The Roles of Lenin and Stalin in the Russian Revolution.

masses whose historical role was to sweep aside their class oppressors. 1917 therefore, was a new dawn in human history. The workers of Russia had taken power for themselves. They had begun a revolution which would rapidly spread worldwide until it had destroyed capitalist governments everywhere and initiated the rule of the workers. We know, of course, it did not ... Makers of the Twentieth Century: Lenin We start this 16-part series with a study of Lenin by D.A. Longley which questions the usual criteria by which his influence and legacy are judged. As we enter the 1980s our century has already survived longer than the three score years and ten allotted to man. At times it has seemed that our survival has been fortunate, given that we now have the power to blow up our planet and all its history. It seems, too, that the energy crisis and the seemingly incurable inflation that accompanies and follows from it have marked the beginning of a new phase in our history. Keynes can no longer solve our economic problems. The diplomacy of Palmerston and John Foster Dulles no longer provides solutions to relations between strong and weak countries. It is clear that the Russian alternative does not work either: it too is afflicted by inflation and the energy crisis; it too is finding that might is not always right as far as smaller countries are concerned. This, then, seems an opportune moment to look at the makers of a century that is perhaps prematurely aged, and to examine their influence on the century as we know it. A later series will bedevoted to the scientific and technological innovations of this century. Vladimir Lenin (1870 - 1924)Vladimir Lenin, 1922 One of the leading political figures and revolutionary thinkers of the 20th century, Lenin masterminded the Bolshevik take-over of power in Russia in 1917 and was the architect and first head of the Soviet state. He posthumously gave name to the Marxist-Leninist ideology, but by the death of the communist system in 1991, his legacy was largely discredited. Vladimir Ilich Ulyanov grew up in a well educated family in provincial Russia. He excelled at school and went on to study law. At university, he was exposed to radical thinking, and his views were also influenced by the execution of his elder brother, a member of a revolutionary group.Expelled from university for his radical policies, Lenin managed to complete his law degree as an external student in 1891. He moved to St Petersburg and became a professional revolutionary. Like many of his contemporaries, Lenin was arrested and exiled to Siberia, where he married Nadezhda Krupskaya. The real love of his life, however, was Inessa Armand, whose death in 1920 left him distraught.After his Siberian exile, Lenin - the pseudonym he adopted in 1901 - spent most of the subsequent 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, but was effectively a coup d'etat.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 a chilling disregard 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 pragmatic. 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 from 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.On a personal level, Lenin was a modest man and disapproved of adulation. But after his death, he became the subject of a personality cult of grotesque proportions which lasted until the final years of the Soviet system. Lenin's embalmed corpse remains in a mausoleum on Moscow's Red Square. Once a place of communist worship, it has now become a symbol of a political ideology and system which ultimately failed miserably.