Vladimir Lenin

In February 1917, the

Arriving at Petrograd's Finland Station in April, Lenin gave a speech to Bolshevik supporters condemning the Provisional Government and again calling for a continent-wide European proletarian revolution.^[132] Over the following days, he spoke at Bolshevik meetings, lambasting those who wanted reconciliation with the Mensheviks and revealing his "April Theses", an outline of his plans for the Bolsheviks, which he had written on the journey from Switzerland.^[133] He publicly condemned both the Mensheviks and the Social Revolutionaries, who dominated the influential Petrograd Soviet, for supporting the Provisional Government, denouncing them as traitors to socialism. Considering the government to be just as imperialist as the Tsarist regime, he advocated immediate peace with Germany and Austria-Hungary, rule by soviets, the nationalisation of industry and banks, and the state expropriation of land, all with the intention of establishing a proletariat government and pushing toward a socialist society. By contrast, the Mensheviks believed that Russia was insufficiently developed to transition to socialism and accused Lenin of trying to plunge the new Republic into civil war.^[134] Over the coming months Lenin campaigned for his policies, attending the meetings of the Bolshevik Central Committee, prolifically writing for the Bolshevik newspaper Pravda, and giving public speeches in Petrograd aimed at converting workers, soldiers, sailors, and peasants to his cause.^[135]

Sensing growing frustration among Bolshevik supporters, Lenin suggested an armed political demonstration in Petrograd to test the government's response.

In August 1917, while Lenin was in Finland,

Recognising that the situation was safer for him, Lenin returned to Petrograd.[149] There he attended a meeting of the Bolshevik Central Committee on 10 October, where he again argued that the party should lead an armed insurrection to topple the Provisional Government. This time the argument won with ten votes against two.^[150] Critics of the plan, Zinoviev and Kamenev, argued that Russian workers would not support a violent coup against the regime and that there was no clear evidence for Lenin's assertion that all of Europe was on the verge of proletarian revolution.^[151] The party began plans to organise the offensive, holding a final meeting at the Smolny Institute on 24 October.^[152] This was the base of the Military Revolutionary Committee (MRC), an armed militia largely loyal to the Bolsheviks that had been established by the Petrograd Soviet during Kornilov's alleged coup.^[153]

In October, the MRC was ordered to take control of Petrograd's key transport, communication, printing and utilities hubs, and did so without bloodshed.^[154] Bolsheviks besieged the government in the Winter Palace and overcame it and arrested its ministers after the cruiser Aurora, controlled by Bolshevik seamen, fired a blank shot to signal the start of the revolution.^[155] During the insurrection, Lenin gave a speech to the Petrograd Soviet announcing that the Provisional Government had been overthrown.^[156] The Bolsheviks declared the formation of a new government, the Council of People's Commissars, or Sovnarkom. Lenin initially turned down the leading position of Chairman, suggesting Trotsky for the job, but other Bolsheviks insisted and ultimately Lenin relented.^[157] Lenin and other Bolsheviks then attended the Second Congress of Soviets on 26 and 27 October and announced the creation of the new government. Menshevik attendees condemned the illegitimate seizure of power and the risk of civil war.^[158] In these early days of the new regime, Lenin avoided talking in Marxist and socialist terms so as not to alienate Russia's population, and instead spoke about having a country controlled by the workers.^{[159][dubious – discuss]} Lenin and many other Bolsheviks expected proletariat revolution to sweep across Europe in days or months.^[160]

