The Russian Revolution II

Part II: The Rise of Lenin

Vladimir Lenin (born Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov) was raised in an upper-middle-class home in Simbirsk, Russia. After the Revolution took place, Lenin assumed sole power over the Russian government from 1917 to 1924. A true believer in Marxist ideology, Lenin ushered in a one-party socialist state in Russia that was to be governed by the Communist Party—this transition gave birth to the Soviet Union.

Since childhood, Lenin was a strong academic and eventually bloomed into a deeply intellectual young adult during his time at university. Although it was years before Lenin’s activism began, perhaps the execution of his older brother inspired him to leave his career as a lawyer to pursue the political path. After all, Russia had been under Romanov rule for over 300 years and the Russian people were beginning to grow restless as infrastructure and military turmoil was plaguing the country under Tsar Nicholas.

Many revolutions took place, but Lenin predicted that an overthrow was on the horizon. In fact, Lenin was so busy predicting the revolution that he nearly missed it—twice. Exiled to Siberia, and then bouncing around Munich, Switzerland, and London, Lenin continued to write for his Marxist newspaper (under another name) and smuggle them into Russia. It was in London that Lenin met Leon Trotsky: A Russian-Ukrainian Marxist who wrote for the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party (RSDLP) alongside Lenin. Trotsky joined Lenin and a man named Stalin back in Russia as part of the Bolshevik party. These three would play a major role in the October revolution that would secure the Communist Party’s control of the government after the overthrow of Alexander Kerensky and the Russian Provisional Government. The provisional government took over power when Tsar Nicholas II abdicated the throne and gave up the crown following “the first revolution.”

As stated earlier, Lenin was an idea man. He was constantly reading books on Marxist and socialist theory and writing newspaper articles in opposition to the autocratic tsarist regime that was the Romanov dynasty. He spent much of his time creating slogans and phrases that would resonate with his constituent base. Phrases like, “All Power to the Soviets” and, “Peace, Land, Bread.” He created his own formula for Marxism and Stalin labeled it Marxist-Leninism. The West refers to it as Communism. Marxist-Leninism strongly emphasized the final objective of Marxism; that each community owns its means of production and provides each participant according to their needs. It put forth a recognition of the class struggle that inevitably stood in the way of the successful restructuring of society. It, not only encouraged violent revolution—it demanded it.

Lenin believed that he could put Russia on the path to true Communism but would have to usher them through a state of Socialism first. He believed that he could produce abundance if the state owned every industry and viewed each citizen worker as an employee of the Russian government. The problem was—it didn’t work. Every industry struggled to adequately produce, particularly the farming industry. Millions died of starvation and millions more were in the process of going hungry. Workers on strike were murdered in the streets by the regime, food was scarce, and manufacturing and infrastructure came to a screeching halt. In fact, the only time Lenin had any type of economic success was when he reintroduced capitalism in 1921. The Party introduced the New Economic Policy which legalized profit-oriented production and allowed private ownership of consumer good production. Things instantly improved. Hunger declined and productivity increased.

In 1926, two years after the death of Lenin, Joseph Stalin said, “we introduced NEP, permitted private capital, and have to some extent retreated in order to regroup our forces and later on pass to the offensive.” The Soviet government was already planning to revert to a state-owned enterprise. They chose government-controlled famine over individual prosperity. Stalin had tasted power and couldn’t wait to feast once again.