Lenin was also responsible for many of the bad things about the Communist rule. He introduced the idea of a secret police – he had his Cheka and Red Terror. Stalin only advanced what Lenin had done. Also in respect to the labour camps, it was Lenin who set these up, and Stalin who continued them. Stalin was only following the rule of Lenin, although he did take it further than I think Lenin would have done.
Lenin’s attitude to War Communism was very similar to Stalin’s towards Collectivisation. Neither would stop at anything to get their way. Had Lenin lived it is likely that he would have done something similar to Stalin, but he would probably not have been as paranoiac as Stalin. Maybe this would have resulted in Russia not winning the war, but I think Lenin would have been very prepared for an attack by the Fascist State. Stalin even encouraged the ‘cult of Lenin’ because Lenin was considered a God in Russian society.
It was ironic how the Communists condemned Christianity for saying ‘put up with your life now and you can go to heaven’ when the Communists, almost a secular religion, said ‘put up with a bad life now and after you die your children and grandchildren will reap the benefits.
As Lenin said about the NEP "We retreated on this one condition alone when we introduced our NEP so as to begin a more determined after the retreat," refers to introducing the NEP because of the horrendous outcome of War Communism. So, he would have changed things had he survived. The NEP was an economic plateau for Stalin so that he could introduce ‘State Socialism’ Stalin was in a far better position than Lenin to enforce Communism. Lenin had the famine and the Civil War, and the fact that he had to establish and win people over to Communism.
It cannot be said that Lenin dealt well with the Civil War and the famine, or that Stalin dealt badly with the war. But had the roles been reversed, Lenin was close to being as ruthless as Stalin and Stalin would probably have done even worse throughout the civil war. At the time there was not the total support from his Stalin could rely on when Germany and Russia were at war. In fact the only reason many fought for Russia and Stalin was because things would be even worse under Hitler. War Communism would have been even harsher, and the NEP may never have been introduced, a policy that, in effect, saved Communism. Had Lenin not been in charge first, the people would have felt differently and the reaction to Stalin would have been different, probably more like the reaction that would happen if a Stalin was to try and take control of the UK now. The people would have remembered times before the rule of terror and would have done something about it.
Stalin was not a great speaker or orator. It is unlikely he would have ever been able to win over public support had he not already had good public support. Lenin was a renowned speaker, and the Japanese Communist leader noticed that he seemed to hypnotize it. Lenin brought Marxism to Russia, and was willing to put all his life into promoting it. His brother’s death had caused him to become a revolutionary, and even if it sometimes seemed that things were not dissimilar to the Tsar’s reign, Russia was definitely experiencing a revolution.
Lenin was on his way to industrialization of Russia in his policy of Electrification and the original putting the factories under worker’s control. Stalin didn’t industrialize in this way, but Lenin’s way could have been as, if not more successful.
Lenin began the world’s first ever Communist state and will be remembered for this forever. Stalin has as much recognition as Lenin does, but he ruled for far longer and his accomplishments, while phenomenal, in a good and terrible way, were not as remarkable as Lenin’s.
As Trotsky fittingly said ‘granted the presence of Lenin the October Revolution would have been victorious anyway’ and, essentially, Stalin would never have been able to do what Lenin did by getting the Bolsheviks into power. As Helvetius said, which aptly describes Stalin, ‘every period has its great men, and if these are lacking, it invents them,’