Lenin's government

Organising the Soviet government: 1917–1918

The Provisional Government had planned for a Constituent Assembly to be elected in November 1917; against Lenin's objections, Sovnarkom agreed for the vote to take place as scheduled.^[161] In the constitutional election, the Bolsheviks gained approximately a quarter of the vote, being defeated by the agrarian-focused Socialist-Revolutionaries.^[162] Lenin argued that the election was not a fair reflection of the people's will, that the electorate had not had time to learn the Bolsheviks' political programme, and that the candidacy lists had been drawn up before the Left Socialist-Revolutionaries split from the Socialist-Revolutionaries.^[163] Nevertheless, the newly elected Russian Constituent Assembly convened in Petrograd in January 1918.^[164] Sovnarkom argued that it was counter-revolutionary because it sought to remove power from the soviets, but the Socialist-Revolutionaries and Mensheviks denied this.^[165] The Bolsheviks presented the Assembly with a motion that would strip it of most of its legal powers; when the Assembly rejected the motion, Sovnarkom declared this as evidence of its counter-revolutionary nature and forcibly disbanded it.^[166]

Lenin rejected repeated calls, including from some Bolsheviks, to establish a coalition government with other socialist parties.^[167] Although refusing a coalition with the Mensheviks or Socialist-Revolutionaries, Sovnarkom partially relented; they allowed the Left Socialist-Revolutionaries five posts in the cabinet in December 1917. This coalition only lasted four months until March 1918, when the Left Socialist-Revolutionaries pulled out of the government over a disagreement about the Bolsheviks' approach to ending the First World War.^[168] At their 7th Congress in March 1918, the Bolsheviks changed their official name from the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party to the Russian Communist Party, as Lenin wanted to both distance his group from the increasingly reformist German Social Democratic Party and to emphasise its ultimate goal, that of a communist society.^[169]

Although ultimate power officially rested with the country's government in the form of Sovnarkom and the Executive Committee (VTSIK) elected by the All-Russian Congress of Soviets (ARCS), the Communist Party was de facto in control in Russia, as acknowledged by its members at the time.^[170] By 1918, Sovnarkom began acting unilaterally, claiming a need for expediency, with the ARCS and VTSIK becoming increasingly marginalised,^[171] so the soviets no longer had a role in governing Russia.^[172] During 1918 and 1919, the government expelled Mensheviks and Socialist-Revolutionaries from the soviets.^[173] Russia had become a one-party state.^[174]

Within the party was established a

Concerned that the German Army posed a threat to Petrograd, in March 1918 Sovnarkom relocated to Moscow, initially as a temporary measure.[180] There, Lenin, Trotsky, and other Bolshevik leaders moved into the Kremlin, where Lenin lived with his wife and sister Maria in a first-floor apartment adjacent to the room in which the Sovnarkom meetings were held.^[181] Lenin disliked Moscow,^[182] but rarely left the city centre during the rest of his life.^[183] He survived a second assassination attempt, in Moscow in August 1918; he was shot following a public speech and injured badly.^[184] A Socialist-Revolutionary, Fanny Kaplan, was arrested and executed.^[185] The attack was widely covered in the Russian press, generating much sympathy for Lenin and boosting his popularity.^[186] As a respite, he was driven in September 1918 to the luxurious Gorki estate, just outside Moscow, recently nationalized for him by the government.^[187]

Social, legal, and economic reform: 1917–1918

Upon taking power, Lenin's regime issued a series of decrees. The first was a

In November 1917, Lenin issued the Declaration of the Rights of the Peoples of Russia, which stated that non-Russian ethnic groups living inside the Republic had the right to secede from Russian authority and establish their own independent nation-states.^[191] Many nations declared independence (Finland and Lithuania in December 1917, Latvia and Ukraine in January 1918, Estonia in February 1918, Transcaucasia in April 1918, and Poland in November 1918).^[192] Soon, the Bolsheviks actively promoted communist parties in these independent nation-states,^[193] while at the Fifth All-Russian Congress of the Soviets in July 1918 a constitution was approved that reformed the Russian Republic into the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic.^[194] Seeking to modernise the country, the government officially converted Russia from the Julian calendar to the Gregorian calendar used in Europe.^[195]

In November 1917, Sovnarkom issued a decree abolishing Russia's legal system, calling on the use of "revolutionary conscience" to replace the abolished laws.

