Vladimir Lenin was the Head of the State of Russia, the Soviet Union, and the founder of the Russian Communist Party. His Marxism-Leninism ideology was the bedrock of communism. This essay will examine his childhood, education, and Russia's time and political climate during his lifetime on his ideological beliefs. The essay will also discuss his contribution to communisms and whether Leninism is applicable in modern America.
Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov was born on 22 April 1870 in Streletskaya Ulitsa, Simbirsk, when Russia was still an empire under the Tsars. He was born into a middle-class family that had moderate political ideologies. Lenin was a keen sports enthusiast and an excellent student. After the death of his father, his behavior became erratic, and confrontation, and he subsequently denounced religion. Lenin would pass at the top of his class and pursue law at Kazan Imperial University and later sit for exams externally at the University of St. Petersburg, where he passed. He would work as an assistant to a regional court and then a local lawyer. In 1893 he moved to St. Petersburg, where he established himself as a significant Marxist activist.
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Several events during the tense political climate of dictatorial Tsarist Russia are believed to have influenced Lenin. His father, a teacher by profession, had been threatened with early retirement due to the government’s fear of public education. His older brother Alexander, a student at St. Petersburg University, was arrested and executed (by hanging) for involvement with a revolutionary cell that wanted to assassinate Tsar Nicholas III in 1887. Vladimir would later protest against the Tsarist government’s ban of student societies and would be expelled and exiled to his family’s rural estate, where he would explore pro-revolutionary writings. After his exile, he would return to Kazan but was banned from returning to the university. He joined a revolutionary circle and discovered the works of Karl Marx, which would influence his political and social ideologies culminating in his Marxist declaration in 1889.
He was later arrested for sedition and exiled to Siberia, where he married his wife. After his exile, he immigrated to Western Europe, where he lectured Marxist views of the Russian Social Democratic Labor Party, adopted the pseudonym Lenin and formed the Bolshevik Party.
Lenin played a vital role in the split of RSDLP into his Bolshevik faction against the Mensheviks. The Bolsheviks would lead the 1917 revolution that overthrew the provisional government and concentrated all power to the new Communist Party. His government withdrew from the Second World War. It focused on domestic policies such as land distribution among the peasantry, nationalization of banks and large-scale industries, and suppression of anti-Bolshevik oppositions through the ‘red terror campaign’ of the 1917-1922 Russian Civil War. During his administration, the new Soviet Union was formed, which would advocate for communism internationally. His contributions to the creation of the Soviet Union and Leninism communism spearheaded a personality cult and Karl Marx, a key symbolism and propaganda mechanism of the Soviet Union.
Lenin’s belief that capitalism is dangerous, and peasants and workers should rule are not applicable in America. Such is impossible because America is a capitalist state where the urban middle class is working harder to better their lives and prosper socially and economically. Americans would not want to confer all their wealth to the government to redistribute it to everyone. The focus on a single communist party also contributed to dictatorial regimes in the Soviet Union that caused significant loss of lives and economic wastage due to bureaucracy, ineptitude, and complacency of a government that has no opposition (Tismaneanu et al., 2017). Such would be against the notions of fair competition and democracy, which are the hallmarks of American societies and politics.
Vladimir Lenin is among the most significant revolutionary characters of human history and perhaps the most influential ideologist and leader of the 20 th century. However, his communist ideas are the exact opposite of those that America was founded on; individual freedom, strive, and democracy. Thus, Marxism-Leninism has no place in Modern America.
References
BBC. (n.d.) History- Vladimir Lenin . BBC. http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/historic_figures/lenin_vladimir.shtml#:~:text=Vladimir%20Ilich%20Ulyanov%20was%20born,into%20a%20well%2Deducated%20family.&text=Expelled%20from%20university%20for%20his,and%20became%20a%20professional%20revolutionary.
History.com Editors. (2009, 9 November). Vladimir Lenin . HISTORY. https://www.history.com/topics/russia/vladimir-lenin
Resis, A. (n.d.). Vladimir Lenin . Encyclopedia Britannica. https://www.britannica.com/biography/Vladimir-Lenin
Tismaneanu, V., Howard, M. M. & Sil, R. (2017). World order after Leninism . University of Washington Press. https://books.google.co.ke/books?hl=en&lr=&id=DacpDAAAQBAJ&oi=fnd&pg=PP1&dq=Tismaneanu,+V.,+Howard,+M.+M.+%26+Sil,+R.+(2017).+World+order+after+Leninism.+University+of+Washington+Press.&ots=ABqLQ-ZAEh&sig=ZCgAf6_qOqEdypZxqBJwTaC5Eak&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q&f=false
