lenin

Lenin, the Man

Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov was born April 10, 1870 to Mariya Blank. Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov, known to us as Lenin, was one of six children.  Lenin may have been of Chuvash, Ukrainian Jew, Swedish, and German descent. His father was an educator, schoolmaster and inspector of primary schools. 

            The second child and oldest son, Alexander (Sasha), went to St. Petersburg University in the fall of 1882.  His major was Natural Science.  While there, he joined an organization known as Narodnaya Volya, or The People’s Will. This terrorist wing believed in a socialist party led by the working class. Socialism was the logical extension of democracy, but Tsarists did not allow for peaceful development of democracy. Legal opposition was not allowed. The only option for purging the official hatred of any popular movement toward socialist democracy was terrorism. In February 1887, the People’s Will planned the assassination of Alexander II, Tsar of Russia. The police discovered the plot and as a result, Alexander Ulyanov was executed in 1887 for being a part of the group who attempted to execute Alexander II.

Because of this experience, Vladimir was propelled into revolutionary activity.  As such, Vladimir, who changed his name to V. I. Lenin, would become a leader in the Russian Revolution. As a leading activist, Lenin wrote a series of articles that would not only serve as a guide for revolution in Russia, but also laid the intellectual foundation for what would become Marxism- Leninism. These articles included The Development of Capitalism in Russia.   In this work, Lenin tried to prove that that by 1900, Russia had already been incorporated into the world capitalist system. As a result, the peasants were rapidly being divided into capitalist farmers and the rural proletariat. Russian industry was divided between traditional handicrafts, backward manufacturing, and a modern machine industry in which a great deal of foreign capital was invested.

In 1902, Lenin wrote the pamphlet, What is to be Done.  “Without revolutionary theory there can be no revolutionary movement,” Lenin stated.  He wrote that unions by themselves would only lead to struggles over wages and working conditions; a socialist consciousness needed to be introduced from outside the working class. This would require an organization of professional revolutionaries. The organization would need to be disciplined, conspiratorial, and centralized. The “party of a new type” would become the vanguard of the working class and would lead, but remain separate from, the broader democratic workers’ movement.

In 1904, Lenin wrote One Step Forward, Two Steps Back. At this time, Lenin’s writing was based upon the assumption that the workers’ party needed to be taken over by those workers who were educated with a socialist awareness. The intellectuals were undependable, obsessed with eccentricity, anarchism and egoism, and had an intense horror of discipline. 

Materialism and Empiriocriticism was written in 1908 as a rebuttal to Ernst Mach who stated that reality was only the reality of our experience, and science could only record our subjective experiences.  In Materialism and Empiriocriticism, Lenin affirmed that science is the observation of the material universe, existing independently of the observer. Physical sensations are the direct connection to the external world. Every ideology is conditioned by its historical setting. Science is no different, yet science is valid.  It is independent of the observer to the degree it corresponds externally to tangible nature.

            Sensations are our obvious link between our consciousness and the external world. Energy affects our bodies, which are excited by stimuli and provoked by the external world.  This in turn excites a chemical response in our nervous system and is transformed into consciousness by the mental activity of our brains. The energy of the exterior excitation changes physical and chemical corporeal activities and is transformed into sensations. Sensations are changed into consciousness. Consciousness is cast and grows. Consciousness interprets sensations. This implies a dynamic and interactive process in mental development. We learn through actively interacting with both the social and physical environment.

            Physical and social realities are constantly changing. There is an eternal process of conflict and fusion of conflicting parts leading to the death of the old and the birth of the new.  This simple logic is basic to anything that can be studied.  It is more than a part of mental processes, or the way that the world is studied and understood. This logic is broadly similar to the way the universe is constantly evolving.  The opposition and combination of components forming ever-greater wholes is an approximation of what is really happening to the universe outside the mind. When these opposing and interacting parts are fused, there is something basically different being formed that will replace what went before. The new thing soon develops its own tensions as it begins to break down. These new tensions not only lead to the extinction of this entity, but also give birth to its replacement.

