Biography of Lenin

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Biography of Lenin

Born April 22, 1870
Simbirsk, Imperial Russia, Now the Independant Republic of the Russian Federation
Died January 21, 1924 Moscow, USSR
Nationality Russian
Political party Bolshevik Party Profession Politician, revolutionary

Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov better known by the alias Lenin (April 22, 1870 – January 21, 1924), was a Russian revolutionary, a communist politician, the main leader of the October Revolution, the first head of the Russian Soviet Socialist Republic, until 1922 (or Bolshevist Russia), & the primary theorist of Leninism, an extension of Marxist theory.

Early life
Born in Simbirsk, Russian Empire (now Ulyanovsk), Lenin was the son of Ilya Nikolaevich Ulyanov & Maria Alexandrovna Ulyanova. His father was a successful Russian official in public education who worked for progressive democracy & free universal education in Russia. The family was of mixed ethnicity, his ancestry being "Russian, Kalmyk, Jewish, German & Swedish, & possibly others" according to biographer Dmitri Volkogonov. Lenin was baptized into the Russian Orthodox Church.

In 1886, Lenin's father died of a cerebral hemorrhage, & , in May 1887, his eldest brother, Alexander Ulyanov, was arrested & hanged for participating in a terrorist bomb plot threatening the life of Tsar Alexander III. His sister Anna, who was with Alexander at the time of his arrest, was banished to his family estate in the village of Kokushkino, about 40 km (25 mi) from Kazan. This event radicalized Lenin, to a extraordinary degree, and may account for cetain ruthless aspects of his rule. His official Soviet biographies describe it as central to the revolutionary track of his life. It is also significant, perhaps, that this emotional upheaval transpired in the same year as that which saw him enroll at the Kazan State University. A famous painting by Belousov, "We Will Follow a Different Path", reprinted in millions of Soviet textbooks, depicted young Lenin & his mother grieving the loss of his elder brother. The phrase "We will follow a different path" refers to Lenin choosing a Marxist approach to popular revolution, instead of anarchist or individualist methods. As Lenin became interested in Marxism, he was involved in student protests & was subsequently arrested. He was then expelled from Kazan University for his political ideas. He continued to study independently, however, & it was during this period of exile that he first familiarised himself with Karl Marx's Das Kapital. Lenin was later permitted to continue his studies, this time at the University of Saint Petersburg, & , by 1891, had been admitted to the Bar. He also distinguished himself in Latin & Greek, & learned German, French & English.

Revolutionary activity, travel & exile

Lenin's mug shot, December 1895.Lenin practiced as a lawyer for some years in the poor town of Samara before moving to St Petersburg in 1893. Rather than pursuing a legal career, he became increasingly involved in revolutionary propaganda efforts, joining the local Marxist group. On December 7, 1895, Lenin was arrested, held by authorities for fourteen months & then released & exiled to the village of Shushenskoye in Siberia, where he mingled with such notable Marxists as Georgy Plekhanov.

In July 1898, Lenin married socialist activist Nadezhda Krupskaya & he published the book The Development of Capitalism in Russia in April of 1899.[4] In 1900, his exile came to an end, & he began his travels throughout Russia & the rest of Europe. Lenin lived in Zurich, Geneva (where he lectured & studied at Geneva State University), Munich, Prague, Vienna, Manchester & London, & , during this time, he co-founded the newspaper Iskra ("The Spark") with Julius Martov, who later became a leading opponent. He also wrote several articles & books related to the revolutionary movement, striving to recruit future Social Democrats. He began using various aliases, finally settling upon "Lenin" — "N. Lenin" in full.

Lenin was active in the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party (RSDLP; ????? in Russian) & , in 1903, led the Bolshevik faction (which was in the majority) after a split with the party minorities, the Mensheviks. This division was inspired partly by his pamphlet What is to be Done?, which focused on his revolutionary strategy. It is said to have been one of the most influential pamphlets in pre-revolutionary Russia, with Lenin himself claiming that three out of five workers had either read it or had had it read to them. In 1906, Lenin was elected to the Presidium of the RSDLP — but, almost from then right up until the revolutions of 1917, he spent the majority of his time exiled in Europe, where, despite a hard & bitter existence, he managed to continue his political writings.