In October 1917, Lenin issued a decree limiting work for everyone in Russia to eight hours per day.^[200] He also issued the Decree on Popular Education that stipulated that the government would guarantee free, secular education for all children in Russia,^[200] and a decree establishing a system of state orphanages.^[201] To combat mass illiteracy, a literacy campaign was initiated; an estimated 5 million people enrolled in crash courses of basic literacy from 1920 to 1926.^[202] Embracing the equality of the sexes, laws were introduced that helped to emancipate women, by giving them economic autonomy from their husbands and removing restrictions on divorce.^[203] Zhenotdel, a Bolshevik women's organisation, was established to further these aims. ^[204] Under Lenin, Russia became the first country to legalize abortion on demand in the first trimester.^[205] Militantly atheist, Lenin and the Communist Party wanted to demolish organised religion.^[206] In January 1918, the government decreed the separation of church and state, and prohibited religious instruction in schools.^[207]

In November 1917, Lenin issued the Decree on Workers' Control, which called on the workers of each enterprise to establish an elected committee to monitor their enterprise's management.

Upon taking power, Lenin believed that a key policy of his government must be to withdraw from the First World War by establishing an armistice with the Central Powers of Germany and Austria-Hungary.^[225] He believed that ongoing war would create resentment among war-weary Russian troops, to whom he had promised peace, and that these troops and the advancing German Army threatened both his own government and the cause of international socialism.^[226] By contrast, other Bolsheviks, in particular Nikolai Bukharin and the Left Communists, believed that peace with the Central Powers would be a betrayal of international socialism and that Russia should instead wage "a war of revolutionary defence" that would provoke an uprising of the German proletariat against their own government.^[227]

Lenin proposed a three-month armistice in his

In January and again in February, Lenin urged the Bolsheviks to accept Germany's proposals. He argued that the territorial losses were acceptable if it ensured the survival of the Bolshevik-led government. The majority of Bolsheviks rejected his position, hoping to prolong the armistice and call Germany's bluff.

On 3 March, the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk was signed.^[239] It resulted in massive territorial losses for Russia, with 26% of the former Empire's population, 37% of its agricultural harvest area, 28% of its industry, 26% of its railway tracks, and three-quarters of its coal and iron deposits being transferred to German control.^[240] Accordingly, the Treaty was deeply unpopular across Russia's political spectrum,^[241] and several Bolsheviks and Left Socialist-Revolutionaries resigned from Sovnarkom in protest.^[242] After the Treaty, Sovnarkom focused on trying to foment proletarian revolution in Germany, issuing an array of anti-war and anti-government publications in the country; the German government retaliated by expelling Russia's diplomats.^[243] The Treaty nevertheless failed to stop the Central Powers' defeat; in November 1918, the German Emperor Wilhelm II abdicated and the country's new administration signed the Armistice with the Allies. As a result, Sovnarkom proclaimed the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk void.^[244]

Anti-Kulak campaigns, Cheka, and Red Terror: 1918–1922

By early 1918, many cities in western Russia faced famine as a result of chronic food shortages.

Lenin repeatedly emphasised the need for terror and violence in overthrowing the old order and ensuring the success of the revolution.[255] Speaking to the All-Russian Central Executive Committee of the Soviets in November 1917, he declared that "the state is an institution built up for the sake of exercising violence. Previously, this violence was exercised by a handful of moneybags over the entire people; now we want [...] to organise violence in the interests of the people."^[256] He strongly opposed suggestions to abolish capital punishment.^[257] Fearing anti-Bolshevik forces would overthrow his administration, in December 1917 Lenin ordered the establishment of the Emergency Commission for Combating Counter-Revolution and Sabotage, or Cheka, a political police force led by Felix Dzerzhinsky.^[258]

