Lenin Pragmatism Analysis

Throughout the years leading up the 1918 Bolshevik revolution in Russia it could be seen that the Bolshevik leader Vladimir Lenin was both pragmatic and idealistic in his approach to gaining and maintaining power. There were several different instances in which Lenin was pragmatic in his approach, these included his land reform policies and his imposition of the NEP (New Economic Policy). However there were also several points were Lenin was ideological and stuck to his Marxist views. This was evident through him bringing about peace and the end of Russian involvement in WWI. Add social policies

One way in which Lenin was Pragmatic was through his land policies for the peasant class in Russia. Leading up to the 1918 revolution Lenin started to promote a new Bolshevik land reform policy in Russia. This policy was aimed at the peasant class who made up 80% of Russia’s population at the time and was very similar to the policy of the socialist revolutionary party who were very popular with the peasant class. Lenin’s policy promised the abolition of all private ownership of land and would see the removal of the crushing debt that the peasants faced under Romanov rule. The policy meant that all land once privately held was confiscated by the government and then “to be placed at the disposition of the workers who cultivate them”. This could be argued as an act of pragmatism on the part of Lenin as this policy was only adopted very late in 1917 and for many years before this Lenin did not have any land policies concerning the Russian peasant class. This was because the ideology that Lenin based many of his policies of (Marxism) was only concerned with the proletariat (working class) and it excluded the peasant class, with no mention of la...

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...hat he made. Whilst it could be argued that even though Lenin did get Russia out of WWI it could also be seen that he helped bring about a whole new war that was much more devastating to the people of Russia, the Russian civil war. However, Lenin did manage to bring about peace from the civil war in 1924. SOCIAL POLICIES

Another way in which Lenin was idealistic was through his radical social policies t would be unfair to categorise Lenin as purely an idealist or a pragmatist as it has been shown that he adopted different policies that were both idealistic and that were pragmatic. However, it has also been shown that whilst Lenin did have some policies that were linked to his ideology (an end to WWI and war communism) he was indeed more of a pragmatist as more of his policies seemed to be in response to the current circumstances such as the NEP and his land policy.