This self-imposed exile began in 1907, when he moved to Finland for security reasons. In response to philosophical debates on the proper course of a socialist revolution, Lenin completed Materialism & Empirio-criticism in 1909 — a work which became fundamental in the Marxist-Leninist philosophy. Lenin continued to travel in Europe & participated in many socialist meetings & activities, including the Prague Party Conference of 1912. When Inessa Armand left Russia & settled in Paris, she met Lenin & other Bolsheviks living in exile, & it is believed that she was Lenin's lover during this time. As writer Neil Harding, points out however, although much has been made of this relationship, despite the "slender stock of evidence ... we still have no evidence that they were sexually intimate".

When the First World War began in 1914, & the large Social Democratic parties of Europe (at that time self-described as Marxist, & including luminaries such as Karl Kautsky) supported their various countries' war efforts, Lenin was absolutely stunned, refusing to believe at first that the German Social Democrats had voted for war credits. This led him to a final split with the Second International, which was composed of these parties. Lenin (against the war in his belief that the peasants were fighting the battle of the bourgeoisie for them) adopted the stance that what he described as an "imperialist war" ought to be turned into a civil war between the classes. As war broke out, Lenin was briefly detained by the Austrian authorities in the town of Poronin, where he was residing at the time. On 5 September 1914 Lenin moved to neutral Switzerland, residing first at Berne & then Zurich. In 1915 he attended the anti-war Zimmerwald Conference, convened in the Swiss town of that name. Lenin was the main leader of the Zimmerwald Left.

In 1916 Lenin wrote the important theoretical work Imperialism, the Highest Stage of Capitalism. In this work Lenin argues that the merging of banks & industrial cartels give rise to finance capital. According to Lenin, in the last stage of capitalism, in pursuit of greater profits than the home market can offer, capital is exported. This leads to the division of the world between international monopolist firms & to European states colonizing large parts of the world in support of their businesses. Imperialism is thus an advanced stage of capitalism, one relying on the rise of monopolies & on the export of capital (rather than goods), & of which colonialism is one feature.

Return to Russia

Locomotive of Lenin's train, on which he arrived at Finland Station, Petrograd in April, 1917.The 1917 February Revolution in Russia & the overthrow of Czar Nicholas II caught Lenin by surprise. He realized that he must return to Russia as soon as possible, but this was problematic, as he was isolated in neutral Switzerland as the First World War raged throughout neighboring states. The Swiss communist Fritz Platten nonetheless managed to negotiate with the German government for Lenin & his company to travel through Germany by rail, on the so-called "sealed train". The German government clearly hoped Lenin's return would create political unrest back in Russia, which would help to end the war on the Eastern front, allowing Germany to concentrate on defeating the Western allies. Once through Germany, Lenin continued by ferry to Sweden; the remainder of the journey through Scandinavia was subsequently arranged by Swedish communists Otto Grimlund & Ture Nerman.

On April 16, 1917 Lenin arrived by train to a tumultuous reception at Finland Station, in Petrograd. He immediately took a leading role within the Bolshevik movement, publishing the April Theses, which called for an uncompromising opposition to the provisional government. Initially, Lenin isolated his party through this lurch to the left. However, this uncompromising stand meant that the Bolsheviks were to become the obvious home for all those who became disillusioned with the provisional government, & with the "luxury of opposition" the Bolsheviks did not have to assume responsibility for any policies implemented by the government.

Lenin disguised as "Vilén", wearing a wig & with his beard shaved off. Finland, August 11, 1917.Meanwhile, Aleksandr Kerensky, Grigory Aleksinsky & other opponents of the Bolsheviks accused them & Lenin in particular of being paid German agents. In response Leon Trotsky, formerly a Menshevik, but now moving closer to the Bolshevik position, made a defensive speech on July 17, saying:

“ An intolerable atmosphere has been created, in which you as well as we are choking. They are throwing dirty accusations at Lenin & Zinoviev. Lenin has fought thirty years for the revolution. I have fought twenty years against the oppression of the people. & we cannot but cherish a hatred for German militarism. ... I have been sentenced by a German court to eight months’ imprisonment for my struggle against German militarism. This everybody knows. Let nobody in this hall say that we are hirelings of Germany.”

