”Probably his exemplary school record stood him in good stead”.
J. Laver – Lenin’s Russia (Coursework Booklet)
Though, later on at school he became more and more interested in the revolutionary ideas and he started to take part in demonstrations along with other students. His attitude towards his studies changed as became more involved with the radical political parties. The memory of his dead brother made him strive to be revolutionary and this led to his hatred towards the Tsarist establishment.
Stalin went to the Gori Church School in 1888 where he was a star pupil. He learned to speak Russian (a foreign language) and he excelled in his studies. He came out top of his class. This gained him a scholarship to train to be a priest in a Seminary in Tbilisi. Though, at this seminary he was exposed to radical ideas and became involved in the underground world of the revolutionaries. He started to attend revolutionary secret meetings and this made him more rebellious to school:
“At 9 pm a group of students gathered in the dining hall around Joseph Djugashvili, who read them books not sanctioned by the Seminary authorities, in view of which the students were searched”.
Entries in the Conduct Book of the Seminary (Coursework Booklet)
Stalin at school was not very disciplined and his attitude towards teachers and classmates was very disrespectful:
“Djugashvili is generally disrespectful and rude towards persons in authority”.
Entries in the Conduct Book of the Seminary (Coursework Booklet)
He was then expelled for missing one of his exams, but he wasn’t worried and continued his revolutionary movement against the Tsarist regime. It seemed that at the Seminary Stalin found Marxism rather than god. He greatly admired Lenin and his writing; he was one of his many true followers.
Both Lenin and Stalin had lost their fathers in their early childhood. They also both greatly hated the Tsarist regime and wanted to get rid of the Tsar. They both followed the theories of Karl Marx and felt that a revolution needed to take place in Russia. Both men also started their schooling with excellent grades and went to university. And similarly, both men lost sight of their education at university and got involved in revolutionary movements. At university, both men decided that their career would be to spread communism and to start a revolution. They both also got expelled because of their movement into the world of revolutionaries.
Lenin was a strict leader and was considered to be stringent and very short-tempered. Everything had to be done in his ways and if there was no room in his minds for people to make mistakes. He would use foul language and insult people who made mistakes as he was a perfectionist. Lenin was a man of ethics, which he always followed. He always had high expectations of himself and of his work towards Russia, which led to him being a perfectionist:
“Lenin’s attitude to subordinates who bungled things was in general Ill-tempered and unforgiving, while those who crossed or challenged him were abused and reviled. ‘Cretins’, ‘Bloodsuckers’ and ‘scum’ were among the more repeatable labels he applied to his political opponents”
Lenin’s Russia – Alan White (Coursework Booklet)
Lenin was a man who always followed a schedule. He always had a certain routine of doing things and was very punctual:
“Lenin’s day was regularly ordered. Work began at 11 am with a reading of papers and a series of meetings and conferences, each allotted a precise time. Dinner lasted from 5 pm to 7 pm, then Lenin was back at work. SOVNARKOM meetings might last until early hours of the morning. Even after these had finished, Lenin might work alone till dawn. It was a hard regime and not surprisingly Lenin expected others to adhere to a strict schedule”.
J. Laver – Lenin (Coursework Booklet)
Though, he was not always so strict, there was also a humorous and amusing side to Lenin. He could also have fun and enjoyed life:
“He enjoyed fun and when he laughed, his whole body shook, really bursting with laughter, sometimes until tears came into his eyes. There was an endless scale of shade and meaning in his inarticulate ‘Hm’ – ranging from bitter sarcasm to cautious doubt, and there was often in it the keen humor given only to one who sees far ahead and well the satanic absurdities of life”.
J. Laver (Coursework Booklet)
Lenin was a man so devoted to his work that he didn’t have time for personal relationships, family life or a social life. His life was his work, politics and nothing else:
“Lenin believed that revolutionaries had to be tough. This attitude left little room for sentiment. Lenin had colleagues and followers rather than friends. Even his marriage to Krupskaya was a political partnership more than anything else. There were no children…There was nothing much to Lenin: He gave himself entirely to politics”.
M. Whittock – Stalin’s Russia (Coursework Booklet)
A fellow revolutionary of Lenin’s, wrote this description ad appearance of Lenin during the 1920’s:
“Practically bald, his cranium high and bulging, his forehead strong, he had commonplace features: an amazingly fresh and pink face, a little reddish beard, slightly jutting cheek-bones, eyes horizontal but apparently slanted because of the laughter lines, a grey-green gaze at people, and a surpassing air of geniality and cheerful malice..”.
J. Laver (Coursework Booklet)
Stalin was a very unforgiving and untrusting man. He would trust nobody, not even his own family. He would hold grudges against people whose views opposed his own. As Stalin lived a very tough and unprivileged childhood, he lacked the qualities of humor and pleasantness and was always very serious and unfriendly. Stalin disliked everyone but the people that followed his commands. He did not have any self-control, which meant he had no control over his temper. He was intolerable to most people. He was unforgivable:
“The terrible thing about Stalin was that if you made a mistake with him, it was like mishandling a detonator – it was the last mistake of your life”
According to Alexander Solzhenitsyn (Coursework Booklet)
After the death of Stalin’s wife, Stalin became a very stonehearted man:
“This creature softened my heart of stone. She died and with her my last warm feelings for people”.