            Science is a specialized form of logical practice. It is the most objective certainty yet in existence. Science is founded upon the certainty that there is an external reality that is independent of our consciousness. Through careful observation and the use of  specific scientific method to analyze observations,  this external reality is more closely revealed than by any other technique of understanding. Because all scientific observations are approximations, science is a constantly growing discipline. Every generation will get progressively closer to this external reality.  The limitations of the categories used are always qualified, modest, changeable, provisional, and approximate. Each scientific breakthrough is built on earlier breakthroughs. Because every ideology is historically conditioned, science itself occurs in a specific historical setting. This is the basis of materialism; the fact that political states are a reality can be understood in terms of matter in motion. 

         In 1908, Lenin wrote The Agrarian Program of Social Democracy in the First Revolution. Most peasants in Russia were downgraded to farm workers and tenant farmers. Only a small number of peasants had enough land to endure as farmers. A minority of the farmers were rapidly becoming more like American capitalist farmers. The large feudal latifundium (large estates) remained. The latifundiums slowly developed into large farms modeled on the German Junker type. With the breaking down of feudalism, capitalism developed. The market economy merely meant that the state was becoming a major landowner.

 Lenin contributed to the Marxist theory of Imperialism with his text called Imperialism: the Highest Stage of Capitalism.   According to Lenin, imperialism was “the final stage of capitalism”; a sign of the breakdown of capitalism and the transition to socialism. Competitive capitalism of the early 19th century had become increasingly centralized with fewer competitive firms surviving the increasingly intense competition. As a result, capital became concentrated in larger firms. In this way, “monopoly capitalism” was able to create ever-larger surpluses by limiting competition. Markets at home became glutted and investment opportunities in the industrialized nations declined. This meant that corporate capitalists were forced to export capital to insure future profits. This became, for Lenin, a major distinction between the earlier competitive capitalism and its later descendent, monopoly capitalism. Competitive capitalism exported finished goods in exchange for raw materials produced in the poor areas of the world. Monopoly capitalism exported its capital to these areas. Capital was invested to create modern ways of extracting those same raw materials. Instead of mines being owned by the local traditional elite, capitalists in the rich industrial nations owned them. This caused an increase in overall capital on a world scale, while arresting development in the main capitalist countries.

The principal feature of modern capitalism was the domination of monopolist consolidations by giant capitalist firms. The monopoly control was most firmly established when all sources of raw materials were jointly controlled by several large surviving firms. Monopoly capitalism, with a few highly centralized firms effectively dominating the economy, created imperialism out of its own needs. In order to find continued profits in an already over-developed economy at home, investments flowed to less developed areas of the world, where the capitalist economy had not reached a saturation point; therefore making profits much higher. Export of capital was the fundamental principle of imperialism. The export of capital greatly influenced and hastened the growth of capitalism in those countries to which it was exported.

The next two most important of Lenin’s works, which outlined his sense of history, were State and Revolution and Left Wing Communism: An Infantile Disorder.  Both were models for the direction revolution would take. In State and Revolution, Lenin maintained that the workers couldn’t merely take over control of the existing state; they needed to smash it.  Then, when the returning bourgeoisie was overthrown, the state would wither away. In Left Wing Communism: An Infantile Disorder, Lenin disapproved of leftists in the West for disregarding parliamentary tactics and legal opportunities to create their own socialist revolution. Lenin also summarized the significance of all communist parties that had become centralized and disciplined, and were following the lead of the Russian Party.

Besides being a leader of the Russian Revolution and brilliant political tactician, Lenin was a capable historical sociologist with a good understanding of the history of social movements and historical trends.

Michael Joseph Francisconi

University of Montana Western

Furthering Readings;

Lenin, V.I. (1934) The Emancipation of Women. New York: International Publishers.

Lenin, V.I. (1939) Imperialism: The Highest Stage of Capitalism. New York: International Publishers.

Lenin, V.I. (1947) One Step Forward, Two Steps Back.  Moscow Progress Publishers.

Lenin, V.I. (1954) The Agrarian Program of Social Democracy in the First Revolution 1905- 1907.  Moscow Progress Publishers.

Lenin, V.I. (1954) Critical Remarks on The National Question / The Right of Nations to Self-determination.  Moscow Progress Publishers.

Lenin, V.I. (1956) The Development of Capitalism in Russia.  Moscow Progress Publishers.

Lenin, V.I. (1970) Left Wing Communism: An Infantile Disorder.  Peking: Foreign Language Press.

Lenin, V.I. (1970) Materialism and Empiriocriticism. Peking: Foreign Language Press.

Lenin, V.I. (1970) The State and Revolution.  Peking: Foreign Language Press.

