Lenin

Timothy S. Hawley History 260 (History of Russia) March 5, 2011 Lenin And early pioneers of Communist Theory Lenin was an amazingly gifted leader but his genius was most likely tainted with bitterness, discontent and resentment, no doubt, dating back to the year 1887 with the death of his brother for involvement in an assassination plot against Alexander III. This was probably very difficult for Lenin having lost his father just a year prior to this added tragedy in his life. Surviving prison terms, exile, battles of every sort, Lenin rose to power in Russia bringing with him his dream of a utopian society, sensible, practical and most importantly, free for the taking. Tsarist Russia was wise to Lenin’s sort and took measures to suppress Lenin’s anti-government goals early-on; they unfortunately didn’t stay on task and eventually their lack of “follow-up” became more costly than they could have ever dreamed. The year 1887 was one of major events for Lenin; his family had moved to Kazan, Russia, on August 3rd of 1887 Lenin enrolled in the Kazan University only to be expelled again for involvement in the “student’s revolutionary movement” on campus December 7th of the same year. As a result of his subversive activities he was exiled from Kazan to the village of Kokushkino, under the surveillance of the tsar’s secret police. A year later he was permitted to return to Kazan where his family still resided. At this time, Lenin began to study the works of Karl Marx; armed with these new ideas and concepts, Lenin set out to further develop and proliferate his personal political goals and ambitions, he had to find a way to develop and expand on his theories without the “secret police” catching word of his activities as apparently happened before in the case of his brother and the attempted assassination of Alexander III. This “secret police” of the tsar administration would prove to be a valuable concept to him later on. (M.K.Dziewanowski), (Marxists.org). To try and understand the thinking of Lenin one would have to look back to the roots of his mind-set; influential people that helped to shape the goals and ambitions that drove him to drastic measures in pursuit of his dreams for Russia. Gerog Wilhelm fredrich Hegel, a highly respected and accomplished philosopher, was born in Stuttgart, Germany in 1770, he later became the chairman of the philosophy dept. at the University of Berlin in 1818 and authored many now famous works in his field. In addition to Hegel, there were his like-minded contemporaries; J.G. Fichte (1762-1814), K.L. Reinhold (1757-1823), Fredrich Von Schelling (1775-1854), Immanuel Kant (1724-1804) It was from these famous authors, writers and pioneers in Philosophy that another, more well-known German born philosopher was to shape his own views and Ideas. Karl Marx was born in Trier, Germany in 1818; together with Fredrich Engles, accomplished German- born businessman and philosopher, authored several now famous works, “The Communist Manifesto” became one of the most note-worthy publications, released in 1848, also written with Engles. These two, Marx and Engles, became the fathers of the; “adapted for application in the material world” Communist doctrine or theory. What Hegel and some of his philosophical mentors and colleagues had presented in more of a metaphysical or spiritual sense, Marx And Engles began to adjust or “adapt principles and concepts from” towards a more real-world, material, foundations to a call for immediate political action. As defined in the dictionary, metaphysics refers to the nature of our existence in the Earth, our purpose, how nature, life, the universe inter-relate as a whole, belief in a God or creator and the existence of a world or another form of existence after death, along these lines. The Karl Marx view of society takes an interesting perspective; as mentioned earlier, Marx developed his theories about society based on readings from renowned German philosophers; The ideas and concepts presented by these early pioneers of “critical philosophy” and “transcendental Idealism” as some of these theories were titled, are the roots of the Communist, “Totalitarian Dictatorship” form of government. Marx illustrated certain problems with our current society as a whole; some categories for these problems fall into just a few major areas. First is Religion: “the opiate of the masses” as Marx states in “The Communist Manifesto”. People look to a God they can’t see for safety and prosperity while all the time neglecting their individual potential to “create their own prosperous reality, mind over matter” exercising their natural talents and abilities to the fullest extent. Becoming “their own God” in a sense. Materialism or Capitalism develops classes in society, upper class, lower class etc. and the exploitation of one class over another for the purpose of economic domination by “a few” over “many”. The working class lining the pockets of the “upper class” with gold while barely surviving themselves. The working class or “blue collars” as they say, becoming passive robot workers for the more clever aristocrats, land barons, political leaders etc. Marx believed the capitalist system was doomed to failure as the rich get richer and the poor get poor-er. The only sensible alternative would naturally gravitate to an idealistic socialist system, leveling the playing field, people as one, working for the good of all rather than “the chosen few”, one big happy Communist family. Now EVERYONE (idealistically speaking) will have an equal share of the pie. These are the sort of theories and ideals that Lenin found attractive and worth fighting for, and the obvious problems with the current system of government that urgently needed to be drastically changed, by whatever means possible. Now we have taken volumes of philosophical writings and from this “mountain of paper” have isolated a handful of worthwhile gems. “We have the power within to create a utopian society!” “we have the power to set ourselves FREE” from the bondage of class, economics, slave-labor, injustice etc.” “We don’t need a God we can’t see, touch or feel to dictate our future success or failure in life.” “We have real power right in our hands! Power to live a life we deserve, not one dictated to us from birth by an un-just capitalist society.” (at least in theory~) Lenin would channel the discontent and frustration of tired, over-worked, ignored farmers and laborers to build a utopian society, one where everyone has an equal chance for success in life. During his years in exile and while “lying low” outside of Russia, Lenin was able to formulate his plans for implementing a new form of government in Russia. Having published thirty theoretical works in the time he spent in exile, Lenin was able to get his ideas to the general public both abroad and inside Russia. While in Geneva he co-founded a newspaper called “Spark” in Russian and further spread his ideas and theories for drastic change in Russia’s governmental system. Traveling from place to place, writing under several aliases, Lenin was clever to avoid the watchful eye of the “secret police” of the tsar. After many other events, skirmishes and other tests of his determination, Lenin finally succeeded in his efforts to establish a new system of government in Russia. Now that he was in power, he would take what he had learned along the hard and bumpy pathway to success and apply it to his newly established administration. One of the most infamous and sinister of these “learned strategies” was the “Cheka”, most likely patterned, at least in part, after the “secret police” of the tsarist regime. They were the eyes and ears of the new government and carried out brutal and un-restrained acts of terror. Lenin’s administration would pale in comparison to the living nightmare unleashed at the appointment of Stalin as chairman of the Soviet government. The idea of a utopian society sounded good at the time but because of wide-spread, cleverly planned and executed deceit and treachery, the new leadership wasn’t what the people of Russia had ordered. Not by a long-shot. Works Cited M.K. Dziewanowski. Russia in the Twentieth Century. Upper Saddle River: Prentice Hall, 2003 Lenin Internet Archive. David Walters. 1995 Marxist Internet Archive. March 12th 2011 http://www.marxists.org/archive/lenin/index.htm Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Jonathan Wolff. August 26th 2003. Metaphysics Research Lab, Stanford University. March 12th 2011. http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/marx/#2.3 The Free Dictionary. Farlex Inc. 2009. Farlex. March 12th 2011. http://www.thefreedictionary.com/metaphysics Wikopedia The Free Encyclopedia. Wikopedia. March 12th 2011. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vladimir_Lenin#Revolutionary Google.com. March 12th 2011. http://www.google.com