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Vladimir Ilyich Lenin

Basic Info

Lenin was born on April 10, 1870. He was the son of a Russian nobleman Lenin was meant to have a deep effect on the future of Russia and even the world. His father was the son of a serf, which was basically a slave, who had risen to post inspector of schools and Simbirsk. He had a mother who was the daughter of a land owning physician. Lenin was very bright in school, but because of that he felt withdrawn from his classmates. In1866 his father died of a cerebral hemorrhage, the following year his brother, Alexander, was hung for planning to assassinate Tsar Alexander III.  Lenin threw religion out of his life and forgot about the political system because he felt all the power was going to the wealthy. He found many doors closed to him because because he was the brother of dead revolutionary. There were people that accepted him a Kazan University where he studied law. Later on he got expelled for attending a peace protest. He then began to study law on his own and passed the exam, in which he came first in a class of 124 in 1891. Lenin believe in violence as the chief weapon of Marxism. He took nothing for granted. To destroy capitalism, he created a highly disciplined communist party, first to overthrow all traditional institutions and them to control the machinery of the new government. Party and state became one.

Lenin and the Bolsheviks

Lenin and the Bolsheviks

  The Bolsheviks were in favor converting the bourgeois in to the socialist revolution. They also were in favor for the joint action by proletariat and peasantry.

Trotsky and Lenin

Trotsky then joined Lenin on the staff of Iskra (The Spark), the Communist newspaper.  Trotsky and Lenin, as intellectuals, had much respect for each other, however, in 1903 at the Second Congress of the RSDLP, the Bolsheviks were led by Lenin, while Trotsky was among the Menshevik leaders.

Bolsheviks

The Bolsheviks started off, in 1903, as the main minority of the Social Democratic Labour Party. As all anti-tsarist groups the party was illegal. The party was based upon beliefs of Karl Marx, a german writer and revolutionary, the who believed a revolution could only be started within the workforce of the major cities. Lenin believed strongly in these morlas and used them as a guide to his goal of revolution.The party continued to prostest against the current government in Russia and over time the political, social and economic disontent and the famous event known as 'Bloody Sunday', where the imperial guards shot and killed the protesting people of St.Petersburg, eventually pulled more followers over to the party. 

Quiz

1.)    Why was Lenin expelled from the Kazan University?




2.)    Social Democratic Labour Party was based upon the beliefs of who?




3.)    Trotsky joined Lenin on the staff of what Communist newspaper?




4.)    Why was Lenin’s brother, Alexander, hung?




5.) What is the famous event where the imperial guards shot and killed the protesting people of St. Petersburg?