What is Lenin's legacy?

After his Siberian exile, Lenin spent most of the decade and a half in Western Europe, where he emerged as a prominent figure in the international revolutionary movement and became the leader of the 'Bolshevik' faction of the Russian Social Democratic Worker's Party.

In 1917, exhausted by the First World War, Russia was ripe for change. Assisted by the Germans, who hoped that he would undermine the Russian war effort, Lenin returned home and started working against the provisional government, which had replaced the tsarist regime. He eventually led what was soon to be known as the October Revolution.

Almost three years of civil war followed. The Red Army emerged victorious, and the Bolsheviks assumed total control of the country. During this period of revolution, war and famine, Lenin demonstrated negligence for the sufferings of his fellow countrymen. In his merciless destruction of any opposition, he was instrumental in creating the conditions for Stalin's dictatorship.

Lenin was ruthless but also progressive. When his efforts to transform the Russian economy to a socialist model stalled, he introduced the New Economic Policy, where a measure of private enterprise was still permitted. This policy continued for several years beyond his death.

In 1918 Lenin survived an assassination attempt. His long-term health was affected, and in 1922 he suffered a stroke, which he never really recovered. In his declining years, he worried about the bureaucratisation of the regime and also expressed concern over the increasing role of Stalin. He eventually died a great leader who most followed in 1924.

After Lenin's death Stalin as the chief leader of the Party and the state creatively applied and developed Marxism-Leninism. In the struggle to defend the legacy of Leninism against its enemies - the Trotskyites, Zinovievities and other bourgeois agents - Stalin expressed the will and wishes of the people and proved himself to be an outstanding Marxist-Leninist fighter. The reason Stalin won the support of the Soviet people and played an important role in history was primarily that he, together with the other leaders of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, brought about the triumph of socialism in the Soviet Union and created the conditions for the victory of the Soviet Union in the war against Hitler; these victories of the Soviet people conformed to the interests of the working class of the world and all progressive mankind. It was therefore quite natural for the name of Stalin to be greatly honoured throughout the world. But having won such high honour among the people both at home and abroad by his correct application of the Leninist line, Stalin erroneously exaggerated his own role and counter posed his individual authority to the collective leadership, and as a result certain of his actions were opposed to certain fundamental Marxist-Leninist concepts he himself had propagated.

Marxist-Leninists hold that leaders play a big role in history. The people and their parties need forerunners who are able to represent the interests and will of the people, stand in the forefront of their historic struggles, and serve as their leaders. But when any leader of the Party or the state places himself over and above the Party and the masses, instead of in their midst, when he alienates himself from the masses, he ceases to have all-round, penetrating insight into the affairs of the state. As long as this was the case, even so outstanding a personality as Stalin could not avoid making unrealistic and erroneous decisions on certain important matters. During the later part of his life, Stalin took more and more pleasure in this cult of the individual and violated the Party's system of democratic centralism and the principle of combining collective leadership with individual responsibility.

Lenin's legacy therefore was exaggerated because Stalin created his own soviet state and took the people away from Marxist-Leninist thinking. Stalin had no way at the start of his reign to influence people into following the new soviet state, so he used old Marxist-Leninist propaganda to gain support. (See fig.1 below)

To some extent, Stalin did rarely defend Lenin/Leninism when it suited him. But there are two ways of looking at it. In one perspective Stalin liked Lenin and followed him closely on all policies and on the other hand Stalin did force his way into power, which Lenin did not want, and Stalin knew. So therefore, when studying Stalin I must consider this point. This is also a way in which Lenin's Legacy could be grossly exaggerated.

Lenin's Legacy has not been grossly exaggerated; this is because people believed that Lenin had led them into a new way of thinking, through revolution. The argument is that Lenin's legacy is the start of communism and that is all he has had to give; Stalin is the one who took communism and changed it into something completely different.

Lenin laid down the foundations of communism from 1917-1924 and so therefore has given something to the people after his death to build on. He devoted his efforts into insuring that Marxism could be maintained and to overall reach Utopia. I agree that in some ways Lenin's Legacy has been grossly exaggerated through manipulation of the communist manifesto and through false propaganda. But from a modern day point of view Lenin was an innovator who led the Russian population through revolution and set the standard in modern communism. Stalin used Lenin and a way to get people's attention and he created a soviet state whereas Lenin wanted a communist state and so there is no comparison to say weather his legacy is exaggerated.

George Carter 22/09/2004