Vladimir Ilyich Lenin was a Russian statesman and political figure, the founder of the Soviet state and the Communist Party. Under his leadership, the date of Lenin’s birth and death of the leader took place - 1870, April 22, and 1924, January 21, respectively.

Political and government activities

In 1917, after arriving in Petrograd, the leader of the proletariat led the October Uprising. He was elected Chairman of the Council of People's Commissars (Council of People's Commissars) and the Council of Peasant and Workers' Defense. was a member of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee. Since 1918, Lenin lived in Moscow. In conclusion, the leader of the proletariat played a key role. It was discontinued in 1922 due to serious illness. The date of Lenin's birth and death of the politician, thanks to his active work, went down in history.

Events of 1918

In 1918, on August 30, a coup d'état began. Trotsky was absent from Moscow at that time - he was on the Eastern Front, in Kazan. Dzerzhinsky was forced to leave the capital in connection with the murder of Uritsky. A very tense situation has developed in Moscow. Colleagues and relatives insisted that Vladimir Ilyich not go anywhere or attend any events. But the leader of the Bolsheviks refused to violate the schedule of speeches by the leaders of the regional authorities. A performance was planned in the Basmanny district, at the Bread Exchange. According to the recollections of the secretary of the Yampolskaya district committee, Lenin’s security was entrusted to Shablovsky, who was then supposed to escort Vladimir Ilyich to Zamoskvorechye. However, two or three hours before the expected start of the meeting, it was reported that the leader had been asked not to speak. But the leader still came to the Bread Exchange. He was guarded, as expected, by Shablovsky. But there was no security at the Mikhelson plant.

Who killed Lenin?

Kaplan (Fanny Efimovna) was the perpetrator of the attempt on the life of the leader. From the beginning of 1918, she actively collaborated with the right Socialist Revolutionaries, who were then in a semi-legal position. The leader of the proletariat, Kaplan, was brought to the place of speech in advance. She shot from a Browning almost point-blank. All three bullets fired from the weapon hit Lenin. The leader's driver, Gil, witnessed the assassination attempt. He did not see Kaplan in the dark, and when he heard the shots, as some sources testify, he was confused and did not shoot back. Later, deflecting suspicion from himself, Gil said during interrogations that after the leader’s speech, a crowd of workers came out into the factory yard. This is what prevented him from opening fire. Vladimir Ilyich was wounded, but not killed. Subsequently, according to historical evidence, the perpetrator of the assassination attempt was shot and her body was burned.

The leader’s health deteriorated, moving to Gorki

In 1922, in March, Vladimir Ilyich began to have quite frequent seizures, accompanied by loss of consciousness. The following year, paralysis and speech impairment developed on the right side of the body. However, despite such a serious condition, doctors hoped to improve the situation. In May 1923, Lenin was transported to Gorki. Here his health improved noticeably. And in October he even asked to be transported to Moscow. However, he did not stay in the capital for long. By winter, the Bolshevik leader’s condition had improved so much that he began to try to write with his left hand, and during the Christmas tree in December, he spent the entire evening with the children.

Events of the last days before the death of the leader

As People's Commissar of Health Semashko testified, two days before his death, Vladimir Ilyich went hunting. This was confirmed by Krupskaya. She said that the day before Lenin was in the forest, but, apparently, he was very tired. When Vladimir Ilyich was sitting on the balcony, he was very pale and kept falling asleep in his chair. In recent months he has not slept at all during the day. A few days before her death, Krupskaya already felt the approach of something terrible. The leader looked very tired and exhausted. He turned very pale, and his gaze, as Nadezhda Konstantinovna recalled, became different. But, despite the alarming signals, a hunting trip was planned for January 21. According to doctors, all this time the brain continued to progress, as a result of which parts of the brain “switched off” one after another.

Last day of life

Professor Osipov, who treated Lenin, describes this day, testifying to the leader’s general malaise. On the 20th he had poor appetite and was in a sluggish mood. He didn't want to study that day. At the end of the day, Lenin was put to bed. He was prescribed a light diet. This state of lethargy was observed the next day; the politician remained in bed for four hours. He was visited in the morning, in the afternoon and in the evening. During the day, an appetite appeared, the leader was given broth. By six o'clock the malaise increased, cramps appeared in the legs and arms, and the politician lost consciousness. The doctor testifies that the right limbs were very tense - it was impossible to bend the leg at the knee. Convulsive movements were also observed in the left side of the body. The seizure was accompanied by increased cardiac activity and increased breathing. The number of respiratory movements approached 36, and the heart contracted at a speed of 120-130 beats per minute. Along with this, a very threatening sign appeared, which consisted of a violation of the correct breathing rhythm. This type of cerebral breathing is very dangerous and almost always indicates the approach of a fatal end. After some time, the condition stabilized somewhat. The number of respiratory movements decreased to 26, and the pulse decreased to 90 beats per minute. Lenin’s body temperature at that moment was 42.3 degrees. This increase was caused by a convulsive continuous state, which gradually began to weaken. Doctors began to harbor some hope for normalization of the condition and a favorable outcome of the seizure. However, at 18.50, blood suddenly rushed to Lenin’s face, it turned red and purple. Then the leader took a deep breath, and the next moment he died. Afterwards artificial respiration was applied. Doctors tried to bring Vladimir Ilyich back to life for 25 minutes, but all manipulations were ineffective. He died of cardiac and respiratory paralysis.

The mystery of Lenin's death

The official medical report stated that the leader had progressed widespread cerebral atherosclerosis. At one point, due to circulatory disorders and hemorrhage into the soft membrane, Vladimir Ilyich died. However, a number of historians believe that Lenin was assassinated, namely: he was poisoned. The leader's condition worsened gradually. According to historian Lurie, Vladimir Ilyich suffered a stroke in 1921, as a result of which the right side of his body was paralyzed. However, by 1924 he was able to recover enough that he was able to go hunting. Neurologist Winters, who studied the medical history in detail, even testified that several hours before his death the leader was very active and even talked. Shortly before the fatal end, several convulsive seizures occurred. But, according to the neurologist, it was just a manifestation of a stroke - these symptoms are characteristic of this pathological condition. However, it was not only and not so much a matter of illness. So why did Lenin die? According to the conclusion of the toxicological examination, which was carried out during the autopsy, traces were found in the leader’s body. Based on this, experts concluded that the cause of death was poison.

Researchers' versions

If the leader was poisoned, then who killed Lenin? Over time, various versions began to be put forward. Stalin became the main "suspect". According to historians, it was he who benefited more than anyone else from the death of the leader. Joseph Stalin sought to become the leader of the country, and only by eliminating Vladimir Ilyich could he achieve this. According to another version of who killed Lenin, suspicion fell on Trotsky. However, this conclusion is less plausible. Many historians are of the opinion that it was Stalin who ordered the murder. Despite the fact that Vladimir Ilyich and Joseph Vissarionovich were comrades-in-arms, the former was against the appointment of the latter as the leader of the country. In this regard, realizing the danger, Lenin, on the eve of his death, tried to build a tactical alliance with Trotsky. The death of the leader guaranteed Joseph Stalin absolute power. Quite a lot of political events took place in the year of Lenin's death. After his death, personnel changes began in the management apparatus. Many figures were eliminated by Stalin. New people took their place.

Opinions of some scientists

Vladimir Ilyich died in middle age (it’s easy to calculate how old Lenin died). Scientists say that the walls of the leader’s cerebral vessels were less strong than necessary for his 53 years. However, the causes of destruction in brain tissue remain unclear. There were no objective provoking factors for this: Vladimir Ilyich was young enough for this and did not belong to the risk group for pathologies of this kind. In addition, the politician did not smoke himself and did not allow smokers to visit him. He was neither overweight nor diabetic. Vladimir Ilyich did not suffer from hypertension or other heart pathologies. After the death of the leader, rumors appeared that his body was affected by syphilis, but no evidence of this was found. Some experts talk about heredity. As you know, the date of Lenin’s death is January 21, 1924. He lived a year less than his father, who died at the age of 54. Vladimir Ilyich could have a predisposition to vascular pathologies. In addition, the party leader was in a state of stress almost constantly. He was often haunted by fears for his life. There was more than enough excitement both in youth and in adulthood.

Events after the death of the leader

There is no exact information about who killed Lenin. However, Trotsky in one of his articles claimed that Stalin poisoned the leader. In particular, he wrote that in February 1923, during a meeting of members of the Politburo, Joseph Vissarionovich announced that Vladimir Ilyich urgently required him to join him. Lenin asked for poison. The leader began to lose the ability to speak again and considered his situation hopeless. He did not believe the doctors, he suffered, but kept his thoughts clear. Stalin told Trotsky that Vladimir Ilyich was tired of suffering and wanted to have poison with him so that when it became completely unbearable, he would end everything. However, Trotsky was categorically against it (at least, that’s what he said then). This episode is confirmed - Lenin’s secretary told the writer Beck about this incident. Trotsky argued that with his words, Stalin was trying to provide himself with an alibi, having actually planned to poison the leader.

Several facts refuting that the leader of the proletariat was poisoned

Some historians believe that the most reliable information in the official doctors' report is the date of Lenin's death. The autopsy of the body was carried out in compliance with the necessary formalities. The General Secretary, Stalin, took care of this. During the autopsy, doctors did not look for poison. But even if there were insightful specialists, they would most likely put forward a version of suicide. It is assumed that the leader did not receive poison from Stalin after all. Otherwise, after Lenin’s death, the successor would have destroyed all the witnesses and people who were close to Ilyich so that not a single trace would remain. Moreover, at the time of his death, the leader of the proletariat was practically helpless. Doctors did not predict significant improvements, so the likelihood of restoration of health was low.

Facts confirming poisoning

It should be said, however, that the version according to which Vladimir Ilyich died from poison has many supporters. There are even a number of facts that confirm this. For example, the writer Soloviev devoted many pages to this issue. In particular, in the book “Operation Mausoleum” the author confirms Trotsky’s reasoning with a number of arguments:

There is also evidence from doctor Gabriel Volkov. It should be said that this doctor was arrested shortly after the death of the leader. While in the detention center, Volkov told Elizabeth Lesotho, his cellmate, about what happened on the morning of January 21. The doctor brought Lenin a second breakfast at 11 o’clock. Vladimir Ilyich was in bed, and when he saw Volkov, he tried to get up and extended his hands to him. However, the politician lost his strength, and he fell onto the pillows again. At the same time, a note fell out of his hand. Volkov managed to hide her before the doctor Elistratov came in and gave a calming injection. Vladimir Ilyich fell silent and closed his eyes, as it turned out, forever. And only in the evening, when Lenin had already died, Volkov was able to read the note. In it, the leader wrote that he was poisoned. Solovyov believes that the politician was poisoned with mushroom soup, which contained dried poisonous mushroom cortinarius ciosissimus, which caused Lenin’s quick death. The struggle for power after the death of the leader was not violent. Stalin received absolute power and became the leader of the country, eliminating all people he disliked. The years of Lenin's birth and death became memorable for the Soviet people for a long time.

Lenin (Ulyanov) Vladimir Ilyich, the greatest proletarian revolutionary and thinker, successor to the work of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, organizer of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, founder of the Soviet socialist state, teacher and leader of the working people of the whole world.

Lenin's grandfather - Nikolai Vasilyevich Ulyanov, a serf from the Nizhny Novgorod province, later lived in Astrakhan, was a tailor-craftsman. Father - Ilya Nikolaevich Ulyanov, after graduating from Kazan University, taught in secondary schools in Penza and Nizhny Novgorod, and then was an inspector and director of public schools in the Simbirsk province. Lenin's mother, Maria Aleksandrovna Ulyanova (née Blank), the daughter of a doctor, having received a home education, passed the exams for the title of teacher as an external student; She devoted herself entirely to raising her children. The elder brother, Alexander Ilyich Ulyanov, was executed in 1887 for participating in the preparation of the assassination attempt on Tsar Alexander III. Sisters - Anna Ilyinichna Ulyanova-Elizarova, Maria Ilyinichna Ulyanova and younger brother - Dmitry Ilyich Ulyanov became prominent figures in the Communist Party.

From 1879 to 1887, L. (Lenin) studied at the Simbirsk gymnasium. The spirit of protest against the tsarist system, social and national oppression awakened in him early. Advanced Russian literature, the works of V. G. Belinsky, A. I. Herzen, N. A. Dobrolyubov, D. I. Pisarev and especially N. G. Chernyshevsky contributed to the formation of his revolutionary views. From his older brother L. learned about Marxist literature. After graduating from high school with a gold medal, L. entered Kazan University, but in December 1887, for active participation in a revolutionary gathering of students, he was arrested, expelled from the university and exiled to the village of Kokushkino, Kazan province. From that time on, L. devoted his entire life to the struggle against autocracy and capitalism, to the cause of liberating the working people from oppression and exploitation. In October 1888 L. returned to Kazan. Here he joined one of the Marxist circles organized by N. E. Fedoseev, in which the works of K. Marx, F. Engels, and G. V. Plekhanov were studied and discussed. The works of Marx and Engels played a decisive role in the formation of L.'s worldview—he became a convinced Marxist.

In 1891, L. passed the exams as an external student for the Faculty of Law at St. Petersburg University and began working as an assistant to a sworn attorney in Samara, where the Ulyanov family moved in 1889. Here he organized a circle of Marxists, established connections with the revolutionary youth of other cities of the Volga region, and gave lectures against populism. The first of L.’s surviving works, the article “New Economic Movements in Peasant Life,” dates back to the Samara period.

At the end of August 1893, L. moved to St. Petersburg, where he joined a Marxist circle, whose members were S. I. Radchenko, P. K. Zaporozhets, G. M. Krzhizhanovsky and others. The legal cover of L.’s revolutionary activities was his work as an assistant to a sworn attorney . Unshakable faith in the victory of the working class, extensive knowledge, deep understanding of Marxism and the ability to apply it to the resolution of vital issues that worried the masses earned L. the respect of St. Petersburg Marxists and made L. their recognized leader. He establishes connections with advanced workers (I.V. Babushkin, V.A. Shelgunov, etc.), leads workers’ circles, and explains the need for a transition from circle propaganda of Marxism to revolutionary agitation among the broad proletarian masses.

L. was the first Russian Marxist to set the task of creating a working class party in Russia as an urgent practical task and led the struggle of revolutionary Social Democrats for its implementation. L. believed that this should be a proletarian party of a new type, in its principles, forms and methods of activity meeting the requirements of the new era - the era of imperialism and socialist revolution.

Having accepted the central idea of ​​Marxism about the historical mission of the working class - the gravedigger of capitalism and the creator of communist society, L. devotes all the strength of his creative genius, comprehensive erudition, colossal energy, and rare capacity for work to selfless service to the cause of the proletariat, becomes a professional revolutionary, and is formed as a leader of the working class.

In 1894, L. wrote the work “What are “friends of the people” and how do they fight against the Social Democrats? )". Already these first major works by L. were distinguished by a creative approach to the theory and practice of the labor movement. In them, L. subjected the subjectivism of the populists and the objectivism of the “legal Marxists” to devastating criticism, and showed a consistently Marxist approach to the analysis of Russian. in reality, he described the tasks of the Russian proletariat, developed the idea of ​​an alliance of the working class with the peasantry, and substantiated the need to create a truly revolutionary party in Russia. In April 1895, L. went abroad to establish contact with the Liberation of Labor group. In Switzerland he met Plekhanov, in Germany - with W. Liebknecht, in France - with P. Lafargue and other figures of the international labor movement. In September 1895, having returned from abroad, L. visited Vilnius, Moscow and Orekhovo-Zuevo, where he established connections with local Social Democrats. In the fall of 1895, on the initiative and under the leadership of L., the Marxist circles of St. Petersburg united into a single organization - the St. Petersburg “Union of Struggle for the Liberation of the Working Class,” which was the beginning of a revolutionary proletarian party and, for the first time in Russia, began to combine scientific socialism with the mass workers’ movement.

On the night of December 8 (20) to December 9 (21), 1895, L., together with his comrades in the “Union of Struggle,” was arrested and imprisoned, from where he continued to lead the “Union.” In prison, L. wrote “Project and Explanation of the Program of the Social Democratic Party,” a number of articles and leaflets, and prepared materials for his book “The Development of Capitalism in Russia.” In February 1897, L. was exiled to the village for 3 years. Shushenskoye, Minusinsk district, Yenisei province. N.K. Krupskaya was also sentenced to exile for active revolutionary work. As L.'s bride, she was also sent to Shushenskoye, where she became his wife. Here L. established and maintained contacts with the Social Democrats of St. Petersburg, Moscow, Nizhny Novgorod, Voronezh and other cities, with the Emancipation of Labor group, corresponded with the Social Democrats who were in exile in the North and Siberia, and rallied around him exiled Social Democrats of the Minusinsk district. In exile, L. wrote over 30 works, including the book “The Development of Capitalism in Russia” and the brochure “Tasks of Russian Social Democrats,” which were of great importance for the development of the party’s program, strategy and tactics. In 1898, the 1st Congress of the RSDLP was held in Minsk, which proclaimed the formation of a Social Democratic Party in Russia and published the “Manifesto of the Russian Social Democratic Labor Party.” L. agreed with the main provisions of the “Manifesto”. However, the party had not actually been created yet. The congress, which took place without the participation of L. and other prominent Marxists, was unable to develop a program and charter for the party or overcome the disunity of the Social Democratic movement. L. developed a practical plan for the creation of a Marxist party in Russia; the most important means of achieving this goal was, as L. believed, to be an all-Russian illegal political newspaper. Fighting for the creation of a new type of proletarian party, irreconcilable to opportunism, L. opposed the revisionists in international social democracy (E. Bernstein and others) and their supporters in Russia (“economists”). In 1899 he compiled the “Protest of Russian Social Democrats,” directed against “economism.” The “protest” was discussed and signed by 17 exiled Marxists.

