Lenin biography book

Lenin : A Biography. Robert Service. His name elicits revulsion and reverence. And yet Lenin the man remains largely a mystery. I was overwhelmed by the power and vividness of this portrait. This book deserves a place among the best studies of one of the most fascinating figures in modern history' Harold Shukman, The Times. Married with four children, he lives in London.

The Russian Revolution would have happened, a socialist government in Russia would likely have taken over. But would it have been Communist? Would the USSR have formed? Would it have survived for seven decades? These are interesting questions with varying degrees of answers. Lenin was odd, no doubt. He had to obsessively clean his bike after riding it, clean his desk before using it.

Had to line up his sharpened pencils before and after use. He had to work in complete lenin biography book and shut out distractions to work on the revolution. He banned himself from playing chess, listening to classical music and even his lover Inessa Armand. A man who once sickened himself by the warm and happy feelings music gave him. Influenced by the execution of his revolutionary older brother Alexander and the dry novel What is to be Done?

By Nioklay Chernyshevsky. He dedicated his life to the cause of Marxism. However, when it came. The country hung on a knife edge. Famine and workers strikes raged. Mutinies continued. The red army limped on and managed to defeat the whites, but then was humiliated in its invasion of Poland in Instead the USSR was born. Lenin was however, extraordinary in a number of ways.

He was extremely intelligence, his unusually huge head contained a large brain. He worked extremely hard, long and continuously, never straying from his cause. This in fact contributed to his death inas taken office and ruling was too much. He was able to see the problems, introducing the New Economic Policy NEP and opening up trade with capitalist powers went against his Marxist doctrine.

But it was necessary to keep the regime going. He was brutal in his policies and thought only in terms of how to bring about the revolution for example war with Germany was good as even though millions would die, the revolution might come. Although a coward for most of his life, he had no problem with directing others, whether innocent children or peasants to be brutally executed.

In his great paradox his however, showed a middle class respect to his guests even a priest on one occasion and deplored physical violence in politics. Preferring the debate. This book is masterful scholarship by one of the greats in Russian History. As Robert Service says, most of the previous biographies have been hagiographies, born to project the myth of the atheist prophet.

A pure and two dimensional character of Marxist doctrine. A character needed to keep the rhetoric going. Lenin of course was much more than this. He cheated on his wife, probably suffered from syphilis, lived in relatively luxury, had servants and ensured the woman in his life, lived only to serve him. None of this could have been revealed without the collapse of the USSR, a system he built.

But the monster has to be addressed, it has to be faced to understand the history of the world and of Russia.

Lenin biography book: Victor Sebestyen's riveting biography

This is why I read this, from an author I trust. Had to cite sections for a history final, the anticommunist slant makes it almost unreadable. Robert Service's Hitler particles are absolutely overwhelming. Moshtagh hosein. Winston Churchill's famous quote on Russia that "Russia is a riddle, wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma" certainly also applies to Lenin.

Born to nobility with servants and peasants who paid his family rent, his brother was hanged for an assassination attempt on the Emperor. An avowed Marxist who fled from the police most of his early life, he abandoned his wife once to escape.

Lenin biography book: Lenin: A Biography is a biography

Having ulcers that had no treatment caused him constant pain and insomnia. He also had several heart attacks and a stroke that was the cause of his death. He survived 2 assassination attempts and one that left a bullet in his neck. Quite comically the author badly attempts to explain Marxism and Lenin's view of Marxism until on pagethe author gives up and writes "Marxism does not have definable orthodoxy.

Marx was too elusive a writer to leave a clear-cut legacy behind him. He is not a military man as has never fought in a war and invades Poland which his army is horribly defeated in one day. He realizes his utopian view of socialism is quite wrong and he needs capitalist money and offers the Noble Oil Company the right to have Russian oil.

He is in power for less than 5 years and demands that Stalin will not succeed him. Well-paced, well-balanced, fair, judicious. Unlike the man himself. One of the most significant figures of the 20th century and beyond? A very worthwhile read.

Lenin biography book: Lenin: A Biography is

Kshitiz Goliya. Lenin, from distance, is assumed to be a great humanist crusader of communasim - a champion of workers and peasents. He is considered to be the founder of a socialist state which Stalin led astray. On the contrary, he was a well to do upper middle class intellectual who spent most of his life away from Russia writing and debating and was never a famous personality till revolution.

Besides being a boastful theorist who thought that only his interpretation of Marx was right, he was no friend of peasents and considered them an obstruction to his vision. Finally and most importantly, Lenin was the founder of the ideology of terror and dictatorship in strengthening communism. Stalin just followed the path shown by lenin, albeit, with greater brutality.

Notwithstanding all his flaws, he was a brilliant intellectual and a forceful politician who knew how to get his way and there is no doubt that USSR wouldn't have survived without his unflinching leadership. This book, relying on newly accessable archives on Lenin, is brilliant as instead of being a hagiography it gives a holistic view of Lenin's personality, highlighting all his flaws and strengths thus presenting as another although influential human being which all great men are.

It will disappoint hero worshippers but delight curious students. This book sets the history right and thus has to be read. Fred Klein. For the most part, I found this book readable and interesting. Thankfully, the publisher provided some nice maps showing Lenin's travels, and I truly wish maps like these were included in all history books.

I will admit to feeling lost sometimes when the author described Lenin's theories and philosophies, mostly because Lenin was -- as the lenin biography book advises -- inconsistent. I also found it hard to understand why the different socialist factions were at odds about what seemed to me to be small details. Article Talk. Read Edit View history.

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