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Discuss Lenin's economic policies
Discuss Lenin's economic policies
Lenin and the Bolshevik revolution in Russia
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Lenin: Visionary or Extremist
Vladimir Lenin was a leading member of the Bolshevik Party, as well as a major player of global events during and after the Russian Revolution. As a key player in the political arena during events leading up to and past World War I, Lenin’s rise to power is of unparalleled significance. He changed many things, both in Russia and across the globe. While many view him as a monstrous figure, there were still several results of his reign that can be seen as good, at least in the long run.
Born on April 22, 1870 in Simbrisk Russia, the boy named Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov was set to live a truly fascinating life. Son of a former Serf and the daughter of a Jewish physician, Vladimir was a middle child with five other siblings.
Although he did do many good things, they just often get overshadowed by his darker doings. When it came time to go through with the promises he had made to improve quality of life, it became clear that Lenin had little idea how to do so. Lenin lacked a clear vision for his economic model, because of this, factories and production were paralyzed, making a poor situation worse. The situation had become so dire that he made a declaration of war communism to keep his army fed and well stocked despite his starving people. When he found that he could not repair the economy, he reintroduced private enterprise into the system, which helped a fair bit in reviving the economy. He, however, had an ulterior motive in this decision; by nationalizing private production, much of his opposition was undermined. His attempts at fixing the country ranged from mildly successful to downright bizarre, even banning the word trade to force different ways of doing business. These strange ideas and ways of ruling can be summed up in the quote from Leonard Schapiro, calling him a “strange and troubled genius,” but went on to say “whose personal impacts on events both in his own country and in the world outside may well have been greater than that of any
Food and other agricultural goods were regularly confiscated under the prodrazvyorstka. All citizens were told to work, and this was enforced by the Labor Committee, it was work or die, and many worked themselves to death because of this. Russia hit one of its lowest points in 1921 when the Famine struck, five million people died because of the abhorrent conditions created by Lenin’s short sighted and destructive regime.
Lenin’s longest lasting and greatest accomplishment came near the end of his reign, the creation of the USSR, the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. Founded in 1922 by the formal signing of the Treaty of Creation, it was at the time of its existence the largest country in terms of area, with over a hundred different nationalities contained within its borders. The USSR lasted until 1991 when it was transformed into the Commonwealth of Independent States.
Lenin never took breaks from his rule, and as a result, his health faltered very quickly. Between 1922 and 1924, he suffered from four strokes, the last of which was fatal. Even after death, he was, in many ways, still the face of Russia. The Bolsheviks turned him into a spiritual figure, and a cult form in his worship. “Lenin is alive in the soul of each individual Party member. Every member of our Party is a particle of
Vladimir Lenin can be viewed as a very good leader. In Document 1, it states that “Factory workers in many countries stopped work for five minutes in homage”. This shows that many people were impacted by his death and that he affected the economy in various ways. Lenin used Karl Marx’s capitalistic views with communism to create collective farming, which was supposed to help increase the overall economy of the country after war and famine
In order to establish whether Lenin did, indeed lay the foundation for Stalinism, two questions need to be answered; what were Lenin’s plans for the future of Russia and what exactly gave rise to Stalinism? Official Soviet historians of the time at which Stalin was in power would have argued that each one answers the other. Similarly, Western historians saw Lenin as an important figure in the establishment of Stalin’s socialist state. This can be partly attributed to the prevailing current of pro-Stalin anti-Hitler sentiments amongst westerners until the outbreak of the cold war.
Ultimately it was his failure here that prevented him having any long-term significance, despite his huge short-term significance. ‘He had too many characteristics that made it extraordinarily hard to collectively work with him. But he was an industrious worker and a talented person, and for Lenin, that was the main thing’. Trotsky, despite his nuances and arrogance, was hugely significant in the short term through his brilliant tactics throughout the October Revolution where the Bolsheviks took control of Russia. Furthermore, his coordination of the Red Army was definitive in Bolshevik victory in the civil war, removal of opposition in the terror, and he played an under appreciated role in reclaiming of occupied Russian lands following the world war.
...ng World War I, which caused conflicts in the battlegrounds. The demands of waging war also drained the Russian economy and revealed the limitations of the Russian production. Further, the workers in the cities worked very long hours, which strained problems in the undeveloped infrastructure of Russia. Although there was a catastrophe of political guidance brought by Tsar, World War I caused the revolution because the war led Tsar’s military control to its breaking point. This this exemplifies that an entire society was destroyed; therefore, poverty, crime, privileged and class-divisions were to be eliminated, a new era of socialism promised peace, prosperity and equality for all the peoples of the world. But the social experiment failed, millions were killed, and within a generation almost one-third of the world’s population was living in the shadows of communism.
