Vladimir Lenin

Lenin, whose real name is Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov, was a political theorist, revolutionary, and politician from Russia. He was born on April 22, 1870. From 1917 to 1924, he headed the first and original governments of Soviet Russia, and from 1922 to 1924, he headed the Soviet Union. Under his leadership, the Communist Party established a one-party socialist state in Russia and eventually the Soviet Union. His contributions to the idea are referred to as Leninism. He is an ideological Marxist.

Lenin, who was raised in an upper-middle-class Simbirsk family, became involved in revolutionary socialist politics after his brother was executed in 1887. He spent the next few years pursuing a legal degree after being expelled from Kazan Imperial University for taking part in demonstrations against the Tsarist authorities of the Russian Empire.

After relocating to Saint Petersburg in 1893, he rose to prominence as a Marxist activist. He was sent for three years to Shushenskoye in Siberia after being imprisoned for sedition in 1897 when he wed Nadezhda Krupskaya. He relocated to Western Europe after his banishment and rose to prominence as a thinker within the Marxist Russian Social Democratic Labour Party. He played an important part in the 1903 ideological split within the RSDLP, spearheading the Bolshevik faction's opposition to Julius Martov's Mensheviks.

He pushed for the First World War to be changed into a proletariat revolution sweeping Europe after Russia's unsuccessful Revolution of 1905. As a Marxist, he thought this would lead to the collapse of capitalism and the advent of socialism. He returned to Russia and was a key figure in the October Revolution, which saw the Bolsheviks topple the newly installed government, following the 1917 February Revolution that toppled the Tsar and installed a Provisional Government.

In 1918, Lenin's Bolshevik administration consolidated its control within the newly formed Communist Party. However, it still shared authority with the Left Socialist Revolutionaries, elected soviets, and a multiparty Constituent Assembly earlier. Aside from nationalizing banks and large industries, Lenin's government redistributed land to the peasantry. By signing a pact relinquishing land to the Central Powers, it withdrew from the First World War and, through the Communist International, supported a global revolution. Tens of thousands of people were killed or imprisoned in concentration camps during the Red Terror, a brutal campaign that state security agencies spearheaded to quell opposition.

In the Russian Civil War (1917-1922), his government destroyed both left- and right-wing anti-Bolshevik armies. It also commanded the Polish-Soviet War (1919-1921). In 1921, Lenin promoted economic expansion through the New Economic Policy in response to the devastation, hunger, and mass uprisings of the war. A number of non-Russian states gained independence from the Russian Federation following 1917; nevertheless, five of them were compelled to rejoin the newly formed Soviet Union in 1922, while the remaining states resisted Soviet incursions. Lenin passed away at Gorki due to declining health, and Joseph Stalin took over as the head of the Soviet government.

Lenin, who is regarded as one of the most important and influential people of the 20th century, was the focus of a widespread personality cult in the Soviet Union from his death until the country's disintegration in 1991. He developed into a key figure in the global communist movement and the ideological leader of Marxism-Leninism. Lenin is a contentious and extremely polarising historical figure. His disciples see him as a defender of socialism, communism, anti-imperialism, and the working class. His detractors charge him with establishing a totalitarian regime that presided over the political persecution and mass execution of dissidents.

Personal Life and Characteristics

Lenin genuinely believed in the morality of his cause and his leadership potential as a revolutionary. He considered himself a man of destiny. He was characterized by biographer Louis Fischer as "a lover of radical change and maximum upheaval," someone for whom "there was never a middle-ground." He was a black-or-red, either-or exaggerator.

Lenin demonstrated a great deal of charisma, Pipes pointed out, highlighting his "extraordinary capacity for disciplined work" and "devotion to the revolutionary cause."Likewise, Volkogonov thought that Lenin "had an influence over people by the very force of his personality." On the other hand, communist revolutionary Lenin was perceived by his buddy Gorky as "too ordinary" and without "the impression of being a leader" due to his physical attributes as a "baldheaded, stocky, sturdy person."

Lenin claimed to be a Russian. Lenin was characterized by Service as "a bit of a snob in national, social, and cultural terms." The leader of the Bolshevik movement thought that Russia was "one of the most benighted, medieval, and shamefully backward of Asian countries" and that other European nations, particularly Germany, had a better culture than Russia. He had wanted Russia to become more culturally European and Western since he was young and was irritated by what he saw as the lack of discipline and conscientiousness among the Russian people.

Lenin expressed his distaste for expressionism, futurism, and cubism, as well as his preference for realism and Russian classic literature in opposition to revolutionary experimentation in literature and the arts. Lenin also held traditional views on marriage and having sex. He was in a relationship with Krupskaya, a fellow Marxist, whom he married for the duration of his adult life. Both Lenin and Krupskaya liked to play with their friends' kids and lamented that they were childless. Lenin had "very close, warm, lifelong relationships" with his immediate family. He did not have any longtime friends, and Armand has been described as his only close confidante.

Lenin could read and speak French, German, and English in addition to Russian. He was concerned about maintaining his physical health, so he worked out frequently and loved to ride, swim, and go hunting. He also became passionate about hiking in the Swiss Alps. He loved animals in general and cats in particular. Lenin was known for his austere and nearly ascetic lifestyle, with Pipes describing him as "extremely modest in his wants" and his tendency to shun luxury.

Lenin hated messiness; he insisted on complete stillness while working and kept his desk neat and his pencils sharp. Fischer describes Lenin as having "minimal vanity," which is why he disapproved of the cult of personality the Soviet government was creating around him. Nevertheless, he acknowledged that the cult of personality may help to unite the communist revolution.

Remains

Coleridge is buried in the aisle of Highgate, London's St. Michael's Parish Church. In 1961, his original burial was moved to St. Michael's Cemetery from Old Highgate Chapel, which was located close to Highgate School's main entrance. From his last home across the green, where he resided with a doctor he hoped may cure him, Coleridge could see the red door of the then-new church. A worldwide fundraising drive resulted in the coffins of Coleridge, his wife, daughter, son-in-law, and grandson being transported to St. Michael's when it was discovered that his vault had fallen abandoned.

According to Drew Clode, a stewardship committee member of St. Michael's, "They bricked them up and forgot about them and put the coffins in a convenient space that was dry and secure and quite suitable." After some digging, it was discovered that the coffins were not where everyone had thought, it in the far corner of the crypt but rather beneath a memorial monument in the nave that said, "Beneath this stone lies the body of Samuel Taylor Coleridge." St. Michael intends to open the crypt to the public and rehabilitate it.

Political Thinking

Coleridge was a political thinker. He was a political extremist and a fervent supporter of the French Revolution in his early years. But after that, he began to adopt a more traditional perspective on society, akin to Edmund Burke's. He considered the French Constitution of 1799, which was enacted after the Coup of 18 Brumaire, to be oligarchic, and he was critical of it. Despite being viewed as a cowardly betrayal by the succeeding generation of Romantic poets, Coleridge's latter ideas proved to be a valuable inspiration for J. S. Mill's developing radicalism.

Conclusion

Lenin was a political theorist, revolutionary, and politician from Russia. He was born on April 22, 1870. He worked and exchanged books with Charles Lamb, Robert Southey, and Charles Lloyd.