The USSR: Lenin Comes to Power in 1917
To understand how Lenin and the communists came to power some brief background is necessary. Russia’s long reigning king, the Tsar Nicholas II, survived an attempted revolution in 1905 by allowing the creation of a parliament. He retained his power, but soon new strains appeared because of the country’s involvement in WWI. These proved to be too much for the fragile government. With WWI going poorly, the tsar abdicated in 1917 which allowed a transitional government to be set up.[1] This was a relatively nonviolent process. It should be noted Lenin was not involved in any of it because he was living abroad.[2] However, the German army, wishing to create confusion and problems for their Russian enemy, sent Lenin back to Russia, and he arrived in April 1917.
The transitional government ruled Russia from March until November.[3] Elections were planned but before they could occur Lenin and his colleagues overthrew the government.[4] But this left Lenin in an embarrassing spot. As one author said, Lenin’s party “had made the most noise in demanding this election and therefore Lenin did not dare postpone it even though it came while he was still consolidating his power.”[5] When seventy-five percent of the people voted against him, Lenin knew immediately that he would lose his power because he and his party were not wanted.[6]
Lenin began to think about how to get rid of the democratically elected government. The communists claimed that the government that was voted into office did not really represent the people, and that this was their reason for taking power.[7]The prior manipulation of words with the Mensheviks and Bolsheviks foretold of just this kind of event. What the people wanted, when they voted, was not really what the people wanted.[8] Lenin only went along with democracy as long as it was to his benefit.[9] But when the election went against his party he had no issue with overthrowing the government by force.[10]Again, we must cite one observer who noted:
The Jacobins, Robespierre, Hitler, Mussolini, the Communists all use this very same method of argument, of saying that men do not know what they truly want … [therefore] when I bend human beings to my will … I am not merely doing something which is good for them … I am doing that which they truly want, though they may deny it … Therefore I speak for them, on their behalf … They do not know what their true self is, whereas I, who am wise, who am rational, who am the great benevolent legislator—I know this.[11]
One observer later noted, the Russian people did not want Lenin and his party, “not merely because the Bolsheviks … shoot them, take their grain and are ruining Russia. The Russian people do not want them for the simple reason that … nobody elected them.”[12] Yet, his manipulative seizure of power succeeded in the end, and he began to rule the country using the ideas of Marx and Engels.[13] This, he thought, would result in a changed human nature.[14]
Lenin removed Russia from WWI. With this move, “Lenin now felt sufficient confidence to subordinate the whole Russian economy to the theories of Communism. He confiscated all industry from private owners and set it up under government operation.”[15] “A supreme economic council was created to control the economy; banks were nationalized; factories were turned over to the workers; the church was attacked and old marriage and divorce laws thrown out.”[16] Also of note, abortion was first legalized in the Soviet Union.[17] Notice how political radicalism, economic control, sexual liberation[18] and attacking Christianity ran together in a package. Recall Lenin’s love of Nikolay Chernyshevsky’s novel, What Is To Be Done. It turns out that what he was reading as a youth would mold his later life. Indeed, he cited the author in his collected works 300 times,[19] more than any other author.
Lenin encouraged seizure of land belonging to the rich and the church.[20] He had been manipulating the words “freedom and equality”[21] as a means to obtaining power and soon the realities would become clear. Lenin had “offered the ‘revolutionary masses’ the opportunity of undermining the government, personified by ‘banking and industrial big-shots’ ... Lenin drew an idyllic picture of future agricultural life: ‘It will be a Russia in which free labour will work on free land.’”[22] When it was put into practice however, life was far from idyllic. Previously successful landowners were deemed to be against the revolution and “were to be incarcerated in concentration camps, or to be executed in the case of physical resistance.”[23] Others who were more modestly successful “were to be deported to remote areas.”[24] What this amounted to in the end was, the Communists “liquidating not several hundred millionaires, but hundreds of thousands of private owners.”[25]
Even more tragic is what happened to those to whom the land was subsequently given. While the communists redistributed the land to the peasants, they would not allow them to use it as they saw fit.[26] In fact, the government demanded everything the peasants produced from the land.[27] “On every point—peace, land, liberty … their promises rapidly changed into coercion, limitation, alteration, a different ‘reading,’ or outright denial. Even the land, which they did give, they made undesirable by confiscating everything it produced.”[28] The inherent goodness and desire to work for the common good never developed as individuals resented the fruits of their labor being taken by government officials.[29] Without incentives to work, the system began to break down and a new means of getting individuals to cooperate had to be put in place, absolute force and terror. A bloody civil war was to follow in which millions of Russians lost their lives.[30]
[1] W. Cleon Skousen, The Naked Communist (Salt Lake City: Izzard Ink Publishing, 2015), pg 70, Kindle Edition.
[2] Simon Sebag Montefiore, Young Stalin (New York: Alfred K Knopf, 2007) pg 514, ebook (purchased on ebooks.com).
[3] Simon Sebag Montefiore, Young Stalin (New York: Alfred K Knopf, 2007), pg 542, ebook (purchased through ebooks.com).
[4] Victor Sebestyen, Lenin (New York: Pantheon Books, 2017), pg 517 /882, Ebook (purchased through ebooks.com).
