Lenin and Bolshevik Revolution - Essay Example

211997 At all events, under all conceivable vicissitudes, if the German Revolution does not come, we are doomed. Vladimir Lenin INTRODUCTION Lenin was famously immersed in communist ideologies; but it does not mean that he was unaware of the negative circumstances and the difficult approach to communism. He had the immense capability of converting difficulties into climbing stones and even after he attained power, in the formation of a very difficult, vastest Soviet Union, and in carrying the revolution forward, under extremely trying circumstances and an absolutely failed economy, against suspicious and relentlessly negative attitude of all the countries, he has time and again proved his ultimate leadership skills. But nowhere his capabilities were shown better than in the days of the Russian revolution, which he conducted as an exemplary coordinator without whom, the revolution would have remained a mere dream. Vladimir Lenin was the driving force behind the revolution even before it started. Throughout Russia had only one leader, Lenin, who planned, plotted, propagated and executed the task of bringing down the monarchy to replace it with the communist rule. Even after coming to power through a bloody path that eliminated ordinary people, noble class including the royal family, most of which definitely must have happened under his direction, Lenin, unlike Stalin, tried hard to bring justice to the sufferers and wholeheartedly tried to make his dream a practical reality. There are no two opinions about his intentions or the way in which he conducted himself even after becoming the ruler. There were many leaders in Russia of the day; but they were followers of Lenin, and it was only Lenin who dreamt of the revolution, worked for it, planned every move, executed it flawlessly and created a communist society for the first time in the world. BODY OF THE ESSAY Lenin was very aware of the right timings for every action especially so, after the brief and un-prepared coup became unsuccessful. "The Bolsheviks became involved in an abortive coup in July, from which Lenin deduced the importance of the precise timing for any future attempt," says Stephen J. Lee1. After a very long and frustrating life of a fugitive, Lenin was very keen that all his carefully laid out plans should not lead to a disaster. When the first abortive coup happened, he became more careful about the timings and preparations. Even his enemies and critics are impressed by his hard work, planning capability, practicality and the capacity of taking all the circumstances into focus before making any decision. Very few of his decisions went wrong and whenever they did, he took great pains to either correct them or to terminate them. There were no doubt, many leaders and visionaries. But it was he, who guided every step of the revolution, though his successors ruined his achievements to a very large extent. "Lenin is the key to understanding the Russian Revolution. His dream was the creation of the world's first Socialist state. It was a short-lived dream that became a nightmare when Stalin rose to absolute power in 1929. Lenin was the avant-garde revolutionary who adapted Marxist theory to the practical realities of a vast, complex and backward Russia2". It is very difficult to find a historian who could undermine the role Lenin played in the revolution. People might agree or disagree with him; but they could never ignore him and all historians know that there could not have been a better leader under those circumstances, and anyone other than him, would have been a dismal failure, in throwing out a very powerful monarchy and uniting, modernising a country of the size of a continent. He, according to the requirement of the circumstances, could show the idealistic, modernistic, communist, educationist, heroic and totally committed facets of his personality as a leader thus to find support and sympathy from almost all the sections of Soviet Russia. What he achieved single-handedly would be very difficult to find another parallel. "Lenin symbolizes the Russian Revolution and that historical moment. More than that, it was Lenin's politics and organization that led the Russian Revolution to victory - to this day the only genuine and sustained seizure of state power by the working class.3" Usually revolutionaries are considered to be dreamers, theorists devoid of any knowledge that would help them to practice their theories. "All revolutionaries are enthusiasts, zealots; all are utopians, with dreams of creating a new world in which the injustice, corruption, and apathy of the old world are banished forever4". Lenin proved to be different. He showed multi-facetted leadership that could take forward his people along with him through the successful attainment of Revolution and could stabilise an unheard-of union of various cultures and people, and also could render a strong foundation for a flourishing communist superpower. Lenin's historical return in April 1917 was the turning point for the Bolsheviks in their struggle and the overthrowing of the Tsar, who abdicated, was enough to give Lenin an opportunity to sneak into the country. The junior leaders had conducted the revolution as best as they could; but it was important for them to be led by Lenin in the further, ongoing struggle, which at that point, did not show much promise. But when he returned to them, contrary to their expectations, he confounded them calling their conduction of revolution