A Comparison of Character and Beliefs of Lenin and Stalin

There were many similarities in both character and beliefs of both

Lenin and Stalin. Some people may think that, just because they led

Russia, they were both Russian. Lenin was a middle-class Russian who

was well educated; he also wrote many influential books and thesis.

However, Stalin was a vulgar, Georgian peasant. He was expelled from

his college in 1899 after failing to take his exams. One thing that

these men shared was their concern with the ideas of Karl Marx. In the

early 1900’s they were both exiled to Siberia until 1917, after the

March revolution. These men are closely linked in the area of what

they did, but in most cases they used it on different scales for

different purposes. Labour camps were used by both of these powerful

leaders, but for different reasons and there is also a huge difference

on the scale on some of them. Lenin used labour camps for political

prisoners. This was on a reasonably small scale in comparison with

Stalin. Unlike Lenin, Stalin used his labour camps excessively.

Opponents of the regime, political opposition and basically everyone

who didn’t agree with or abide by the laws set by Stalin were put in

these camps.

Both men used state terror. Again Lenin used it to ensure the

revolution survived, where as Stalin used it for everyone who opposed

him, Stalin used state terror to gain power, in a way the opposite of

Lenin.

Lenin was driven by the want to ensure the survival of the revolution,

where as Stalin was driven by the desire for power, some historians

even go as far as calling him a megalomaniac. Lenin was a strong

willed leader who was confident in his decision making and his ideas

were based on the writings of Karl Marx, as was Stalin, but Lenin

wanted to make Russia a fair and more just and equal society. Stalin

was an insecure man who shows this through the purges, where millions

and millions of Russian people died. During the purges Stalin got rid