After the end of his exile, L. left Shushenskoye on January 29 (February 10), 1900. Proceeding to his new place of residence, L. stopped in Ufa, Moscow, etc., illegally visited St. Petersburg, establishing connections with Social Democrats everywhere. Having settled in Pskov in February 1900, L. did a lot of work organizing the newspaper and created strongholds for it in a number of cities. In July 1900, L. went abroad, where he established the publication of the newspaper Iskra. L. was the immediate manager of the newspaper. Iskra played an exceptional role in the ideological and organizational preparation of the revolutionary proletarian party, in distinguishing itself from the opportunists. It became the center for uniting desks. strength, education of desks. frames. Subsequently, L. noted that “the entire flower of the conscious proletariat took the side of Iskra” (Poln. sobr. soch., 5th ed., vol. 26, p. 344).

From 1900 to 05, L. lived in Munich, London, and Geneva. In December 1901, L. for the first time signed one of his articles published in Iskra with the pseudonym Lenin (he also had pseudonyms: V. Ilyin, V. Frey, Iv. Petrov, K. Tulin, Karpov, etc.).

In the struggle for the creation of a new type of party, Lenin’s work “What is to be done?” was of outstanding importance. Urgent issues of our movement" (1902). In it, L. criticized “economism” and highlighted the main problems of building the party, its ideology and politics. L. outlined the most important theoretical issues in the articles “The Agrarian Program of Russian Social Democracy” (1902) and “The National Question in Our Program” (1903). With the leading participation of L., the editorial board of Iskra developed a draft Party Program, which formulated the demand for the establishment of the dictatorship of the proletariat for the socialist transformation of society, which was absent in the programs of Western European social democratic parties. L. wrote the draft Charter of the RSDLP, drew up a work plan and drafts of almost all the resolutions of the upcoming party congress. In 1903, the 2nd Congress of the RSDLP took place. At this congress, the process of unification of revolutionary Marxist organizations was completed and the party of the working class of Russia was formed on the ideological, political and organizational principles developed by L. A proletarian party of a new type, the Bolshevik Party, was created. “Bolshevism has existed as a current of political thought and as a political party since 1903,” wrote L. in 1920 (ibid., vol. 41, p. 6). After the congress, L. launched a struggle against Menshevism. In his work “One Step Forward, Two Steps Back” (1904), he exposed the anti-party activities of the Mensheviks and substantiated the organizational principles of a new type of proletarian party.

During the Revolution of 1905–07, L. directed the work of the Bolshevik Party in leading the masses. At the 3rd (1905), 4th (1906), 5th (1907) congresses of the RSDLP, in the book “Two Tactics of Social Democracy in the Democratic Revolution” (1905) and numerous articles, L. developed and substantiated a strategic plan and tactics of the Bolshevik party in the revolution, criticized the opportunist line of the Mensheviks; on November 8 (21), 1905, L. arrived in St. Petersburg, where he led the activities of the Central Committee and the St. Petersburg Committee of the Bolsheviks, the preparation of an armed uprising. L. headed the work of the Bolshevik newspapers “Forward”, “Proletary”, “New Life”. In the summer of 1906, due to police persecution, L. moved to Kuokkala (Finland), in December 1907 he was again forced to emigrate to Switzerland, and at the end of 1908 to France (Paris).

During the years of reaction 1908–10, Lenin led the struggle for the preservation of the illegal Bolshevik Party against the Menshevik liquidators and otzovists, against the splitting actions of the Trotskyists (see Trotskyism), and against conciliation towards opportunism. He deeply analyzed the experience of the Revolution of 1905-07. At the same time, L. resisted the onslaught of reaction against the ideological foundations of the party. In his work “Materialism and Empirio-Criticism” (published in 1909), L. exposed the sophisticated methods of defending idealism by bourgeois philosophers, the attempts of revisionists to distort the philosophy of Marxism, and developed dialectical materialism.

At the end of 1910, a new upsurge of the revolutionary movement began in Russia. In December 1910, on L.’s initiative, the newspaper “Zvezda” began to be published in St. Petersburg; on April 22 (May 5), 1912, the first issue of the daily legal Bolshevik workers’ newspaper “Pravda” was published. To train party workers, L. in 1911 organized a party school in Longjumeau (near Paris), in which he gave 29 lectures. In January 1912, the 6th (Prague) All-Russian Conference of the RSDLP was held in Prague under the leadership of L., which expelled the Menshevik liquidators from the RSDLP and defined the tasks of the party in an environment of revolutionary upsurge. To be closer to Russia, L. moved to Krakow in June 1912. From there he directs the work of the bureau of the Central Committee of the RSDLP in Russia, the editorial office of the newspaper Pravda, and manages the activities of the Bolshevik faction of the 4th State Duma. In December 1912 in Krakow and in September 1913 in Poronin, under the leadership of L., meetings of the Central Committee of the RSDLP with party workers were held on the most important issues of the revolutionary movement. L. paid great attention to the development of the theory of the national question, the education of party members and the broad masses of workers in the spirit of proletarian internationalism. He wrote programmatic works: “Critical Notes on the National Question” (1913), “On the Right of Nations to Self-Determination” (1914).

From October 1905 to 1912, L. was a representative of the RSDLP in the International Socialist Bureau of the 2nd International. Heading the Bolshevik delegation, he took an active part in the work of the Stuttgart (1907) and Copenhagen (1910) international socialist congresses. L. led a decisive struggle against opportunism in the international labor movement, rallying left-wing revolutionary elements, and paid much attention to exposing militarism and developing the tactics of the Bolshevik Party in relation to imperialist wars.

During World War I (1914–18), the Bolshevik Party, led by L., raised high the banner of proletarian internationalism, exposed the social chauvinism of the leaders of the Second International, and put forward the slogan of transforming the imperialist war into a civil war. The war found L. in Poronin. On July 26 (August 8), 1914, L., following a false denunciation, was arrested by the Austrian authorities and imprisoned in the city of New Targ. Thanks to the assistance of Polish and Austrian Social Democrats, L. was released from prison on August 6 (19). On August 23 (September 5) he left for Switzerland (Bern); in February 1916 he moved to Zurich, where he lived until March (April) 1917. In the manifesto of the Central Committee of the RSDLP “War and Russian Social Democracy”, in the works “On the National Pride of the Great Russians”, “The Collapse of the Second International”, “Socialism and War”, “On the slogan of the United States of Europe”, “Military program of the proletarian revolution”, “Results of the discussion on self-determination”, “On the caricature of Marxism and “imperialist economism””, etc. L. further developed the most important provisions of Marxist theory, developed a strategy and the tactics of the Bolsheviks in war conditions. A profound substantiation of the theory and policy of the party on issues of war, peace and revolution was L.’s work “Imperialism, as the highest stage of capitalism” (1916). During the war years, L. worked a lot on issues of philosophy (see “Philosophical Notebooks”). Despite the difficulties of wartime, L. established the regular publication of the Central Organ of the Party of the newspaper “Social-Democrat”, established connections with party organizations in Russia, and directed their work. At the international socialist conferences in Zimmerwald [August (September) 1915] and Quinthal (April 1916), L. defended revolutionary Marxist principles and led the struggle against opportunism and centrism (Kautskyism). By rallying the revolutionary forces in the international labor movement, L. laid the foundations for the formation of the 3rd Communist International.

Having received in Zurich on March 2 (15), 1917, the first reliable news about the February bourgeois-democratic revolution that had begun in Russia, L. defined new tasks for the proletariat and the Bolshevik Party. In “Letters from Afar,” he formulated the party’s political course for the transition from the first, democratic stage to the second, socialist stage of the revolution, warned about the inadmissibility of supporting the bourgeois Provisional Government, and put forward the position on the need to transfer all power into the hands of the Soviets. April 3(16), 1917 L. returned from emigration to Petrograd. Solemnly greeted by thousands of workers and soldiers, he made a short speech, ending with the words: “Long live the socialist revolution!” On April 4 (17), at a meeting of the Bolsheviks, L. spoke with a document that went down in history under the name V. I. Lenin’s April Theses (“On the tasks of the proletariat in this revolution”). In these theses, in “Letters on Tactics”, in reports and speeches at the 7th (April) All-Russian Conference of the RSDLP (b), L. developed a plan for the party’s struggle for the transition from a bourgeois-democratic revolution to a socialist revolution, the party’s tactics in conditions of dual power - an orientation toward the peaceful development of the revolution, put forward and substantiated the slogan “All power to the Soviets!” Under L.'s leadership, the party launched political and organizational work among the masses of workers, peasants, and soldiers. L. directed the activities of the Central Committee of the RSDLP (b) and the central printed organ of the party, the newspaper Pravda, and spoke at meetings and rallies. From April to July 1917, L. wrote over 170 articles, brochures, draft resolutions of Bolshevik conferences and the Party Central Committee, and appeals. At the 1st All-Russian Congress of Soviets (June 1917), L. made speeches on the issue of war, on the attitude towards the bourgeois Provisional Government, exposing its imperialist, anti-people policy and the conciliation of the Mensheviks and Socialist Revolutionaries. In July 1917, after the elimination of dual power and the concentration of power in the hands of the counter-revolution, the peaceful period of development of the revolution ended. On July 7 (20), the Provisional Government ordered the arrest of L. He was forced to go underground. Until August 8 (21), 1917, L. was hiding in a hut beyond the lake. Razliv, near Petrograd, then until the beginning of October - in Finland (Yalkala, Helsingfors, Vyborg). And underground he continued to lead the activities of the party. In the theses “The Political Situation” and in the brochure “Towards Slogans,” L. defined and substantiated the party’s tactics in the new conditions. Based on Lenin’s principles, the 6th Congress of the RSDLP (b) (1917) decided on the need to take power by the working class in alliance with the poor peasantry through an armed uprising. While underground, L. wrote the book “State and Revolution,” brochures “The Impending Catastrophe and How to Fight It,” “Will the Bolsheviks Maintain State Power?” and other works. On September 12-14 (25-27), 1917, L. wrote a letter to the Central, Petrograd and Moscow committees of the RSDLP (b) “The Bolsheviks must take power” and a letter to the Central Committee of the RSDLP (b) “Marxism and uprising”, and then on September 29 (12 October) article “The crisis is ripe.” In them, based on a deep analysis of the alignment and correlation of class forces in the country and in the international arena, L. concluded that the moment was ripe for a victorious socialist revolution, and developed a plan for an armed uprising. At the beginning of October, L. returned illegally from Vyborg to Petrograd. In the article “Advice from an Outsider” on October 8 (21), he outlined the tactics of carrying out an armed uprising. On October 10 (23), at a meeting of the Central Committee of the RSDLP (b), L. made a report on the current situation; At his suggestion, the Central Committee adopted a resolution on an armed uprising. On October 16 (29), at an extended meeting of the Central Committee of the RSDLP (b), L. in his report defended the course of uprising and sharply criticized the position of opponents of the uprising L. B. Kamenev and G. E. Zinoviev. L. considered the position of postponing the uprising until the convening of the 2nd Congress of Soviets to be extremely dangerous for the fate of the revolution, which L. D. Trotsky especially insisted on. The meeting of the Central Committee confirmed Lenin's resolution on an armed uprising. During the preparation of the uprising, L. directed the activities of the Military Revolutionary Center, created by the Central Committee of the party, and the Military Revolutionary Committee (MRC), formed at the proposal of the Central Committee under the Petrograd Soviet. On October 24 (November 6), in a letter to the Central Committee, L. demanded to immediately go on the offensive, arrest the Provisional Government and take power, emphasizing that “delay in taking action is like death” (ibid., vol. 34 p. 436).

On the evening of October 24 (November 6), L. illegally arrived in Smolny to directly lead the armed uprising. At the 2nd All-Russian Congress of Soviets, which opened on October 25 (November 7), which proclaimed the transfer of all power in the center and locally into the hands of the Soviets, L. made reports on peace and land. The congress adopted Lenin's decrees on peace and land and formed a workers' and peasants' government - the Council of People's Commissars, headed by L. The victory of the Great October Socialist Revolution, won under the leadership of the Communist Party, opened a new era in the history of mankind - the era of transition from capitalism to socialism.

L. led the struggle of the Communist Party and the people of Russia to solve the problems of the dictatorship of the proletariat and to build socialism. Under L.'s leadership, the party and government created a new, Soviet state apparatus. The confiscation of landowners' lands and the nationalization of all land, banks, transport, and large-scale industry were carried out, and a foreign trade monopoly was introduced. The Red Army was created. National oppression has been destroyed. The party attracted the broad masses of the people to the grandiose work of building the Soviet state and implementing fundamental socio-economic transformations. In December 1917, L. in the article “How to organize a competition?” put forward the idea of ​​socialist competition of the masses as an effective method of building socialism. At the beginning of January 1918, L. prepared the “Declaration of the Rights of the Working and Exploited People,” which was the basis of the first Soviet Constitution of 1918. Thanks to L.’s integrity and perseverance, as a result of his struggle against the “left communists” and Trotskyists, the Brest-Litovsk Peace Treaty of 1918 was concluded with Germany, which gave The Soviet government needed a peaceful respite.

From March 11, 1918, L. lived and worked in Moscow, after the Central Committee of the Party and the Soviet government moved here from Petrograd.

In the work “The Immediate Tasks of Soviet Power”, in the work “On “Left” Childhood and Petty-Bourgeoisism” (1918), etc., L. outlined a plan for creating the foundations of a socialist economy. In May 1918, on the initiative and with the participation of L., decrees on the food issue were developed and adopted. At L.'s suggestion, food detachments were created from workers, sent to the villages to rouse the poor peasants (see Committees of the Poor Peasants) to fight the kulaks, to fight for bread. The socialist measures of the Soviet government met fierce resistance from the overthrown exploiting classes. They launched an armed struggle against Soviet power and resorted to terror. On August 30, 1918, L. was seriously wounded by the Socialist Revolutionary terrorist F. E. Kaplan.

During the Civil War and military intervention of 1918–20, L. was chairman of the Council of Workers' and Peasants' Defense, created on November 30, 1918 to mobilize all forces and resources to defeat the enemy. L. put forward the slogan “Everything for the front!” At his suggestion, the All-Russian Central Executive Committee declared the Soviet Republic a military camp. Under L.'s leadership, the party and the Soviet government in a short time managed to rebuild the country's economy on a war footing, developed and implemented a system of emergency measures, called “war communism.” Lenin wrote the most important party documents, which were a combat program for mobilizing the forces of the party and the people to defeat the enemy: “Theses of the Central Committee of the RCP (b) in connection with the situation of the Eastern Front” (April 1919), a letter of the Central Committee of the RCP (b) to all party organizations “ Everyone to fight Denikin!” (July 1919) and others. L. directly supervised the development of plans for the most important strategic operations of the Red Army to defeat the White Guard armies and troops of foreign interventionists.

At the same time, L. continued to conduct theoretical work. In the fall of 1918, he wrote the book “The Proletarian Revolution and the Renegade Kautsky,” in which he exposed Kautsky’s opportunism and showed the fundamental opposition between bourgeois and proletarian, Soviet democracy. L. pointed out the international significance of the strategy and tactics of Russian communists. “...Bolshevism,” wrote L., “is suitable as a model of tactics for everyone” (ibid., vol. 37, p. 305). L. mainly drafted the second Party Program, which defined the tasks of building socialism, adopted by the 8th Congress of the RCP (b) (March 1919). The focus of L.'s attention at that time was the question of the transition period from capitalism to socialism. In June 1919, he wrote the article “The Great Initiative,” dedicated to communist subbotniks; in the fall, he wrote the article “Economics and Politics in the Era of the Dictatorship of the Proletariat,” and in the spring of 1920, the article “From the Destruction of the Age-Old Way of Life to the Creation of the New.” In these and many other works, L., summarizing the experience of the dictatorship of the proletariat, deepened the Marxist doctrine of the transition period, and illuminated the most important issues of communist construction in the conditions of the struggle between two systems: socialism and capitalism. After the victorious end of the Civil War, L. led the struggle of the party and all workers of the Soviet Republic for the restoration and further development of the economy, and led cultural construction. In the Report of the Central Committee to the 9th Party Congress, Latvia defined the tasks of economic construction and emphasized the extremely important importance of a unified economic plan, the basis of which should be the electrification of the country. Under L.’s leadership, the GOELRO plan was developed - a plan for the electrification of Russia (for 10-15 years), the first long-term plan for the development of the national economy of the Soviet country, which L. called “the second program of the party” (see ibid., vol. 42, p. 157).