[5] W. Cleon Skousen, The Naked Communist (Salt Lake City: Izzard Ink Publishing, 2015), pg 72, Kindle Edition.
[6] Paul Johnson, Modern Times (New York: Harper Collins,2010), location 1637, Kindle Edition. Robert Conquest, Reflections on a Ravaged Century (New York: WW Norton & Co, 2001), pg 147. Vladimir Tismaneanu, The Devil in History (Los Angeles: University of California Press, 2012), pg 88, Kindle Edition. Victor Sebestyen, Lenin (New York: Pantheon Books, 2017) pg 583/882, Ebook (purchased through ebooks.com).
[7] Vladimir Tismaneanu, The Devil in History (Los Angeles: University of California Press, 2012), pg 117, Kindle Edition. Dmitri Volkogonov, Lenin: A New Biography (New York: Free Press,1994), loc 988, 1801, 3679, Kindle Edition. Paul Johnson, Modern Times (New York: Harper Collins,2010), location 1632, Kindle Edition.
[8] Vladimir Tismaneanu, The Devil in History (Los Angeles: University of California Press, 2012), pg 20, Kindle Edition.
[9] Victor Sebestyen, Lenin (New York: Pantheon Books, 2017) pg 587/882, ebook (purchased through ebooks.com).
[10] Ibid, pg 560/882, ebook.
[11] Paul Hollander, From Benito Mussolini to Hugo Chavez Intellectuals and a Century of Political Hero Worship (Cambridge: Cambridge University press 2016), pg 299, Kindle edition.
[12]Mark Black, Lenin A Very Brief History (Very Brief History, 2013), loc 52, Kindle Edition. Dmitri Volkogonov, Lenin: A New Biography (New York: Free Press,1994), loc 1787, 1805-1807, Kindle Edition.
[13] Ibid, loc 1892, 3757.
[14] Ibid, loc 1810, 3707.
[15] Ibid, loc 3482. Simon Sebag Montefiore, Young Stalin (New York: Alfred K Knopf, 2007), pg 578, ebook (purchased through ebooks.com).
[16] Mark Black, Lenin A Very Brief History (Very Brief History, 2013), loc 311, Kindle Edition. Dmitri Volkogonov, Lenin: A New Biography (New York: Free Press,1994), loc 3528, Kindle Edition. Lenin was promising land but would nationalize land, he would compel the experts of managing factories to explain how they did their work. Victor Sebestyen, Lenin (New York: Pantheon Books, 2017), pg 464-465/882, ebook (purchased through ebooks.com).
[17] Paul Kengor, The Politically Incorrect Guide to Communism (Washington DC: Regnery Publishing, 2017), pg13, Kindle Edition.
[18] For a summary of Stalin’s fathering of children and then abandoning them, See Simon Sebag Montefiore, Young Stalin (New York: Alfred K Knopf, 2007), pg 590-618, ebook (purchased through ebooks.com). Additionally, Trotsky also abandoned his wife and children. Lenin maintained a mistress apart from his wife.
[19] Dmitri Volkogonov, Lenin: A New Biography (New York: Free Press,1994), loc 1873, Kindle Edition.
[20] Dmitri Volkogonov, Lenin: A New Biography (New York: Free Press,1994), loc 5000, Kindle Edition. Paul Johnson, Modern Times (New York: Harper Collins,2010), location 2123, Kindle Edition.
[21] Dmitri Volkogonov, Lenin: A New Biography (New York: Free Press,1994), loc 1972, Kindle Edition. See also Anne Applebaum, The Red Famine (Penguin Random House Audio, 2017) Track 56, downpour audiobook.
[22] ‘When there’s the State there’s no freedom; when there’s freedom there will be no State.’ Victor Sebestyen, Lenin (New York: Pantheon Books, 2017), pg 506/882, ebook (purchased through ebooks.com).
[23] Dmitri Volkogonov, Lenin: A New Biography (New York: Free Press,1994), loc 2948, Kindle Edition.
[24] Robert Conquest, Reflections on a Ravaged Century (New York: WW Norton & Co, 2001), pg 94. See also Dmitri Volkogonov, Lenin: A New Biography (New York: Free Press,1994), loc 3762, Kindle Edition.
[25] Volkogonov, Dmitri. Lenin (Kindle Location 2954). Free Press. Kindle Edition.
[26] Paul Johnson, Modern Times (New York: Harper Collins,2010), location 2113-2131, Kindle Edition.
[27] W. Cleon Skousen, The Naked Communist (Salt Lake City: Izzard Ink Publishing, 2015), pg 73, Kindle Edition. Sebestyen, Lenin (New York: Pantheon Books, 2017), pg 464-465/882, ebook (purchased through ebooks.com).
[28] Dmitri Volkogonov, Lenin: A New Biography (New York: Free Press,1994), loc 2948, Kindle Edition.
[29] W. Cleon Skousen, The Naked Communist (Salt Lake City: Izzard Ink Publishing, 2015), pg 73, Kindle Edition.
[30] Ibid, pg 73. argues 28 million
Dmitri Volkogonov, Lenin: A New Biography (New York: Free Press,1994), loc 1972, Kindle Edition.
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