Bibliography
Bio. N.p., n.d. Web. 17 Nov. 2014. <http://www.biography.com/people/vladimir-lenin-9379007>. He was born Vladimir Ilich Ulyanov on April 22, 1870, in Simbirsk, Russia, which was later renamed Ulyanovsk in his honor. In 1901, he adopted the last name Lenin while doing underground party work. His family was well-educated, and Lenin, the third of six children, was close to his parents and siblings.
Bio. A&E Television Networks, 2014. Web. 10 Nov. 2014. <http://www.biography.com/people/vladimir-lenin-9379007>. Determined to win at any cost, Lenin showed himself to be ruthless in his push to secure power. He launched what came to be known as the Red Terror, a vicious campaign Lenin used to eliminate the opposition within the civilian population.
In August 1918 Lenin narrowly escaped an assassination attempt, when he was severely wounded with a pair of bullets from a political opponent. His recovery only reinforced his larger-than-life presence among his countrymen, though his health was never truly the same.
Despite the breadth of the opposition, Lenin came out victorious. But the kind of country he hoped to lead never came to fruition. His defeat of an opposition that wished to keep Russia tethered to Europe’s capitalist system,\ ushered in an era of international retreat for the Lenin-led government. Russia, as he saw it, would be void of class conflict and the international wars it fostered.
But the Russia he presided over was reeling from the bloody civil war he’d helped instigate. Famine and poverty shaped much of society. In 1921, Lenin now faced the same kind of peasant uprising he’d ridden to power. Widespread strikes in cities and in rural sections of the country broke out, threatening the stability of Lenin’s government.
To ease the tension, Lenin introduced the New Economic Policy, which allowed workers to sell their grain on the open market.
On March 10, 1923, Lenin’s health was dealt another severe blow when he suffered an additional stroke, this one taking away his ability to speak and concluding his political work. Nearly 10 months later, on January 21, 1924 he passed away in the village now known as Gorki Leninskiye. In a testament to his standing in Russian society, his corpse was embalmed and placed in a mausoleum on Moscow’s Red Square.
Encyclopedia Britannica 14th Edition. N.p., n.d. Web. 1 Dec. 2014. <http://www.marxists.org/archive/trotsky/1939/xx/lenin02.html>. The revolution of Feb. 1917 found Lenin in Switzerland. His attempts to reach Russia met with the opposition of the British Government, and he decided to travel through Germany. The success of this plan gave occasion to Lenin’s enemies for a fierce campaign of slander, which, however, was powerless to prevent him from assuming the leadership of his party and shortly afterwards of the revolution.On the night of April 4, on leaving the train, Lenin made a speech in the Finlyandsky station in Petrograd. He repeated and developed the leading ideas it contained in the days which followed. The overthrow of Tsarism, he said, was only the first stage in the revolution. The bourgeois revolution could no longer satisfy the masses. The task of the proletariat was to arm, to strengthen the power of the Soviets, to rouse the country districts and to prepare for the conquest of supreme power in the name of the reconstruction of society on a Socialist basis.
This far-reaching programme was not only unwelcome to those engaged in propagating patriotic Socialism, but even roused opposition among the Bolsheviks themselves. Plekhanov called Lenin’s programme “crazy.” Lenin, however, foresaw that the distrust of the bourgeoisie and of the Provisional Government would grow stronger daily, that the Bolshevik party would obtain a majority in the Soviets and that the supreme power would pass into their hands. The small daily Pravda became at once in his hands a powerful instrument for the overthrow of bourgeois society.
The policy of coalition with the bourgeoisie pursued by the patriotic Socialists, and the hopeless attack which the Allies forced the Russian Army to assume at the front roused the masses and led to armed demonstrations in Petrograd in the first days of July. The struggle against Bolshevism became intense. On July 5th forged “documents” were published by the counter-revolutionary secret service, purporting to prove that Lenin was acting under the orders of the German general staff. In the evening “reliable” detachments summoned from the front by Kerensky and Cadet officers from the districts around Petrograd occupied the city. The popular movement was crushed. The hounding of Lenin reached its height. He now began to work “underground,” hiding first in Petrograd with a worker’s family and then in Finland.