At the end of 1920 - beginning of 1921, a discussion unfolded in the party about the role and tasks of trade unions, in which questions were actually resolved about methods of approaching the masses, about the role of the party, about the fate of the dictatorship of the proletariat and socialism in Russia. L. spoke out against the erroneous platforms and factional activities of Trotsky, N.I. Bukharin, the “workers’ opposition,” and the group of “democratic centralism.” He pointed out that, being a school of communism in general, trade unions should be for workers, in particular, a school of economic management.

At the 10th Congress of the RCP (b) (1921), L. summed up the results of the trade union discussion in the party and put forward the task of transition from the policy of “war communism” to the new economic policy (NEP). The congress approved the transition to the NEP, which ensured the strengthening of the alliance of the working class and the peasantry, the creation of the production base of a socialist society; adopted the resolution “On Party Unity” written by L. In the brochure “On the Food Tax (The Significance of the New Policy and Its Conditions)” (1921) and the article “On the Four-Year Anniversary of the October Revolution” (1921), L. revealed the essence of the new economic policy as the economic policy of the proletariat in the transition period and described the ways of its implementation.

In the speech “Tasks of Youth Unions” at the 3rd Congress of the RKSM (1920), in the outline and draft resolution “On Proletarian Culture” (1920), in the article “On the Significance of Militant Materialism” (1922) and other works, L. highlighted the problems creating a socialist culture, the tasks of the ideological work of the party; L. showed great concern for the development of science.

L. determined ways to solve the national question. The problems of nation-state building and socialist transformations in national regions are covered by L. in the report on the party program at the 8th Congress of the RCP (b), in the “Initial Draft of Theses on National and Colonial Issues” (1920) for the 2nd Congress of the Comintern, in the letter “On the Formation of the USSR” (1922) and others, L. developed the principles of uniting the Soviet republics into a single multinational state on the basis of voluntariness and equality - the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, which was created in December 1922.

The Soviet government, led by L., consistently fought to preserve peace, to prevent a new world war, and sought to establish the economy and diplomatic relations with other countries. At the same time, the Soviet people supported the revolutionary and national liberation movements.

In March 1922, L. led the work of the 11th Congress of the RCP (b) - the last party congress at which he spoke. Hard work and the consequences of being wounded in 1918 undermined L.'s health. In May 1922 he became seriously ill. At the beginning of October 1922, L. returned to work. His last public appearance was on November 20, 1922 at the plenum of the Moscow Soviet. On December 16, 1922, L.’s health condition deteriorated sharply again. At the end of December 1922 - beginning of 1923, L. dictated letters on internal party and state issues: “Letter to the Congress”, “On giving legislative functions to the State Planning Committee”, “On the issue of nationalities or “autonomization”” and a number of articles - “Pages from the diary”, “About cooperation”, “About our revolution”, “How can we reorganize the Rabkrin (Proposal to the XII Party Congress)”, “Less is better”. These letters and articles are rightly called L.'s political testament. They were the final stage in L.'s development of a plan for building socialism in the USSR. In them, L. outlined in general form the program for the socialist transformation of the country and the prospects for the world revolutionary process, the foundations of the party’s policy, strategy and tactics. He substantiated the possibility of building a socialist society in the USSR, developed provisions on the industrialization of the country, on the transition of peasants to large-scale social production through cooperation (see V.I. Lenin’s Cooperative Plan), on the cultural revolution, emphasized the need to strengthen the alliance of the working class and the peasantry, strengthen friendship of the peoples of the USSR, improvement of the state apparatus, ensuring the leading role of the Communist Party, the unity of its ranks.

L. consistently pursued the principle of collective leadership. He put all the most important issues for discussion at regularly meeting party congresses and conferences, plenums of the Central Committee and the Politburo of the Party Central Committee, All-Russian Congresses of Soviets, sessions of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee and meetings of the Council of People's Commissars. Under the leadership of L. worked such prominent figures of the party and the Soviet state as V.V. Borovsky, F.E. Dzerzhinsky, M.I. Kalinin, L.B. Krasin, G.M. Krzhizhanovsky, V.V. Kuibyshev, A. V. Lunacharsky, G. K. Ordzhonikidze, G. I. Petrovsky, Y. M. Sverdlov, I. V. Stalin, P. I. Stuchka, M. V. Frunze, G. V. Chicherin, S. G. Shaumyan et al.

L. was the leader of not only the Russian, but also the international labor and communist movement. In letters to the working people of Western Europe, America and Asia, L. explained the essence and international significance of the October Socialist Revolution and the most important tasks of the world revolutionary movement. On L.'s initiative, the 3rd Communist International was created in 1919. Under the leadership of L. the 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th congresses of the Comintern were held. He wrote drafts of many resolutions and documents of congresses. In L.’s works, primarily in the work “The Infantile Disease of “Leftism” in Communism” (1920), the programmatic foundations, strategy and principles of tactics of the international communist movement were developed.

In May 1923, L. moved to Gorki due to illness. In January 1924, his health suddenly deteriorated sharply. January 21, 1924 at 6 o'clock. 50 min. L. died in the evening. On January 23, the coffin with L.’s body was transported to Moscow and installed in the Hall of Columns of the House of Unions. For five days and nights, the people said goodbye to their leader. On January 27, a funeral took place on Red Square; the coffin with L.'s embalmed body was placed in a specially built Mausoleum (see Mausoleum of V.I. Lenin).

Never since Marx has the history of the liberation movement of the proletariat given the world a thinker and leader of the working class, all working people, of such gigantic stature as Lenin. The genius of a scientist, political wisdom and foresight were combined in him with the talent of the greatest organizer, with an iron will, courage and courage. L. had boundless faith in the creative powers of the masses, was closely connected with them, and enjoyed their boundless trust, love and support. All of L.'s activities are the embodiment of the organic unity of revolutionary theory and revolutionary practice. Selfless devotion to communist ideals, the cause of the party, the working class, the greatest conviction in the rightness and justice of this cause, subordination of one’s entire life to the struggle for the liberation of workers from social and national oppression, love for the Motherland and consistent internationalism, intransigence towards class enemies and touching attention to comrades , exactingness towards oneself and towards others, moral purity, simplicity and modesty are the characteristic features of Lenin - a leader and a person.

L. built the leadership of the party and the Soviet state on the basis of creative Marxism. He tirelessly fought against attempts to turn the teachings of Marx and Engels into a dead dogma.

“We do not at all look at Marx’s theory as something complete and inviolable,” wrote L., “we are convinced, on the contrary, that it laid only the cornerstones of the science that socialists must move further in all directions if they do not want to lag behind life" (ibid., vol. 4, p. 184).

L. raised revolutionary theory to a new, higher level, enriching Marxism with scientific discoveries of world-historical significance.

“Leninism is the Marxism of the era of imperialism and proletarian revolutions, the era of the collapse of colonialism and the victory of national liberation movements, the era of humanity’s transition from capitalism to socialism and the construction of a communist society” (“On the 100th anniversary of the birth of V. I. Lenin,” Theses Central Committee of the CPSU, 1970, p. 5).

L. developed all the components of Marxism - philosophy, political economy, scientific communism (see Marxism-Leninism).

Having summarized the achievements of science, especially physics, of the late 19th and early 20th centuries from the perspective of Marxist philosophy, L. further developed the doctrine of dialectical materialism. He deepened the concept of matter, defining it as an objective reality that exists outside of human consciousness, and developed the fundamental problems of the theory of man’s reflection of objective reality and the theory of knowledge. L.'s great merit is the comprehensive development of materialist dialectics, especially the law of unity and struggle of opposites.

“Lenin is the first thinker of the century who, in the achievements of contemporary natural science, saw the beginning of a grandiose scientific revolution, was able to reveal and philosophically generalize the revolutionary meaning of the fundamental discoveries of the great researchers of nature... The idea he expressed about the inexhaustibility of matter became the principle of natural scientific knowledge” (ibid., p. . 14).

L. made his greatest contribution to Marxist sociology. He concretized, substantiated and developed the most important problems, categories and provisions of historical materialism about socio-economic formations, about the laws of development of society, about the development of productive forces and production relations, about the relationship between the base and the superstructure, about classes and class struggle, about the state, about social revolution, about the nation and national liberation movements, about the relationship between objective and subjective factors in public life, about social consciousness and the role of ideas in the development of society, about the role of the masses and individuals in history.

L. significantly supplemented the Marxist analysis of capitalism with the formulation of such problems as the formation and development of the capitalist mode of production, in particular in relatively backward countries in the presence of strong feudal remnants, agrarian relations under capitalism, as well as an analysis of bourgeois and bourgeois-democratic revolutions, the social structure of capitalist society, the essence and form of the bourgeois state, the historical mission and forms of the class struggle of the proletariat. Of great importance is L.'s conclusion that the strength of the proletariat in historical development is immeasurably greater than its share in the total population.

L. created the doctrine of imperialism as the highest and final stage in the development of capitalism. Having revealed the essence of imperialism as monopoly and state-monopoly capitalism, characterizing its main features, showing the extreme aggravation of all its contradictions, the objective acceleration of the creation of material and socio-political prerequisites for socialism, L. concluded that imperialism is the eve of the socialist revolution.

L. comprehensively developed the Marxist theory of socialist revolution in relation to the new historical era. He deeply developed the idea of ​​the hegemony of the proletariat in the revolution, the need for an alliance of the working class with the working peasantry, determined the attitude of the proletariat towards various layers of the peasantry at different stages of the revolution; created a theory of the development of a bourgeois-democratic revolution into a socialist revolution, and illuminated the question of the relationship between the struggle for democracy and for socialism. Having revealed the mechanism of action of the law of uneven development of capitalism in the era of imperialism, L. made the most important conclusion, which has enormous theoretical and political significance, about the possibility and inevitability of the victory of socialism initially in a few or even in one individual capitalist country; This conclusion of L., confirmed by the course of historical development, formed the basis for the development of important problems of the world revolutionary process, the construction of socialism in countries where the proletarian revolution was victorious. L. developed provisions on the revolutionary situation, on an armed uprising, on the possibility, under certain conditions, of the peaceful development of the revolution; substantiated the idea of ​​the world revolution as a single process, as an era connecting the struggle of the proletariat and its allies for socialism with democratic, including national liberation, movements.

L. deeply developed the national question, pointing out the need to consider it from the standpoint of the class struggle of the proletariat, revealed the thesis about the two tendencies of capitalism in the national question, substantiated the position of complete equality of nations, the right of oppressed, colonial and dependent peoples to self-determination, and at the same time the principle internationalism of the labor movement and proletarian organizations, the idea of ​​​​the joint struggle of workers of all nationalities in the name of social and national liberation, the creation of a voluntary union of peoples.

L. revealed the essence and characterized the driving forces of national liberation movements. He came up with the idea of ​​organizing a united front of the revolutionary movement of the international proletariat and national liberation movements against the common enemy - imperialism. He formulated a position on the possibility and conditions for the transition of backward countries to socialism, bypassing the capitalist stage of development. L. developed the principles of the national policy of the dictatorship of the proletariat, which ensures the flourishing of nations and nationalities, their close unity and rapprochement.

L. defined the main content of the modern era as the transition of mankind from capitalism to socialism, and characterized the driving forces and prospects of the world revolutionary process after the split of the world into two systems. The main contradiction of this era is the contradiction between socialism and capitalism. L. considered the socialist system and the international working class to be the leading force in the struggle against imperialism. L. foresaw the formation of a world system of socialist states, which would have a decisive influence on all world politics.

L. developed a complete theory about the transition period from capitalism to socialism, revealed its content and patterns. Having summarized the experience of the Paris Commune and three Russian revolutions, L. developed and concretized the teachings of Marx and Engels on the dictatorship of the proletariat, and comprehensively revealed the historical significance of the Republic of Soviets - a state of a new type, immeasurably more democratic than any bourgeois parliamentary republic. The transition from capitalism to socialism, L. taught, cannot but give a variety of political forms, but the essence of all these forms will be the same - the dictatorship of the proletariat. He comprehensively developed the question of the functions and tasks of the dictatorship of the proletariat, pointed out that the main thing in it is not violence, but the rallying of non-proletarian layers of workers around the working class, the building of socialism. The main condition for the implementation of the dictatorship of the proletariat, L. taught, is the leadership of the Communist Party. L.'s works deeply illuminate the theoretical and practical problems of building socialism. The most important task after the victory of the revolution is the socialist transformation and planned development of the national economy, achieving higher labor productivity than under capitalism. The creation of an appropriate material and technical base and the industrialization of the country are of decisive importance in the construction of socialism. L. deeply developed the question of the socialist reorganization of agriculture through the formation of state farms and the development of cooperation, the transition of peasants to large-scale social production. L. put forward and substantiated the principle of democratic centralism as the main principle of economic management in the conditions of building a socialist and communist society. He showed the need to preserve and use commodity-money relations, and to implement the principle of material interest.

L. considered one of the main conditions for building socialism to be the implementation of a cultural revolution: the rise of public education, the introduction of knowledge and cultural values ​​to the broadest masses, the development of science, literature and art, ensuring a profound revolution in the consciousness, ideology and spiritual life of the working people, and re-educating them in the spirit of socialism . L. emphasized the need to use the culture of the past and its progressive, democratic elements in the interests of building a socialist society. He considered it necessary to attract old, bourgeois specialists to participate in socialist construction. At the same time, L. put forward the task of training numerous cadres of the new, popular intelligentsia. In articles about L. Tolstoy, in the article “Party organization and party literature” (1905), as well as in letters to M. Gorky, I. Armand and others, L. substantiated the principle of partisanship in literature and art, examined their role in the class struggle of the proletariat , formulated the principle of party leadership of literature and art.

L.'s works developed the principles of socialist foreign policy as an important factor in building a new society and developing the world revolutionary process. This is a policy of a close state, economic and military union of socialist republics, solidarity with peoples fighting for social and national liberation, peaceful coexistence of states with different social systems, international cooperation, and decisive opposition to imperialist aggression.

L. developed the Marxist doctrine of the two phases of communist society, the transition from the first to the higher phase, the essence and ways of creating the material and technical base of communism, the development of statehood, the formation of communist social relations, and the communist education of the working people.

L. created the doctrine of a new type of proletarian party as the highest form of revolutionary organization of the proletariat, as the vanguard and leader of the working class in the struggle for the dictatorship of the proletariat, for the construction of socialism and communism. He developed the organizational foundations of the party, the international principle of its construction, the norms of party life, pointed out the need for democratic centralism in the party, unity and conscious iron discipline, the development of internal party democracy, the activity of party members and collective leadership, intransigence to opportunism, and close ties between the party and the masses.

L. was firmly convinced of the inevitability of the victory of socialism throughout the world. He considered the essential conditions for this victory to be: the unity of the revolutionary forces of our time - the world system of socialism, the international working class, the national liberation movement; correct strategy and tactics of communist parties; a decisive struggle against reformism, revisionism, right and left opportunism, nationalism; cohesion and unity of the international communist movement based on Marxism and the principles of proletarian internationalism.

L.'s theoretical and political activity marked the beginning of a new, Leninist stage in the development of Marxism and in the international labor movement. The name of Lenin and Leninism are associated with the largest revolutionary achievements of the 20th century, which radically changed the social appearance of the world and marked the turn of humanity towards socialism and communism. The revolutionary transformation of society in the Soviet Union on the basis of Lenin's brilliant plans and plans, the victory of socialism and the construction of a developed socialist society in the USSR is the triumph of Leninism. Marxism-Leninism, as the great and united international teaching of the proletariat, is the heritage of all communist parties, all revolutionary workers of the world, all working people. All the fundamental social problems of our time can be correctly assessed and solved based on the ideological heritage of Lenin, guided by a reliable compass - the ever-living and creative Marxist-Leninist teaching. The Address of the International Conference of Communist and Workers' Parties (Moscow, 1969) “On the 100th anniversary of the birth of Vladimir Ilyich Lenin” states:

“The entire experience of world socialism, the workers’ and national liberation movements has confirmed the international significance of Marxist-Leninist teaching. The victory of the socialist revolution in a group of countries, the emergence of the world system of socialism, the gains of the labor movement in capitalist countries, the entry into the arena of independent socio-political activity of the peoples of former colonies and semi-colonies, the unprecedented rise of the anti-imperialist struggle - all this proves the historical correctness of Leninism, which expresses the fundamental needs of the modern era "("International Meeting of Communist and Workers' Parties." Documents and materials, M., 1969, p. 332).