plans 'fit for the archives' and starting the process from the beginning. From that moment onwards, there was no interference by any other leader, even by the able Leon Trotsky, and they all simply executed the orders rendered by the all powerful Lenin, whose name became synonymous with the revolution and communist, which even the scholars of today, cannot deny. "Many historians claim that the revolution of 1917 would not have occurred without Lenin, and even if there were a revolution it would have been completely different to the one that actually happened. Lenin's personality is imprinted all and the building up of support for the revolution and the revolution of 1917 itself and it is without doubt central to its success.5" After a lapse of nearly a century, his leadership and role might look a bit dimmed and complicated to the historians today. But when the revolution took place, his role was never ambiguous. Instead, his role was all-powerful and all-achieving during the Russian revolution that is capable of still creating a sense of unreality and disbelief. This does not mean that Lenin was not above plotting or scheming. Throughout his writings and his decisions, we can see that he manoeuvred many statements and assumed many poses to impress people, retain their support without alienating them and keep their goodwill that the new regime needed. On the thorniest issue of all, the fate of Tsar Nicholas, who definitely had sympathisers, being an extraordinarily good, though ineffective monarch, Lenin writes in March 1917: "The government did not deprive the former tsar of his freedom. The workers compelled his arrest. The government wanted to hand over the command of the army to Nikolai Nikolayevich Romanov. The workers forced his removal. Obviously, were there no Soviet of Workers' and Soldiers' Deputies, the landlords, the Lvovs-Guchkovs, would come to terms with a Romanov or with some other landowner"6. It is difficult not to see the cunningness, shifting of responsibility while trying very hard not to annoy the Royalists, while also keeping the monarch and his family in prison. In the days of Revolution, Lenin was seen very often as perhaps one of the best campaigners and propagandists of the century. His simple slogans like "Peace, land and bread" and "All power to the Soviets", though changed according to the circumstances, won unbelievable support by the conventional citizens of that ancient country. These slogans, his writings, speeches, letters from afar, all worked on the tired psyche of Russians to result in unwavering devotion to Lenin and his party. It was the first time in human history, that the almost unbelievable and theoretically utopian dreamland of Karl Marx was put into practical use. Hardly any one really believed it that it could happen, least of all the noble class of Russia. Lenin's theories sounded untrustworthy, untried and rambling. But slowly people in and out of Russia knew that his theories were increasingly changing into reality. "Just as Lenin's theory of imperialism accounts for the crises in a new era of capitalism, so his theory of knowledge generalizes the results achieved by the natural sciences since Engel's time, explaining the "deep crisis" of the new physics from the standpoint of materialist dialectics.7" The Russian Tsars had absolute power all along and the succeeding governments were terribly corrupt so that any kind of accusation would stick to them. Lenin called them counterrevolutionary and hurdles on the way to immense freedom and bliss. Russians, he knew, were desperate for better life, income, social status, health and education etc. They had been neglected for too long and even though Tsar Nicholas was attempting some kind of welfare measures, he failed to see the writing on the wall. In the meantime, Lenin was progressing towards revolution with ruthless single-mindedness. He secured the support of Bolsheviks and Mensheviks behind a strong proletariat, which became the driving force of the Russian October Revolution. The working class taking over the politics of the country which was ruled by a powerful Monarchy in a very conventional way, though Tsar Nicholas had only good intentions, was happening for the first time in the world and perhaps it was the last time too. One opponent was reported to have said, "There is no other man who is absorbed by the revolution twenty-four hours a day, who has no other thoughts but the thought of revolution, and who even when he sleeps, dreams of nothing but revolution.8" He even kept the party unity aside whenever he thought that it might hinder the revolution and he forced the Bolshevik Central Committee, after a discussion of ten hours, to agree on majority vote for an armed takeover with the support of soldiers, sailors, Red Guards, militia etc. His bold decisions, the powerful direction he could give to the party and followers resulted in success for the revolution. His commitment to the revolution never wavered and under his able guidance the Provisional Government was deposed with the barest minimum resistance. When he was elected as chairman of the Council of People's Commissars, Lenin automatically became the clear-headed leader of the party without confusion and showed his remarkable leadership skills in mobilising the Workers and Peasants' Red Army. It is difficult to imagine that the Revolution of that scale would have successfully happened if Lenin was not there to lead it. In one of his letters, Lenin directly addresses the workers: "Workers, you