The July days and the retributions which followed aroused a burst of energy in the masses. The Bolsheviks obtained a majority in the Soviets of Petrograd and Moscow. Lenin demanded decisive action to seize the supreme power. “Now or never!” he repeated in passionate articles, letters and interviews.
"Fleeing Revolution." Humanities: n. pag. Print. In the Russian Revolution of 1917 and its civil war, thousands fled, many making their way to China. There they found refuge for a while, only to be forced into a second mass exodus by the Chinese Communists. The stories they tell are documented in a collection of papers held by the Museum of Russian Culture of San Francisco. The papers are included in forty-thousand documents being microfilmed and put online with help from the Hoover Institution for War, Revolution and Peace and support from NEH [National Endowment for the Humanities]." (HUMANITIES) The importance of the preservation of the documents are examined.
History Channel. History Channel, n.d. Web. 10 Nov. 2014. <http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/lenin-returns-to-russia-from-exile>. From the Mensheviks’ point of view, however, Lenin’s ideas really paved the way for a one-man dictatorship over the people he claimed he wanted to empower. The two groups had sparred since party’s Second Congress, which had handed Lenin’s group, known as the Bolsheviks, a slim majority. The fighting would continue until a 1912 party conference in Prague, when Lenin formally split to create a new, separate entity.
During World War 1 Lenin went into exile again, this time taking up residence in Switzerland. As always, his mind stayed focus on revolutionary politics. During this period he wrote and published Imperialism, The Highest Stage of Capitalism (1916), a defining work for the future leader, in which he argued that war was the natural result of international capitalism. Russian Leader
In 1917, a tired, hungry and war-weary Russia deposed the tsars. Lenin quickly returned home and, perhaps sensing his own path to power, quickly denounced the country’s newly formed Provisional Government, which had been assembled by a group of leaders of the bourgeois liberal parties. Lenin instead called for a Soviet government, one that would be ruled directly by soldiers, peasants and workers.
Leader Values. Leader Values, n.d. Web. 10 Nov. 2014. <http://www.leader-values.com/leaders.php?lid=103>. Lenin, born Vladimir Ilich Ulyanov in 1870, is one of the best known political figures of the 20th century. He masterminded the Bolshevik takeover of power in Russia in 1917, known as the October Revolution.
His ability to lead was rooted in his strong political beliefs, developed at university and deepened by the execution of his brother, a member of the revolutionary group.
As a professional revolutionary, Lenin and others were exiled to Siberia but later, whilst living in Western Europe, his oratory skills and passion saw him rise to become leader of the Bolshevik revolutionary fraction. Driven by oppression and exploitation of the working classes he was totally dedicated to the cause, even ending friendships that obstructed the movement’s progress.
During the First World War Russia was suffering and in chaos and Lenin took his chance to overthrow the provisional government and founded the first Socialist state in the world. In power the Bolshevik Party became known as the Communist Party and the realities of governing such a huge and diverse country, brought to its knees by war, famine and disease, quickly displaced the aspirations and optimism of the people’s revolution. After miraculously surviving an assassination attempt, Lenin became increasingly ruthless, driven by paranoia fuelled by the threat of counter-revolutionaries and those loyal to the old Tsarist regime. Rather than the multi-party democracy advocated by Lenin and his party prior to the revolution, Russia drifted towards a one-party state.
Before his death in 1922, Lenin showed a more pragmatic leadership stylei and tried to correct some of the excesses of the regime, realising that co-existence with capitalist countries and reduced bureaucracy were necessary. His successor, Stalin, disagreed.
"Lenin." Lenin Statue. Lenin Statue, n.d. Web. 14 Nov. 2014. <http://online.culturegrams.com/gallery/index.php?id=59>. cleaning a statue
Lenin Library. N.p., n.d. Web. 1 Dec. 2014. <http://www.marx2mao.com/Lenin/Index.html>.
Nenarokov, A. P. Russian Studies in History, Winter2004, Vol. 43 Issue 3, p85. N.p.: n.p., n.d. Print. This contains a speech about teaching Russian History.
Nypost.com. Nypost, n.d. Web. 17 Nov. 2014. <http://nypost.com/2007/11/19/vladimir-lenin-the-father-of-communism/>. Ninety years ago, the Bolshevik Party overthrew the Russian monarchy.
Today’s page looks at its infamous leader.