In September 1918, Sovnarkom passed a decree that inaugurated the Red Terror, a system of repression orchestrated by the Cheka secret police.^[259] Although sometimes described as an attempt to eliminate the entire bourgeoisie,^[260] Lenin did not want to exterminate all members of this class, merely those who sought to reinstate their rule.^[261] The majority of the Terror's victims were well-to-do citizens or former members of the Tsarist administration;^[262] others were non-bourgeois anti-Bolsheviks and perceived social undesirables such as prostitutes.^[263] The Cheka claimed the right to both sentence and execute anyone whom it deemed to be an enemy of the government, without recourse to the Revolutionary Tribunals.^[264] Accordingly, throughout Soviet Russia the Cheka carried out killings, often in large numbers.^[265] For example, the Petrograd Cheka executed 512 people in a few days.^[266] There are no surviving records to provide an accurate figure of how many perished in the Red Terror;^[267] later estimates of historians have ranged between 10,000 and 15,000,^[268] and 50,000 to 140,000.^[269]

Lenin never witnessed this violence or participated in it first-hand,^[270] and publicly distanced himself from it.^[271] His published articles and speeches rarely called for executions, but he regularly did so in his coded telegrams and confidential notes.^[272] Many Bolsheviks expressed disapproval of the Cheka's mass executions and feared the organisation's apparent unaccountability.^[273] The Communist Party tried to restrain its activities in February 1919, stripping it of its powers of tribunal and execution in those areas not under official martial law, but the Cheka continued as before in swathes of the country.^[274] By 1920, the Cheka had become the most powerful institution in Soviet Russia, exerting influence over all other state apparatus.^[275]

A decree in April 1919 resulted in the establishment of

Lenin expected Russia's aristocracy and bourgeoisie to oppose his government, but he believed that the numerical superiority of the lower classes, coupled with the Bolsheviks' ability to effectively organise them, guaranteed a swift victory in any conflict.

In July 1918, Sverdlov informed Sovnarkom that the Ural Regional Soviet had overseen the murder of the former Tsar and his immediate family in Yekaterinburg to prevent them from being rescued by advancing White troops.^[302] Although lacking proof, biographers and historians like Richard Pipes and Dmitri Volkogonov have expressed the view that the killing was probably sanctioned by Lenin;^[303] conversely, historian James Ryan cautioned that there was "no reason" to believe this.^[304] Whether Lenin sanctioned it or not, he still regarded it as necessary, highlighting the precedent set by the execution of Louis XVI in the French Revolution.^[305]

After the Brest-Litovsk Treaty, the Left Socialist-Revolutionaries had abandoned the coalition and increasingly viewed the Bolsheviks as traitors to the revolution.^[306] In July 1918, the Left Socialist-Revolutionary Yakov Blumkin assassinated the German ambassador to Russia, Wilhelm von Mirbach, hoping that the ensuing diplomatic incident would lead to a relaunched revolutionary war against Germany.^[307] The Left Socialist-Revolutionaries then launched a coup in Moscow, shelling the Kremlin and seizing the city's central post office before being stopped by Trotsky's forces.^[308] The party's leaders and many members were arrested and imprisoned but were treated more leniently than other opponents of the Bolsheviks.^[309]

By 1919, the White armies were in retreat and by the start of 1920 were defeated on all three fronts.

After the Armistice on the Western Front, Lenin believed that the breakout of the European revolution was imminent.

The

Caused in part by a drought, the

In 1920 and 1921, local opposition to requisitioning resulted in anti-Bolshevik peasant uprisings breaking out across Russia, which were suppressed.[352] Among the most significant was the Tambov Rebellion, which was put down by the Red Army.^[353] In February 1921, workers went on strike in Petrograd, resulting in the government proclaiming martial law in the city and sending in the Red Army to quell demonstrations.^[354] In March, the Kronstadt rebellion began when sailors in Kronstadt revolted against the Bolshevik government, demanding that all socialists be allowed to publish freely, that independent trade unions be given freedom of assembly and that peasants be allowed free markets and not be subject to requisitioning. Lenin declared that the mutineers had been misled by the Socialist-Revolutionaries and foreign imperialists, calling for violent reprisals.^[355] Under Trotsky's leadership, the Red Army put down the rebellion on 17 March, resulting in thousands of deaths and the internment of survivors in labour camps.^[356]