Although Stalin had been tyrannical and crazy, he made Russia seem stronger, and is still seen as a good person today. Many people look at him like he was a murderous person, but other look at him as the man who made Russia better. He was a great leader, in a way, but that only depends on what the Russians believed in, and whether or not they (or someone they know) worked for Stalin.
The Bolsheviks a more intense revolutionary group took over. This party was lead by Vladi-mir Lenin who believed in the ideas of Karl Marx and Marxism (Stock). Lenin’s First step was to sign a peace treaty with Germany to pull Russian troops out of the war. The Bolshevik govern-ment was a dictatorship. Lenin had revolutionary antecedents His older brother, Alexander was plotting to murder Tsar Alexander and was executed leaving Lenin with hate toward the royal (Lerner). Lenin created the very first Communist state and declared Russia a Soviet republic. There were more people getting involved in this revolution, inspired by the Bolsheviks and Len-in’s over all ideas for Russia. His slogan Peace, la...
Stalin continued even once he was successful in accomplishing those goals, as he did not stop hurting people, but if anything it gave him more power to hurt people even more. But, at the end of the day, although Lenin ruled for only a very short time, he did raise the standard of living, though there maintained a large amount of hardship. Stalin, however, transformed the USSR from a peasantry to an industrialized nation in less than a decade, he did it on the backs of his millions of victims, who died because of his harsh policies and many purges. Lenin made a series of policies throughout the beginning of the Revolution and through his short time in public office that came to be collectively known as ‘Leninism’. There were many things that influenced Leninism, such as Karl Marx.
and I think that before Lenin came to power he had not considered what a huge task it would be. Therefore, I see Lenin as someone who was trying to resolve and trying to help a country through a time of crisis and although he made many mistakes, I feel he did have the interest of the people at heart. Quite different from the Tsar who caused the problems and made no real attempts to put things right. In
This played well with the workers and soldiers and made it difficult to criticise the new government. As a result, Lenin’s introduction of the Cheka (1917) and the emergence of the Red Terror (1918) ensured his rule was absolute not only within the party but across the Soviet Union. It is the accumulation of these factors that highlighted Lenin’s leadership and practicality following the seizing of power as well as changes to society with War Communism and the NEP and the use of terror which were all vital to consolidating Bolshevik power.
boosted the USSR’s economy. Therefore Stalin had created a country which seemed corrupt at the time, but later on it improved by the hard work Stalin had forced upon them.
Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov better known as Lenin. Lenin was an important part in Soviet Union history . lenin had a determined goal , he wanted power . Lenin was so powerful , he took the practice communism and made it reality throughout Soviet plus other countries he had an influence on. Lenin believed that communism could solve the problems of society , because his brother was killed by a tsarist regime. He started as a politician and war general , he later became the leader of the Soviet Union. Before Lenin was the leader a man named Stalin Ruled Soviet . Lenin despised Stalin , Lenin then started to take control of the states he created.
Over the next few years, Russia went through a traumatic time of civil war and turmoil. The Bolsheviks’ Red Army fought the white army of farmers, etc. against Lenin and his ways. Lenin and the Bolsheviks won and began to wean Russia of non-conforming parties eventually banning all non-communist as well as removing an assembly elected shortly after the Bolshevik’s gain of power. Lenin’s strict government, however, was about to get a lot stricter with his death in 1924.
...nt the works of Marx. The result became a system where emotion triumphed over practicality, and the central message was blurred by the overthrow of the old regime. Thus, Lenin followed Marx in the general ideas of socialism, where everyone was equal under the law, and worked for each other and the common good. While Lenin’s system did manage to create a proletariat class, it also evoked the formation of the corrupt and power hungry Bolshevik Party. With regard to the Populists and Anarchists, Lenin was transformed into a revolutionary who would not stop at anything in the pursuit of Communism. Furthermore, Lenin followed to a lesser extent the Social Democrats and their views on the threat of the peasantry if they were not properly maintained. It is clearly evident that in following other philosophies, Lenin mutated Communism into a form unrecognizable to true Marxism
According to most historians, “history is told by the victors”, which would explain why most people equate communism with Vladimir Lenin. He was the backbone of Russia’s communist revolution, and the first leader of history’s largest communist government. It is not known, or discussed by most, that Lenin made many reforms to the original ideals possessed by many communists during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. He revised Karl Marx and Friedrich Engles’ theories to fit the so-called ‘backwardness’ of the Russian Empire. Lenin’s reforms were necessary to carry out a socialist revolution in Russia, and the contributions he made drastically changed the course of history. It can be assumed that, the Soviet Union would not have been as powerful if it was not for Lenin’s initial advocacy of violence and tight organization.
Along with this massive group of opponents, Lenin also faced acute starvation as little grain was being produced and this lead to high inflation and so quick action was needed if Lenin was to keep his promise of bread to the people. The... ... middle of paper ... ... private ownership and the militaristic rule over factories was stopped. Money was reinstated and anyone could set up a shop and sell or hire goods for a profit.