VLADIMIR IIyich Lenin was born in Simbirsk, Russia, on April 10, 1870. He was a good student, and his intelligence made him a bit of an outcast at school. He especially enjoyed reading.
When Lenin was 16, his father died and the following year, his brother, Alexander, was executed by hanging for plotting to assassinate Czar Alexander III, head of Russia’s monarchy. Lenin found himself further ostracized because of his brother’s failed assassination plot.
Lenin studied law at Kazan University, but was expelled after just three months for attending a peaceful protest. Not to be deterred, he studied law at the University of St. Petersburg and passed the bar exam in 1891, coming in first in a class of 124.
Two years later, he began to practice law, and became involved with an underground ”Marxist” group. Named for its founder, Karl Marx, this movement promoted the self-emancipation of Russia’s working class. He met his future wife, Nadezhda Krupskaya, during this period.
Lenin met with other Social Democrats in Switzerland. He favored the rise of the proletariat – a class in society that lives entirely from the sale of its labor. This was the working class of the 19th century Russia. But members of the group could not agree on the best policies and divided into the Mensheviks, or minority, and
Lenin’s Bolsheviks, or majority.
Lenin returned to Russia and was arrested. He served 15 months in prison and was exiled to Siberia, where he married Krupskaya in 1898.
In 1905, unarmed demonstrators, en route to present a petition to Czar Nicholas II, were shot down by the Imperial Guard. The St. Petersburg Massacre put into motion events that would ultimately lead to the end of the monarchy.
The Bolshevik Revolution, led by Lenin, began on Oct. 25, 1917. Czar Nicholas, who led millions of Russian peasants into WorldWar I, was executed on July 17, 1918, along with his wife, Alexandra, and their five children. Alexander Kerensky took power, but Lenin made a deal with Germany to remove Russia fromWorldWar I in exchange for funding of the Bolshevik movement.
At age 47, Lenin became president of the Society of People’s Commissars (the Communist Party). The Soviet Union was formed. The party’s cry was “Bread, not war.” Lenin agreed to the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk, which ended Russia’s involvement in the war.
The state took over factories and banks. The Russian Orthodox Church was ”disestablished.” Civil war between the Mensheviks and the Bolsheviks broke out. Despite support from both the United States and Britain, the Mensheviks lost.
In 1918, Lenin was the target of a failed assassination attempt that left a bullet lodged in his neck. This would later be a contributing factor in a series of strokes that would ultimately kill him.
SparkNotes. N.p., 2014. Web. 10 Nov. 2014. <http://www.sparknotes.com/history/european/russianrev/section3.rhtml>. Lenin recognized that the current Russian leaders’ hesitation to pull the country out of World War I was a weakness that could be exploited. He knew that after four years of massive losses and humiliating defeats, the army was ready to come home and was on the verge of revolting. While other politicians bickered over negotiating smaller war reparations—and even over whether Russia might possibly maketerritorial gains by staying in the war longer—Lenin demanded that Russia exit the war immediately, even if it meant heavy reparations and a loss of territory. With this position, Lenin received growing support throughout the Russian armed forces, which would ultimately be key to his seizing power. Thus, he launched an aggressive propaganda campaign directed specifically at the Russian troops still serving on the front.
"Vladimir Lenin." Gale Power. N.p., n.d. Web. 14 Nov. 2014. <http://go.galegroup.com/ps/retrieve.do?sgHitCount&sort=RELEVANCE&doc&tabID=Images&prodId=GPS&searchId=R4&resultList&search&contentSegment=¤tPosition=1&inPS=true&userGroupName=owin94235&docId=GALE|PC1337788130&contentSet=GALE|PC1337788130&>. vladimir taking a selfie.
Wiki. N.p., n.d. Web. 17 Nov. 2014. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vladimir_Lenin>. Vladimir LeninRevolutionaryVladimir Ilyich Ulyanov, alias Lenin was a Russian communist revolutionary, politician and political theorist. WikipediaBorn: April 22, 1870, Ulyanovsk, RussiaDied: January 21, 1924, Gorki Leninskiye, RussiaFull name: Vladimir Ilyich UlyanovSpouse: Nadezhda Krupskaya (m. 1898–1924)Buried: Lenin's Mausoleum, Moscow, Russia