The CPSU attaches great importance to the study, storage and publication of L.'s literary heritage, as well as documents related to his life and work. In 1923, the Central Committee of the RCP (b) created the V.I. Lenin Institute, which was entrusted with these functions. In 1932, as a result of the merger of the Institute of K. Marx and F. Engels with the Institute of V. I. Lenin, a single Marx-Engels-Lenin Institute under the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks (now the Institute of Marxism-Leninism under the Central Committee of the CPSU) was formed. The Central Party Archive of this institute stores more than 30 thousand Lenin documents. Five editions of Lenin’s works have been published in the USSR (see Works of V.I. Lenin), and “Lenin’s collections” are being published. Thematic collections of L.'s works and his individual works are printed in millions of copies. Much attention is paid to the publication of memoirs and biographical works about Lenin, as well as literature on various problems of Leninism.

The Soviet people sacredly honor the memory of Lenin. The All-Union Communist Youth League and the Pioneer Organization in the USSR, many cities, including Leningrad, the city where Lenin proclaimed the power of the Soviets, bear the name of Lenin; Ulyanovsk, where L spent his childhood and youth. In all cities, the central or most beautiful streets are named after L. Factories and collective farms, ships and mountain peaks bear his name. In honor of L., the highest award in the USSR was established in 1930 - the Order of Lenin; Lenin Prizes were established for outstanding achievements in the field of science and technology (1925), in the field of literature and art (1956); International Lenin Prize “For Strengthening Peace Between Nations” (1949). A unique memorial and historical monument is the Central Archive of V.I. Lenin and its branches in many cities of the USSR. There are also museums of V.I. Lenin in other socialist countries, in Finland and France.

In April 1970, the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, the entire Soviet people, the international communist movement, the working masses, and the progressive forces of all countries solemnly celebrated the 100th anniversary of the birth of V. I. Lenin. The celebration of this significant date resulted in the greatest demonstration of the vitality of Leninism. Lenin's ideas arm and inspire communists and all working people in the struggle for the complete triumph of communism.

Essays:

• Collected Works, vol. 1-20, M. - L., 1920-1926;
• Soch., 2nd ed., vol. 1-30, M. - Leningrad, 1925-1932;
• Soch., 3rd ed., vol. 1-30, M. - Leningrad, 1925-1932;
• Soch., 4th ed., vol. 1-45, M., 1941-67;
• Complete works, 5th ed., vol. 1-55, M., 1958-65;
• Lenin collections, book. 1-37, M. - L., 1924-70.

Literature:

1. To the 100th anniversary of the birth of V.I. Lenin. Theses of the CPSU Central Committee, M., 1970;
2. To the 100th anniversary of the birth of V.I. Lenin, Collection of documents and materials, M., 1970.
3. V. I. Lenin. Biography, 5th ed., M., 1972;
4. V. I. Lenin. Biographical chronicle, 1870 - 1924, vol. 1-3, M., 1970-72;
5. Memoirs of V.I. Lenin, vol. 1-5, M., 1968-1969;
6. Krupskaya N.K., About Lenin. Sat. Art. and performances. 2nd ed., M., 1965;
7. Leninian, Library of works by V.I. Lenin and literature about him 1956-1967, in 3 volumes, vol. 1-2, M., 1971-72;
8. Lenin is still more alive than anyone else alive. Recommendatory index of memoirs and biographical literature about V. I. Lenin, M., 1968;
9. Memories of V.I. Lenin. Annotated index of books and journal articles 1954-1961, M., 1963;
10. Lenin. Historical and biographical atlas, M., 1970;
11. Lenin. Collection of photographs and film footage, vol. 1-2, M., 1970-72.

Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov (Lenin) is one of the greatest figures in the history of Russia and the world revolutionary movement. No one disputes his significance for the entire course of world, and especially Russian history, but Lenin’s philosophical and political views and his activities still evoke the most controversial, extreme assessments. In the public consciousness, two mythological images coexist: the Soviet one, representing an almost ideal person and statesman, and the post-perestroika one, painted almost exclusively with black paint. Both of them are quite far from reality.

Georgy Vernadsky (historian):“Lenin’s activities can be viewed from different points of view, and different assessments of its results are possible. But one cannot deny the fact that his personality had a colossal influence on the course of political development of Russia and, indirectly, world history.”

Francesco Misiano (Italian politician): “No one is praised and scolded as much as Lenin, no one is said about so much good and so much bad as about Lenin. There is no middle ground with Lenin; he is either the embodiment of all virtues or all vices. In the definition of some, he is absolutely kind, and in the definition of others, he is extremely cruel.”

The basis of Lenin's views was Marxism. At the same time, he did not consider all Marxist positions to be dogma, and treated this teaching creatively, making changes in relation to Russian conditions. This was especially evident during the period between the February and October revolutions and during the introduction of the NEP, when many of his comrades even accused him of moving away from Marxism.

Lenin proclaimed the class character of any state. In order to transition to a just socio-political system at the transition stage, he considered it necessary to establish the dictatorship of the proletariat, believing that the only alternative to it could be the dictatorship of landowners and capitalists. He viewed the Bolshevik Party as the vanguard of the working class. Lenin also considered morality to be a class concept, and opposed bourgeois morality to revolutionary morality. “People have always been and will always be stupid victims of deception and self-deception in politics until they learn to look for the interests of certain classes behind any moral, religious, political, social phrases, statements, promises,” he believed.

The February bourgeois revolution of 1917 came as a surprise to Lenin. However, he quickly assessed the situation and decided to take the chance to prepare and implement the socialist revolution. Returning to Russia in April 1917, he put forward the slogan: “No support for the Provisional Government, all power to the Soviets!” The popularity of the Provisional Government, torn apart by inter-party contradictions, continuing the First World War and postponing the resolution of the most important issues of state structure, was steadily falling, while the Soviets of Workers', Peasants' and Soldiers' Deputies were gradually gaining strength. Taking advantage of this situation of dual power, the Bolsheviks, led by Lenin, headed for an armed uprising, which they carried out practically without resistance on October 25, 1917. Lenin became the head of the Soviet state.

To win over the peasantry to the side of the Bolsheviks, Lenin adopted some points of the Socialist Revolutionary program in his April Theses. This caused the rejection of a significant part of his fellow party members - some even believed that he was thereby sacrificing the proletariat to the peasantry. When the Bolsheviks took power in October 1917, one of the first decrees was the “Decree on Land,” according to which private ownership of land was abolished and peasants were allocated plots of land free of charge. In the early days after the revolution, this contributed to widespread support for the Bolsheviks from the peasant masses, who made up the majority of the Russian population.

The policy of war communism that followed during the Civil War, one of the components of which was surplus appropriation, dictated by the need to prevent famine in the cities, caused mass discontent and peasant uprisings. In 1921, the transition to the New Economic Policy (NEP) was announced, allowing for some market elements and replacing food appropriation with a much more lenient tax in kind. Despite the fact that Lenin viewed the NEP as a temporary tactical retreat, this decision aroused the opposition of a significant part of the party.

Lenin declared the First World War imperialist and unfair for all its participants. In this regard, he put forward the slogan of transforming the imperialist war into a civil war. According to him, the soldiers had to turn their arms against their own bourgeois governments, organize revolutions in their countries, and then conclude a just peace without annexations and indemnities. The propaganda of such views ultimately contributed to the disintegration of the army.

The first decree of the Soviet government was the “Decree on Peace”. But, as Lenin admitted, “a war cannot be ended at will by sticking a bayonet into the ground.” For its real implementation, a peace treaty with Germany was required, which was signed in Brest on March 3, 1918. To push through this decision, Lenin had to enter into a serious conflict with a number of his comrades. The debate over the Brest-Litovsk Peace Treaty has not subsided to this day: assessments vary from an act of betrayal to a brilliant political move. On the one hand, Russia made territorial concessions and lost the opportunity to become one of the victorious countries and share the benefits of victory with the Entente states. On the other hand, the disintegration of the army by that time had already reached such a degree that it was almost impossible to convince the soldiers to continue the war. The Brest-Litovsk peace allowed us to gain a respite for the formation of a new, workers' and peasants' Red Army.

Nikolai Berdyaev (philosopher):“He [Lenin] stopped the chaotic collapse of Russia, stopped it in a despotic, tyrannical way. This has a similarity with Peter.”

Lenin is considered one of the organizers and inspirers of the Red Terror policy. At the same time, he called on his comrades to act exclusively within the framework of necessity. In conversations and correspondence, he often used expressions like “shoot” or “hang”, but they often remained purely declarative and did not have the nature of specific instructions. As for the execution of the royal family, Lenin’s participation in the decision-making has not been proven.

Heinrich Mann (German writer):“In Lenin’s life, loyalty to a great cause is inevitably combined with intransigence towards everyone who tries to interfere with this cause.”

When by 1919 it became clear that hopes for an early world revolution had not been justified, Lenin, who, in contrast to other Marxists of that time, had earlier spoken about the possibility of the victory of a socialist revolution in a single country, recognized the possibility of coexistence side by side with socialist and capitalist states At the same time, he proposed sticking to the tactic of “pitting the imperialists against each other.” It was planned to shift the emphasis in foreign policy from the West to the East, to “group around the awakening peoples of the East” and help them in the national liberation struggle.

The Bolsheviks declared the right of nations to self-determination. If almost all political forces came to terms with the impending separation of Finland after the February Revolution, few were ready to accept the secession of its other parts from the Russian Empire. Meanwhile, independent republics were formed on the outskirts of Russia. Lenin did a lot to ensure that Soviet power was established in these republics, and they became part of a new state formation - the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, as close as possible to the former borders of the Russian Empire. After the destruction of the bourgeois state, he energetically set about building a socialist state.

Grand Duke Alexander Mikhailovich:“The guardian of Russian national interests was none other than the internationalist Lenin, who in his speeches spared no effort to protest against the division of the former Russian Empire.”

During the Civil War and immediately after it, the country fell apart, it was torn apart by interventionists and nationalists, industry was largely destroyed, and, most importantly, during the First World War and the Civil War, huge human losses were suffered. It was necessary to build a new state by making decisions on the fly. And here Lenin showed enormous political flair and flexibility, sometimes taking actions that contradicted his previous views and statements and caused bewilderment among his former comrades. Some see this as a manifestation of political unscrupulousness, while others see it as the ability to admit one’s own mistakes and correct them.

The indisputable merit of Lenin and the Bolshevik Party was the establishment of broad social rights and guarantees: the right to work and its normal conditions, free healthcare and education, equality of representatives of different sexes and nationalities.

Bertrand Russell (English scientist and philosopher):“Others could have destroyed, but I doubt whether there was a single person who could rebuild so well.”

Lenin's books and articles are distinguished by absolute confidence in his own rightness. He was irreconcilable towards other people's views on fundamental issues and, being an excellent polemicist, mercilessly ridiculed them. He fought against dissent both within the party and in the new Soviet state. One of the manifestations of such a struggle was the expulsion of a large group of thinkers who disagreed with Marxism on the so-called “philosophical ship”. However, for those harsh times, this decision can be called quite humane. Parting with the Motherland was a personal tragedy for everyone, but for many this deportation probably saved their freedom and even their lives.

Lenin’s harsh statements about the intelligentsia are known, who, for the most part, reacted to Soviet power with at least wariness, and even outright hostility. However, despite the desire of the most radical Bolsheviks to abandon the old culture and art, Lenin resisted these trends. With his direct participation, leading theaters and museums were preserved. Moreover, the project of monumental propaganda was intended to perpetuate and, thereby, promote the work of outstanding figures of Russian and world culture, even those whose views were far from revolutionary. Leading artists, writers, musicians, and scientists were provided with enhanced rations. Even during the Civil War, new research organizations were created. At the same time, a grandiose plan for the electrification of the country was being developed - GOELRO. But, at the same time, a significant part of the intelligentsia, which he often called the “near-cadet public,” was subjected to various repressions: expulsions, arrests, and some ended up in the Red Terror machine.

Jack Lindsay (English writer):“For me, Lenin is, first of all, the greatest intellect of the century. His books, his works completed the process of re-education of many millions of people on earth.”

Lenin was an uncompromising materialist and an atheist, therefore he considered the fight against religion one of the most important matters in the construction of a new state. Religion, in his opinion, “is one of the types of spiritual oppression that lies everywhere on the masses of the people... Religion is the opium of the people, a kind of spiritual booze in which the slaves of capital drown their human image, their demands for a life somewhat worthy of a person.” In the fight against religion, Lenin called on supporters to act flexibly, without offending the feelings of believers if possible. The “Decree on the separation of the church from the state and school” was one of the first signed, back in early 1918. This document declared freedom of conscience and equality of all religions. Church lands and property were nationalized, but could be transferred to religious organizations for free use by decision of local authorities. This inevitably led to excesses, sometimes ending in bloody clashes. There were especially many of them during the campaign to confiscate church valuables to help the starving people of the Volga region in 1922. Lenin secretly urged his comrades to use it to discredit the church.

Patriarch Tikhon:“I have information about him [Lenin] as a man of the kindest, truly Christian soul.”

Maksim Gorky:“His [Lenin’s] private life is such that in religious times they would make him a saint.”

Lenin's personal modesty and simplicity were noted by almost everyone who had the opportunity to communicate with him personally. Even his enemies admitted this. He considered himself not a great man, but a representative of a great idea and, at the same time, an instrument for its implementation. That is why in him, like in religious figures of the past, kindness and cruelty paradoxically coexisted. Having set the goal of creating a society of social justice, Lenin was ready to achieve it in the most effective way at the moment. And, ultimately, the attitude towards the figure of Lenin largely depends on the attitude towards this goal and on what methods of achieving it are considered acceptable.

Winston Churchill (English politician):"Their [the Russians'] greatest misfortune was his birth, but their next misfortune was his death."

Romain Rolland (French writer):“Not since the time of Napoleon the First has history known such a steely will. Never since the heroic era have European religions known an apostle of such granite faith. Never before has humanity created a ruler of thoughts so absolutely selfless.”

Family

Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov was born in Simbirsk, in the family of public school inspector Ilya Nikolaevich Ulyanov (1831-1886), who had a personal (non-hereditary) nobility. The family of the future most prominent revolutionary of the twentieth century was of heterogeneous origin, but for the most part consisted of commoners (intelligentsia). Lenin's family includes representatives of several nationalities - Russians, Kalmyks, Chuvash, Jews, Germans and Swedes.

Lenin's paternal grandfather, Nikolai Vasilyevich Ulyanov, a Chuvash by nationality, was a serf peasant from the Nizhny Novgorod province, and moved to Astrakhan, where he worked as a tailor-artisan. Already a mature man, he married Anna Alekseevna Smirnova, whose father was a Kalmyk and whose mother was probably Russian. When Ilya Ulyanov was born, Nikolai Ulyanov was already 60 years old. After the death of Nikolai Vasilyevich, Ilya was taken care of by his older brother Vasily Ulyanov. He helped his brother get a sufficient education to enter the Faculty of Physics and Mathematics of Kazan University, from which he graduated in 1854. After graduating from the university, Ilya Ulyanov worked as a teacher of mathematics and physics in gymnasiums, institutes and schools in Penza and Nizhny Novgorod, from 1869 he was an inspector and director of public schools in the Simbirsk province. After being awarded the Order of St. Vladimir, III degree, Lenin's father in 1882 received the right to hereditary nobility.

Lenin's second grandfather (on his mother's side), Alexander Dmitrievich Blank (before baptism, Israel Moishevich Blank), converted to Christianity to become a military doctor. Having retired from the post of medical inspector of hospitals at the State Arms Factory in Zlatoust (with the rank of state councilor), Dr. Blank was assigned to the Kazan nobility (the rank gave him the dignity of a personal nobleman). Soon he acquired the Kokushkino estate in the Kazan province, becoming a middle-class landowner. Lenin's early orphaned mother, Maria Alexandrovna, like her four sisters, was raised by her maternal aunt, who taught her nieces music and foreign languages.

There is evidence that the biological father of Lenin and several other children in the family was a family doctor who lived in the Ulyanov family for more than 20 years, Ivan Sidorovich Pokrovsky. If you compare their photographs, the similarities will be obvious. And in his youth, in some documents [in particular, examination sheets from the time of his studies at St. Petersburg University], Ulyanov even directly wrote his patronymic as Ivanovich, which indicates that he knew about this fact and did not hide it.

In the manuscript of the memoirs of Lenin's elder sister Anna, there is a place where she writes that when Pisarev was banned, they took his books from the family doctor. And then he immediately crosses it out and writes: “...at a doctor I know.” That is, it hides the fact that this doctor was a close person to Ulyanov’s mother. Obviously, she had a hard time with his closeness to her mother and tried to erase him from her memory.

Youth. The beginning of revolutionary activity

In 1879-1887 he studied at the Simbirsk gymnasium. Lenin's views in his youth were formed under the influence of family upbringing, the example of his parents, under the influence of revolutionary democratic literature and contact with the life of the people. His brother Alexander, who was an indisputable authority for him, had a very strong influence on Volodya. The boy tried to be like his brother in everything, and if he was asked what he would do in this or that case, he invariably answered: “like Sasha.” Over the years, the desire to be like his older brother did not go away, but became deeper and more meaningful. From Alexander Volodya learned about Marxist literature - for the first time he saw “Capital” by K. Marx.