Robert C. Tucker – Stalin as Revolutionary (Coursework Booklet)
Both Lenin and Stalin were very unforgivable men. Though in extreme cases, Stalin would be much harsher on people than Lenin. Both Stalin and Lenin dedicated there lives to Marxism. In appearance terms, Lenin was considered better looking than Stalin. In public speaking it is obvious that Lenin is much better than Stalin. As Stalin’s speeches are dry and boring while Lenin’s are full of life, inspiring and his speeches made the crowd get up and listen. Stalin had a very stubborn characteristic about him, meaning once Stalin had made up his mind about something, it was impossible to change his mind:
“Once he made up his mind on a subject, nothing could shake him”
Memories of Simon Vereschak (Coursework Booklet)
This was unlike Lenin, who would listen to others opinions even if they opposed to the views of his own. Stalin like Lenin also made his work his life. You could not stop him from getting the job done. An example is the five year plans in which he was able to reach nearly impossible targets. Stalin never rethought his actions showing the self-confidence that he has.
Stalin made his party with people who only supported his views. Anyone who he mistrusted or became suspicious of would be either murdered or dismissed. Stalin established a party which would follow all of his commands; therefore he did not have to worry about his attitude towards his colleagues. He was always rude to them yet it didn’t matter. There was such fear in Stalin’s party that nobody dared to go against him.
Lenin and Stalin were different in many ways. Unlike Lenin, Stalin was never happy. Stalin executed or dismissed anyone who was suspicious and in the end anyone who seemed to have fun was got rid of. Stalin was very rude to everyone. Also, Stalin only placed members in the party, who were loyal to him. Though, Lenin was also rude to his colleagues that he found incompetent. Though Lenin was not worried about what his colleagues thought of him but more about the goal in hand. This was very different to Stalin. Stalin did not listen to anyone who opposed his views, while Lenin did.
Lenin felt that he was of the same class of the people of his country. He felt that he also suffered because of the tsar and so he did not like the idea of wearing uniforms or militaristic clothes as it would separate him form the people:
“Unlike Stalin, Hitler and Mussolini he remained a civilian, never becoming a uniform-wearing militarist”.
Alan White – Lenin’s Russia (Coursework Booklet)
Lenin did not want to feel supreme to the people as he felt he was one of them fighting for the same cause. When he went onto the streets he wanted to be seen as a friend or colleague but not as their leader. Lenin was quite accessible. Unlike Stalin who wanted to be seen as the almighty, he always wears clothes that represented him as high-class. He felt these clothes were appropriate, unlike Lenin.
Stalin was not very friendly and did not often meet with people. It was difficult to meet Stalin making him quite inaccessible. He was considered to be a slimy character that was very suspicious as he kept to himself:
“Stalin was a very distrustful man, sickly suspicious”.
Nikita Khrushchev (Coursework Booklet)
Both Lenin and Stalin’s clothes were much different. Lenin choosing to wear clothes similar to that of middle classed Russian, showing how he is not different from them. Stalin chose to wear higher-class clothes, to show his supremacy. Lenin was quite accessible compared to Stalin, as meeting was Stalin was considered to be unlikely as it was so rare.
Lenin followed the theories of the German philosopher Karl Marx. Lenin was greatly inspired by Marx and therefore Lenin was a Marxist. Lenin was devoted to communism and was so motivated to spread it through Russia. He greatly hated the Tsarist regime. He wanted to overthrow capitalism all over the world. Lenin started to follow Marxism during his time in University. At Kazan, Lenin met and joined with other revolutionaries, he started to attend their secret meetings and he took part in revolutionary demonstrations. Later in 1894, Lenin formed a Marxist group which was later exiled to Siberia after being arrested. It was here is Siberia where Lenin met his future wife Nadezha Krupskaya as she was one of the revolutionaries that was exiled and after their release from Exile, they got married.
Soon after their release from exile, they both went to London to join the newly developed Social Democratic Party. Here Lenin started to cultivate his own ideas about revolution and this caused for the party to split into two halves:
“To Marx’s ideas, Lenin added tow important points relevant to Russia. Firstly, the Russian peasants, unlike those of Western Europe, were a revolutionary force alongside the factory workers. Secondly, a successful revolution should be led by a small group of dedicated party workers”
J. RoBottom – Modern Russia (Coursework Booklet)
These two parties were the Bolsheviks, of which Lenin became the leader and the Mensheviks. The Bolsheviks consisted of party members who followed the ideas of Lenin, which was that they should be a small, covert and dedicated party which fought for the workers in Russia. The Bolsheviks felt that when the time came, they would start the revolution in order to take power and overthrow the Tsar.
Stalin became involved with the Revolutionaries at his seminary. It was here where Stalin started to attend secret underground meetings and this in time led to his expulsion. Stalin also believed in the ideas of Karl Marx and he joined the Bolsheviks in 1896. He started to take part in terrorist activities in Russia, such as robberies, in order to raise money for the Bolsheviks and for Lenin, who he admired. Stalin also despised the Tsarist government.
