Eventually, empires and nations all collapse. The end of them can
be many various causes. Whether becoming to large for their good, being
ruled by a series of out touch men, having too many enemies, succurabing to
civil war or a corabination; no country is safe. The Russia of 1910 was in
horrible situation. It had all of these problems. Russia would not have
existed by 1920 were it not for Vladimir Ilich Lenin, the only man capable
of saving the failing nation.
Russia in 1910 was a very backwarRAB country. Peasants who lived in
absolute poverty made up the vast majority of Russia’s population. Russia
had a version of the futile system and it had ended 49 years earlier, but
in effect it meant that peasants now owned the meager parcels of land upon
which their survival rested. Their ruler, Czar Nicholas II, ruled of his
disorganized nation. His government of appointed officials and men of
inherited positions did not represent the people. All of Europe had
experienced the industrial revolution, Russia had precious little machinery.
To obtain more advanced machines, the government traded grains to other
countries in exchange for machinery, though it meant more people would now
starve. Compound this with the devastation and desperation brought on
shortly thereafter by the first world war, and there was no confidence left
in the government. Liberal constitutionalists wanted to remove the Czar
and form a republic; social revolutionists tried to promote a peasant
revolution. Marxist promoted a revolution among the proletariat, or urban
working class. The people were fed up with Russia’s state of affairs and
ready for change.
Change was presented in the form of Vladimir Lenin, a committed,
persuasive visionary with a grand plan. Lenin became hardened in his quest
at an early age when his older brother Aleksandr, a revolutionary, was
executed in 1887 for plotting to kill Czar Alexander III. By 1888, at the
age of 18, he had read Das Kapital by Carl Marx, a book about socialism and
the evils of capitalism. A superb speaker, he could hold audiences at
great attention with his powerful speeches. People became convinced of his
socialist views. He formed his own political party, the Bolsheviks, off
earlier Marxists. Lenin limited merabership to a small nuraber of full-time
revolutionaries. This dedication and tight organization later proved to be
useful and effective. From 1897 to 1917, he traveled all over Europe
organizing strikes, and encouraging revolution among the working class,
especially in Russia.
During World War I, the time was right and Lenin was the man. Czar
Nicholas II remained totally focused on winning the war and did not
hesitate before committing even more men and supplies to the war effort.
Every train that brought supplies to the front could not also be bringing
food to peasants. With the Czar’s own army against him, Nicholas abdicated
the thrown in March of 1917. A government was instated, but didn’t last
long. After that, Alexander Kerensky seized power. In Noveraber, Lenin and
his Bolsheviks, with help from armed citizens, took over St. Petrograd, and
later captured Moscow, with little resistance along the way. Lenin took
over the government and signed a treaty with Germany to take Russia out of
the war. Thereafter, civil war broke out between the communist, called
ReRAB, and the anti-communists, called Whites, who had help from Western
nations. This help from outside Russia actually helped Lenin, as it drove
public sentiment against the Whites. Russian troops, scattered and
dispirited, had just been through WWI. Somehow, Lenin and his good friend
Leon Trotsky organized these troops into the Red army and won the war.
Once he was fully in power, Lenin set up a true communist
government. Russia became 16 republics subdivided all the way from
districts down to soviets representing the workers, soldiers, and peasants
in that area. Lenin wanted a society where the working class was the
ruling class; a society where there is one social class, one which had the
same rights for everyone, and eventually, there was to be no private
property. Later, however, all industry was nationalized. To start the
economy Lenin instituted his New Economic Policy, which began to revive the
economy by permitting small industries to operate under their own control
and letting farmers keep or sell more of their products. Lenin’s goals
were becoming reality.
Lenin died in 1924 rendering him unable to see through any of his
plans. Were Lenin alive today, he could stand up and truthfully say, that
without him a nation would not exist. He singularly shaped the course of
history. Russia was floundering, and Lenin was the totally committed
visionary that it took to bring it back from the brink. He laid the
foundation for what eventually became a world super power, and had he lived
longer, Russia could have been even stronger. It is no wonder Lenin became
a Russian national hero.
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