Even in his youth he breaks with religion. The impetus for this was a scene that outraged him to the core. Once, in a conversation with a guest, Ilya Nikolaevich said about his children that they do not attend church well. Looking at Vladimir, the guest said: “The whipping, the whipping must be done!” Volodya ran out of the house and tore off his pectoral cross as a sign of protest. What had been brewing for a long time burst out.

His revolutionary sentiments were evident even in his class works. Once the director of the gymnasium, F. M. Kerensky (father of the later notorious Socialist-Revolutionary A. F. Kerensky), who always held Ulyanov’s works as an example to other students, said warningly: “What kind of oppressed classes are you writing about here, what does this have to do with it?”

In January 1886, at the age of 54, Ilya Nikolaevich died suddenly from a cerebral hemorrhage. The orphaned family was left without a livelihood. Maria Alexandrovna began to apply for a pension, waiting for which several months passed.

Before the family had time to recover from one blow, a new grief befell it - on March 1, 1887, in St. Petersburg, Alexander Ulyanov was arrested for participating in the preparation of the assassination attempt on Tsar Alexander III. Following him, his sister Anna, who studied in St. Petersburg, was arrested.

The family did not know about Alexander Ilyich’s revolutionary activities. Having graduated from the Simbirsk gymnasium with a gold medal, he studied brilliantly at St. Petersburg University. His research in the field of zoology and chemistry attracted the attention of prominent scientists such as N. P. Wagner and A. M. Butlerov; each of them wanted to leave him at the university in their department. One of his works on zoology, completed in the third year, was awarded a gold medal. During the last summer he spent at home, he devoted all his time to preparing his dissertation and seemed to be completely immersed in science. No one knew that while in St. Petersburg, Alexander Ilyich participated in revolutionary youth circles and conducted political propaganda among the workers. Ideologically, he was on the path from Narodnaya Volya to Marxism.

When his older brother Alexander was executed in 1887, Vladimir Ulyanov uttered the famous phrase: “We will go the other way,” which meant his rejection of the methods of individual terror.

In 1887, Lenin graduated from high school with a gold medal and entered the law faculty of Kazan University, but was soon expelled for participating in student unrest and sent to relatives in the village of Kokushkino, Kazan province.

In the fall of 1888, Vladimir Ilyich was allowed to return to Kazan. Here he joined one of the Marxist circles organized by N. E. Fedoseev, in which the works of K. Marx, F. Engels, and G. V. Plekhanov were studied and discussed. The works of Marx and Engels played a decisive role in the formation of Lenin's worldview - he became a convinced Marxist.

In the fall of 1889, the Ulyanov family settled in Samara, where Lenin also maintained contact with local revolutionaries. Young Vladimir brilliantly passed the exams at St. Petersburg University, after which he worked for some time as an assistant attorney (lawyer) in court, where he defended proletarians (cases of the theft of a bag of grain, an iron rail and a wheel). Not finding himself in this activity, he plunged into the revolution as an active Marxist.

The memories of this time by the doctor Vladimir Krutovsky are interesting:
“I was traveling on a crowded train, where enterprising railway workers apparently sold extra tickets. I noticed a short young man who was quarreling with his superiors, “demanding the attachment of an extra carriage,” and so organized the people that in Samara the station master said: “Well, hey.” to hell! Hitch the carriage..."

Meets in Switzerland with Plekhanov, in Germany - with W. Liebknecht, in France - with P. Lafargue and other figures of the international labor movement, and upon returning to the capital in 1895, under the leadership of Zederbaum-Martov, he organizes the “Union of Struggle for the Liberation of the Working Class” . The “Union of Struggle” carried out active propaganda activities among workers; they issued more than 70 leaflets. In December 1895, Lenin was arrested and a year and two months later he was exiled to the village of Shushenskoye, Yenisei province, for 3 years. Here Lenin married N.K. Krupskaya (in July 1898), wrote the book “The Development of Capitalism in Russia” based on the material collected in prison, directed against populist theories, translated, and worked on articles. During his exile, over 30 works were written, contacts were established with Social Democrats in St. Petersburg, Moscow, Nizhny Novgorod, Voronezh and other cities.

In exile

In February 1900, Lenin's exile ended. In the same year, he left Russia and founded the newspaper Iskra in exile, designed to serve the propaganda of Marxism; At the same time, the distribution of the newspaper makes it possible to create a fairly extensive network of underground organizations on the territory of the Russian Empire. In December 1901, he first signed one of his articles published in Iskra with the pseudonym Lenin (he also had pseudonyms: V. Ilyin, V. Frey, Iv. Petrov, K. Tulin, Karpov, etc.). In 1902, in the work “What to do? “Very pressing issues of our movement” Lenin came up with his own concept of the party, which he saw as a centralized militant organization (“Give us an organization of revolutionaries and we will turn Russia over!”).

Participation in the work of the Second Congress of the RSDLP

From July 17 to August 10, 1903, the Second Congress of the RSDLP was held in Geneva, Brussels and London. Lenin was looking forward to it with great impatience, because the First Congress that took place 5 years ago did not actually create a party: it did not adopt a program, did not unite the revolutionary forces of the proletariat; elected at the first congress of the Central Committee was immediately arrested. Lenin took the preparations for the congress into his own hands. On his initiative, an “Organizing Committee” was created, whose members assessed the work of Social Democratic organizations before the congress. Long before the congress, Lenin wrote a draft party charter, sketched out drafts of many resolutions, thought through and outlined the work plan for the congress. With the participation of Plekhanov, Lenin also drafted the party program. The program outlined the immediate tasks of the workers' party: the overthrow of tsarism, the establishment of a democratic republic, the destruction of the remnants of serfdom in the countryside, in particular the return to the peasants of the lands cut off from them by the landowners during the abolition of serfdom (“cuts”), an 8-hour working day, complete equality of nations and peoples The ultimate goal of the labor movement was recognized as the construction of a new, socialist society, and the means of achieving it was the socialist revolution and the dictatorship of the proletariat.

With the opening of the congress, the heterogeneity of the party became obvious, and a sharp debate arose between Lenin’s supporters - the “hard” Iskra-ists on the one hand and his opponents - the “soft” Iskra-ists and “economists” on the other. Lenin stubbornly defended the provisions on the dictatorship of the proletariat, on strict requirements for party members. On most points, the “hard” Iskraists won, but the party split into two factions - the Bolsheviks led by Lenin and the Mensheviks led by Martov.

Revolution of 1905

Revolution 1905-07 found Lenin abroad, in Switzerland. Maintaining close contact with local party organizations, he had comprehensive information about the growing revolutionary wave. At the Third Congress of the RSDLP, held in London in April 1905, Lenin emphasized that the main task of this revolution was to put an end to autocracy and the remnants of serfdom in Russia. Despite the bourgeois nature of the revolution, according to Lenin, its leader should have been the working class, as the most interested in its victory, and its natural ally was the peasantry. Having approved Lenin's point of view, the congress determined the party's tactics: organizing strikes, demonstrations, preparing an armed uprising.

Lenin wanted to take a direct part in revolutionary events. At the first opportunity, in early November 1905, he arrived in St. Petersburg illegally, under a false name, and began active work. Lenin headed the work of the Central and St. Petersburg Committees of the RSDLP, and paid much attention to the management of the newspaper “New Life,” which became very popular among workers. Under the direct leadership of Lenin, the party was preparing an armed uprising. At the same time, Lenin wrote the book “Two Tactics of Social Democracy in the Democratic Revolution,” in which he points out the need for the hegemony of the proletariat and an armed uprising. In the struggle to win over the peasantry (which was actively waged with the Socialist Revolutionaries), Lenin wrote the pamphlet “To the Village Poor.” This struggle turned out to be successful: from the moment Lenin arrived in Russia until his departure, the size of the party increased by an order of magnitude. By the end of 1906, the RSDLP consisted of approximately 150 thousand people.

Lenin's presence could not go unnoticed by the tsarist secret police; further stay in Russia became dangerous. In 1906 Lenin moved to Finland, and in the fall of 1907 he emigrated again.

Despite the defeat of the December armed uprising, Lenin proudly said that the Bolsheviks used all revolutionary opportunities, they were the first to take the path of uprising and the last to leave it when this path became impossible.

Second emigration

In early January 1908, Lenin returned to Switzerland. Defeat of the revolution of 1905-1907. did not force him to fold his arms; he considered a repetition of the revolutionary upsurge inevitable. “Defeated armies learn well,” wrote Lenin. In 1912 he decisively broke with the Mensheviks, who insisted on the legalization of the RSDLP.

On May 5, 1912, the first issue of the legal Bolshevik newspaper Pravda was published. Its editor-in-chief was actually Lenin. He wrote articles to Pravda almost every day, sent letters in which he gave instructions, advice, and corrected the editors’ mistakes. Over the course of 2 years, Pravda published about 270 Leninist articles and notes. Also in exile, Lenin led the activities of the Bolsheviks in the IV State Duma, was a representative of the RSDLP in the II International, wrote articles on party and national issues, and studied philosophy.

From the end of 1912 Lenin lived on the territory of Austria-Hungary. Here, in the Galician town of Poronin, he was caught up in the First World War. Austrian gendarmes arrested Lenin, declaring him a tsarist spy. To free him, the help of a member of the Austrian parliament, socialist V. Adler, was required. To the question of the Habsburg minister, “Are you sure that Ulyanov is an enemy of the tsarist government?” Adler replied: “Oh, yes, more sworn than Your Excellency.” On August 6, 1914, Lenin was released from prison, and 17 days later he was already in Switzerland. Soon after his arrival, Lenin announced his theses on the war at a meeting of a group of Bolshevik emigrants. He said that the war that had begun was imperialist, unfair on both sides, and alien to the interests of the working people.

Many modern historians accuse Lenin of defeatist sentiments, but he himself explained his position as follows: A lasting and just peace - without robbery and violence of the victors over the vanquished, a world in which not a single people would be oppressed, is impossible to achieve while capitalists are in power . Only the people themselves can end the war and conclude a just, democratic peace. And for this, the working people need to turn their weapons against the imperialist governments, turning the imperialist massacre into a civil war, into a revolution against the ruling classes and take power into their own hands. Therefore, whoever wants a lasting, democratic peace must be in favor of a civil war against governments and the bourgeoisie. Lenin put forward the slogan of revolutionary defeatism, the essence of which was voting against war loans to the government (in parliament), creating and strengthening revolutionary organizations among workers and soldiers, fighting government patriotic propaganda, and supporting the fraternization of soldiers at the front. At the same time, Lenin considered his position deeply patriotic: “We love our language and our homeland, we are full of a sense of national pride, and that is why we especially hate our slave past... and our slave present.”

At party conferences in Zimmerwald (1915) and Kienthal (1916), Lenin defended his thesis on the need to transform the imperialist war into a civil war and at the same time asserted that the socialist revolution could win in Russia (“Imperialism as the highest stage of capitalism”).

"Sealed carriage"

After the February Revolution of 1917 (the fact of which Lenin learned from the newspapers), the German authorities allowed Lenin, accompanied by 35 party comrades, among whom were Krupskaya, Zinoviev, Lilina, Armand, Sokolnikov, Radek and others, to leave Switzerland by train through Germany. Moreover, Lenin was traveling in a so-called “sealed carriage” - in other words, he and his closest colleagues were forbidden to leave their carriage at all stations right up to the border. Moreover, the German government and the General Staff were well aware of who Lenin was and how socially explosive his ideas could be for the Russian government, which was determined to continue the bloody war. It is noted that the German government financed all opposition parties in Russia, in proportion to their numbers. Thus, the Social Revolutionaries had the greatest support (6 million people in 1917), and the support of the Bolsheviks (30 thousand people in 1917) was very insignificant. There is a hypothesis that this is why they gave Lenin the opportunity to freely cross their territory. Lenin's arrival in Russia on April 3, 1917 found a great response among the proletarians. The next day, April 4, Lenin made a report to the Bolsheviks. These were the famous “April Theses”, in which Lenin outlined his plan for the party’s struggle for the transition from the bourgeois-democratic revolution to the workers’, socialist revolution. Having taken control of the RSDLP(b), Lenin implemented this plan. From April to July 1917, he wrote more than 170 articles, brochures, draft resolutions of Bolshevik conferences and the Party Central Committee, and appeals. After the shooting by the Provisional Government of a peaceful demonstration that took place in Petrograd on July 3-5, the period of dual power ends. The Bolsheviks, led by Lenin, are moving into open confrontation with the government and preparing for a new revolution.

July 20 (July 7 old style) The Provisional Government gave the order for Lenin's arrest. In Petrograd, he had to change 17 safe houses, after which, until August 21 (August 8, old style) 1917, he hid near Petrograd - in a hut on Lake Razliv, and until the beginning of October - in Finland (Yalkala, Helsingfors, Vyborg).

October Revolution of 1917

On the evening of October 24, 1917, Lenin arrived in Smolny and began to directly lead the uprising together with the then chairman of the Petrograd Soviet L. D. Trotsky. It took 2 days to overthrow the government of A.F. Kerensky. On November 7 (October 25, old style) Lenin wrote an appeal for the overthrow of the Provisional Government. On the same day, at the opening of the 2nd All-Russian Congress of Soviets, Lenin's decrees on peace and land were adopted and a workers' and peasants' government was formed - the Council of People's Commissars, headed by Lenin. On January 5, 1918, the Constituent Assembly opened, in which the Socialist Revolutionaries received a majority. Lenin, with the support of the Left Social Revolutionaries, presented the Constituent Assembly with a choice: ratify the power of the Soviets and the decrees of the Bolshevik government or disperse. Russia at that time was an agricultural country, 90% of its population were peasants. The Social Revolutionaries expressed their political views. The Constituent Assembly, which did not agree with this formulation of the issue, was dissolved.

During the 124 days of the “Smolny period,” Lenin wrote over 110 articles, draft decrees and resolutions, delivered over 70 reports and speeches, wrote about 120 letters, telegrams and notes, and participated in editing more than 40 state and party documents. The working day of the chairman of the Council of People's Commissars lasted 15-18 hours. During this period, Lenin chaired 77 meetings of the Council of People's Commissars, led 26 meetings and meetings of the Central Committee, participated in 17 meetings of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee and its Presidium, and in the preparation and conduct of 6 different All-Russian Congresses of Working People. After the Central Committee of the Party and the Soviet government moved from Petrograd to Moscow, from March 11, 1918, Lenin lived and worked in Moscow. Lenin's personal apartment and office were located in the Kremlin, on the third floor of the former Senate building.

Post-revolutionary activities

In accordance with the Peace Decree, Lenin needed to withdraw from the world war. Fearing the capture of Petrograd by German troops, at his suggestion, the Council of People's Commissars and the Central Committee of the RCP (b) moved to Moscow, which became the new capital of Soviet Russia. Despite the opposition of the left communists and L.D. Trotsky, Lenin managed to achieve the conclusion of the Brest-Litovsk Peace Treaty with Germany on March 3, 1918. He lived and worked in the Kremlin, implementing his program of transformations on the path to socialism. On August 30, 1918, an attempt was made on his life by Socialist-Revolutionary Fanny Kaplan, which led to his serious injury.
(the question of the possibility of the half-blind Fanny Kaplan hitting Lenin from a distance of 50 meters remains controversial). In 1919, on the initiative of Lenin, the 3rd Communist International was created. In 1921, at the 10th Congress of the RCP(b), he put forward the task of transitioning from the policy of “war communism” to a new economic policy. Lenin contributed to the establishment of a one-party system and an atheistic worldview in the country. Thus, Lenin became the founder of the world's first socialist state.

The consequences of the injury and excessive work led Lenin to a serious illness. (The version according to which Lenin was sick with syphilis, which began to spread during his lifetime, is most likely erroneous). In March 1922, Lenin led the work of the 11th Congress of the RCP (b) - the last party congress at which he spoke. In May 1922 he became seriously ill, but returned to work in early October.
Lenin's last public speech was on November 20, 1922 at the plenum of the Moscow Soviet. On December 16, 1922, his health condition again deteriorated sharply, and in May 1923, due to illness, he moved to the Gorki estate near Moscow. The last time Lenin was in Moscow was on October 18-19, 1923. In January 1924, his health suddenly deteriorated sharply and on January 21, 1924 at 6 o’clock. 50 min. pm Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov (Lenin) died.

After death

On January 23, the coffin with Lenin’s body was transported to Moscow and installed in the Hall of Columns of the House of Unions. The official farewell took place over five days and nights. On January 27, the coffin with Lenin’s embalmed body was placed in a specially built Mausoleum on Red Square (architect A.V. Shchusev). On January 26, 1924, after the death of Lenin, the 2nd All-Union Congress of Soviets granted the request of the Petrograd Soviet to rename Petrograd to Leningrad. A city delegation (about 1 thousand people) participated in Lenin’s funeral in Moscow. It was also announced that the USSR Central Executive Committee had decided to build a Mausoleum near the Kremlin wall. The project was carried out by architect A. Shchusev. By January 27, 1924, a temporary Mausoleum was built. It was a cube topped with a three-tiered pyramid. In the spring of the same year it was replaced by another temporary Mausoleum, also made of wood.