In February 1921, Lenin introduced a New Economic Policy (NEP) to the Politburo; he convinced most senior Bolsheviks of its necessity and it passed into law in April.^[358] Lenin explained the policy in a booklet, On the Food Tax, in which he stated that the NEP represented a return to the original Bolshevik economic plans; he claimed that these had been derailed by the civil war, in which Sovnarkom had been forced to resort to the economic policies of war communism, which involved the nationalization of industry, centralized distribution of output, coercive or forced requisition of agricultural production, and attempts to eliminate money circulation, private enterprises and free trade, leading to the severe economic collapse.^[359][360] The NEP allowed some private enterprise within Russia, permitting the reintroduction of the wage system and allowing peasants to sell produce on the open market while being taxed on their earnings.^[361] The policy also allowed for a return to privately owned small industry; basic industry, transport and foreign trade remained under state control.^[362] Lenin termed this "state capitalism",^[363] and many Bolsheviks thought it to be a betrayal of socialist principles.^[364] Lenin biographers have often characterised the introduction of the NEP as one of his most significant achievements, and some believe that had it not been implemented then Sovnarkom would have been quickly overthrown by popular uprisings.^[365]

In January 1920, the government brought in universal labour conscription, ensuring that all citizens aged between 16 and 50 had to work.

To Lenin's embarrassment and horror, in April 1920 the Bolsheviks held a large party to celebrate his 50th birthday, which was also marked by widespread celebrations across Russia and the publication of poems and biographies dedicated to him.^[371] Between 1920 and 1926, twenty volumes of Lenin's Collected Works were published; some material was omitted.^[372] During 1920, several prominent Western figures visited Lenin in Russia; these included the author H. G. Wells and the philosopher Bertrand Russell,^[373] as well as the anarchists Emma Goldman and Alexander Berkman.^[374] Lenin was also visited at the Kremlin by Armand, who was in increasingly poor health.^[375] He sent her to a sanatorium in Kislovodsk in the Northern Caucasus to recover, but she died there in September 1920 during a cholera epidemic.^[376] Her body was transported to Moscow, where a visibly grief-stricken Lenin oversaw her burial beneath the Kremlin Wall.^[377]

Lenin became seriously ill by the latter half of 1921,

Despite his illness, Lenin remained keenly interested in political developments. When the Socialist Revolutionary Party's leadership was found guilty of conspiring against the government in a trial held between June and August 1922, Lenin called for their execution; they were instead imprisoned indefinitely, only being executed during the Great Purge of Stalin's leadership.^[387] With Lenin's support, the government also succeeded in virtually eradicating Menshevism in Russia by expelling all Mensheviks from state institutions and enterprises in March 1923 and then imprisoning the party's membership in concentration camps.^[388] Lenin was concerned by the survival of the Tsarist bureaucratic system in Soviet Russia,^[389] particularly during his final years.^[390] Condemning bureaucratic attitudes, he suggested a total overhaul to deal with such problems,^[391] in one letter complaining that "we are being sucked into a foul bureaucratic swamp".^[392]

During December 1922 and January 1923, Lenin dictated "Lenin's Testament", in which he discussed the personal qualities of his comrades, particularly Trotsky and Stalin.^[393] He recommended that Stalin be removed from the position of General Secretary of the Communist Party, deeming him ill-suited for the position.^[394] Instead he recommended Trotsky for the job, describing him as "the most capable man in the present Central Committee"; he highlighted Trotsky's superior intellect but at the same time criticised his self-assurance and inclination toward excess administration.^[395] During this period he dictated a criticism of the bureaucratic nature of the Workers' and Peasants' Inspectorate, calling for the recruitment of new, working-class staff as an antidote to this problem,^[396] while in another article he called for the state to combat illiteracy, promote punctuality and conscientiousness within the populace, and encourage peasants to join co‑operatives.^[397]

