Lenin

Vladimir Illich Ulyanov, better known as Lenin, was born April 22, 1870. He was well-educated and went to school to study law. At university he became involved in politics and was arrested after one of the protest demonstrations he attended. Lenin was expelled from Kazan University for his radical policies; Lenin completed his law degree as an external student in 1891. Many things contributed to Lenin’s radicalization including his brother’s death in 1887 when he was hanged for participating in an assassination attempt against the Tsar Nicholas III. His sister was arrested along with his eldest brother and was then banished to an Ulyanov estate.

Following the death of his brother, Lenin immersed himself in the radical writings of Karl Marx and continued with his education. Lenin returned to St. Petersburg in 1893 and continued in politics. In 1896 he was arrested again and was sentenced to three years internal exile in Siberia. After his Siberian exile, Lenin co-founded the newspaper Iskra (Spark), and published articles and books about revolutionary politics. He developed as a prominent figure in the international revolutionary movement and became the leader of the Bolsheviks.

In 1905 Lenin was smuggled back into Russia by the Germans. The Germans thought that Lenin would cause problems for the Russians, and they were right. He arrived back in Russia on April 16 and was not pleased with the complaisance of the revolutionaries who were not willing to push the revolution any farther. This prompted the April Thesis. Lenin’s April Thesis called for Soviet control of the state of Russia.

Between July 16-18, the Bolsheviks tried to seize power and overthrow the provisional government. When the Soviet failed to assist, they failed and Lenin had to flee to Finland and lead the Bolsheviks from there.

The Bolsheviks managed to gain a majority in the Petrograd and Moscow Soviets. The Bolsheviks now had the military on its side. Lenin slipped back into Russia and successfully brought the Bolsheviks to power through the Military Revolutionary Committees and at the end of October, the government of Alexander Kerensky was brought down in a military coup in 1917.

Lenin’s first two initiatives were: that the war should be ended immediately, and the peasants should seize the land. In order to bring the country out of war he negotiated a peace treaty with Germany at Brest-Litovsk in 1918. He was willing to give up land in order to get peace. The same year, civil war broke out and he was forced to put a Red Army into the field to do battle with the White Army. By that time the economy was in shambles and discontent among peasants was high. Lenin issued the New Economic Policy as a way of shoring up the sagging economy. The New Economic Policy allowed some private trade, peasants to sell surplus, and granted concessions to foreign capitalists in order to encourage trade.

Lenin remained a committed Bolshevik revolutionary. He helped establish the Communist International, (Comintern), in 1919. Lenin was shot in 1921 and never fully recovered. After a series of strokes, Lenin died in 1924, at the age of 53. After his death there was a power struggle between Leon Trotsky and Joseph Stalin.

-Jessica MacNeil