Lenin, V.I. (1970) What the Friends of the People Are and How to Fight the Social-Democrats.  Moscow Progress Publishers.

Lenin, V.I. (1973) What is to be Done.  Peking: Foreign Language Press.

White, James D. (2001) Lenin: The Practice and Theory of Revolution. Hampshire England: Palgrave.

Lenin, Vladimir I.U. (1000 words)

Born in 1870, Valdimir Ilyich Ulyanov (who later changed his name to Vladimir Lenin) was a son of a civil service official in the Russian government. Lenin became interested in socialism and revolution when his brother Aleksander Ulyanov was executed in 1887 for being a part of a group who attempted to execute Alexander III. Shortly thereafter Lenin studied law, but was banished from the University for his revolutionary interests; he completed his studies independently, even though he became a professional revolutionary and not a lawyer. Because of his revolutionary activities, Lenin was exiled to Siberia from 1895 to 1900. During his exile, he wrote The Development of Capitalism in Russia. With this publication, Lenin showed that Russia depended upon a capitalist-based economy. Within Russia at this time, the peasants were divided between a developing peasant bourgeoisie (capitalist farmers) and peasant proletariat (farm laborers). The peasants between these two economic classes were disappearing. Russian industry was divided between traditional handicrafts, backward manufacturing, and a modern machine industry, with a great deal of foreign capital invested only in the later.

After returning from exile in Siberia, he took the name Lenin, and left Russia, joining with other Russian revolutionaries in Europe. In 1902 he wrote the pamphlet What is to be Done, feeling that Social Democrats needed to be clear on the main principles of Socialism. “Without revolutionary theory there can be no revolutionary movement.” In his pamphlet, Lenin wrote that unions, standing by themselves, would only lead to struggles over wages and working conditions; a socialist consciousness needed to be introduced from the outside of the working class. He felt that, for the workers to learn to stand together, they must struggle against their employers, class society, and the state. This organization would need to be disciplined, conspiratorial, and centralized. The “party of a new type” would be come the vanguard of the working class, and would lead, but remain separate from the broader democratic workers movement.

In 1904, Lenin completed One Step Forward, Two Steps Back. The intelligentsias were fixated with individualism, anarchism, and had revulsion for discipline. The workers, because of their work life, were familiar with discipline and self-sacrifice. Lenin wrote that intellectuals were too indecisive to be serious socialists.

         Materialism and Empiriocriticism was written in 1908 to destroy the influences of Machism in the socialist party. Ernst Mach argued that science cannot discover a reality independent of our experience of that reality; that science only records our experience of reality and not reality itself.

         In Materialism and Empiriocriticism, Lenin stated that logic in science is the observation of the material universe, existing independent of the observer. Physical sensations are the direct connection to the external world. Every ideology is conditioned by its historical setting. Science is no different, yet science is valid independent of the observer to the degree it corresponds externally to tangible nature.

         Also in 1908 Lenin wrote The Agrarian Program of Social Democracy in the First Revolution. In this, he clarified the peasant situation in Russia at the time. Most peasants in Russia were reduced farm workers or tenant farmers. Few peasants had enough land for them to survive. A few were rapidly becoming like American capitalist farmers. The large feudal latifundium (large estates) remained. The latifundium were slowly developing into large farms modeled on the German Junker type. Lenin tried to prove that, by breaking down feudalism, capitalism would develop. He explained that the demand for nationalization of the latifundium by the poor would not work at this early stage. The established market economy would simply make the state become the landowner, and rebellion would grow. Only by the expansion of capitalist relationships in the countryside would socialist consciousness grow among the poor peasants.

Lenin was in Switzerland when World War I broke out. He saw World War I as an imperialist war; he wrote in Imperialism: the Highest Stage of Capitalism that imperialism was “the final stage of capitalism,” and that this war offered the prospect for a socialist revolution. Lenin recommended that the proletariat oppose the war and turn it into a civil war against the capitalist class.

Competitive capitalism of the early 19th century had become increasingly centralized (fewer competitive firms) and concentrated (larger firms). Monopoly capitalism was able to create larger surpluses by limiting competition. This meant that corporate capitalists were forced to export capital to insure future profits. This became, for Lenin, a major distinction between the earlier competitive capitalism and its later descendent, monopoly capitalism. Competitive capitalism exported finished goods in exchange for raw materials produced in the poor areas of the world. Monopoly capitalism exported its capital to these areas. Capital was invested to create modern ways of extracting those same raw materials. Instead of the mines being owned by the local traditional elite, capitalists in the rich industrial nations owned them. This then increased overall capital on a world scale while arresting development in the main capitalist countries.