After a failed Bolshevik rising in July, Lenin fled to Finland for safety. Here he wrote "State & Revolution," which called for a new form of government based on workers' councils, or soviets elected & revocable at all moments by the workers. He returned to Petrograd in October, inspiring the October Revolution with the slogan "All Power to the Soviets!" Lenin directed the overthrow of the Provisional Government from the Smolny Institute from the 6th to the 8th of November 1917. The storming & capitulation of the Winter Palace on the night of the 7th to 8th of November marked the beginning of Soviet rule.

Head of the Soviet state
On November 8, 1917, Lenin was elected as the Chairman of the Council of People's Commissars by the Russian Congress of Soviets.

"Communism is Soviet power plus the electrification of the entire country," Lenin said, emphasizing the importance of bringing electricity to all corners of Russia & modernizing industry & agriculture:

“ We must show the peasants that the organization of industry on the basis of modern, advanced technology, on electrification which will provide a link between town & country, will put an end to the division between town & country, will make it possible to raise the level of culture in the countryside & to overcome, even in the most remote corners of land, backwardness, ignorance, poverty, disease, & barbarism.”

He initiated & supervised devising & realization of the GOELRO plan, the first-ever Soviet project for national economic recovery & development. He was very concerned about creating a free universal health care system for all, the rights of women, & teaching the illiterate Russian people to read & write. But first & foremost, the new Bolshevik government needed to take Russia out of the World War.

Faced with the threat of a continuing German advance eastwards, Lenin argued that Russia should immediately sign a peace treaty. Other Bolshevik leaders, such as Bukharin, advocated continuing the war as a means of fomenting revolution in Germany. Trotsky, who led the negotiations, advocated an intermediate position, of "No War, No Peace", calling for a peace treaty only on the conditions that no territorial gains on either side be consolidated. After the negotiations collapsed, the Germans renewed their advance, resulting in the loss of much of Russia's western territory. As a result of this turn of events, Lenin's position consequently gained the support of the majority in the Bolshevik leadership. On March 3, 1918, Lenin removed Russia from World War I by agreeing to the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk, under which Russia lost significant territories in Europe. Some say well come on look at this, this ended the War on the eatern front, a war that was caused by the vanities of the Austrian, Russian and German kings, and then the next thing which ended the war on the western front was a socialist inspired revolt in Berlin in 1918 which made the Kaiser flee, so in a sense the socialist revolutionaries ended a world war that was spreading a massive epidemic of flu that with that epidemic had killed over 50 million people. So if they had not ended it the war might have gone on and one and one like the 30 years war killing even more.

After the Bolsheviks lost the elections for the Russian Constituent Assembly, they used the Red Guards to shut down the first session of the Assembly on January 19 & relied on support from the soviets. This marked the beginning of the steady elimination from political life all factions & parties whose views did not correspond to the position taken by Lenin & the Bolsheviks, especially as further exhibited by the Civil War pattern of repeatedly dissolving not-so-favourable soviets & congresses of soviets.

The Bolsheviks formed a coalition government with the left wing of the Socialist Revolutionaries. However, their coalition collapsed after the Social Revolutionaries opposed the Brest-Litovsk treaty, & joined other parties in seeking to overthrow the Bolshevik government. Lenin responded to these efforts by a policy of wholesale persecution, which included jailing some of the members of the opposing parties.

From early 1918, Lenin campaigned for a single individual (accountable to the state to which the workers could ask for measures) to be put in charge of each enterprise (workers having to obey him until it was changed by the state), contrary to most conceptions of workers' self-management, but absolutely essential for efficiency & expertise according to Lenin (it was argued by most proponents of self-management that the intention behind this move was to strengthen state control over labour & that the failures of self-management were mostly because of lack of resources —a problem the government itself could not solve as his licensing for a month of all workers of most factories proved). As S.A. Smith wrote: "By the end of the civil war, not much was left of the democratic forms of industrial administration promoted by the factory committees in 1917, but the government argued that this did not matter since industry had passed into the ownership of a workers' state."

Lenin had a certain admiration for the Irish socialist revolutionary James Connolly, & the Soviet Union was the first country to recognize the Irish Republic which fought a war of independence against Britain. He would often meet with the famous revolutionary's son, Roddy Connolly & developed a close friendship with him.