The modern stone Mausoleum was built in 1930, also according to the design of A. Shchusev. This is a monumental structure, faced with dark red granite, porphyry and black labradorite. Its external volume is 5.8 thousand cubic meters, and its internal volume is 2.4 thousand cubic meters. Red and black tones give the Mausoleum a clear and sad severity. Above the entrance, on a monolith made of black labradorite, there is an inscription in red quartzite letters: LENIN. At the same time, guest stands for 10 thousand people were built on both sides of the building along the Kremlin wall.

During the last restoration, carried out in the 70s, the Mausoleum was equipped with the latest instruments and equipment to control all engineering systems, the structures were strengthened and more than 12 thousand marble blocks were replaced. The old guest stands were replaced with new ones.

At the entrance to the Mausoleum there was a guard, established by order of the head of the Moscow garrison on January 26, 1924, the day before Lenin’s funeral. After the events of October 3-4, 1993, the guard was removed.

In 1923, the Central Committee of the RCP (b) created the Institute of V. I. Lenin, and in 1932, as a result of its merger with the Institute of K. Marx and F. Engels, a single Institute of Marx - Engels - Lenin was formed under the Central Committee of the CPSU (b) (later the Institute Marxism-Leninism under the Central Committee of the CPSU). The Central Party Archive of this institute contains more than 30 thousand documents, the author of which is V. I. Ulyanov (Lenin).

And after his death, Lenin divides society - approximately half of Russians favor his burial according to Christian custom (even though he was an atheist), next to the grave of his mother; and about the same number think that he should be left to lie in his mausoleum.

Lenin's main ideas

The Communist Party should not wait for the implementation of Marx’s predictions, but implement them independently: “Marxism is not a dogma, but a guide to action.” The main goal of the Communist Party is to carry out the communist revolution and subsequently build a classless society free from exploitation.

There is no universal morality, but only class morality. According to proletarian morality, everything that contributes to the communist revolution is moral (“our morality is completely subordinated to the interests of the class struggle of the proletariat”). Consequently, for the good of the revolution, any action, no matter how cruel, is permissible.

The revolution will not necessarily happen all over the world simultaneously, as Marx believed. It may first occur in one single country. This country will then help the revolution in other countries.

After Marx's death, capitalism entered its final stage - imperialism. Imperialism is characterized by the formation of international monopoly unions (empires) dividing the world, and the territorial division of the world is completed. Since each such monopoly union seeks to increase its profits, wars between them are inevitable.

To carry out a revolution, it is necessary to transform the imperialist war into a civil war. Tactically, the success of the revolution depends on the rapid capture of communications (mail, telegraph, train stations).

Before building communism, an intermediate stage is necessary - socialism. Under socialism there is no exploitation, but there is still no abundance of material goods to satisfy any needs of all members of society.

Various facts about Lenin

Quote " any cook is capable of running a state"is distorted. In fact, in the article “Will the Bolsheviks retain state power” (Complete Works, vol. 34, p. 315) Lenin wrote:
We are not utopians. We know that any unskilled worker and any cook are not capable of immediately taking over the government of the state. On this we agree with the cadets, and with Breshkovskaya, and with Tsereteli. But we differ from these citizens in that we demand an immediate break with the prejudice that only the rich or officials taken from rich families are able to govern the state, carry out the everyday, daily work of government. We demand that training in public administration be carried out by class-conscious workers and soldiers and that it begin immediately, that is, all working people, all the poor, immediately begin to be involved in this training.

Lenin believed that communism will be built in 1930-1940. In his speech “Tasks of Youth Unions” (1920) he said:
And so, the generation, which is now 15 years old and which in 10-20 years will live in a communist society, must set all the tasks of its teaching so that every day in any village, in any city, young people practically solve one or another problem of common labor, even the smallest, even the simplest.

Quote " study, study and study"is not taken out of context. It is taken from the work “The Retrograde Direction of Russian Social Democracy,” written in 1899 and published in 1924.

In 1917, Norway took the initiative to award Nobel Peace Prize to Vladimir Lenin, with the wording “For the triumph of the ideas of peace,” as a response to the “Decree on Peace” issued in Soviet Russia, which separately took Russia out of the First World War, but the Nobel Committee rejected this proposal.

V. I. Ulyanov is one of the few political figures without an autobiography. A single piece of paper was found in the archives where he tried to begin his biography, but there was no continuation.

His older sister did this work for him. Anna Ulyanova was 6 years older than her brother, and the process of his growing up and upbringing took place before her eyes. She writes that Volodya began to walk only at the age of 3; he had short, weak legs and a large head, as a result of which the boy often fell. Having fallen, Volodya started banging his head on the floor in anger and irritation. The echo of the blows echoed throughout the house. This is how he attracted attention to himself, writes Anna. At the same age, he coldly tore off the legs of a papier-mâché horse, and later destroyed a collection of theater posters that belonged to his older brother. Such cruelty and intolerance raised concerns among parents, Anna admits.

Anna first raised the question of Jewish origin of the Ulyanovs. Alexander Blank, Lenin's maternal grandfather, was a baptized Jew. It is still unknown why Prince Alexander Golitsyn, through whose efforts the baptism took place, patronized this Jewish boy. One way or another, it was thanks to the prince that the grandfather of the future leader achieved a lot in life: education, promotion, a successful marriage. Evil tongues claim that Blank was the illegitimate son of Golitsyn. Anna tried for a long time to publicize the facts she found. Two letters to Stalin asking permission to publish a full biography have survived. But Joseph Vissarionovich considered that the proletariat did not necessarily need to know this.

Some people today doubt whether we are celebrating then anniversary of Lenin's birth. The rumors arose due to the allegedly false date of birth. Indeed, V. I. Ulyanov’s work book contains the date April 23. The thing is. that the discrepancy between today's Gregorian calendar and the Julian calendar in the 19th century was 12 days, and in the 20th century it was already 13. The work book was filled out in 1920, when an accidental error crept in.

They say that Ulyanov, in his gymnasium years was friends with Alexander Kerensky. They really lived in the same city, but the considerable difference in age could not lead to such a tandem. Although their fathers often met on duty. And Kerensky’s father was the director of the gymnasium where Volodya studied. By the way, this was the only teacher who gave Ulyanov a “B” on his certificate. Thus, in order for the boy to receive a gold medal, his father had to make a deal: he recommended F. M. Kerensky as a candidate for the same position of people's inspector that he himself held. And he was not refused - Kerensky was accepted for this position and went to inspect schools in Central Asia.

Another possible meeting between Lenin and Hitler still remains a mystery. The game of chess between these two historical figures is depicted in a 1909 engraving by artist Emma Löwenstamm, Hitler's artistic mentor. On the reverse side of the engraving there are pencil signatures of “Lenin”, “Hitler” and the artist Emma Löwenstamm herself, the place (Vienna) and year of creation (1909) of the etching are indicated. The artist's signature is also on the edge of the front side of the image. The meeting itself could have taken place in Vienna, in a house belonging to a wealthy and somewhat famous Jewish family. By this time, Adolf Hitler was an unsuccessful young watercolorist, and Vladimir Lenin was in exile there, writing the book “Materialism and Empirio-Criticism.”




IN AND. Ulyanov at the age of 21 became the youngest lawyer in Russia. This is a considerable merit of the official authorities. who forbade him to study full-time. I had to take it as an external student.

V.I. Ulyanov was of the Orthodox faith and even got married in church - at the insistence of his mother-in-law. Few people know that in London in 1905 he met with priest Gapon. And even gave him my autographed book.

About Lenin's connection with Inessa Armand There are a lot of rumors going around. For now, this remains a mystery to historians. However, in the Krupskaya family album, photographs of Ilyich and Inessa are located on the same page. Moreover, Nadezhda Konstantinovna writes her most intimate letters to Armand’s daughters. Armand herself writes in her dying diary that she lives “only for the children and V.P.”

Rumors about that. What real name Krupskaya- Rybkina, they are baseless. It’s just that usually her underground nicknames were associated with the underwater world - “Fish”, “Lamprey”... Most likely this is due to Nadezhda Konstantinovna’s Graves’ disease, expressed in slightly bulging eyes.

Children of a revolutionary couple, as is known, was not. The last hope collapsed in Shushenskoye. “The hopes for the arrival of a little bird were not justified,” writes Nadezhda Konstantinovna to her mother-in-law from exile. The miscarriage was caused by the occurrence of Krupskaya Graves' disease.

According to the testimony of the attending physicians, the commission created in 1970, and today’s specialists, Lenin had cerebral atherosclerosis. But it proceeded very atypically. World-famous professor G.I. Rossolimo, having examined Ulyanov, wrote in his diary: “The situation is extremely serious. There would be hope for recovery if the basis of the brain process were syphilitic changes in blood vessels.” Perhaps this is where the version of Lenin’s venereal disease came from.

After the first stroke in May 22, Ulyanov returned to working condition for several months. And he started working in October. In two and a half months, he received more than 170 people, wrote about 200 official letters and business papers, chaired 34 meetings and meetings of the Council of People's Commissars, STO, Politburo and made a report at the session of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee and at the IV Congress of the Comintern. This is an unprecedented case in medical practice.

It is still unknown who shot Lenin. But rumors that Kaplan is still alive remain rumors. Although neither the Central Archives of the KGB nor the files of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee found a written execution verdict. But Kremlin commandant Malkov claimed that he held this conclusion in his own hands.

Shortly before death Vladimir Ilyich recalled people with whom he had long since parted ways. He was no longer able to say anything specific about them and only named their names - Martov, Axelrod, Gorky, Bogdanov, Volsky...

Ulyanov was always afraid of being paralyzed and unable to work. Feeling an approaching stroke, he called Stalin to him and asked in case of paralysis give him poison. Stalin promised, but as far as we know, he did not fulfill this request.

Lenin's main works

“What are “friends of the people” and how do they fight against the Social Democrats?” (1894);
“The Development of Capitalism in Russia” (1899);
"What to do?" (1902);
“One Step Forward, Two Steps Back” (1904);
“Materialism and Empirio-Criticism” (1909);
“On the right of nations to self-determination” (1914);
"Socialism and War" (1915);
“Imperialism as the highest stage of capitalism” (1916);
"State and Revolution" (1917);
“The childhood disease of “leftism” in communism” (1920);
“Tasks of youth unions” (1920)
“On the pogrom persecution of Jews” (1924);
“Pages from the Diary”, “About Cooperation”, “About Our Revolution”, “Letter to the Congress”
What is Soviet power?

Lenin's family tree

Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov (Lenin). Born on April 22, 1870 in Simbirsk - died on January 21, 1924 in the Gorki estate, Moscow province. Russian revolutionary, Soviet political and statesman, creator of the Russian Social Democratic Labor Party (Bolsheviks), one of the main organizers and leaders of the October Revolution of 1917 in Russia, chairman of the Council of People's Commissars (government) of the RSFSR, creator of the first socialist state in world history.

Marxist, publicist, founder of Marxism-Leninism, ideologist and creator of the Third (Communist) International, founder of the USSR, first chairman of the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR.

The scope of the main political and journalistic works is materialist philosophy, the theory of Marxism, criticism of capitalism and its highest phase: imperialism, the theory and practice of the implementation of the socialist revolution, the construction of socialism and communism, the political economy of socialism.

Regardless of the positive or negative assessment of Lenin's activities, even many non-communist researchers consider him the most significant revolutionary statesman in world history. Time magazine included Lenin among the 100 outstanding people of the 20th century in the category “Leaders and Revolutionaries.” The works of V.I. Lenin occupy first place in the world among translated literature.

Vladimir Ulyanov was born in 1870 in Simbirsk (now Ulyanovsk), in the family of the inspector of public schools of the Simbirsk province, Ilya Nikolaevich Ulyanov (1831-1886), - the son of a former serf in the village of Androsovo, Sergach district, Nizhny Novgorod province, Nikolai Ulyanov (variant spelling of the surname: Ulyanina), married to Anna Smirnova, the daughter of an Astrakhan tradesman (according to the Soviet writer M. S. Shaginyan, who came from a family of baptized Kalmyks).

Mother - Maria Alexandrovna Ulyanova (née Blank, 1835-1916), of Swedish-German origin on the mother's side and, according to various versions, Ukrainian, German or Jewish origin on the father's side.

According to one version, Vladimir’s maternal grandfather was a Jew who converted to Orthodoxy, Alexander Dmitrievich Blank. According to another version, he came from a family of German colonists invited to Russia). The famous researcher of the Lenin family M. Shaginyan argued that Alexander Blank was Ukrainian.

I. N. Ulyanov rose to the rank of actual state councilor, which in the Table of Ranks corresponded to the military rank of major general and gave the right to hereditary nobility.

In 1879-1887, Vladimir Ulyanov studied at the Simbirsk gymnasium, which was headed by F. M. Kerensky, the father of A. F. Kerensky, the future head of the Provisional Government (1917). In 1887 he graduated from high school with a gold medal and entered the law faculty of Kazan University. F. M. Kerensky was very disappointed with the choice of Volodya Ulyanov, as he advised him to enter the history and literature department of the university due to the younger Ulyanov’s great success in Latin and literature.

Until 1887, nothing is known about any revolutionary activities of Vladimir Ulyanov. He accepted Orthodox baptism and until the age of 16 belonged to the Simbirsk religious Society of St. Sergius of Radonezh, leaving religion probably in 1886. His grades according to the law of God in the gymnasium were excellent, as in almost all other subjects. There is only one B in his matriculation certificate - logically. In 1885, the list of students at the gymnasium indicated that Vladimir was “a very gifted, diligent and careful student. He does very well in all subjects. He behaves exemplary." The first award was presented to him already in 1880, after graduating from the first grade - a book with gold embossing on the binding: “For good behavior and success” and a certificate of merit.

In 1887, on May 8 (20), his older brother, Alexander, was executed as a participant in the Narodnaya Volya conspiracy to assassinate Emperor Alexander III. What happened became a deep tragedy for the Ulyanov family, who were unaware of Alexander’s revolutionary activities.

At the university, Vladimir was involved in the illegal student circle of Narodnaya Volya, led by Lazar Bogoraz. Three months after his admission, he was expelled for his participation in student unrest caused by the new university charter, the introduction of police surveillance of students and a campaign to combat “unreliable” students. According to a student inspector who suffered from student unrest, Ulyanov was in the forefront of the raging students.

The next night, Vladimir, along with forty other students, was arrested and sent to the police station. All those arrested, in accordance with the methods of combating “disobedience” characteristic of the reign, were expelled from the university and sent to their “homeland.” Later, another group of students left Kazan University in protest against the repression. Among those who voluntarily left the university was Ulyanov’s cousin, Vladimir Ardashev. After petitions from Lyubov Alexandrovna Ardasheva, Vladimir Ilyich’s aunt, Ulyanov was exiled to the village of Kokushkino, Laishevsky district, Kazan province, where he lived in the Ardashevs’ house until the winter of 1888-1889.

Since during the police investigation, young Ulyanov’s connections with the illegal circle of Bogoraz were revealed, and also because of the execution of his brother, he was included in the list of “unreliable” persons subject to police supervision. For the same reason, he was prohibited from reinstatement at the university, and his mother’s corresponding requests were rejected over and over again.

In the fall of 1888, Ulyanov was allowed to return to Kazan. Here he subsequently joined one of the Marxist circles organized by N. E. Fedoseev, where the works of G. V. Plekhanov were studied and discussed. In 1924, N.K. Krupskaya wrote in Pravda: “Vladimir Ilyich loved Plekhanov passionately. Plekhanov played a major role in the development of Vladimir Ilyich, helped him find the correct revolutionary approach, and therefore Plekhanov was surrounded by a halo for a long time: he experienced every slightest disagreement with Plekhanov extremely painfully.”

In May 1889, M. A. Ulyanova acquired the Alakaevka estate of 83.5 dessiatines (91.2 hectares) in the Samara province and the family moved there to live. Yielding to his mother’s persistent requests, Vladimir tried to manage the estate, but had no success. The surrounding peasants, taking advantage of the inexperience of the new owners, stole a horse and two cows from them. As a result, Ulyanova first sold the land, and subsequently the house. During Soviet times, a house-museum of Lenin was created in this village.

In the fall of 1889, the Ulyanov family moved to Samara, where Lenin also maintained contact with local revolutionaries.

In 1890, the authorities relented and allowed him to study as an external student for the law exams. In November 1891, Vladimir Ulyanov passed the exams as an external student for a course at the Faculty of Law of the Imperial St. Petersburg University. After that, he studied a large amount of economic literature, especially zemstvo statistical reports on agriculture.

During the period 1892-1893, Lenin's views, under the strong influence of Plekhanov's works, slowly evolved from Narodnaya Volya to Social Democratic ones. At the same time, already in 1893 he developed a doctrine that was new at that time, declaring contemporary Russia, in which four-fifths of the population was peasantry, a “capitalist” country. The credo of Leninism was finally formulated in 1894: “the Russian worker, rising at the head of all democratic elements, will overthrow absolutism and lead the Russian proletariat (along with the proletariat of all countries) along the straight road of open political struggle to a victorious communist revolution.”

