Lenin and his life

Authors Avatar

Lenin

It has been said, by Winston Churchill no less, that “The Russian people’s worst misfortune was his birth; their next was his death.”  There is much truth in this statement, because Churchill was able to see that as Lenin matured, so did his policies, and these lead to improving conditions for the Russian people.  As Lenin matured as a leader, so did his policies; as Lenin died his policies died with him.  When Lenin first found himself with power over the Soviets, he was in a Civil war, and from such a situation arose War Communism.  Over time however, Lenin was able to see the flaws of this policy and had the maturity to admit that he may have made a mistake.  From this the New Economic Policy was born, and conditions in Russia improved immensely.  However, Stalin did not have such a capacity to see error, and reverted to pure communism, undoing all of the good work that Lenin had finally managed to achieve.

Before Lenin can be seen as the leader of Russia under the Bolshevik party, we must see Lenin as an opportunist.  He was ruthless in all of his dealings, and capitalised on every opportunity that came knocking.  He used the conditions in Russia at the time, namely the fear and despair created by Germany in WWI.  Bolshevik slogans such as “Peace, Bread, Land” (Welles ,O. Ten days that shook the world [Video]) soon became popular, and before long, the Bolsheviks had gained widespread support within the cities.  Lenin was, however, foolish in his approach to the Revolution, in that he had not learnt that the peasants were the real force to reckon with, not the workers.  As far as Lenin could see, “today’s revolutions are started in the cities”(Cameron,J. Lenin [Video]).  This tunnel vision left Lenin at a loss for policies that suited the peasants, because he had little dealing with them and their needs in his struggle for power.  In this respect, Lenin was showing signs of immaturity and inexperience even before he had gained power, although he was still a very skilled revolutionary.

Despite this neglect of the peasant base, Lenin was able to take control of Russia relatively easily.  It was not long however, until divisions amongst the Russian people became apparently, and Russia slipped into civil war.  The civil war and the policies that were spawned to combat it had severe political, social and economic impacts on Russia.  The main overriding policy of War Communism led to a severe loss of political freedom.  Lenin introduced into the world the whole concept of a one party state(T.E.E. Revision Centre. The Russian Revolution), where there were no elections held for political parties, but for representatives within the party instead.  Protests and uprisings were also eliminated by War Communism.  Protestors could be shot on site and nothing was thought of it (Wikipedia - War Communism [www]).  Very soon, Russia became a dictatorship of a sort, where Lenin had ultimate power over the presiding political party, the Communist Party, and controlled all of the major activities of Russia.  This came as a severe blow to the people, as the promise of land made to them before also meant the promise of freedom, yet Lenin had not the skills or experience as of yet to deliver on his promise in an appropriate manner.  The thoughts that dominated his mind at the time were of “maintaining and strengthening the union of socialist republics”(Gasgen,S. The Question of Nationalities or “Autonomisation”), not of the people.

Join now!

War Communism also had severe implications for the social aspects of life in Russia.  Because of the policy of Prodrazvyorstka, peasants soon could see no incentive to plant large amounts of crops.  As it was, the Cheka led acquisition squads set the minimum level of grain needed by the peasants far too low, and so as they became more and more discontent, they planted less and less grain.  Before long, and coupled with bad winters, a food shortage developed in Russia that was only exacerbated by many peasant uprisings, such as the Tambov Rebellion of 1919-1921(Wikipedia - War ...

This is a preview of the whole essay