Monday, November 2, 2020

Book Review: V. I. Lenin by Margaret J. Goldstein

Vladimir Lenin was born on 10th of April 1870 in Simbirsk, Russia. His name at birth was Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov. The Ulyanov family had six children. Lenin’s father worked for the government. On 1st of March 1881 when Vladimir was ten years old, bombers set off two explosions near Czar Alexander’s carriage outside his palace in Saint Petersburg. The second explosion killed the Czar. People’s Will, the organization of the bombers believed that once the Czar was dead poor people would rise up in revolution and take control of Russia’s government.

Vladimir earned top marks in school. He excelled in Greek, Latin, German, algebra, and other classes. He was also doing great in his writing class. Moreover, his favorite classes were history and literature. Nikolay Gogol, Leo Tolstoy, and Ivan Turgenev were his favorite Russian novelists. Lenin was not even sixteen when his father passed away. Vladimir’s brother Alexander got inspired from the works of German thinkers Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. Alexander along with other like-minded fellows planned to murder the Czar. Alexander was to make the bomb. Before they could execute their plan, the police caught them. On 8th May 1887 Alexander was executed. He did not beg for mercy as some of his other fellows.

Vladimir was greatly shaken by the death of his brother. After graduating from Simbirsk Classical Gimnazia with a gold medal Lenin hoped to attend Saint Petersburg University, but his brother’s crime barred him from admission. Instead, he applied Imperial Kazan University for Law, but the university officials kept a close eye on him. He along with thirty-nine others were expelled from the school on joining a protest against some harsh university regulations. Not giving up his thoughts of becoming a lawyer, the self-taught young man stood first out of a class of 124 students. Lenin hated the Russian nobility and wanted a revolution to happen and in the summer of 1893, Vladimir moved to Saint Petersburg.

He was twenty-three when he arrived at Saint Petersburg.  His fellow revolutionaries used to call him Starik (old man) as he appeared to be fully politically mature. Lenin was a powerful speaker who had strong command over history, economics and political science. Lenin met Nadezhda Krupskaya at a Marxist discussion circle in February 1894. The two became close companions. Lenin saw liberals and reformers as members of the bourgeoisie and enemies of the proletariat.

In Dec 1895, Lenin and his colleagues were caught in the process of creating an illegal newspaper. As he was waiting for his sentence Lenin stayed in cell 193 and engaged himself with writing a book called The Development of Capitalism in Russia. After more than a year of waiting he was punished. He was to spend three years in exile in Siberia. There in Siberia he was was reading, writing and hunting. Lenin’s companion Nadya was sentenced to exile in Ufa. Claiming they were engaged they requested to be allowed to get married in Shushenskoye. In Jan 1900, Lenin’s exile ended, but his wife had one year left which she was to spend at Ufa.

After exile Lenin and his comrades decide to produce papers abroad which they were to smuggle into Russia. In 1902, Lenin met Trotsky and was impressed by the young man’s sharp mind, and commitment to revolutionary cause. Lenin’s group was known as Bolsheviks and Julius Marton’s group was known as Mehseviks. In the time period around 1905 peasants wanted changes to land laws.  Russia went to war with Japan, which further angered the Russians. Russians started to doubt Czar’s ability to rule them. On 9th of January 1905 Georgy Gapon, a Russian Orthodox priest with some 200, 000 people headed to the Czar’s winter palace with a petition signed by 135000 people. Before the demonstration reached the palace soldiers fired on them.

Uprisings continued throughout Russia. By October 1905, Czar Nicholas agreed to create a constitution. He gave people freedom of speech and freedom of the press. Politics were allowed to operate. A Duma (parliament) was allowed to operate, but he reserved the right to disband the Duma. According to the author the elections of April 1906 were won by the Constitutional democrats, nicknamed Cadets who were in favor of liberal reforms and a western European style of democracy. Lenin criticized the Cadets and also was against the Mensheviks

Nicholas disbanded the first Duma within three months and called for new elections. Revolutionaries were actively involved in activities against the Czar.  Lenin left Russian for Finland in 1907. The second Duma was also disbanded. In this socialist groups were quite successful. In the third Duma which met for the first time in November 1907 there were fewer Cadets, few socialists and more pro-Czarists.

In 1914 the great war had started. Russia was on the side of Allied Powers. The author says that the Russians were not well prepared for the war. Lenin and Krupskaya were in Galacia, which was part of Austro-Hungarian Empire. When the war started they left for Switzerland. Setting foot in Russia on 3rd of April 1917. In May 1917 Leon Trotsky joined who was earlier in the Menshevik camp joined the Bolshevik camp. The government troop caught Trotsky but Lenin managed to escape to Finland. From Finland, he continued to direct Bolshevik activities. Trotsky now released from prison, became the chairman of the Petrograd Soviet.

On 24 Oct 1917 Congress of Soviet opened. The wheels of revolution were already in motion. On the same day, late at night Bolshevik soldiers took over telephone exchanges, telegraph offices, banks, railroad stations, power stations and bridges. On Oct 26 the red guards entered the palace and arrested the palace. The Mensheviks and the Social Revolutionary delegates denounced the coup at the Congress of Soviets. Trotsky scolded them in return. On the evening of Oct 26, Lenin addressed the congress. He ordered the peasants to take over all private land in Russia.

Soon after coming to power Lenin established Cheka, the secret police force. Lenin struck down the law of inheritance, gave women equal rights with men, nationalized big businesses and tightened the control over smaller ones. In July 1918 the entire ruling family of Russia was murdered. On 30 August, 1930 Lenin was shot thrice by a woman named Fanya Kaplan. She did so because Lenin had disbanded the constituent assembly earlier. The author stresses that for propaganda poets, authors, artists, theatre and films were used. Even posters, slogans and musical works were to follow the party line. In 1920 the civil war in Russia had ended in favor of a red victory. It is estimated that millions perished during the conflict.

On January 21, 1924, Lenin fell into a coma. Later that evening, he died. He was fifty-three years old. Before that, he had a few strokes which had partially paralyzed his body. Lenin thought that Trotsky was the most capable person to succeed him, but Stalin found the testament which Lenin tried to keep secret. The document did not stand in the way of Stalin’s rise to power, as Stalin very much wanted. Lenin’s body was not buried. His body was preserved and put in a glass coffin. Petrograd, which was previously renamed from Saint Petersburg, was now renamed as Leningrad.

Lenin who rose to become one of the most powerful man in human history inspired millions throughout the world. This book presents a leader who transformed Russia- for good or for bad is another questions. A short read this book gives a short biographical account of Vladimir Ilyich Lenin.

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