Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov (revolutionary pseudonym - Lenin) was born in Simbirsk on April 22, 1870. There he was baptized according to the Christian rite. His father, Ilya Nikolayevich, who managed to get an excellent education, was successfully promoted and reached the rank of 4th class in the table of ranks, which gave him the right to receive a noble title. In the last years of his life, Ilya Nikolayevich served as an inspector of public schools.

Did Volodya believe in God as a child? Probably, he simply fulfilled the requirements of the elders. He always had excellent marks in the Law of God. But at the age of sixteen he consciously retreated from faith in God.

Father was buried in 1886, at the age of 54, when Volodya Ulyanov was only 16 years old. In the summer of 1887 the family left Simbirsk for Kazan.

M.M., a party comrade-in-arms, wrote about her acquaintance with the Ulyanov family. Essen.

“It was a real family, as it was drawn to us in the distant future. Vladimir Ilyich's love for his family, tender care for his mother ... runs through Lenin's whole life.

When Vladimir entered Kazan University at the Faculty of Law, he greatly upset his mentor Fyodor Mikhailovich Kerensky, who insisted on continuing his education in literature and linguistics.

In 1887, the Ulyanov family learned about the participation of their eldest son and brother Alexander in revolutionary terrorist activities. On May 8, he was executed as a terrorist who encroached on the life of Emperor Alexander 3.

In the same period, Vladimir was involved in the work of the student circle "Narodnaya Volya", which was led by Lazar Bogoraz. And already three months after enrolling in the university, Vladimir Ulyanov was expelled from it for his involvement in student demonstrations that turned into riots and was subject to expulsion from Kazan.

At the request of L. A. Ardasheva, his maternal aunt, the deported V. Ulyanov went to the village of Kokushkino, Laishevsky district, Kazan province. Here, having settled in the house of the Ardashevs, he studied the works of N.G. Chernyshevsky, reading Marxist and other literature.

In the autumn of 1888, with the permission of the authorities, he returned to Kazan, where he was introduced to one of the Marxist circles. At the meetings, the works of Marx, Engels, were comprehended and discussed.

In 1890, the authorities had mercy and allowed Vladimir Ulyanov to prepare externally for the exams for a lawyer. A year later, in November 1891, Vladimir Ilyich passed the exams for the entire course of the law faculty of the Imperial St. Petersburg University. He also studied literature on economics, and especially on agriculture.

Having received a diploma, Vladimir Ilyich worked as an assistant to the lawyer A.N. Hardin. The novice lawyer was entrusted mainly with "state protection" in criminal cases.

In May 1895, Vladimir Ilyich left for Europe, where he met:

• In Switzerland - with G. Plekhanov,
• In Germany - In Liebknecht,
• In France - P. Lafargue.

Returning to St. Petersburg, Lenin, together with Trotsky, Martov, and other future revolutionaries, set about uniting individual Marxist groups and circles into the "Union of Struggle for the Emancipation of the Working Class." The first task that Lenin set before his comrades-in-arms was the overthrow of the autocracy.

For active participation in anti-government activities, Vladimir Ulyanov was taken into custody in December 1895. For more than a year, while the investigation was ongoing, he served time in a St. Petersburg prison, and in 1897 he was in the Minusinsk district of the Yenisei province. At the same time, Nadezhda Konstantinovna Krupskaya went into exile, who was assigned the Ufa province as her place of departure. In order for Krupskaya to be allowed to come to Shushenskoye, Vladimir Ilyich had to get married, as required by Orthodox custom and Russian law.

In Siberia, the study "The Development of Capitalism in Russia", directed against populist theories, and more than 30 other books were written. He corresponded regularly with the Social Democrats of Moscow, Nizhny Novgorod and other major Russian cities. Provided legal assistance to local farmers. In revolutionary circles, Vladimir Ilyich was known as K. Tulin.