In Lenin's absence, Stalin had begun consolidating his power both by appointing his supporters to prominent positions,^[398] and by cultivating an image of himself as Lenin's closest intimate and deserving successor.^[399] In December 1922, Stalin took responsibility for Lenin's regimen, being tasked by the Politburo with controlling who had access to him.^[400] Lenin was increasingly critical of Stalin; while Lenin was insisting that the state should retain its monopoly on international trade during mid-1922, Stalin was leading other Bolsheviks in unsuccessfully opposing this.^[401] There were personal arguments between the two as well; Stalin had upset Krupskaya by shouting at her during a phone conversation, which in turn greatly angered Lenin, who sent Stalin a letter expressing his annoyance.^[402]

The most significant political division between the two emerged during the

Lenin was a devout Marxist,^[409] and believed that his interpretation of Marxism, first termed "Leninism" by Martov in 1904,^[410] was the sole authentic and orthodox one.^[411] According to his Marxist perspective, humanity would eventually reach pure communism, becoming a stateless, classless, egalitarian society of workers who were free from exploitation and alienation, controlled their own destiny, and abided by the rule "from each according to his ability, to each according to his needs."^[412] According to Volkogonov, Lenin "deeply and sincerely" believed that the path he was setting Russia on would ultimately lead to the establishment of this communist society.^[413]

Lenin's Marxist beliefs led him to the view that society could not transform directly from its present state to communism, but must first enter a period of socialism, and so his main concern was how to convert Russia into a socialist society. To do so, he believed that a "dictatorship of the proletariat" was necessary to suppress the bourgeoisie and develop a socialist economy.

Before 1914, Lenin's views were largely in accordance with mainstream European Marxist orthodoxy.^[409] Although he derided Marxists who adopted ideas from contemporary non-Marxist philosophers and sociologists,^[420] his own ideas were influenced not only by Russian Marxist theory but also by wider ideas from the Russian revolutionary movement,^[421] including those of the Narodnik agrarian-socialists.^[422] He adapted his ideas according to changing circumstances,^[423] including the pragmatic realities of governing Russia amid war, famine, and economic collapse.^[424] As Leninism developed, Lenin revised the established Marxist orthodoxy and introduced innovations in Marxist thought.^[409]

In his theoretical writings, particularly Imperialism, the Highest Stage of Capitalism, Lenin discussed what he regarded as developments in capitalism since Marx's death; in his view, it had reached the new stage of state monopoly capitalism.^[425] He believed that although Russia's economy was dominated by the peasantry, the presence of monopoly capitalism in Russia meant that the country was sufficiently materially developed to move to socialism.^[426] Leninism adopted a more absolutist and doctrinaire perspective than other variants of Marxism,^[409] and distinguished itself by the emotional intensity of its liberationist vision.^[427] It also stood out by emphasising the role of a vanguard who could lead the proletariat to revolution,^[427] and elevated the role of violence as a revolutionary instrument.^[428]

Democracy and the national question

Lenin believed that the representative democracy of capitalist countries gave the illusion of democracy while maintaining the "dictatorship of the bourgeoisie"; describing the representative democratic system of the United States, he referred to the "spectacular and meaningless duels between two bourgeois parties", both of whom were led by "astute multimillionaires" that exploited the American proletariat.^[430] He opposed liberalism, exhibiting a general antipathy toward liberty as a value,^[431] and believing that liberalism's freedoms were fraudulent because it did not free labourers from capitalist exploitation.^[432]

Lenin declared that "Soviet government is many millions of times more democratic than the most democratic-bourgeois republic", the latter of which was simply "a democracy for the rich."^[433] He regarded his "dictatorship of the proletariat" as democratic because, he claimed, it involved the election of representatives to the soviets, workers electing their own officials, and the regular rotation and involvement of all workers in the administration of the state.^[434] Lenin's belief as to what a proletariat state should look like nevertheless deviated from that adopted by the Marxist mainstream; European Marxists like Kautsky envisioned a democratically elected parliamentary government in which the proletariat had a majority, whereas Lenin called for a strong, centralised state apparatus that excluded any input from the bourgeois.^[427]