During Stalin’s life he was arrested many times and exiled to Siberia about seven times for his association with the Bolsheviks. Though, he escaped from Siberia each time. By 1912, Stalin had become one of the Bolsheviks top leaders. Once the 1917 revolution had begun, Stalin returned to Petrograd and became the editor of “Pravada’ (truth) for which the purpose was to try and spread Marxism as much as possible during this important time. Stalin greatly followed the ideas of Marx and knew a lot about them:
“(When you looked) at his primitive brow and small head, it seemed that, were you to break it open, it would spew forth the entire works of Marx, like an exploding gasometer. Marxism was his element, and in it he was invincible”.
Memories of Simon Vereschak (Coursework Booklet)
Both Lenin and Stalin were devoted to the ideas of Communism and Marxism. Though, Stalin was seen as more concerned about getting power and he was seen as being greedy for power, while Lenin was more concerned about spreading communism through Russia. Therefore Lenin was seen as more determined to see communism prevail.
The style of government that Lenin used was completely different to that of Stalin’s. While the provisional government was in control, in 1917, Lenin made a speech. This speech later became known as the April Theses. The speech basically said that there should be a second revolution in which the workers took power. This really became popular with the Russian people and the Bolsheviks were more recognised now. These are the main points of Lenin’ speech:
- There should be no co-operation with the Provisional government
- The war should be ended immediately
- The land should be given to the peasants
- The Soviets should take power
Russia and the USSR – Fiehn
Once Lenin had been made Leader he setup Sovnarkom which was a different government. Lenin was the chairman and he started to fulfill his promises made to the people in the April Theses. Lenin did not need to have power, all he wanted was enough power to make the changes that he wanted to in Russia, he did not even have an official position in the party:
“Lenin dominated the Communist Party by the force of his personality and ideas. He did not occupy an official position as leader”
M. Whittock – Stalin’s Russia
Stalin was different to Lenin in many ways. One difference was his style of government. Stalin made is position into a dictator, and controlled the USSR much differently. Stalin had control of everyone in Russia. Similar of what Hitler had done with Germany, when he developed Germany into a Totalitarian state. The following show that Stalin kept power by using terror and controlling the ideas of many:
- Authoritarian control through terror
- Secret police
- Labour camps
- Cult of leader
- Education controlled by the State
- Propaganda and censorship
- State control of arts and sciences
- Only one political party
Stalin maintained his position in the USSR by two main methods:
- Control by terror
- Control of ideas
Russia and the USSR – Fiehn
Both Stalin and Lenin used violence but Stalin used it much more often than Lenin who used it sparingly. Lenin had setup up the Cheka (secret police) to arrest and get rid of people who were potentially dangerous or of threat to Lenin. Stalin did something similar called the purges. If anyone was considered dangerous, opposed Stalin or of any threat to Stalin, than they would be purged. Then either executed, exiled to Siberia or jailed.
Both Lenin and Stalin were totally against democracy. Though Lenin felt that communism needed to spread throughout Russia and throughout the world. Though, Stalin believed in Socialism in One Country. Lenin was seen as more determined to spreading communism as Stalin was seen as a man looking for power. Lenin was more interested in his country, unlike Stalin who had a greed for power.
Both Lenin and Stalin did not allow religion to be taught in schools until a child was over the age of fifteen. Both leaders also disallowed Jews, Orthodox Christians and Muslims to live in Russia. While Lenin was in power he did not put any restrictions in Art and allowed freedom. Unlike Stalin who when in power-, prohibited anything that showed Stalin in a bad way. All pieces of art had to be passes by the state before it could be shown. You could say that both leaders encouraged the Cult of personality, but it is obvious that Stalin exaggerated it. Stalin had wanted to have cults in every place of Russia, by using propaganda. He wanted to portray himself as god and did this by using propaganda such as statues of him, paintings of him and parades celebrating him. While Lenin was much more modest:
“Lenin, personally a modest man, had always resisted adulation of his person. When he encountered the term Leninism he rejected it, since he held himself to be a Marxist”.
J. RoBottom – Modern Russia
Lenin, unlike Stalin, tried to improve the conditions for the peasants. Unlike Stalin, who did not consider what the effects would be on the peasants because of his actions. Lenin made the N.E.P. which allowed the peasants to make profits with their surplus crops. They were not able to do this before, this made the peasants happy. Though, Stalin made life for the peasants very hard by introducing the five year plans and collectivisation. The five year plans made the peasants work very hard and in the end they would not be rewarded for their work. Collectivisation made peasants very unhappy because they stopped making profits and only worked for the government.
In conclusion, both leaders had the same intention to make Russia more prosperous and transform it into a major world power. Both Lenin and Stalin were great leaders that had huge impacts on Russia. They both permanently changed the USSR. Both men were dedicated to their country and to communism. Stalin did not have the intellect of Lenin, but he had an iron determination which made him a great leader. Stalin was more violent than Lenin but this made Russia very strong. Stalin continued Lenin’s reign and combined his ideas with Lenin’s to make Russia into the strong country that it is today.