In 1892-1893, Vladimir Ulyanov worked as an assistant to the Samara attorney (lawyer) A. N. Hardin, conducting most criminal cases and conducting “state defenses.”

In 1893, Lenin came to St. Petersburg, where he got a job as an assistant to the sworn attorney (lawyer) M. F. Volkenshtein. In St. Petersburg, he wrote works on the problems of Marxist political economy, the history of the Russian liberation movement, and the history of the capitalist evolution of the post-reform Russian village and industry. Some of them were published legally. At this time he also developed the program of the Social Democratic Party. The activities of V.I. Lenin as a publicist and researcher of the development of capitalism in Russia, based on extensive statistical materials, make him famous among Social Democrats and opposition-minded liberal figures, as well as in many other circles of Russian society.

In May 1895, Ulyanov went abroad, where he met with Plekhanov in Switzerland, in Germany with V. Liebknecht, in France with P. Lafargue and other figures of the international labor movement, and upon returning to St. Petersburg in 1895, together with Yu. O. Martov and other young revolutionaries united scattered Marxist circles into the “Union of Struggle for the Liberation of the Working Class.”

Under the influence of Plekhanov, Lenin partially retreated from his doctrine proclaiming Tsarist Russia a “capitalist” country, declaring it a “semi-feudal” country. His immediate goal is to overthrow the autocracy, now in alliance with the “liberal bourgeoisie.” The “Union of Struggle” carried out active propaganda activities among workers; they issued more than 70 leaflets.

In December 1895, like many other members of the “Union,” Ulyanov was arrested, kept in prison for more than a year, and in 1897 exiled for 3 years to the village of Shushenskoye, Minusinsk district, Yenisei province.

So that Lenin’s “common-law” wife, N.K. Krupskaya, could follow him into exile, he had to register his marriage with her in July 1898. Since in Russia at that time only church marriages were recognized, Lenin, who was already an atheist at that time, had to get married in a church, officially identifying himself as Orthodox. Initially, neither Vladimir Ilyich nor Nadezhda Konstantinovna intended to formalize their marriage through the church, but after a very short time the police chief’s order came: either get married, or Nadezhda Konstantinovna must leave Shushenskoye and go to Ufa, to the place of exile. “I had to do this whole comedy,” Krupskaya said later.

Ulyanov, in a letter to his mother dated May 10, 1898, describes the current situation as follows: “N. K., as you know, was given a tragicomic condition: if he does not immediately (sic!) get married, then return to Ufa. I am not at all inclined to allow this, and therefore we have already begun “troubles” (mainly requests for the issuance of documents, without which we cannot get married) in order to have time to get married before Lent (before Petrovka): it is still possible to hope that the strict authorities will find this sufficient “immediate” marriage.” Finally, at the beginning of July, the documents were received and it was possible to go to church. But it so happened that there were no guarantors, no best men, no wedding rings, without which the wedding ceremony was unthinkable. The police officer categorically forbade the exiles Krzhizhanovsky and Starkov from coming to the wedding. Of course, the troubles could have started again, but Vladimir Ilyich decided not to wait. He invited familiar Shushensky peasants as guarantors and best men: clerk Stepan Nikolaevich Zhuravlev, shopkeeper Ioannikiy Ivanovich Zavertkin, Simon Afanasyevich Ermolaev and others. And one of the exiles, Oscar Aleksandrovich Engberg, made wedding rings for the bride and groom from a copper coin.

On July 10 (22), 1898, in a local church, priest John Orestov performed the sacrament of wedding. An entry in the church register of the village of Shushenskoye indicates that the administrative-exiled Orthodox Christians V.I. Ulyanov and N.K. Krupskaya had their first marriage.

In exile, he wrote a book, “The Development of Capitalism in Russia,” based on the collected material, directed against “legal Marxism” and populist theories. During his exile, over 30 works were written, contacts were established with Social Democrats in St. Petersburg, Moscow, Nizhny Novgorod, Voronezh and other cities. By the end of the 1890s, under the pseudonym “K. Tulin" V.I. Ulyanov gained fame in Marxist circles. While in exile, Ulyanov advised local peasants on legal issues and drafted legal documents for them.

In 1898, in Minsk, in the absence of the leaders of the St. Petersburg Union of Struggle, the First Congress of the RSDLP was held, consisting of 9 people, which established the Russian Social Democratic Labor Party, adopting the Manifesto. All members of the Central Committee elected by the congress and most of the delegates were immediately arrested, and many organizations represented at the congress were destroyed by the police. The leaders of the Union of Struggle, who were in exile in Siberia, decided to unite the numerous Social Democratic organizations and Marxist circles scattered throughout the country with the help of the newspaper.

After the end of their exile in February 1900, Lenin, Martov and A.N. Potresov traveled around Russian cities, establishing connections with local organizations. On February 26, 1900, Ulyanov arrived in Pskov, where he was allowed to reside after exile. In April 1900, an organizational meeting was held in Pskov to create an all-Russian workers' newspaper "Iskra", in which V. I. Ulyanov-Lenin, S. I. Radchenko, P. B. Struve, M. I. Tugan-Baranovsky, L. Martov, A. N. Potresov, A. M. Stopani.

In April 1900, Lenin illegally made a one-day trip to Riga from Pskov. At the negotiations with the Latvian Social Democrats, issues of transporting the Iskra newspaper from abroad to Russia through the ports of Latvia were considered. At the beginning of May 1900, Vladimir Ulyanov received a foreign passport in Pskov. On May 19 he leaves for St. Petersburg, and on May 21 he is detained by the police there. The luggage sent by Ulyanov from Pskov to Podolsk was also carefully examined.

After inspecting the luggage, the head of the Moscow security department, S.V. Zubatov, sends a telegram to St. Petersburg to the head of the special department of the police department, L.A. Rataev: “The cargo turned out to be a library and tendentious manuscripts, opened in accordance with the Charter of the Russian Railways, as sent unsealed. After consideration by the gendarmerie police and examination of the department, it will be sent to its destination. Zubatov." The operation to arrest the Social Democrat ended in failure. As an experienced conspirator, V.I. Lenin did not give the Pskov police any reason to accuse him. In the reports of the spies and in the information of the Pskov Gendarmerie Directorate about V.I. Ulyanov, it is noted that “during his residence in Pskov before going abroad, he was not noticed in anything reprehensible.” Lenin’s work in the statistical bureau of the Pskov provincial zemstvo and his participation in drawing up a program for an assessment and statistical survey of the province also served as a good cover for Lenin. Apart from an illegal visit to the capital, Ulyanov had nothing to show for it. Ten days later he was released.

In June 1900, Vladimir Ulyanov, together with his mother M.A. Ulyanova and older sister Anna Ulyanova, came to Ufa, where his wife N.K. Krupskaya was in exile.

On July 29, 1900, Lenin left for Switzerland, where he negotiated with Plekhanov on the publication of a newspaper and theoretical journal. The editorial board of the newspaper Iskra (later the magazine Zarya appeared) included three representatives of the emigrant group “Emancipation of Labor” - Plekhanov, P. B. Axelrod and V. I. Zasulich and three representatives of the “Union of Struggle” - Lenin, Martov and Potresov. The average circulation of the newspaper was 8,000 copies, with some issues up to 10,000 copies. The spread of the newspaper was facilitated by the creation of a network of underground organizations on the territory of the Russian Empire. The editorial board of Iskra settled in Munich, but Plekhanov remained in Geneva. Axelrod still lived in Zurich. Martov has not yet arrived from Russia. Zasulich didn’t come either. Having lived in Munich for a short time, Potresov left it for a long time. The main work in Munich to organize the release of Iskra is carried out by Ulyanov. The first issue of Iskra arrives from the printing house on December 24, 1900. On April 1, 1901, after serving her exile in Ufa, N.K. Krupskaya arrived in Munich and began working in the editorial office of Iskra.

In December 1901, the magazine “Zarya” published an article entitled “Years. “critics” on the agrarian issue. The first essay" is the first work that Vladimir Ulyanov signed with the pseudonym "N. Lenin."

In the period 1900-1902, Lenin, under the influence of the general crisis of the revolutionary movement that had arisen at that time, came to the conclusion that, left to its own devices, the revolutionary proletariat would soon abandon the fight against the autocracy, limiting itself to economic demands alone.

In 1902, in the work “What to do? Urgent issues of our movement” Lenin came up with his own concept of the party, which he saw as a centralized militant organization (“a party of a new type”). In this article he writes: “Give us an organization of revolutionaries, and we will turn Russia over!” In this work, Lenin first formulated his doctrines of “democratic centralism” (a strict hierarchical organization of the revolutionary party) and “introducing consciousness.”

According to the then new doctrine of “bringing in consciousness,” it was assumed that the industrial proletariat itself was not revolutionary and was inclined only to economic demands (“trade unionism”), the necessary “consciousness” had to be “brought in” from the outside by a party of professional revolutionaries, which in this case would become the “avant-garde”.

Foreign agents of the tsarist intelligence picked up the trail of the Iskra newspaper in Munich. Therefore, in April 1902, the newspaper's editorial office moved from Munich to London. Together with Lenin and Krupskaya, Martov and Zasulich move to London. From April 1902 to April 1903, V.I. Lenin, together with N.K. Krupskaya, lived in London, under the surname Richter, first in furnished rooms, and then rented two small rooms in a house not far from the British Museum, in whose library Vladimir Ilyich worked often. At the end of April 1903, Lenin and his wife moved from London to Geneva in connection with the transfer of the publication of the Iskra newspaper there. They lived in Geneva until 1905.

From July 17 to August 10, 1903, the Second Congress of the RSDLP was held in London. Lenin took an active part in the preparations for the congress not only with his articles in Iskra and Zarya; Since the summer of 1901, together with Plekhanov, he worked on a draft party program and prepared a draft charter. The program consisted of two parts - a minimum program and a maximum program; the first involved the overthrow of tsarism and the establishment of a democratic republic, the destruction of the remnants of serfdom in the countryside, in particular the return to peasants of lands cut off from them by landowners during the abolition of serfdom (the so-called “cuts”), the introduction of an eight-hour working day, recognition of the right of nations to self-determination and the establishment of equal rights nations; the maximum program determined the ultimate goal of the party - the construction of a socialist society and the conditions for achieving this goal - the socialist revolution and the dictatorship of the proletariat.

Already at the end of 1904, against the backdrop of a growing strike movement, differences on political issues emerged between the “majority” and “minority” factions, in addition to organizational ones.

The revolution of 1905-1907 found Lenin abroad, in Switzerland.

At the Third Congress of the RSDLP, held in London in April 1905, Lenin emphasized that the main task of the ongoing revolution was to put an end to autocracy and the remnants of serfdom in Russia.

At the first opportunity, in early November 1905, Lenin arrived in St. Petersburg illegally, under a false name, and headed the work of the Central and St. Petersburg Bolshevik Committees elected by the congress; paid great attention to the management of the newspaper “New Life”. Under the leadership of Lenin, the party was preparing an armed uprising. At the same time, Lenin wrote the book “Two Tactics of Social Democracy in the Democratic Revolution,” in which he points out the need for the hegemony of the proletariat and an armed uprising. In the struggle to win over the peasantry (which was actively waged with the Socialist Revolutionaries), Lenin wrote the pamphlet “To the Village Poor.” In December 1905, the First Conference of the RSDLP was held in Tammerfors, where V.I. Lenin and V. I. met for the first time.

In the spring of 1906, Lenin moved to Finland. He lived with Krupskaya and her mother in Kuokkala (Repino (St. Petersburg)) at the Vaasa villa of Emil Edward Engeström, occasionally visiting Helsingfors. At the end of April 1906, before going to the party congress in Stockholm, he, under the name Weber, stayed in Helsingfors for two weeks in a rented apartment on the first floor of a house at Vuorimihenkatu 35. Two months later, he spent several weeks in Seyviasta (Ozerki village, west of Kuokkala) near the Knipovichs. In December (no later than 14 (27)) 1907, Lenin arrived in Stockholm by ship.

According to Lenin, despite the defeat of the December armed uprising, the Bolsheviks used all revolutionary opportunities, they were the first to take the path of uprising and the last to leave it when this path became impossible.

In early January 1908, Lenin returned to Geneva. The defeat of the revolution of 1905-1907 did not force him to fold his arms; he considered a repetition of the revolutionary upsurge inevitable. “Defeated armies learn well,” Lenin later wrote about this period.

At the end of 1908, Lenin and Krupskaya, together with Zinoviev and Kamenev, moved to Paris. Lenin lived here until June 1912. This is where his first meeting with Inessa Armand takes place.

In 1909 he published his main philosophical work, “Materialism and Empirio-criticism.” The work was written after Lenin realized how widely popular Machism and empirio-criticism had become among Social Democrats.

In 1912, he decisively broke with the Mensheviks, who insisted on the legalization of the RSDLP.

On May 5, 1912, the first issue of the legal Bolshevik newspaper Pravda was published in St. Petersburg. Extremely dissatisfied with the editing of the newspaper (Stalin was the editor-in-chief), Lenin sent L. B. Kamenev to St. Petersburg. He wrote articles to Pravda almost every day, sent letters in which he gave instructions, advice, and corrected the editors’ mistakes. Over the course of 2 years, Pravda published about 270 Leninist articles and notes. Also in exile, Lenin led the activities of the Bolsheviks in the IV State Duma, was a representative of the RSDLP in the II International, wrote articles on party and national issues, and studied philosophy.

When World War I began, Lenin lived on the territory of Austria-Hungary in the Galician town of Poronin, where he arrived at the end of 1912. Due to suspicions of spying for the Russian government, Lenin was arrested by Austrian gendarmes. For his release, the help of socialist deputy of the Austrian parliament V. Adler was required. On August 6, 1914, Lenin was released from prison.

17 days later in Switzerland, Lenin took part in a meeting of a group of Bolshevik emigrants, where he announced his theses on the war. In his opinion, the war that began was imperialist, unfair on both sides, and alien to the interests of the working people. According to the memoirs of S. Yu. Bagotsky, after receiving information about the unanimous vote of German Social Democrats for the military budget of the German government, Lenin declared that he had ceased to be a Social Democrat and turned into a communist.

At international conferences in Zimmerwald (1915) and Kienthal (1916), Lenin, in accordance with the resolution of the Stuttgart Congress and the Basel Manifesto of the Second International, defended his thesis on the need to transform the imperialist war into a civil war and spoke with the slogan of “revolutionary defeatism.” Military historian S.V. Volkov considered that Lenin’s position during the First World War in relation to his own country can most accurately be described as “high treason.”

In February 1916, Lenin moved from Bern to Zurich. Here he completed his work “Imperialism as the Highest Stage of Capitalism (Popular Essay)”, actively collaborated with the Swiss Social Democrats (among them the left radical Fritz Platten), and attended all their party meetings. Here he learned from newspapers about the February Revolution in Russia.

Lenin did not expect a revolution in 1917. Lenin’s public statement in January 1917 in Switzerland is known that he did not expect to live to see the coming revolution, but that young people would see it. Lenin, who knew the weakness of the underground revolutionary forces in the capital, regarded the revolution that soon took place as the result of a “conspiracy of Anglo-French imperialists.”

In April 1917, the German authorities, with the assistance of Fritz Platten, allowed Lenin, along with 35 party comrades, to travel by train from Switzerland through Germany. General E. Ludendorff argued that transporting Lenin to Russia was expedient from a military point of view. Among Lenin's companions were Krupskaya N.K., Zinoviev G.E., Lilina Z.I., Armand I.F., Sokolnikov G.Ya., Radek K.B. and others.

On April 3 (16), 1917, Lenin arrived in Russia. The Petrograd Soviet, the majority of which were Mensheviks and Socialist Revolutionaries, organized a ceremonial meeting for him. To meet Lenin and the procession that followed through the streets of Petrograd, according to the Bolsheviks, 7,000 soldiers were mobilized “alongside.”

Lenin was personally met by the chairman of the executive committee of the Petrograd Soviet, Menshevik N. S. Chkheidze, who on behalf of the Soviet expressed hope for “unifying the ranks of all democracy.” However, Lenin’s first speech at the Finlyandsky Station immediately after his arrival ended with a call for a “social revolution” and caused confusion even among Lenin’s supporters. The sailors of the 2nd Baltic Crew, who performed honor guard duties at the Finlyandsky Station, the next day expressed their indignation and regret that they were not told in time about the route Lenin took to return to Russia, and claimed that they would have greeted Lenin with exclamations of “Down, back to the country through which you came to us.” Soldiers of the Volyn Regiment and sailors in Helsingfors raised the question of Lenin's arrest; the indignation of the sailors in this Finnish Russian port was even expressed in the throwing of Bolshevik agitators into the sea. Based on the information received about Lenin’s path to Russia, the soldiers of the Moscow regiment decided to destroy the editorial office of the Bolshevik newspaper Pravda.