Creation of the secret police
To protect the newly-established Bolshevik government from counterrevolutionaries & other political opponents, the Bolsheviks created a secret police, the Cheka. The Bolsheviks had planned to hold a trial for the former Tsar, but in July 1918, when the White Army was advancing on Yekaterinburg where the former royal family was being held, Sverdlov acceded to the request of the local Soviet to execute the Tsar right away, rather than having him freed by the Whites. The Tsar & the rest of his immediate family were executed, though whether this was a decision of the central government or the local Soviet remains the subject of historical dispute. Lenin was informed about the execution only after it had taken place, but did not criticise it. Censorship was quickly imposed, & it was up to the Cheka to confiscate the literature of dissident workers: "[O]n 17 November the Central Executive Committee passed a decree giving the bolsheviks control over all newsprint & wide powers of closing down newspapers critical of the regime..." (Leonard Shapiro, The Communist Party of the Soviet Union). Workers were re-forming independent soviets; the Cheka broke them up. Independent newspapers criticized Lenin's government; the Cheka closed them down, until the Bolshevik-controlled Pravda & Izvestia had a monopoly on the supply of news. Shapiro asserts that "The refusal to come to terms with the socialists & the dispersal of the Constituent Assembly led to the logical result that revolutionary terror would now be directed not only against traditional enemies, such as the bourgeoisie or right-wing opponents, but against anyone, be he socialist, worker or peasant, who opposed Bolshevik rule."

Assassination attempts
On January 14, 1918, an assassination attempt was made against Lenin’s car in Petrograd by unknown gunmen. Lenin & Fritz Platten were in the back of the car together, after having given a public speech. When the shooting started, "Platten grabbed Lenin by the head & pushed him down. ... Platten’s hand was covered in blood, having been grazed by a bullet as he was shielding Lenin."

On August 30, 1918, Fanya Kaplan, a member of the Socialist Revolutionary Party, approached Lenin after he had spoken at a meeting & was on the way to his car. He had his foot on the running board. She called out to Lenin, who turned to answer. She immediately fired three shots hitting Lenin twice: one bullet, relatively harmless, lodged in the arm; the second round, more seriously entering at the juncture of the Lenin's jaw & neck, the third shot striking a woman who was talking with Lenin when the shooting began. Lenin fell to the ground, unconscious. Lenin was taken to his apartment in the Kremlin, refusing to venture to a hospital since he believed that other assassins would be waiting there. Doctors were summoned but decided that it was too dangerous to remove the bullets. While Lenin began his slow recovery Pravda ridiculed Kaplan as a latter-day Charlotte Corday; assuring its readers that immediately after the shooting: "Lenin, shot through twice, with pierced lungs, spilling blood, refuses help & goes on his own. The next morning, still threatened with death, he reads papers, listens, learns, observes to see that the engine of the locomotive that carries us towards global revolution has not stopped working..." Although Lenin had no "pierced lungs", the potentially fatal neck-jaw wound had allowed blood to enter one of his lungs, which is still a very serious condition.

Other than similar exhortation by the press, little was revealed to the Russian public — either about the attempted assassination, the suspect, or Lenin's condition. Historian Richard Pipes wrote, "The impression one gains ... is that the Bolsheviks deliberately underplayed the event to convince the public that whatever happened to Lenin, they were firmly in control."

Areas led by Communists in the World at some time, Mousemat

Popular reaction to the assassination attempt on Lenin was described at the time by Leonid Krasin, who wrote to his wife on 7 Sept 1918:

"As it happens, the attempt to kill Lenin has made him much more popular than he was. One hears a great many people who are far from having any sympathy with the Bolsheviks, saying that it would be an absolute disaster if Lenin had succumbed to his wounds, as it was first thought he would. & they are quite right, for in the midst of all this chaos & confusion he is the backbone of the new body politic, the main support on which everything rests"
A personal cult of Lenin, which he himself tried to discourage, began with this incident. Lenin's health declined from this point. It is believed by some that the incident contributed to his later strokes.

