Later Lenin started a web of travelling both domestic and abroad. He made contact with different Social leaders such as Plekhanov, the leader of the Emancipation of labour groups in Switzerland, who ironically will oppose Lenin on his translating of Marxist thoughts later on. In 1895, Lenin travelled back to St Petersburg and there he started to preach his revolutionary doctrines. But he was soon found and he was regarded as a threat to the Tsar, consequently he was expelled to Siberia where he had time to write many books.
During his lifetime Lenin wrote many interesting books. One of them was What Is to Be Done: Burning Questions of Our Movements in 1902, and in which he shocked many of the socialist believers to explain that there have to be an elite group of intellectual to lead the masses (Peasants). Lenin was smart enough to believe that the idea of having a classless society was too idealistic to work. However his teachings brought also to the memory the reign of the Tsar whom he opposed rigidly.
In 1903 Lenin participated in the Social Party Congress, although he had little in common with the other socialist leaders: His belief of an elite class to lead the masses was strictly opposed by many leaders, another conflict that arouse between Lenin and other Socialist leaders was another interpretation of Marxist Doctrine: Lenin insisted that a capitalist system must end with blood and in a revolution while other socialist leader thought that Socialism will emerge from Capitalism in the end, but this was a long and unbloody process and it required patience, an element that Lenin appear to lack as he was a revolutionary who hated to wait for changes, but rather make the changes himself.
All this conflicts result in the division of the Social Party into two new parties. Although Lenin’s side had the minority of the members, his party was named the Bolshevik (majority) while the other leaders, such as Plekhanov, formed the Mensheviks (minority).
Throughout the next years the Bolsheviks eliminated all contacts with other socialist and Marxist parties, however he found interests in the Soviets (who were groups of city workers). He believed that the Soviet will be useful in the Bolshevik strive into power.
In 1917, the Menshevik and other Socialist parties managed to maintain power by the February revolution, by help of the masses who were tired of the former Tsarist regime and the Duma who didn’t serve the people. Many thought that this was the last revolution that would satisfy the Russian people. However Lenin didn’t give up the fight for power, soon he accused the government for not performing the reforms they had promised, Lenin preached the masses against the government calling it a military dictatorship that did not care about the peasants but rather the military victory, which ironically is the same thing Lenin does when he steps into power. Also the WWI was making people impatience about the situation and wanted peace. A peace that the Provisional Government, with Kerensky on top, could not generate due to the fact that Russia had numerous Alliances in Europe and thus was forced to help them in the time of war. Lenin saw this as an opportunity and formed his famous program of “Peace, Land, Bread”, a program that convinced many Soviet groups (and other groups in the society) to join the Bolshevik against the government. The Soviet served as soldiers when the Bolsheviks claimed that government should step down, the Provisional Government had little chance against the Soviets, especially because the Army was already in Europe fighting. The history books describe it as the Provisional government “melted away” and instead the Bolshevik took power and Lenin become officially the leader of Russia.
The years after the Bolshevik maintaining power followed a bloody civil war. The causes of the Civil War was mainly because of the Brest-Litovsk treaty in which Russia accepted to give away one third of its land space to Germany, a step that was described by the Mensheviks and other opposition groups as treason. Many historians argue that the Civil War was planned by Lenin in advance, he benefited from the war in order to make reform. The reforms were vital in order to the Bolshevik Party to seize complete power over Russia. The reforms contained a New Economic Plan (NEP) that allowed privatisation temporarily as Lenin saw this as “The only way to establish the Russian economy after 7 years of revolution and Civil Wars.” He also established a one party rule by banning all the other parties except the Bolsheviks. Also in time of Civil War he allowed the so called War Communism, namely that the army was allowed to force the peasants to give away food in order to feed the army in time of war. But the most important reform of all was the establishing of the secret police which allowed Lenin and the Bolshevik party to seize complete power over Russia.
In the end, Lenin established a dictatorship over Russia; he was a man that created several debates between his followers and his opposers. However as historian and economist J. Laski wrote in 1936 “It may have been easy to hate Lenin when one was fighting him; it must have been impossible not to respect him.”
