Who was Lenin, leader of the Russian revolution: life in brief, political ideas and rise to power

Leninpseudonym of Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov what does it mean “Lena man” (a Siberian river), was a political leader and an ideologistPrime Minister of Russia and then of the USSR from 1917 to 1924. He was born in Simbirsk (now Ulyanovsk) in 1870 and died in Moscow in 1924. He joined as a young man to socialismbecoming one of the most prominent exponents of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party. He was one of the promoters of the separation of the Bolsheviks (majority) from the Mensheviks (minority) and, after a long exile in Western Europe, in 1917 he returned to Russia and led the October Revolutionwith which he took power. He established a socialist state in Russia, theUSSR (Union of Soviet Socialist Republics) which he led in a dictatorial manner until 1924, and developed a political doctrine which, associated with Marx’s thought, became known as Marxism-Leninism.

The Birth and Political Education of Lenin

Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov, known as Lenin, was born in 1870 to Simbirsk (since 1924 called Ulyanovsk in his honor) from a wealthy family. In Russia, power was concentrated in the hands of the sovereign, the tsar, against whom various revolutionary movements of populist ideology were active. The young Vladimir was interested in politics from an early age, following in the footsteps of brother Alexanderwho in 1887 was accused of planning an assassination attempt against the Tsar and hanged. Following this event, Vladimir began to think that populism and assassinations were not the right solution to overthrow Tsarism. He thus matured Marxist beliefs, believing that the working class should promote the revolution and establish a socialist economic system.

In the 1891 he graduated in jurisprudence and for a short time he practiced as a lawyer, but devoted his energies above all to politics. For this reason he was kept under strict control by the tsarist police and in 1895 he was sentenced to three years of deportation to Siberianear the Lena River.

The Years of Exile

During his imprisonment he married Nadezhda Krupskaiaa political comrade. In 1900after serving his sentence, he moved to theabroadliving between France, Germany and Switzerland until 1917. From 1901 he began to use the pseudonym of Lenin (meaning “man of the Lena”). He joined the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party (RSDLP), founded in 1898, and in 1902 he wrote one of his most famous works, the wise What to do? in which he put forward the idea that the party should include a small group of professional revolutionaries, without becoming a mass organization. In 1903 the party divided into two factions: that Menshevik (literally “minority”) and that Bolshevik (majority), which Lenin joined, who was its leader leader more prominent.

World War I and Lenin’s Return to Russia

At the outbreak of the First World War, Lenin and the Bolsheviks sided with the neutralityunlike the socialist parties of other countries. In 1917, after the February Revolution – a popular uprising that broke out in Petrograd in February – had overthrown tsarism, Lenin was able to return to his homeland. He traveled on a special train financed by Germany and on April 16 arrived in Petrograd, seeing Russia again after 17 years.

The October Revolution and the Rise to Power

The February Revolution had brought to power a provisional government, which included various liberal and socialist parties, but not the Bolsheviks. The government was to share power with the sovietworkers’ and peasants’ councils that were based in workplaces and urban centers, where the Bolsheviks were in the majority.

As soon as he arrived in Petrograd, Lenin published a document known as April Thesisin which he called for Russia came out of the warthat they were distributed lands to the farmersthat all power passed to the soviet.

To implement this program, the Bolsheviks staged a coup d’état: on October 25 (November 7 according to the Gregorian calendar) they occupied the Winter Palace in Petrograd, where the Provisional Government was based, and other strategic buildings. The ministers fled or were arrested and a Council of People’s Commissars, chaired by Lenin.

Lenin at the head of Russia

The Council had to face very difficult problems. First of all, it had to take Russia out of the world war and, to this end, in March 1918 it signed the peace agreement of Brest-Litovskwhich provided for the cession of vast territories to Germany. Furthermore, it had to deal with the civil warunleashed by the supporters of the Tsar with the support of the European powers, and theinvasion of Polish troopswho attacked Russia from the west. TheRed Armythe new army founded by one of Lenin’s collaborators, Lev Trotsky, managed to repel all the attacks, but the government established a dictatorial regimewho was responsible for unjustified arrests and executions.

In economics, Lenin was determined to establish a Socialist state, but the immediate collectivization of the means of production, established by the so-called war communismproved counterproductive. Lenin therefore launched the New economic policy (Nep) which provided for some openings to the market economy.

Lenin’s death and succession

In 1918 Lenin was seriously wounded in a attackfrom which he never fully recovered, and in 1922 he also suffered a stroke, which left him semi-paralyzed. The struggle for succession began in the Bolshevik Party, which pitted Trotsky to Joseph Stalin. In one of his last writings Lenin disavowed Stalin, but his will was not enough to stop his rise: within a few years Stalin took power and established a totalitarian regime.

Lenin died January 21, 1924. The centenary of his death has recently been celebrated. After his death, Lenin’s body was embalmed and displayed in a mausoleum on Red Square in Moscow, where it still lies today.

Political ideas: Leninism

Leninism is based on the Marx’s ideas on economicsbut he renews them with regard to political practice. Lenin believed that the revolution should not be made in the countries where capitalism was more advanced, as Marx wanted, but in the most backward ones, such as Russia. Furthermore, he thought that the revolution should be the work of the communist partyformed by a small nucleus of professional revolutionaries organised into cells.

Regarding the State, in the famous work State and revolution, Published in 1917, Lenin argued that it was destined to disappear, but was to be temporarily “used” by the Bolsheviks as a tool for making revolution.