Lenin & the Red Terror
Following the assassination attempt on Lenin, & the successful assassination of Petrograd chief of secret police Moisei Uritsky, Stalin, in a telegram to Lenin, argued that a policy of "open & systematic mass terror" be instigated against "those responsible". Lenin & the other Bolsheviks agreed, & instructed Felix Dzerzhinsky, whom Lenin had appointed to head the Cheka in 1917, to commence a "Red Terror", which was officially announced to the public on September 1, 1918, by the Bolshevik newspaper, Krasnaya Gazeta. Scholars estimate that between 1918–1921 up to 200,000 were executed. This was during the Civil War when excesses were carried out by both Reds & Whites, & Lenin's regime was in deadly peril from the latter.

According to the controversial Black Book of Communism, in May 1919 there were 16,000 people in labor camps based on the old Tsarist katorga labor camps, & in September 1921 there were more than 70,000. Lenin's Hanging Order documents that Lenin himself ordered terror: The text is as follows:

11 VIII 1918 Send to Penza To Comrades Kuraev, Bosh, Minkin & other Penza communists Comrades! The revolt by the five kulak volosts must be suppressed without mercy. The interest of the entire revolution demands this, because we have now before us our final decisive battle "with the kulaks." We need to set an example. 1) You need to hang (hang without fail, so that the public sees) at least 100 notorious kulaks, the rich, & the bloodsuckers. 2) Publish their names. 3) Take away all of their grain. 4) Select hostages — in accordance with yesterday's telegram. This needs to be accomplished in such a way, that people for hundreds of miles around will see, tremble, know & scream out: let's choke & strangle those blood-sucking kulaks. Telegraph us acknowledging receipt & execution of this. Yours, Lenin P.S. Use your toughest people for this.

According to Orlando Figes, Lenin had always been an advocate of "mass terror against enemies of the revolution" & was open about his view that the proletarian state was a system of organized violence against the capitalist establishment. Figes also claims that the terror, while encouraged by the Bolsheviks, had its roots in a popular anger against the privileged. When Kamenev & Bukharin tried to curb the "excesses" of the Cheka in late 1918, it was Lenin who defended it. Lenin remained an advocate of mass terror. In a letter of March 19, 1922, to Molotov & the members of the Politburo, following an uprising by the clergy in the town of Shuia, Lenin outlined a brutal plan of action against the clergy & their followers, who were defying the government decree to remove church valuables: "We must (...) put down all resistance with such brutality that they will not forget it for several decades. (...) The greater the number of representatives of the reactionary clergy & reactionary bourgeoise we succeed in executing (...) the better."

In March 1919, Lenin & other Bolshevik leaders met with revolutionary socialists from around the world & formed the Communist International. Members of the Communist International, including Lenin & the Bolsheviks themselves, broke off from the broader socialist movement. From that point onwards, they would become known as communists. In Russia, the Bolshevik Party was renamed the "Russian Communist Party (Bolsheviks)," which eventually became the CPSU.

Meanwhile, the civil war raged across Russia. A wide variety of political movements & their supporters took up arms to support or overthrow the Soviet government. Although many different factions were involved in the civil war, the two main forces were the Red Army (communists) & the White Army (traditionalists). Foreign powers such as France, Britain, the United States & Japan also intervened in this war (on behalf of the White Army), though their impact was peripheral at best. Eventually, the more organizationally proficient Red Army, led by Leon Trotsky, won the civil war, defeating the White Russian forces & their allies in 1920. Smaller battles continued for several more years, however.

The civil war has been described as one "unprecedented for its savagery," with mass executions & other atrocities committed by both sides. Between battles, executions, famine & epidemics, many millions would perish.

In late 1919, successes against the White Russian forces convinced Lenin that it was time to spread the revolution to the West, by force if necessary. When the newly independent Second Polish Republic began securing its eastern territories annexed by Russia in the partitions of Poland in the late 18th century, it clashed with Bolshevik forces for dominance in these areas, which led to the outbreak of the Polish-Soviet War in 1919. With the revolution in Germany & the Spartacist League on the rise, Lenin viewed this as the perfect time & place to "probe Europe with the bayonets of the Red Army." Lenin saw Poland as the bridge that the Red Army would have to cross in order to link up the Russian Revolution with the communist supporters in the German Revolution, & to assist other communist movements in Western Europe. However the defeat of Soviet Russia in the Polish-Soviet War invalidated these plans.

