VLADIMIR LENIN – THE FATHER OF COMMUNISM

Ninety years ago, the Bolshevik Party overthrew the Russian monarchy.

Today’s page looks at its infamous leader.

VLADIMIR IIyich Lenin was born in Simbirsk, Russia, on April 10, 1870. He was a good student, and his intelligence made him a bit of an outcast at school. He especially enjoyed reading.

When Lenin was 16, his father died and the following year, his brother, Alexander, was executed by hanging for plotting to assassinate Czar Alexander III, head of Russia’s monarchy. Lenin found himself further ostracized because of his brother’s failed assassination plot.

Lenin studied law at Kazan University, but was expelled after just three months for attending a peaceful protest. Not to be deterred, he studied law at the University of St. Petersburg and passed the bar exam in 1891, coming in first in a class of 124.

Two years later, he began to practice law, and became involved with an underground ”Marxist” group. Named for its founder, Karl Marx, this movement promoted the self-emancipation of Russia’s working class. He met his future wife, Nadezhda Krupskaya, during this period.

Lenin met with other Social Democrats in Switzerland. He favored the rise of the proletariat – a class in society that lives entirely from the sale of its labor. This was the working class of the 19th century Russia. But members of the group could not agree on the best policies and divided into the Mensheviks, or minority, and

Lenin’s Bolsheviks, or majority.

Lenin returned to Russia and was arrested. He served 15 months in prison and was exiled to Siberia, where he married Krupskaya in 1898.

In 1905, unarmed demonstrators, en route to present a petition to Czar Nicholas II, were shot down by the Imperial Guard. The St. Petersburg Massacre put into motion events that would ultimately lead to the end of the monarchy.

The Bolshevik Revolution, led by Lenin, began on Oct. 25, 1917. Czar Nicholas, who led millions of Russian peasants into WorldWar I, was executed on July 17, 1918, along with his wife, Alexandra, and their five children. Alexander Kerensky took power, but Lenin made a deal with Germany to remove Russia fromWorldWar I in exchange for funding of the Bolshevik movement.

At age 47, Lenin became president of the Society of People’s Commissars (the Communist Party). The Soviet Union was formed. The party’s cry was “Bread, not war.” Lenin agreed to the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk, which ended Russia’s involvement in the war.

The state took over factories and banks. The Russian Orthodox Church was ”disestablished.” Civil war between the Mensheviks and the Bolsheviks broke out. Despite support from both the United States and Britain, the Mensheviks lost.

In 1918, Lenin was the target of a failed assassination attempt that left a bullet lodged in his neck. This would later be a contributing factor in a series of strokes that would ultimately kill him.

In response, the Bolsheviks formed the infamous secret police to “protect'” it from opposition. The police were responsible for the persecution and death of anyone – political opponent or peasant – who opposed the government. The Red Terror, as it was called, instigated a campaign of systematic mass terror. Hundreds of thousands of people were executed.

Russia faced economic disaster from 1919 to 1921, as a result of famine and typhus. More than 27 million Russians died. Lenin established a plan to revitalize the struggling economy.

In May of 1922, Lenin suffered the first of his strokes. Another stroke, in 1923 left him paralyzed and unable to speak. On Jan. 21, 1924, he died as his father had, from a cerebral hemorrhage. His remains are meticulously preserved in the Lenin Mausoleum in Moscow.

The Communist Party remained in power in Russia until the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. China, Cuba, South Korea, Laos and Vietnam are still under Communist Party rule, and are among the world’s most repressive regimes.

NEW YORK POST ACTIVITIES

USE the Internet or other reference source to learn more about the life of Vladimir Lenin.

DISCUSS the differences between Democracy and Communism.

LEARN more about the rise and fall of the Communist Party in Russia. President Ronald

Reagan, Russian leader Mikhail Gorbachev. and Pope John Paul II all contributed to the

party’s demise.

Today’s lesson fulfills the following New York standards: ELA 1c, 3c, 3d, 5a Social Studies 2