Robespierre Vs Lenin

Vladimir Lenin and Robespierre share similarities in personality, background, and political beliefs. From an ideological point of view, Robespierre and Lenin were both strategic idealists; craving political power, control over society, and control over the masses. Ultimately in terms of personality Lenin and Robespierre shared a trait of being highly organized, quick witted, and strategic. However with such a need for power and control over society corruption was and is inevitable. Ultimately as evidenced through the consequences of the Russian and French revolution(s), corruption in the government and its leaders resulted in more disorder than order, allowing for the societal underpinnings of totalitarianism and oppression. Both Lenin

In Lenin’s What Is To Be done, Lenin emphasises that the most crucial aspect of a successful revolution is maintaining order and organization: “ I had in mind an organisation of revolutionaries as an essential factor in bringing about the political revolution.” From Lenin's statement above, it is clear that Lenin supports the notion that a revolution should be carefully planned and thought out. Additionally Lenin seems to imply that it is not enough to simply have a ‘plan’ for revolution instead the revolutionaries themselves must be organized and be ready to execute a plan effectively. The organization of revolutionaries leads to Lenin's next point. Lenin believed that true revolutionaries should be members of the ‘elite’ a secret group of individuals organizing and planning behind the scenes. By having an elitist group of revolutionaries, Lenin believed that the revolution itself would be highly centralized, allowing for order and control amongst a smaller more confined group. Despite the strategic organizational advantage of confining power to the top, secluding power to the elite is and was a recipe for a totalitarian regime. In hindsight the idea of a totalitarianism undermined lenin's reason for revolution in the first place. The whole point of the Bolshevik revolution was to empower and give equal

Being a lawyer and supposed ‘defender’ of laws and civil liberties, Robespierre saw order through the creation of a constitution. Robespierre initially sought to defend the many rights presented in The Declaration Of Rights Of Man. Being a man who was experienced with law he seemed to be the right leader; a man who was “ incorruptible”. Despite Robespierre's initial intentions as tensions rose in post revolutionary France, Robespierre became desperate to sustain his own power. Robespierre’s ‘desperate’ actions are evidenced by “ The Reign of Terror”, an event in which France's own citizens were executed for not completely supporting the Jacobin ideology. Paranoid and desperate for power Robespierre abandoned his initial ideologies for liberty and Freedom. In fear of counterrevolution Robespierre created a rigged tribunal court system designed to sentence accused individuals to death without a trial. Much like the emergence of Russia’s despotic regime under Lenin and the Bolsheviks, France under Robespierre had also become a dictatorship, swaying away from the initial ideologies of freedom and