Lenin was an

Prior to taking power in 1917, he was concerned that ethnic and national minorities would make the Soviet state ungovernable with their calls for independence; according to the historian Simon Sebag Montefiore, Lenin thus encouraged Stalin to develop "a theory that offered the ideal of autonomy and the right of secession without necessarily having to grant either."^[440] On taking power, Lenin called for the dismantling of the bonds that had forced minority ethnic groups to remain in the Russian Empire and espoused their right to secede but also expected them to reunite immediately in the spirit of proletariat internationalism.^[441] He was willing to use military force to ensure this unity, resulting in armed incursions into the independent states that formed in Ukraine, Georgia, Poland, Finland, and the Baltic states.^[442] Only when its conflicts with Finland, the Baltic states, and Poland proved unsuccessful did Lenin's government officially recognise their independence.^[443]

Personal life and characteristics

Lenin saw himself as a man of destiny and firmly believed in the righteousness of his cause and his own ability as a revolutionary leader.^[444] Biographer Louis Fischer described him as "a lover of radical change and maximum upheaval", a man for whom "there was never a middle-ground. He was an either-or, black-or-red exaggerator".^[445] Highlighting Lenin's "extraordinary capacity for disciplined work" and "devotion to the revolutionary cause", Pipes noted that he exhibited much charisma.^[446] Similarly, Volkogonov believed that "by the very force of his personality, [Lenin] had an influence over people".^[447] Conversely, Lenin's friend Gorky commented that in his physical appearance as a "baldheaded, stocky, sturdy person", the communist revolutionary was "too ordinary" and did not give "the impression of being a leader".^[448]

Historian and biographer

Service stated that Lenin could be "moody and volatile",

Ethnically, Lenin identified as Russian.[471] Service described Lenin as "a bit of a snob in national, social and cultural terms".^[472] The Bolshevik leader believed that other European countries, especially Germany, were culturally superior to Russia,^[473] describing the latter as "one of the most benighted, medieval and shamefully backward of Asian countries".^[430] He was annoyed at what he perceived as a lack of conscientiousness and discipline among the Russian people, and from his youth had wanted Russia to become more culturally European and Western.^[474]

Despite his revolutionary politics, Lenin disliked revolutionary experimentation in literature and the arts, expressing his dislike of

Aside from Russian, Lenin spoke and read French, German, and English.[482]^[483] Concerned with physical fitness, he exercised regularly,^[484] enjoyed cycling, swimming, and hunting,^[485] and also developed a passion for mountain walking in the Swiss peaks.^[486] He was also fond of pets,^[487] in particular cats.^[488] Tending to eschew luxury, he lived a spartan lifestyle,^[489] and Pipes noted that Lenin was "exceedingly modest in his personal wants", leading "an austere, almost ascetic, style of life."^[490] Lenin despised untidiness, always keeping his work desk tidy and his pencils sharpened, and insisted on total silence while he was working.^[491] According to Fischer, Lenin's "vanity was minimal",^[492] and for this reason he disliked the cult of personality that the Soviet administration began to build around him; he nevertheless accepted that it might have some benefits in unifying the communist movement.^[493]

Death and funeral: 1923–1924

In March 1923, Lenin had a third stroke and lost his ability to speak;

Against Krupskaya's protestations, Lenin's body was embalmed to preserve it for long-term public display in the Red Square mausoleum.

Volkogonov said, while renouncing Leninist ideology, that "there can scarcely have been another man in history who managed so profoundly to change so large a society on such a scale."^[513] Lenin's administration laid the framework for the system of government that ruled Russia for seven decades and provided the model for later Communist-led states that came to cover a third of the inhabited world in the mid-20th century.^[514] As a result, Lenin's influence was global.^[515] A controversial figure, Lenin remains both reviled and revered,^[428] a figure who has been both idolised and demonised.^[516] Even during his lifetime, Lenin "was loved and hated, admired and scorned" by the Russian people.^[517] This has extended into academic studies of Lenin and Leninism, which have often been polarised along political lines.^[518]