The next day, April 4, Lenin made a report to the Bolsheviks, the theses of which were published in Pravda only on April 7, when Lenin and Zinoviev joined the editorial board of Pravda, since, according to V. M. Molotov, the new The leader’s ideas seemed too radical even to his close associates. They were famous "April Theses". In this report, Lenin sharply opposed the sentiments that prevailed in Russia among Social Democrats in general and the Bolsheviks in particular, which boiled down to the idea of ​​​​expanding the bourgeois-democratic revolution, supporting the Provisional Government and defending the revolutionary fatherland in a war that changed its character with the fall of the autocracy. Lenin announced the slogans: “No support for the Provisional Government” and “all power to the Soviets”; he proclaimed a course for the development of the bourgeois revolution into a proletarian revolution, putting forward the goal of overthrowing the bourgeoisie and the transfer of power to the Soviets and the proletariat with the subsequent liquidation of the army, police and bureaucracy. Finally, he demanded widespread anti-war propaganda, since, according to his opinion, the war on the part of the Provisional Government continued to be imperialistic and “predatory” in nature.

On April 8, one of the leaders of German intelligence in Stockholm telegraphed the Foreign Ministry in Berlin: “Lenin’s arrival in Russia is successful. It works exactly the way we would like it to.”

In March 1917, until Lenin’s arrival from exile, moderate sentiments prevailed in the RSDLP(b). Stalin I.V. even stated in March that “unification [with the Mensheviks] is possible along the Zimmerwald-Kinthal line.” On April 6, the Central Committee passed a negative resolution on the Theses, and the editorial board of Pravda initially refused to print them, allegedly due to mechanical failure. On April 7, the “Theses” nevertheless appeared with a comment from L. B. Kamenev, who said that “Lenin’s scheme” was “unacceptable.”

Nevertheless, within literally three weeks, Lenin managed to get his party to accept the “Theses.” Stalin I.V. was one of the first to declare their support (April 11). According to the expression, “the party was taken by surprise by Lenin no less than by the February coup... there was no debate, everyone was stunned, no one wanted to expose themselves to the blows of this frantic leader.” The April party conference of 1917 (April 22-29) put an end to the Bolsheviks’ hesitations, which finally adopted the “Theses.” At this conference, Lenin also proposed for the first time that the party be renamed "communist", but this proposal was rejected.

From April to July 1917, Lenin wrote more than 170 articles, brochures, draft resolutions of Bolshevik conferences and the Party Central Committee, and appeals.

Despite the fact that the Menshevik newspaper Rabochaya Gazeta, when writing about the arrival of the Bolshevik leader in Russia, assessed this visit as the emergence of “danger from the left flank”, the newspaper Rech - the official publication of the Minister of Foreign Affairs P. N. Milyukov - according to historian of the Russian revolution S.P. Melgunov, spoke positively about the arrival of Lenin, and that now not only Plekhanov will fight for the ideas of socialist parties.

In Petrograd, from June 3 (16) to June 24 (July 7), 1917, the First All-Russian Congress of Soviets of Workers' and Soldiers' Deputies was held, at which Lenin spoke. In his speech on June 4 (17), he stated that at that moment, in his opinion, the Soviets could gain all power in the country peacefully and use it to solve the main issues of the revolution: give the working people peace, bread, land and overcome economic devastation. Lenin also argued that the Bolsheviks were ready to immediately take power in the country.

A month later, the Petrograd Bolsheviks found themselves involved in anti-government protests on July 3 (16) - 4 (17), 1917 under the slogans of transferring power to the Soviets and negotiations with Germany on peace. The armed demonstration led by the Bolsheviks escalated into skirmishes, including with troops loyal to the Provisional Government. The Bolsheviks were accused of organizing an “armed uprising against state power” (subsequently the Bolshevik leadership denied its involvement in the preparation of these events). In addition, the case materials provided by counterintelligence about the connections of the Bolsheviks with Germany were made public (see Question about the financing of the Bolsheviks by Germany).

On July 20 (7), the Provisional Government ordered the arrest of Lenin and a number of prominent Bolsheviks on charges of treason and organizing an armed uprising. Lenin went underground again. In Petrograd, he had to change 17 safe houses, after which, until August 21 (8), 1917, he and Zinoviev hid not far from Petrograd - in a hut on Lake Razliv. In August, on the steam locomotive H2-293, he disappeared into the territory of the Grand Duchy of Finland, where he lived until the beginning of October in Yalkala, Helsingfors and Vyborg. Soon the investigation into Lenin's case was discontinued due to lack of evidence.

Lenin, who was in Finland, was unable to attend the VI Congress of the RSDLP(b), which was held semi-legally in August 1917 in Petrograd. The Congress approved the decision on Lenin's failure to appear in the court of the Provisional Government, and elected him in absentia as one of its honorary chairmen.

During this period, Lenin wrote one of his fundamental works - the book "State and Revolution".

On August 10, accompanied by the deputy of the Finnish Sejm K. Wikka, Lenin moved from Malm station to Helsingfors. Here he lives in the apartment of the Finnish social democrat Gustav Rovno (Hagnes Square, 1, apt. 22), and then in the apartment of the Finnish workers A. Usenius (Fradrikinkatu St., 64) and B. Vlumkvist (Telenkatu St., 46) . Communication goes through G. Rivne, railway. postman K. Akhmalu, driver of steam locomotive No. 293 G. Yalava, N.K. Krupskaya, M.I. Ulyanov, Shotman A.V. N.K. Krupskaya comes to Lenin twice with the ID of Sestroretsk worker Agafya Atamanova.

In the second half of September, Lenin moved to Vyborg (the apartment of the editor-in-chief of the Finnish workers' newspaper "Tue" (labor) Evert Huttunen (Vilkienkatu St. 17 - in the 2000s, Turgenev St., 8), then settled with Latukka near Vyborg Talikkala, alexanderinkatu (now the village of Lenina, Rubezhnaya St. 15.) On October 7, accompanied by Rakhya, Lenin left Vyborg to move to St. Petersburg. They traveled to Raivola on a commuter train, and then Lenin moved to the booth of steam locomotive No. 293 to driver Hugo Yalava. Udelnaya station on foot to Serdobolskaya 1/92 quarter 20 to M.V. Fofanova from where Lenin left for Smolny on the night of October 25.

On October 20, 1917, Lenin arrived illegally from Vyborg to Petrograd. On November 6, 1917 (24.10) after 6 pm Lenin left the safe house of Margarita Fofanova, at Serdobolskaya Street, building No. 1, apartment No. 41, leaving a note: “...I went to where you didn’t want me to go. Goodbye. Ilyich." For the purpose of secrecy, Lenin changes his appearance: he puts on an old coat and cap, and ties a scarf around his cheek. Lenin, accompanied by E. Rakhya, heads to Sampsonievsky Prospekt, takes a tram to Botkinskaya Street, crosses the Liteiny Bridge, turns onto Shpalernaya, is twice delayed by cadets along the way, and finally comes to Smolny (Leontyevskaya Street, 1).

Arriving in Smolny, he begins to lead the uprising, the direct organizer of which was the chairman of the Petrograd Soviet L. D. Trotsky. Lenin proposed to act tough, organized, and quickly. We can't wait any longer. It is necessary to arrest the government without leaving power in the hands of Kerensky until October 25, disarm the cadets, mobilize the districts and regiments, and send representatives from them to the Military Revolutionary Committee and the Bolshevik Central Committee. On the night of October 25-26, the Provisional Government was arrested.

It took 2 days to overthrow the government of A.F. Kerensky. On November 7 (October 25) Lenin wrote an appeal for the overthrow of the Provisional Government. On the same day, at the opening of the Second All-Russian Congress of Soviets, Lenin's decrees on peace and land were adopted and a government was formed - the Council of People's Commissars, headed by Lenin. On January 5 (18), 1918, the Constituent Assembly opened, the majority of which was won by the Socialist Revolutionaries, representing the interests of the peasants, who at that time made up 80% of the country's population. Lenin, with the support of the Left Social Revolutionaries, presented the Constituent Assembly with a choice: ratify the power of the Soviets and the decrees of the Bolshevik government or disperse. The Constituent Assembly, which did not agree with this formulation of the issue, lost its quorum and was forcibly dissolved.

During the 124 days of the “Smolny period,” Lenin wrote over 110 articles, draft decrees and resolutions, delivered over 70 reports and speeches, wrote about 120 letters, telegrams and notes, and participated in the editing of more than 40 state and party documents. The working day of the chairman of the Council of People's Commissars lasted 15-18 hours. During this period, Lenin chaired 77 meetings of the Council of People's Commissars, led 26 meetings and meetings of the Central Committee, participated in 17 meetings of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee and its Presidium, and in the preparation and conduct of 6 different All-Russian Congresses of Working People. After the Central Committee of the Party and the Soviet government moved from Petrograd to Moscow, from March 11, 1918, Lenin lived and worked in Moscow. Lenin's personal apartment and office were located in the Kremlin, on the third floor of the former Senate building.

On January 15 (28), 1918, Lenin signed the decree of the Council of People's Commissars on the creation of the Red Army. In accordance with the Peace Decree, it was necessary to withdraw from the world war. Despite the opposition of the left communists and L.D. Trotsky, Lenin achieved the conclusion of the Brest-Litovsk Peace Treaty with Germany. On March 3, 1918, the Left Socialist-Revolutionaries, in protest against the signing and ratification of the Brest-Litovsk Peace Treaty, withdrew from the Soviet government. On March 10-11, fearing the capture of Petrograd by German troops, at the suggestion of Lenin, the Council of People's Commissars and the Central Committee of the RCP (b) moved to Moscow, which became the new capital of Soviet Russia.

On August 30, 1918, an attempt was made on Lenin, according to the official version, by a Socialist Revolutionary Party, which led to severe injury. After the assassination attempt, Lenin was successfully operated on by doctor Vladimir Mints.

The denunciation of the Brest-Litovsk Peace Treaty by the All-Russian Central Executive Committee in November 1918 significantly strengthened Lenin’s authority in the party. Doctor of Philosophy in history, Harvard University professor Richard Pipes describes this situation as follows: “By shrewdly accepting a humiliating peace that gave him the necessary time and then collapsed under its own gravity, Lenin earned the widespread trust of the Bolsheviks. When they tore up the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk on November 13, 1918, followed by Germany's capitulation to the Western Allies, Lenin's authority in the Bolshevik movement was elevated to unprecedented heights. Nothing better served his reputation as a man who made no political mistakes; never again did he have to threaten to resign to get his way.”

As Chairman of the Council of People's Commissars of the RSFSR, from November 1917 to December 1920, Lenin chaired 375 meetings of the Soviet government out of 406. From December 1918 to February 1920, out of 101 meetings of the Council of Workers' and Peasants' Defense, only two he did not preside over. In 1919, V.I. Lenin led the work of 14 plenums of the Central Committee and 40 meetings of the Politburo, at which military issues were discussed. From November 1917 to November 1920, V.I. Lenin wrote over 600 letters and telegrams on various issues of defense of the Soviet state, and spoke at rallies over 200 times.

In March 1919, after the failure of the Entente countries’ initiative to end the Civil War in Russia, V. Bullitt, who secretly arrived in Moscow on behalf of US President William Wilson and British Prime Minister D. Lloyd George, proposed that Soviet Russia make peace with all other governments, formed on the territory of the former Russian Empire, while paying off its debts together with them. Lenin agreed to this proposal, motivating this decision as follows: “The price of the blood of our workers and soldiers is too dear to us; We, as merchants, will pay for peace at the price of a heavy tribute... just to save the lives of workers and peasants.” However, the initially successful offensive of A.V. Kolchak’s army on the Eastern Front against Soviet troops, which began in March 1919, instilling confidence in the Entente countries in the imminent fall of Soviet power, led to the fact that negotiations were not continued by the United States and Great Britain.

In 1919, on the initiative of Lenin, the Communist International was created.

On the night of July 16-17, 1918, the former Russian Emperor Nicholas II was shot along with his family and servants by order of the Ural Regional Council in Yekaterinburg, led by the Bolsheviks.

In February 1920, the Irkutsk Bolshevik Military Revolutionary Committee secretly executed without trial Admiral A.V. Kolchak, who was under arrest in the Irkutsk prison after his allies had extradited him to the Socialist-Revolutionary-Menshevik Political Center. According to a number of modern Russian historians, this was done in accordance with Lenin's order.

Illness and death of Vladimir Lenin

At the end of May 1922, due to cerebral vascular sclerosis, Lenin suffered his first serious attack of the disease - speech was lost, the movement of his right limbs was weakened, and there was almost complete memory loss - Lenin, for example, did not know how to use a toothbrush. Only on July 13, 1922, when Lenin’s condition improved, was he able to write his first note. From the end of July 1922, Lenin's condition deteriorated again. Improvement came only at the beginning of September 1922.

In 1923, shortly before his death, Lenin wrote his last works: “On cooperation”, “How can we reorganize the workers’ krin”, “Less is better”, in which he offers his vision of the economic policy of the Soviet state and measures to improve the work of the state apparatus and parties. On January 4, 1923, V.I. Lenin dictates the so-called “Addition to the letter of December 24, 1922,” in which, in particular, the characteristics of individual Bolsheviks claiming to be the leader of the party (Stalin, Trotsky, Bukharin, Pyatakov) were given. .

Presumably, Vladimir Ilyich’s illness was caused by severe overwork and the consequences of the assassination attempt on August 30, 1918. At least these reasons are referred to by the authoritative researcher of this issue, surgeon Yu. M. Lopukhin.

Leading German specialists in nervous diseases were called in for treatment. Lenin's chief physician from December 1922 until his death in 1924 was Otfried Förster. Lenin's last public speech took place on November 20, 1922 at the plenum of the Moscow Soviet. On December 16, 1922, his health condition again deteriorated sharply, and on May 15, 1923, due to illness, he moved to the Gorki estate near Moscow. Since March 12, 1923, daily bulletins on Lenin's health were published. The last time Lenin was in Moscow was on October 18-19, 1923. During this period, he, however, dictated several notes: “Letter to the Congress”, “On giving legislative functions to the State Planning Committee”, “On the issue of nationalities or “autonomization””, “Pages from the diary”, “On cooperation”, “About our revolution (regarding N. Sukhanov’s notes)”, “How can we reorganize the Rabkrin (Proposal to the XII Party Congress)”, “Less is better”.

Lenin's "Letter to the Congress" (1922) is often viewed as Lenin's testament.

In January 1924, Lenin's health suddenly deteriorated; On January 21, 1924 at 18:50 he died.

The official conclusion on the cause of death in the autopsy report read: “...The basis of the disease of the deceased is widespread atherosclerosis of blood vessels due to their premature wear (Abnutzungssclerose). Due to the narrowing of the lumen of the arteries of the brain and disruption of its nutrition from insufficient blood flow, focal softening of the brain tissue occurred, explaining all the previous symptoms of the disease (paralysis, speech disorders). The immediate cause of death was: 1) increased circulatory disorders in the brain; 2) hemorrhage into the pia mater in the quadrigeminal region.” In June 2004, an article was published in the European Journal of Neurology, the authors of which suggest that Lenin died of neurosyphilis. Lenin himself did not exclude the possibility of syphilis and therefore took salvarsan, and in 1923 he also tried to be treated with drugs based on mercury and bismuth; Max Nonne, a specialist in this field, was invited to see him. However, his guess was refuted by him. “There was absolutely nothing to indicate syphilis,” Nonna later wrote.

Vladimir Lenin's height: 164 centimeters.

Personal life of Vladimir Lenin:

Apollinaria Yakubova and her husband were close associates of Lenin and his wife Nadezhda Krupskaya, who lived in London periodically from 1902 to 1911, although Yakubova and Lenin were known to have had a tumultuous and tense relationship due to politics within the RSDLP.

Robert Henderson, a specialist in Russian history at the University of London, discovered a photograph of Yakubova in the depths of the State Archive of Russian Federation in Moscow in April 2015.

Apollinaria Yakubova

Major works of Vladimir Lenin:

"On the Characteristics of Economic Romanticism", (1897)
What inheritance are we giving up? (1897);
Development of capitalism in Russia (1899);
What to do? (1902);
One Step Forward, Two Steps Back (1904);
Party organization and party literature (1905);
Two Tactics of Social Democracy in the Democratic Revolution (1905);
Marxism and Revisionism (1908);
Materialism and Empirio-Criticism (1909);
Three Sources and Three Components of Marxism (1913);
On the Right of Nations to Self-Determination (1914);
On the breakdown of unity covered by cries for unity (1914);
Karl Marx (a short biographical sketch outlining Marxism) (1914);
Socialism and War (1915);
Imperialism as the highest stage of capitalism (popular essay) (1916);
State and Revolution (1917);
Tasks of the proletariat in our revolution (1917)
The Impending Catastrophe and How to Deal with It (1917)
On dual power (1917);
How to Organize a Competition (1918);
The Great Initiative (1919);
The childhood disease of “leftism” in communism (1920);
Tasks of youth unions (1920);
About the food tax (1921);
Pages from the diary, About cooperation (1923);
About the pogrom persecution of Jews (1924);
What is Soviet power? (1919, publ.: 1928);
On left-wing childishness and petty-bourgeoisism (1918);
About our revolution (1923);
Letter to the Congress (1922, read out: 1924, published: 1956)