Lenin addressing a crowd.Lenin was a harsh critic of imperialism. In 1917 he declared the unconditional right of self-determination & separation for national minorities & oppressed nations. However, when the Russian Civil War was won he used military force to assimilate the newly independent states of Armenia, Georgia, & Azerbaijan. He argued that the inclusion of those countries into the newly emerging Soviet government would shelter them from capitalist imperial ambitions.

During the civil war, as an attempt to maintain food supply to the cities & the army in the conditions of economic collapse, the Bolsheviks adopted the policy of war communism. That involved "requisitioning" supplies from the peasantry for little or nothing in exchange. This led the peasants to drastically reduce their crop production. Additionally, according to the official Bolshevik view which is still shared by some Marxists, rich peasants (kulaks) withheld grain in order to increase their profits — statistics indicate that most of the grain & the other food supplies passed through the black market. Then, the Bolshevik requisitions came to affect the food that peasants had grown for their own subsistence & their seed grain. The resulting conflicts began with the Cheka & the army shooting hostages, & , according to The Black Book of Communism, ended with a second full-scale civil war against the peasantry, including the use of poison gas, death camps, & deportations. The same source emphasizes that in 1920, Lenin ordered increased emphasis on the food requisitioning from the peasantry, at the same time as the Cheka gave detailed reports about the large scale famine. The long war & a drought in 1921 also contributed to the famine. Estimates on the deaths from this famine are between 2 & 10 million.

"Comrade Lenin Cleanses the Earth of Filth", a Communist poster from 1920.The long years of war, the Bolshevik policy of war communism, the Russian famine of 1921, & the encirclement of hostile governments took their toll on Russia, however, & much of the country lay in ruins. There were many peasant uprisings, the largest being the Tambov rebellion. After an uprising by the sailors at Kronstadt in March 1921, Lenin replaced the policy of War Communism with the New Economic Policy (NEP), in a successful attempt to rebuild industry & especially agriculture. The new policy was based on a recognition of political & economic realities, though it was intended merely as a tactical retreat from the socialist ideal. The whole policy was later reversed by Stalin.

Lenin's stance on anti-Semitism
On a gramophone recording in 1919, Lenin stated:

“ The Tsarist police, in alliance with the landowners & the capitalists, organized pogroms against the Jews. The landowners & capitalists tried to divert the hatred of the workers & peasants who were tortured by want against the Jews. ... Only the most ignorant & downtrodden people can believe the lies & slander that are spread about the Jews. ... It is not the Jews who are the enemies of the working people. The enemies of the workers are the capitalists of all countries. Among the Jews there are working people, & they form the majority. They are our brothers, who, like us, are oppressed by capital; they are our comrades in the struggle for socialism. Among the Jews there are kulaks, exploiters & capitalists, just as there are among the Russians, & among people of all nations... Rich Jews, like rich Russians, & the rich in all countries, are in alliance to oppress, crush, rob & disunite the workers... Shame on accursed Tsarism which tortured & persecuted the Jews. Shame on those who foment hatred towards the Jews, who foment hatred towards other nations.”

While Lenin remained opposed to outward forms of anti-semitism (and all forms of racism), allowing Jewish people to rise to the highest offices in both party & state, certain historians such as Dmitri Volkogonov argue that the record of his government in this regard was highly uneven. It is claimed that Lenin was aware of pogroms carried out by units of the Red Army during the war with Poland, though the whole issue was effectively ignored. Dmitri Volkogonov generalizes that "While condemning anti-Semitism in general, Lenin was unable to analyse, let alone eradicate, its prevalence in Soviet society". Likewise, the hostility of the Soviet regime towards all religion made no exception for Judaism, & the 1921 campaign against religion saw the seizure of many synagogues (whether this should be regarded as anti-Semitism is a matter of definition).

