Lenin

Turgenev, the great Russian writer

Why Lenin Liked Turgenev - Turgenev in Lenin's Biography

How Lenin viewed literature is a very interesting question. A leader's preferences affect the culture of his country. This is because his policies dictated "what is good," and new literature would be created or past cultures would be interpreted accordingly.

Knowing how Dostoevsky and his great literary contemporaries were received in the Soviet era gives us a glimpse into the context in which the image of Dostoevsky written in the Soviet era was created. This is a very interesting part of learning about Dostoevsky.
History of the Soviet Union under Lenin and Stalin

Robert Servis, "Lenin" - A masterpiece of Lenin's biography that has received worldwide acclaim.

Compared to Victor Seveschen's "Lenin: Power and Love," this book features a more hard-hitting, biographical narrative.

I got to know Lenin in this book, which is told from a slightly different perspective than Victor Seveschen's "Lenin: Power and Love," which was surprisingly interesting to read.

After all, it is very helpful to read different biographies about the same person.

As the definitive biography of Lenin, this book has been acclaimed around the world. It is a hard-hitting, biography-like biography. This biography is also highly recommended.
History of the Soviet Union under Lenin and Stalin

(16) Lenin's Mausoleum as a Temple of Lenin's Death and Still Living

Lenin himself may not have imagined that after his death, his body would be embalmed, preserved semi-permanently, and venerated. Lenin's family also wanted him to be buried in a tomb after his death.

But his body was crucial to the Soviet Union's leadership. The people who took notice of this, overcoming the opposition of his family, would make Lenin into the very immortal god that he was.

The preservation and "permanent" veneration of Lenin's body sounds very religious. In the atheistic Soviet Union, this was a paradoxical form of worship.

Lenin is dead, but he lives on in Russia. The existence of Lenin's Mausoleum is connected to Russia in a much deeper way than we can imagine. This is a very important issue for the study of religion, and even for the study of human beings themselves.
History of the Soviet Union under Lenin and Stalin

(15) Lenin and the Russian Orthodox Church: The harsh reality of the Soviet government's suppression of the church

No one should be trying to protect the church now that peasant discontent is at its maximum and starvation is at its height."

Lenin waited until it was now or never to destroy the church, and finally took action.

This was a policy typical of Lenin's thoroughgoing strategy for seizing power.

This led to the thorough suppression of the Russian Orthodox Church and its harsh fate during the long years of Soviet power.

This article looks at how Lenin suppressed the Church.
History of the Soviet Union under Lenin and Stalin

(14) Lenin's view of literature: How he viewed Dostoevsky, Tolstoy, and others.

In considering Lenin's views on literature and art, I found it surprising that he held conservative views. I had an image of revolutionaries = destruction of the existing order. Russian nihilists are especially prone to this. The nihilist youth named Bazarov in Turgenev's "Father and Son" is a typical example.

But Lenin was not, and he had a conservative view of culture.

This article looks at Lenin's views on literature and art.
History of the Soviet Union under Lenin and Stalin

(13) Lenin worship, the beginning of deification and corruption of the Soviet Communist Party bureaucracy

This section will look at something very important in "Learning from Lenin".

It is sometimes said that "Marxism was proven wrong by the collapse of the Soviet Union. At the same time, the counterargument is made that "Marx is still not wrong because Soviet socialism is different from true Marxism.

It is true that the Bolsheviks who came to power after the Russian Revolution were corrupt. But I have to wonder if this is a slightly different dimension from the argument that "Marxism is inevitably so" or, conversely, "true Marxism should not be so".

I thought that this was not a question of principles or systems, but rather "a question of human beings themselves.
History of the Soviet Union under Lenin and Stalin

(12) Relocation of the capital from St. Petersburg to Moscow in 1918 and the food crisis

In March 1918, World War I was still raging and the Germans were closing in on the capital, St. Petersburg (Petrograd).

Lenin therefore decides to move the capital to Moscow.

The food situation in Russia was already dangerous, as World War I and the Revolution had devastated the countryside and disrupted the transportation system. A bad harvest was also threatening the situation. Lenin, who came to power, was already at a critical juncture.

So Lenin took the method of forced food requisitioning.

This article will discuss the policies taken by Lenin in such a predicament.
History of the Soviet Union under Lenin and Stalin

(11) "Everything is permitted to us" - a world of Soviet violence where every means was justified for the sake of the end.

In the present passage, Lenin's view of the revolution is presented in a straightforward manner.

We, the exploited, are allowed to do whatever we want to the bourgeoisie.

Because for the first time in the world, we are not trying to subjugate or oppress anyone, but to yoke everyone.

Because it takes a sword to free you from the ....... Blood? Let blood be spilled, if only it can turn the gray-white-black banner of the piratical Old World into crimson."

However, it is true that Lenin's rise to power eventually led to corruption in the party leadership, starvation among the people to the extent that many people died of starvation despite his claims to equality, and the strengthening of inequality and oppression. And during the Stalin era, the system of oppression was further strengthened.
History of the Soviet Union under Lenin and Stalin

(10) A brief explanation of the Russian October Revolution and Lenin's seizure of power.

この記事ではレーニンが権力を奪取していく過程をお話ししていきます。

クーデターによって成立したボリシェヴィキ政権が長く生き残ることを当時の誰も想像していなかったというのは、どこかナチスのヒトラー政権の成立を思わせます。

It is said that the German people never imagined that Hitler would have so much power.

The scary thing about history is that we never expect it to happen." And there is a danger that it will repeat itself in different forms. We are no strangers to this.
History of the Soviet Union under Lenin and Stalin

(9) World War I and Lenin: German Support and the Seizure of Newspaper Media

なんと、レーニンの政治活動の背後にはドイツ政府の秘密資金があったのでした。しかもその金額が桁外れです。そうした資金があったからこそロシアでのメディア掌握が可能になったのでした。

そもそもロシア二月革命勃発時、スイスに亡命中だったレーニンを封印列車でロシアに送り届けたのもドイツです。

ドイツは戦争からの撤退を主張していたレーニンをロシアに送ることで、ロシア政府が対独戦争から手を引くことを狙っていたのでした。

ですのでドイツは帰国後もレーニンを秘密裏に支援していたのです。

レーニンが権力を掌握できたのもドイツの戦略があったからこそというのは私にとっても驚きでした。