Essays on Vladimir Lenin

Vladimir Lenin was born Vladimir Ilich Ulyanov on April 22, 1870, in Simbirsk, Russia. He was the son of Ilya Ulyanov and Maria Alexandrovna Ulyanova, who were well-educated parents.

As a teenager, Lenin became politically radicalized after his older brother was executed in 1887, for being a part of a group planning to assassinate Emperor Alexander III. Two years after, Lenin declared himself a Marxist. In December 1895, he was exiled to Siberia with his fiancée and future wife, Nadezhda Krupskaya, with whom he would marry on July 22, 1898. Following his release from exile, Lenin moved to Germany and then Switzerland. In 1901, he adopted the last name Lenin and later established the Bolshevik Party.

In 1917, the Russian Revolution was already beginning when Tsar Nicholas II abdicated, ending centuries of imperial rule. In late 1917 Lenin led the October Revolution, that was essentially a coup d’état, that was followed by three years of civil war. The new Soviet government ended Russian involvement in World War I.

After the Bolshevik Revolution, Lenin established Russia's first secret police named "Cheka". Lenin launched a vicious campaign that he used to eliminate the opposition within the civilian population, the campaign became known as the Red Terror. The "Cheka" have executed as many as 100,000 so-called "class enemies" during the Red Terror. Lenin's Red Army won Russia's civil war. In 1922, Lenin formed the Union of Soviet Republics (USSR) and became the first head of the state.

Between 1922 and his death in 1924, Lenin suffered a series of strokes. Joseph Stalin, the Communist Party's new General Secretary, begun to amass great power. Lenin saw him as a threat to the USSR, and he issued what came to be called as his Testament in 1923. Lenin died on January 21, 1924, in Gorki Leninskiye near Moscow.

Vladimir Lenin considered as one of the most significant and influential figures of the 20th century. Lenin regarded as the greatest revolutionary leader and thinker since Marx.

"Freedom in capitalist society always remains about the same as it was in ancient Greek republics: Freedom for slave owners."
"There are decades where nothing happens; and there are weeks where decades happen."
"A lie told often enough becomes the truth."