrine, part tourist trap. Mr. Putins goal of restoring Russias rightful grandeur is frequently stated.
The Hungarian-born Sebestyen, a foreign correspondent for several London dailies, including the Times, the Daily Mail and the Evening Standard, traces Lenins origins as a member of the comfortable minor nobility. Born Vladimir Ulyanov, he was radicalized when an older brother was hanged for working against Tsar Nicholas II.
Appalled, the young man took the revolutionary name of Lenin (one of more than 100 pseudonyms he used over the years) and launched his career as a revolutionist. Arrested, he defended himself with an assertion oft repeated over the years: Terror is the only form of defense, the only road individuals can take when their discontent becomes extreme.
Sentenced to Siberia, on release he fled to Europe, spending most of 17 years in Switzerland. There he published newspapers supporting revolutionaries in Russia.
In 1913 the Tsar permitted a semblance of elective government, headed by Alexander Kerensky. But the opposition became a noisy mélange of competing factions. With World War I casualties well over a million by 1917, and inflation out of control, the inept Nicholas II lost control of the then-capital of Petrogradessentially dethroned.
Along with other exiles, Lenin tried to meld the opposition into a unified party. After a hot debate over Marxist teachings, the faction that Lenin headed became known as the Bolsheviks, or majority; the remainder were the Mensheviks. The schism would haunt the Communist Party for decades.
As war continued, Lenin saw an opportunity. At risk of being branded as a traitor, he obtained German support to return to Russia. (Considerable money apparently went to him as well, although the exact amount is unknown.) A sealed train carried him through Germany and Finland to Petrograd, where he plunged into the revolution with an oratorical fervor, leading what he termed Soviets.
He was not universally popular. Debate foes termed him dominating, abrasive, combative and often downright vicious. He disdained cooperation with Kerensky. All power must go to the Soviets, he declared. But, as Mr. Sebestyen writes, he had developed a voice that would revolutionize workers.
With Kerenskys mandate due to expire on Oct. 27, Lenin saw the chance to install his own government. By a vote of 10 to 2, the governing board of the Bolsheviks anointed him as leader, and he emerged as the dominant figure.
Generalities were his only promise. As he told future rival Leon Trotsky, First, we must seize power. Then we decide what to do with it.
Revolutionary betrayals began immediately. Despite his calls for freedom for all, he detested peasants as a class. Hence, vows of land reform, under which farmers would gain possession of their own land, became collective agriculture.
When farmers in the grain-rich Ukraine did not deliver the desired amounts of foodstuffs, Lenin ordered their farms seized. Thousands of families were displaced; many were killed. The resultant famine brought death to uncounted millions of persons.
Lenin detested the working class, deriding them for their trade union consciousness. What was needed, he declared, was a “tribune of the people.” So, a legislative assembly was convened. It lasted only a few hours until Lenin lost a key supporter and let it collapse.
Even more deadly, he pushed the theory that dissent was equivalent to treason. As Trotsky astutely observed, When Lenin talks about the ‘dictatorship of the proletariat he means the dictatorship over the proletariat.
A free press? Censorship was imposed the second day of Lenin’s rule to stop the torrent of filth and slander against the new order.
Such was arguably the most evil legacy of communisma rule that gave Lenin and subsequent dictators the authority to murder dissidents at will. As he put it, “How can you make a revolution without firing squads?”
Lenin did not anoint a successor, although his initial choice, later withdrawn, was Stalin. Nonetheless, as Victor Sebestyen writes, Lenin created the monster, and it was his greatest crime that he was now leaving Stalin with good prospects of becoming the Soviet dictator.
[1] Goulden, Joseph C. in The Intelligencer: Journal of U.S. Intelligence Studies (23, 2 Fall 2017, pp. ). Joseph C. Goulden is a long-time review of espionage and spy books for Intelligencer, for the Washington Times,for law journals and other publications. Some of these reviews appeared in prior editions of the Washington Times or the Washington Lawyer (DC Bar Association). Joe Gouldons most recent book is Goulden, Joseph C. (2012). The Dictionary of Espionage: Spyspeak into English. Mineola, NY: Dover Publications. His 1982 book, Korea: The Untold Story of the War, was published in a Chinese-language edition in 2014 by Beijing Xiron Books. He is author of 18 nonfiction books.

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