Lenin: A Revolutionary Life

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Authors: Christopher Read

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Leni
n

‘An excellent biography, which captures the real Lenin – part intel
lectual professor, part ruthless and dogmatic politician.’

Geoffrey Swain, University of the West of England

‘A fascinating book about a gigantic historical figure. Christopher Read is an accomplished scholar and superb writer who has produced a first-rate study that is courageous, original in its insights, and deeply humane.’

Daniel Orlovsky, Southern Methodist University

Vladimir Il’ich Ulyanov, known as Lenin was an enigmatic leader, a resolute and audacious politician who had an immense impact on twentieth-century world history. Lenin’s life and career have been at the centre of much ideological debate for many decades. The post-Soviet era has seen a revived interest and re-evaluation of the Russian Revolution and Lenin’s legacy.

This new biography gives a fresh and original account of Lenin’s personal life and political career. Christopher Read draws on a broad range of primary and secondary sources, including material made available in the glasnost and post-Soviet eras. Focal points of this study are Lenin’s revolutionary ascetic personality; how he exploited culture, education and propaganda; his relationship to Marxism; his changing class analysis of Russia; and his ‘populist’ instincts.

This biography is an excellent and reliable introduction to one of the key figures of the Russian Revolution and post-Tsarist Russia.

Christopher Read is Professor of Modern European History at the University of Warwick. He is author of From Tsar to Soviets: The Russian People and Their Revolution, 1917–21 (1996), Culture and Power in Revolutionary Russia (1990) and The Making and Breaking of the Soviet System (2001).

ROUTLEDGE HISTORICAL BIOGRAPHIE
S

Series Editor: Robert Pearce

Routledge Historical Biographies provide engaging, readable and academically credible biographies written from an explicitly histori
cal perspective. These concise and accessible accounts will bring important historical figures to life for students and general readers alike.

In the same series:

Bismarck by Edgar Feuchtwanger Churchill by Robert Pearce Gladstone by Michael Partridge Henry VII by Sean Cunningham Henry VIII by Lucy Wooding Hitler by Martyn Housden Jinnah by Sikander Hayat Martin Luther King Jr. by Peter J. Ling Mary Queen of Scots by Retha Warnicke Martin Luther by Michael Mullet Mao by Michael Lynch Mussolini by Peter Neville Nehru by Ben Zachariah Emmeline Pankhurst by Paula Bartley Richard III by Ann Kettle Franklin D. Roosevelt by Stuart Kidd Stalin by Geoffrey Roberts Trotsky by Ian Thatcher Mary Tudor by Judith Richards

LENIN
A REEVOLUTIONARY LIFE
Christopher Rea
d

First published 2005 by Routledge 2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN

Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada by Routledge 270 Madison Ave., New York, NY 10016

Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group
This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2005.

“To purchase your own copy of this or any of Taylor & Francis or Routledge’s collection of thousands of eBooks please go to www.eBookstore.tandf.co.uk.”

© 2005 Christopher Read
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilized in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data Read, Christopher, 1946– Lenin : a revolutionary life / by Christopher Read.-- 1st ed.

p. cm. --(Routledge historical biographies
)
Includes bibliographical references and index.

1. Lenin, Vladimir Il’ich, 1870-1924--Juvenile literature.

  1. Revolutionaries--Soviet Union--Biography--Juvenile literature.
  2. Heads of state--Soviet Union--Biography--Juvenile literature.
  3. Soviet Union--Politics and government--1917-1936--Juvenile

literature. I. Title. II. Series. DK254.L455R43 2005 947.084'1'092--dc22

2004026081

ISBN 0-203-64479-4 Master e-book ISBN

ISBN 0-203-67416-2 (Adobe eReader Format)
ISBN 0–415–20648–0 (hbk) ISBN 0–415–20649–9 (pbk)
C
ONTENT
S

L
IST OF
P
LATES
vi A
CKNOWLEDGEMENTS
vii C
HRONOLOGY
ix

Introduction
1
1 Choosing revolution
4
2 Laying the foundations of Leninism (1896–1902)
29
3 Constructing Leninism
63
4 Imperialism, war and revolution
106
5 From the Finland station to the Winter Palace
142
6 From classroom to laboratory – early experiments
184
7 Revolutionary war
205
8 Re-evaluation, succession and testament
256
Conclusion: Lenin lived! Lenin lives! Lenin will live forever!
283

N
OTES
292 F
URTHER
R
EADING
300 I
NDEX
303

P
LATES

(between pages 180 and 181)
1
The Ulyanov family in Simbirsk, 1879, Vladimin is bottom right
2
Lenin as a university student, 1891
3
Lenin and the Petersburg League of Struggle, 1895. Lenin is in
the centre seated behind the table
4
Forged passport, 1917
5
Lenin sitting at his desk, c. 1921
6
Lenin, Krupskaya and children on a bench, 1922
7
Lenin in a wheelchair, 1923
8
Crowd at Lenin’s funeral, 1924. The cult begins
9
Lenin’s work goes on – Pravda editors at work (Bukharin and
Maria Ulyanova, Lenin’s sister), 1925

A
CKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Many people have helped me understand something of Lenin and develop my ideas about him, especially colleagues, visitors and students in the History Department of the University of Warwick and at the Centre for Russian and East European Studies in Birmingham. I am deeply indebted to them all. While my ideas differ from theirs (and theirs differ from each other) two people I initially met as my teachers have exerted a lasting influence over the subsequent decades. James White, at Glasgow, opened up what were, for me, hidden aspects of the Russian Revolution and the creative differences we have had since con
tinue to stimulate. The influence of the late Leonard Schapiro also looms large over this study. His sharply critical but well-founded and path-breaking studies remain a model of liberal scholarship.

