Lenin's Revolution

Description

An exciting acount and analysis of Lenin's role in the Russian Revolution and the creation of the Soviet system. How did a revolutionary leader who was frequently surprised by events— and was often compelled to observe them from abroad—finally seize power in a bloodless coup? This study, besides charting his rise to power, examines Lenin’s propagandist skill in crafting resonant slogans to fit every changing situation. He made failure look like success, and won the debate while seeming to lose it. Lenin’s legacy of government by propaganda still survives in Putin’s ‘sovereign democracy’—itself a propaganda triumph. This is the Bolshevik Revolution seen from the 21st century, when President Putin attends Christmas eucharist in Moscow Cathedral and commends religion for promoting traditional Russian values. If historians of the Kruschev era did not foresee so improbable a transformation of Lenin’s Russia, Lenin himself was also ‘unexpected’. Copyright and Licence Title page Contents About the author Preface 1.1 The Communist Manifesto 1.2 Student revolutionaries 1.3 Lenin’s early Marxism Chapter 2 The Making of a Bolshevik 2.1 Prison and Exile 2.2 Revolution by journalism 2.3 Bolsheviks and Mensheviks 2.4 Russian Robespierre? Chapter 3 Dress Rehearsal 1904–1907 3.1 ‘Bloody Sunday’ 3. 2 Organising for revolution 3.3 Potemkin Mutiny 3.4 Fourth Congress (1906) 3.5 Lenin and the Duma Chapter 4 Visions in Exile: 1908−1916 4.1 Bolshevik disagreements 4. 2 Defining the Party line 4.3 Malinovsky—secret agent 4.4 International perspectives 4.5 Opposing patriotism 4.6 Redefining capitalism Chapter 5 1917: February Revolution 5.1 Absentee revolutionary 5.2 Duma and Soviet 5.3 Leaving Switzerland 5.4 Letters from Afar 5.5 The Finland Station Chapter 6 1917: Towards October 6.1 ‘April Theses’ 6.2 ‘All power to the Soviets’ 6.3 July Days 6.4 Kornilov 6.5 ‘History will not forgive us’ 6.6 Relying on Trotsky Chapter 7 Shaping the Revolution 7.1 Armed vanguard 7.2 Towards Brest-Litovsk 7.3 Constituent Assembly 7.4 Saving the Revolution Chapter 8 Leninist legacy 8.1 Tradition of Terror 8.2 Red Army 8.3 New Economic Policy: reversing priorities 8.4 Revival of bureaucracy 8.5 One-party government 8.6 Communism: home and abroad. 8.7 Government by propaganda Lenin’s Revolutionaries: a checklist Guidance on further study: critical bibliography Humanities Insights