The historian Albert Resis suggested that if the October Revolution is considered the most significant event of the 20th century, then Lenin "must for good or ill be considered the century's most significant political leader."^[519] White described Lenin as "one of the undeniably outstanding figures of modern history",^[520] while Service noted that the Russian leader was widely understood to be one of the 20th century's "principal actors."^[521] Read considered him "one of the most widespread, universally recognizable icons of the twentieth century",^[522] while Ryan called him "one of the most significant and influential figures of modern history."^[523] Time magazine named Lenin one of the 100 most important people of the 20th century,^[524] and one of their top 25 political icons of all time.^[525]

In the Western world, biographers began writing about Lenin soon after his death; some such as Christopher Hill were sympathetic to him, and others such as Richard Pipes and Robert Gellately expressly hostile. Some later biographers such as Read and Lars Lih sought to avoid making either hostile or positive comments about him, thereby evading politicised stereotypes.^[526] Among sympathisers, he was portrayed as having made a genuine adjustment of Marxist theory that enabled it to suit Russia's particular socio-economic conditions.^[527] The Soviet view characterised him as a man who recognised the historically inevitable and accordingly helped to make the inevitable happen.^[528] Conversely, the majority of Western historians have perceived him as a person who manipulated events in order to attain and then retain political power, moreover, considering his ideas as attempts to ideologically justify his pragmatic policies.^[528] Later, revisionists in both Russia and the West highlighted the impact that pre-existing ideas and popular pressures exerted on Lenin and his policies.^[529]

Various historians and biographers have characterised Lenin's administration as

Conversely, various Marxist observers, including Western historians Hill and John Rees, argued against the view that Lenin's government was a dictatorship, viewing it instead as an imperfect way of preserving elements of democracy without some of the processes found in liberal democratic states.^[538] Ryan contends that the leftist historian Paul Le Blanc "makes a quite valid point that the personal qualities that led Lenin to brutal policies were not necessarily any stronger than in some of the major Western leaders of the twentieth century."^[539] Ryan also posits that for Lenin revolutionary violence was merely a means to an end, namely the establishment of a socialist, ultimately communist world—a world without violence.^[540] Historian J. Arch Getty remarked, "Lenin deserves a lot of credit for the notion that the meek can inherit the earth, that there can be a political movement based on social justice and equality."^[541] Some left-wing intellectuals, among them Slavoj Žižek, Alain Badiou, Lars T. Lih, and Fredric Jameson, advocate reviving Lenin's uncompromising revolutionary spirit to address contemporary global problems.^[542]

Within the Soviet Union

In the Soviet Union, a cult of personality devoted to Lenin began to develop during his lifetime, but was only fully established after his death.^[543] According to historian Nina Tumarkin, it represented the world's "most elaborate cult of a revolutionary leader" since that of George Washington in the United States,^[544] and has been repeatedly described as "quasi-religious" in nature.^[545] Busts or statues of Lenin were erected in almost every village,^[546] and his face adorned postage stamps, crockery, posters, and the front pages of Soviet newspapers Pravda and Izvestia.^[547] The places where he had lived or stayed were converted into museums devoted to him.^[546] Libraries, streets, farms, museums, towns, and whole regions were named after him,^[546] with the city of Petrograd being renamed "Leningrad" in 1924,^[548] and his birthplace of Simbirsk becoming Ulyanovsk.^[549] The Order of Lenin was established as one of the country's highest decorations.^[547] All of this was contrary to Lenin's own desires and was publicly criticised by his widow.^[506]

Various biographers have stated that Lenin's writings were treated in a manner akin to

After Stalin's death,

In Russia in 2012, a proposal from a deputy belonging to the Liberal Democratic Party of Russia, with the support of some members of the governing United Russia party, proposed the removal of Lenin monuments in Russia. The proposal was strongly opposed by the Communist Party of the Russian Federation and was never considered.^[568] Russia retained the vast majority of the 7,000 Lenin statues extant in 1991; as of 2022, there were approximately 6,000 monuments to Lenin in Russia.^[569]

In Ukraine, during the 2013–14