have performed miracles of proletarian heroism, the heroism of the people, in the civil war against tsarism. You must perform miracles of organisation, organisation of the proletariat and of the whole people, to prepare the way for your victory in the second stage of the revolution.9" The combined strength he possessed in oration and writing won him unprecedented support from ordinary people. He could carry forward the same clear-headedness in stabilising the country through the revolution and its ideals. Even after attaining the power, he did not get intoxicated by it, perhaps because he already knew the sad results of power intoxication that brought down the Russian rulers. He was too practical and level-headed to indulge in self-gratification and to be fair, he was purely driven by an all-consuming fire for communist idealism and the welfare of the proletariat. Nevertheless, he was aware that he had to manipulate in such a way, that nothing would harm the revolution and aftermath. "Once in power, Lenin did not hesitate to slow up nationalisation and encourage small capitalistic undertakings in agriculture and retail trade when the speed of the communist experiment threatened the regime's existence.10" Today, with the advantage of hindsight, many scholars criticise the fundamental principles on which Lenin made his dream come true. Many critics have found flaws in his theories. "The fundamental weakness of Lenin's new approach to the nationality problem was his endeavour to reconcile two sets of mutually exclusive premises: those derived from Marxism and those supplied by political realities. Lenin, wishing to avoid both pitfalls, created a program which as a solution of the national problem was neither consistent not practical.11" Still, it is difficult to forget that Lenin was the inspiration behind that unbelievable revolution to happen and change the face of not only the Soviet Union, but also the entire world. Many countries, under similar circumstances, have tried hard to stage a similar revolution; but the absence of a Lenin in those countries has resulted in many failures. "Seventy years ago, Lenin steered the Bolshevik Party into a new theoretical framed work, which unfortunately has yet to be absorbed by many who today confront the task of revolution in "backward" countries."12 It is very tough to stage another revolution of that kind and scale without the guidance and direction of a leader like Lenin. In recent years, the confidential papers of revolution and the immediate aftermath have seeped into the public domain and Lenin and his achievements are looked into with fresh insight and understanding. CONCLUSION No doubt, eventually, after seventy long years of supremacy, the mighty empire crumbled, not because of Lenin's theoretical failures, but mainly because of the failures that are inherent in communism itself. The Russians, who lived a rather primitive, but peaceful life, had to face many difficulties like an impossible social and political change from monarchy into an unprecedented communism that jarred in their lives for seventy years. The resentment of Lenin's action in cruelly eliminating the royal family, loss of whatever little freedom the people possessed must have been difficult to stomach. Once in power, even the genial Lenin had realised that communism could be kept in place, only with brutal might and elimination of any kind of dissenting voice. During Stalin's days, the real tragedy of communism must have shattered many dreams, because by then, people had realised mutely that with the new system, life was unbelievably difficult. The force that had been used to suppress the true feelings of the people, eventually, could not control the debacle of Soviet Russia. Still, it is difficult to blame Lenin for the debacle. Although he could be blamed for terrible incidents like murdering the noble families, looting their wealth and killing the Royalty, he cannot be blamed for the aftermath of his death despite speculations that the situation would have been totally different if Lenin had anointed his heir apparent, Leon Trotsky, who was as committed to revolution as Lenin himself was. Lenin's greatness lies in making an odd union of nations under the umbrella of Communism to run unhindered for seventy years. The seeds sown during the revolution by him became the basis on which the mighty empire stood. Russian revolution could never have happened in that focussed way, within such a brief timeframe without the all-pervading personality of Lenin, commanding every move towards the revolution. BIBLIOGRAPHY 1. Bakhurst, David (1991), Connsciousness and Revolution in Soviet Philosophy, Cambridge University Press. 2. Lee, Stephen (2003), Lenin and Revolutionary Russia, Routledge, London. 3. Pipes, Richard (1954), The Formation of the Soviet Union, Harvard University Press. 4. Riemer, Neal and Simon Douglas (1997), The New World of Politics, Rowman and Littlefield, London. 5. Sheila Fitzpatrick (1982), The Russian Revolution, Oxford University Press. 6. Zizek, Slavoj (2002), Revolution at the Gates, Verso, London. ONLINE SOURCES 1. http://www.amazon.com/Introducing-Lenin-Russian-Revolution-Introducing/dp/184046156X 2. http://johnmolyneux.blogspot.com/2006/11/lihs-lenin-review-of-lars-t-lih-lenin.html 3. http://www.geocities.com/youth4sa/apriltheses.html 4. http://www.st-andrews.ac.uk/pvteach/imprus/papers/06b.html 5. http://www.marx.org/archive/lenin/works/1917/mar/12b.htm 6. http://www.wowessays.com/dbase/ad1/wur53.shtml 7. Read More