However, according to Jewish historian Zvi Gitelman: "Never before in Russian history & never subsequently has a government made such an effort to uproot & stamp out anti-Semitism". He had some Jewish blood himself, which may have helped his atiitude towards Jews. Also it was the case that Tsarist actions against Jews from recenting expelling to pogroms, allowed by many Tsarists and massive anti Jewish propaganda helped push Jews towards revolutionary groups. They were never a majority of the revolutionary groups but gave a high percentage to revolutionary groups as high as I would say as the percentage of Jews in ratio to the Russian speaking element of the empire, while say more Ukranians would join Ukranian nationalist revolutionary groups, Russian speakers, and Jewish people, and Germans were more likely to join all - Russia empire groups. Many anti semites later claim the fact Lenin had some Jewish blood made the USSR a Jewish controled thing, but this was deranged claim, of course a persecuted group would have more members from persecuted groups, and of course especially as other persecuted groups like Ukranians would have the ability to just form seccessionist groups. While Jewish people, and Volga Germans, and some Russian groups could only really opt out of the system, or join Pan Russia groups. In all it all went to show the Tsarists and Nazis, were linked in anti Jewish activities, and would use any racism, or hatred or bigotry just like today or anything to stir up their purely evil supporters and beliefs. And considering how most people have lots of ethnicisities in them no wonder one leader had a bit of Jewish blood. It just goes to show how pointless and worthless and evil anti semites are, that they think groups they oppose should be banned from any authority, even if you just have just a slight connection with the innocent group they despise, but these same Nazis did not mind being ruled by tsars and aristocrats who felt they were a master race. And look at this way probabaly most Russians have some connection via marriage or blood to Jewishness so does that mean these anti semites want to ban most Russians from having influence over their land, I think it does. It shows how evil the Nazis are. In all Lenin has been more praised in areas he was from, like Kalmyk communities even in the 1990s had a better view of him than say, other Russian Federation areas. There were people in the Revolutionary groups from loads of ethnicities, the anti semites just wanted to hate certain groups and picked on them, and it shows how evil the anti semites were, and shows how their needed to big campaigns against them.

Later life
Lenin's health had already been severely damaged by the strains of revolution & war. The assassination attempt earlier in his life also added to his health problems. The bullet was still lodged in his neck, too close to his spine for medical techniques of the time to remove. In May 1922, Lenin had his first stroke. He was left partially paralyzed on his right side, & his role in government declined. After the second stroke in December of the same year, he resigned from active politics. In March 1923, he suffered his third stroke & was left bedridden for the remainder of his life, no longer able to speak.

Soviet residents hold up a sign reading "Lenin is our immortality" in this image from a piece of footage presumably shot after news of Lenin's death.After his first stroke, Lenin dictated several papers regarding the government to his wife. Most famous of these is Lenin's Testament, which was partially inspired by the 1922 Georgian Affair & among other things criticized top-ranking communists, including Joseph Stalin, Grigory Zinoviev, Lev Kamenev, Nikolai Bukharin & Leon Trotsky. Of Stalin, who had been the Communist Party's general secretary since April 1922, Lenin said that he had "unlimited authority concentrated in his hands" & suggested that "comrades think about a way of removing Stalin from that post." Upon Lenin's death, his wife mailed his Testament to the central committee, to be read at the 13th Party Congress in May 1924. However, the committee & especially the ruling "triumvirate" — Stalin, Kamenev & Zinoviev — had a vested interest in not releasing the will to the wider public. The central committee justified this by stating that Lenin had been mentally ill in his final years & , as such, his final judgments were not to be trusted. Lenin's Testament was first officially published in 1925 in the United States by Max Eastman. In the same year, Trotsky wrote an article that downplayed its significance, stating that Lenin's notes should not be regarded as a "will" & had neither been concealed nor violated. He did invoke it in his polemic against Stalin on later occasions, while in exile.

Lenin died on January 21, 1924, aged 53. Rumors of Lenin having syphilis sprang up shortly after his death. The official cause given for Lenin's death was cerebral arteriosclerosis, or a fourth stroke. But out of the 27 physicians who treated him, only eight signed onto that conclusion in his autopsy report. Therefore, several other theories regarding his death have been put forward.

