Vladimir Lenin

Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov (22 April 1870 – 21 January 1924), better known as Vladimir Lenin, was a Russian revolutionary, politician, and political theorist. He was the first leader of the Soviet Union, starting when the country was created in 1922. He was also the first premier of the Soviet Union until his death. Under Lenin's administration, Russia (and later the Soviet Union) became a one-party socialist state governed by the Communist Party. He was a Marxist, and his developments to Marxism are called Leninism. Early life Vladimir Ulyanov was born on 22 April 1870 in the town of Simbirsk, in the Russian Empire. His mother was a schoolteacher, and his father was an education official. Technically, his father's job made the family noblemen. Lenin began studying politics in gymnasium (an elite high school). In 1886, the year that Lenin was doing his final exams, his father died; his brother Alexander was hanged for his part in a bomb plot to kill Tsar Alexander III, and their sister Anna was sent to Tatarstan. That made Lenin furious, and he promised to get revenge for his brother's death. Still, he completed his exams and got the second-highest grade in his class. Lenin excelled in school and learned Latin and Greek. However, in 1887, he was thrown out of Kazan State University because he protested against the Tsar. Lenin continued to read books and study ideas by himself, and in 1891 he got a license to become a lawyer. Early revolutionary activities While he studied law in St. Petersburg, Lenin learned about the writings of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, who were philosophers from Germany. Prison Marx's thoughts were called Marxism. It was illegal in Russia to talk or write about Marxism positively. Lenin was arrested for doing so and was sent to prison in Siberia. That was a harsh punishment because Siberia is very cold and isolated and almost impossible to escape. In July 1898, while still in Siberia, Lenin married Nadezhda Krupskaya. In 1899, Lenin wrote a book, The Development of Capitalism in Russia. In 1900, Lenin was set free from prison and allowed to go back home. After prison After he was set free, Lenin traveled around Europe. He started a Marxist newspaper called Iskra (the Russian word for "spark" or "lightning"). He also became an important member of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party, or RSDLP. In 1901, he began calling himself "Lenin." In 1903, Lenin had a major argument with another leader of the party, Julius Martov, which divided the party into two. Lenin wanted to establish socialism right away, rather than establishing capitalism first and then changing to socialism. Martov disagreed and believed the Classical Marxist idea that capitalism must come before socialism. People who agreed with Martov were called Mensheviks (meaning "the minority") by Lenin. The people who agreed with Lenin were called Bolsheviks ("the majority") even though they were smaller in number. In 1907, Lenin traveled around Europe again and visited many socialist meetings and events. During World War I, he lived in big European cities like London, Paris, and Geneva. At the beginning of the war, a big left-wing meeting, called the Second International, included the Bolsheviks. The meeting shut down when many of its groups argued on whether or not to support the war. Lenin's Bolsheviks were one of only a few groups to be against the war because of their Marxist ideas. Russian Revolution After Tsar Nicholas II abdicated (gave up his throne) during the February Revolution, Lenin went back to Russia, where he was still a very important Bolshevik leader. He wrote that he wanted a revolution in which ordinary workers would overthrow the new republican government. In 1917, the Kadets (a moderate party) and parts of the Okhrana (the Russian secret police) started rumors that Lenin had gotten money from the Germans, who had sent him through Germany in a special train to reach Russia. That made him look bad because many Russians had died fighting Germany during the war. After the July Days, a popular uprising in Petrograd, the Russian capital, was crushed by the Russian Provisional Government. Lenin left Russia and went to Finland, where he could hide and carry on with his work on communism. In November 1917, Lenin and Leon Trotsky led the Bolsheviks, including soviets from all over Russia, in a revolution against the Russian government led by Alexander Kerensky. The Bolshevik October Revolution announced that Russia was a socialist country. In November, Lenin was chosen as its leader. In power Lenin wanted an end to the war Russia. In February 1918, he signed the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk with Germany, which ended the Germans' attack on Russia.but made Russia lose a large amount of land that it used for farming. The treaty also made Germany's other enemies angry. They attacked Russia, together with the Russians who supported Kerensky or the tsar. Lenin ruled that as much food as possible was to be given to Bolshevik soldiers in Russia's new Red Army. That helped the Bolsheviks win the war, but many ordinary people starved or died of disease. After the war, Lenin brought in the New Economic Policy (NEP) to try to make things better for the country and move from capitalism towards socialism. A small amount of private enterprise was still allowed. Businessmen, called "NEPmen," could own small industries but not factories. Large industry and factories became public property, to be owned by the workers. Later life A woman, Fanny Kaplan, shot Lenin while he was making an official visit. She missed his head, and the bullet lodged in his neck. Lenin feared that he would be killed by political enemies, and he refused to have the bullet removed until a guaranteed communist doctor could be found. As a result, the bullet was never removed. Lenin had strokes in May and December 1922, possibly because of the bullet in his neck. He recovered from both, but in March 1923, he had a third stroke, which paralyzed him and left him unable to speak. Lenin died on January 24, 1924, of another stroke. Just before he died, Lenin had wanted to get rid of Stalin, who Lenin thought he was dangerous to the country and the government. Lenin thought that Trotsky was the most capable of being the Soviets' new leader. Legacy The city of Saint Petersburg had been renamed Petrograd by the tsar in 1914. In 1921, it was renamed Leningrad in Lenin's memory. When the Soviet Union ended in 1991, Leningrad was again named Saint Petersburg. Lenin had said before his death that he wished to be buried beside his mother. However, when he died, Stalin let the people in Russia come look at his body, and people kept coming. The govermant decided not to bury him but preserved his body. A building called the Lenin Mausoleum was built in Moscow's Red Square over the body so that people could see it. Many Russian people and foreign tourists still go there to see his body. After Lenin died, Stalin used him to justify his own rule by making it look as if he had been Lenin's chosen successor, instead of Trotsky. Some historians argue that Lenin laid the groundwork for totalitarian regimes that developed later, like Nazi Germany under Adolf Hitler, Fascist Italy under Benito Mussolini, and North Korea under the Kim family. Lenin accomplished that by his consolidation of power, one-party rule, and suppression of those who disagreed with him. Notes References