This volume was initially commissioned by Heather McCallum who has since left Routledge. She did, however, have a decisive influence on its emergence. When I signed up to write it I was attracted by two aspects above all: the challenge, for a temperamentally and unfashionably structuralist historian like myself, of writing about an individual and secondly the fact that no up-to-date one-volume scholarly study of Lenin’s life had been published for nearly two decades. However, the ink had hardly dried on the contract when I attended a study day in London for college students studying the Russian Revolution. During a break between lectures I was leaning on the imposing lectern in the hallowed Victorian lecture theatre of the Royal Institution. I turned to my two friends and fellow speakers asking them about the progress of their current research. Beryl Williams replied that she was in the throes of completing her one-volume biography of Lenin. Robert Service said he was nearing completion of his one-volume life of Lenin which was complementary to his three-volume political biography. Beryl’s excellent book came out some months later and Bob’s heavyweight tome went on to win prizes and appear in many ‘book of the year’ lists in the cultural journals. In the meantime, knowing by then that James White was also working on his biography of Lenin, I went back to Heather and pointed out that, apart from mine, there were at least three other
Lenin
s in preparation. Was it worth continuing? ‘Why ever not?’, she replied.

‘There are sixteen Gladstones out there being written.’ Only the reader will judge whether she was right to encourage me.

Since Heather’s departure Vicky Peters has been a friendly, supportive and patient editor. I am, above all, indebted to Robert Pearce, the series editor, for very helpful and detailed comments on the first draft and also to Dan Orlovsky and Geoff Swain who have made many pertinent, penetrating, helpful, positive and supportive observations on the typescript. Despite all their efforts to put me right there will still be errors and misunderstandings. These are entirely my responsibility.

C
HRONOLOG
Y

Year
Lenin's Life
Russian Events
World Events
1870
born in Simbirsk (10/22 April)
1871
Germany unified; German Empire proclaimed
1877–8
Russo–Turkish War
1881
Tsar Alexander II assassinated
1886
father dies; Alexander Ulyanov arrested for terrorist offences; takes school leaving exams and enters Kazan University
1887
Alexander Ulyanov executed (May); expelled from university
1892
awarded first-class degree in law from University of St Petersburg
1893
first pamphlet published
1895
first foreign journey; returns to help found League of Struggle for the Emancipation of the Working Class; first arrest (December)
1896
spends the year in prison
1897
exiled to Shushenskoe in Siberia
1898
marries Nadezhda Krupskaya
Russian Social Democratic Labour Party founded in Minsk

chronology

Year Lenin's Life Russian Events World Events

1899
Development of Capitalism in Russia published
1900
returns from Siberia
first issue of Iskra
(January) and leaves for western Europe (July); lives in Munich
published; Liberation movement, later Constitutional
Democratic Party (Kadets), set up
1901
Krupskaya joins Lenin; pseudonym ‘Lenin’ used for first time
Socialist Revolutionary (SR) Party founded
1902
What is to be Done?
published
1903
with Krupskaya moves to London and later Geneva
Second Party Congress held in Brussels and
London
1904
One Step Forward: Two Steps Back published
1905
Two Tactics of Social
revolution in
Democracy in the Democratic Revolution published; returns to Russia (November); goes into hiding (December)
Russia; Bloody Sunday (January); October Manifesto; Moscow Uprising (December)
1906
remains in hiding making frequent forays into Russia from
Duma system set up; First Duma elected
Finland
1907
leaves Finland and
Second Duma
returns to western Europe (December)
disbanded; Third Duma elected on limited franchise
1908
with Krupskaya settles in Geneva

Russo–Japanese War begins

Treaty of Portsmouth ends Russo–Japanese War

Year
Lenin's Life
chronology
xi
Russian Events World Events
1909
Materialism and Empiriocriticism published; with Krupskaya moves to Paris; meets Inessa Armand
1911
Prime Minister
Stolypin assassinated
1912
with Krupskaya moves to Poland
Prague Conference of Bolsheviks; Pravda first First Balkan War
published; Fourth Duma elected
1913
Second Balkan War
1914
with Krupskaya leaves Poland for Switzerland
First World War begins; Second Socialist International
1915
hopelessly split over war Zimmerwald Conference
1916
completes Imperialism: The Highest Stage of Capitalism: A Popular Outline; first published in truncated version in
Brusilov offensive Kienthal Conference; battles of Somme, Jutland and Verdun
1917
1917
returns to Russia and proclaims his April Theses; flees to Finland after July Days; writes State and
February Revolution; July Days; Kornilov affair; October Revolution United States enters First World War
Revolution; takes part in October Revolution; becomes head of the new Soviet state
proclaims soviet power; Constituent Assembly elected

Year Lenin's Life Russian Events World Events

1918
Lenin, and Soviet government, move to Moscow Kremlin; writes Immediate Tasks of the Soviet
Constituent Assembly disbanded; Civil War flares up (July)
Treaty of Brest-Litovsk ends war on eastern front (March); armistice on western front
Government (March) signalling shift to ‘iron discipline’
(November)
1919
Civil War at its peak
Communist International
(Comintern) founded; Versailles Conference (Russia excluded)
1920
Whites virtually defeated; war with Poland; Tambov Uprising
1921
dominates Tenth Party Congress; NEP adopted
Tenth Party Congress; Kronstadt Uprising
1922
suffers first stroke (May) and second in December
Stalin appointed General Secretary of Communist Party
1923
composes the various elements of his so-called Last Testament; last article, ‘Better Fewer but Better’, is written (March); suffers third stroke
Soviet Union (USSR) formally established
1924
dies (21 January)

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