Documents released after the fall of the U.S.S.R., along with memoirs of Lenin's physicians, suggest that Lenin was treated for syphilis as early as 1895. Documents suggest that Alexei Abrikosov, the pathologist in charge of the autopsy, was ordered to prove that Lenin did not die of syphilis. Abrikosov did not mention syphilis in the autopsy; however, the blood-vessel damage, the paralysis & other incapacities he cited are typical of syphilis. Upon a second release of the autopsy report, none of the organs, major arteries, or brain areas usually affected by syphilis were cited. In 1923, Lenin's doctors treated him with Salvarsan, the only drug at the time specifically used to treat syphilis, & potassium iodide, which was customary at the time in treating the disease.

Although he might have had syphilis, he had no visible lesions anywhere on his body that normally accompany the later stages of the disease. Most historians still agree that the most likely cause of his death was a stroke induced by the bullet still lodged in his neck from the assassination attempt.

The city of Petrograd was renamed Leningrad in his honor three days after Lenin's death. This remained the name of the city until the collapse & liquidation of the Soviet Union in 1991, when it reverted to its original name, St Petersburg.

During the early 1920s the Russian movement of cosmism was so popular that Leonid Krasin & Alexander Bogdanov proposed to cryonically preserve Lenin's body in order to revive him in the future. Necessary equipment was purchased abroad, but for a variety of reasons the plan was not realized. Instead his body was embalmed & placed on permanent exhibition in the Lenin Mausoleum in Moscow on January 27, 1924.

After death
The Lenin Mausoleum at Red Square, Moscow.Lenin's preserved body is on permanent display at the Lenin Mausoleum in Moscow. Because of Lenin's unique role in the creation of the first Communist state, & despite his expressed wish shortly before his death that no memorials be created for him, his character was elevated over time to the point of near religious reverence. By the 1980s, every major city in the Soviet Union had a statue of Lenin in its central square, either a Lenin street or a Lenin Square near the center, & often 20 or more smaller statues & busts throughout its territory. Collective farms, medals, hybrids of wheat, & even an asteroid were named after him. Nursery children were taught stories about "grandpa Lenin".

Since the fall of the Soviet Union, the level of reverence for Lenin in post-Soviet republics has fallen considerably, though he is still considered an important figure by generations who grew up during the Soviet period. Most statues of Lenin have been torn down in Eastern Europe, but many still remain in Russia. The city of Leningrad returned to its original name, St Petersburg, but the surrounding Leningrad Oblast still carries his name. The citizens of Ulyanovsk, Lenin's birthplace, have so far resisted all attempts to revert its name to Simbirsk. The subject of interring Lenin's body has been a recurring topic for the past several years in Russia.

Censorship of Lenin in the Soviet Union
Lenin's writings were carefully censored under the Soviet regime after his death. In the early 1930s, it became accepted dogma under Stalin to assume that neither Lenin nor the Central Committee could ever be wrong. Therefore, it was necessary to remove evidence of situations where they had actually disagreed, since in those situations it was impossible for both to have been right at the same time. Trotsky was a particularly vocal critic of these practices, which he saw as a form of deification of a mere human being who could, & did, make mistakes. Later, even the fifth "complete" Soviet edition of Lenin's works (published in 55 thick volumes between 1958 & 1965) left out parts that either contradicted dogma or showed their author in too poor a light.

Trivia
Many Russians, including journalists, have noticed the similarity between Lenin in youth & Leonardo DiCaprio. They joke that DiCaprio will be the best choice for Lenin's biopic.

He has some support in the world, indeed in Russia some keep statues of him, and some across the world. With some saying it was great he tried out Communims, and did all his stuff. But he is also listed among the world's worst 20thC dictators by some people, though few of his critics rank him as bad as Stalin, some say he was a harbinger for him. On the whole he is a remembered individual as of the huge changed ghe helped bring about. With even today a Marxist-Leninist still being something in the world's vocabulary. The centre left view is often it was a shame he did not just let the social democrats win in Russia in 1917, or that it is a shame he did not democratise. The far left view can be that he was wrong and sometimes is that he built a land able to defeat Nazi Germany. But on the whole even a left winger would have to say his activities were brutal. But maybe sacrifices are needed in the name of revolution you may say, and in the heat of a war for survival. But lets face it the brutality was extreme. Even some ultra Communist regimes did not need to kill as many people, so he can not be considered such a hero as many leaders. It seems, as we would not like to be killed, but that does not make socialism, wrong. The crimes of the right are far far worse.

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