The principal feature of modern capitalism was the domination of monopolist consolidations by giant capitalist firms. The monopoly control was most firmly established when all sources of raw materials were controlled by a single joining of several large surviving firms. Monopoly capitalism, when a few highly centralized firms effectively dominated the economy, created imperialism out of its own needs. In order to find continued profits in an already overly-developed economy at home, investments flowed to less developed areas of the world where the capitalist economy had not reached a saturation point, therefore making profits much higher. Export of capital was the fundamental principle of imperialism. The export of capital greatly influenced and hastened the growth of capitalism in those countries to which it was exported.

In The National Question, Lenin recognized the right of national self-determination, although he was aware of the problem of national chauvinism. He felt that internationalism was central to any hope for socialism.

With the Revolution of March 1917, the German government allowed Lenin to return to Russia, insisting, however that he go in a sealed railway car, so that the followers of his revolutionary ideas would not know of his passing.

Lenin stated in his April Thesis that Russia was now ripe for a socialist revolution, arguing that the Provisional government represented the bourgeoisie, whereas the soviets represented a revolutionary democratic dictatorship of the proletariat and peasantry; the proletariat led the poor peasantry toward the full power of the Soviets of Workers' Deputies. In State and Revolution, Lenin claimed the workers couldn’t simply take control of the existing state; they needed to smash it. He proposed that the new worker’s state replace the police and military with armed worker’s militias. Elected representatives accountable to the workers councils and subject to popular recall would replace the bureaucracy. All officers would be paid worker wages. In Lenin’s proposal, when the return of bourgeoisie was overthrown, the state would wither away.

            In November 1917, the Bolsheviks, led by Lenin, who had returned to Petrograd, overthrew Kerensky’s regime and established a Soviet government. Lenin became chairman of the Council of People's Commissars. A bitter civil war followed, which, although the Bolsheviks won, because Western Europe failed to have a successful socialist revolution of its own, and because Russia was in economic ruin, Lenin was forced to delay establishing a socialist government immediately, instead market reforms were put in place. In Left Wing Communism: An Infantile Disorder Lenin criticized leftist elements in the West for neglecting parliamentary tactics and legal opportunities to create their own socialist revolution. He reiterated the importance of all communist parties becoming centralized, disciplined, and following the lead of the Russian Party. Lenin died January 21 1924. Lenin never lived long enough to see a successful conclusion to his life’s work, or socialism in Russia. He is remembered most because of a legacy created by his followers in the new Soviet Union. In death he became more important to the evolution of Marxist theory than he ever was in life. For the remainder of the century, the phrase Marxism-Leninism became the definition of orthodox Marxism.

Michael Joseph Francisconi

University of Montana Western

Furthering Readings and References

Davis, Horace B. (1978) Toward A Marxist Theory Of Nationalism New York, Monthly Review

Lenin, V.I. (1934) The Emancipation of Women New York, International Publishers

Lenin, V.I. (1939) Imperialism: The Highest Stage of Capitalism New York, International Publishers

Lenin, V.I. (1947) One Step Forward, Two Steps Back Moscow Progress Publishers

Lenin, V.I. (1954) The Agrarian Program of Social Democracy in the First Revolution 1905- 1907 Moscow Progress Publishers

Lenin, V.I. (1954) Critical Remarks on The National Question / The Right of Nations to Self-determination Moscow Progress Publishers

Lenin, V.I. (1956) The Development of Capitalism in Russia Moscow Progress Publishers

Lenin, V.I. (1970) Left Wing Communism: An Infantile Disorder Peking, Foreign Language Press

Lenin, V.I. (1970) Materialism and Empiriocriticism Peking, Foreign Language Press

Lenin, V.I. (1970) The State and Revolution Peking, Foreign Language Press

Lenin, V.I. (1970) What the Friends of the People are and How to Fight the Social-Democrats Moscow Progress Publishers

Lenin, V.I. (1973) What is to be Done Peking, Foreign Language Press

White, James D. (2001) Lenin: The Practice and Theory of Revolution Hampshire England, Palgrave.