On July 29, 1900, Lenin emigrated to Switzerland, where he began publishing a newspaper, and later a theoretical journal. The editorial board included Plekhanov, V. I. Zasulich, P. B. Axelrod, representing the emigrant group "Emancipation of Labor", and three representatives of the "Union of Struggle" - Lenin, Martov and Potresov.

The first issue of Iskra was printed on December 24, 1900. The revolutionary newspaper came out with a circulation of 8 to 10 thousand copies. In April 1901, Krupskaya also arrived in Munich.

In the autumn of 1905, Lenin illegally arrived in the capital to lead the preparations for an armed uprising. During this period, 2 books were created:

• "Two Tactics of Social Democracy in the Democratic Revolution",
• "To the rural poor".

In December 1905, the first conference of the RSDLP took place, at which Lenin met I. Stalin.

Lenin and Krupskaya returned to Geneva in 1908, where they lived until April 1917. After the defeat of the first revolution, he decided not to give up. "Broken armies learn well." They have been living in exile for 9 years. It was then, in 1909, that an important event happened in Lenin's biography - an acquaintance with Inessa Armand. They will be together for 11 years, until her death. However, he does not abandon Krupskaya. It is believed that Armand was his mistress all these years, although their relationship may have been platonic.

At the party conference of 1912 there was a final disengagement from the Mensheviks.

On May 5, 1912, the Bolshevik newspaper Pravda began to be published in St. Petersburg, which was first edited by Stalin, and later by Kamenev.

There is evidence that the Germans, the enemies of Russia in the First World War, were engaged in pre-revolutionary financing of the Bolsheviks. With their money, Lenin and his comrades launched active propaganda against the tsar and against (which was extremely important for Germany) the war.

After the February Revolution, the Germans send the leader and several of his comrades to Russia in a sealed wagon. There they were actively involved in political life, and in April 1917 Lenin put forward his famous ones.

In October 1917, Lenin led the revolution. In an address written on October 25 (old style), Lenin announced the overthrow of the provisional government. On the same day, the II All-Russian Congress of Soviets opened, which approved the decrees on land and peace. At the congress, a new government was formed, headed by V. I. Lenin - the Council of People's Commissars.

On March 3, 1918, Lenin signed the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk. It was a humiliating treaty for Russia, but it provided a respite from the war. In protest against this treaty, the social revolutionaries left the government.

Fearing the capture of Petrograd by the Germans, the Council of People's Commissars and the Central Committee of the RCP (b) relocated to Moscow. Since then, Moscow has regained the status of the capital, becoming the main city of the new state.

On August 30 of the same year, Lenin was committed. He was badly wounded. The Bolsheviks responded to this assassination attempt by the Decree of the Council of People's Commissars of the RSFSR of 09/05/1918 "On the Red Terror". A few months earlier, on July 26, Lenin wrote that it was necessary to encourage the energy and mass character of terror against counter-revolutionaries.

On January 20, 1918, the Decree on Freedom of Conscience, Church and Religious Societies was adopted. According to this decree, all the property of church societies was declared public property. It was declared that “every citizen can profess any religion or not profess any. Any right deprivation associated with the confession of any faith or non-profession of any faith is canceled.

However, in reality, believers were persecuted at the level of party and public organizations, in schools and universities. Lenin himself actively hated the Russian Orthodox Church, stigmatizing it as "a department of police Orthodoxy." The church lost the rights of a legal entity, the representatives of the clergy lost their political rights and freedoms. Monasteries and churches were closed, property was nationalized. Since the beginning of 1922, a mass execution of clergy began. Even when he was ill, Lenin waged an uncompromising struggle with the church.

For the last 3 years, Lenin lived in Gorki. He couldn't work properly. The last time he publicly spoke on November 20, 1922 at the plenum of the Moscow City Council. His health was deteriorating, and presumably one of the reasons for this was the encroachment that took place in 1918, the other reason was his overwork. Doctors recognized that Lenin had atherosclerosis of blood vessels and their premature wear.

Now his body is in the Mausoleum on Red Square in Moscow.

Years of government: 1917-1924

From the biography

• Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov (Lenin) - politician and statesman, founder of the Bolshevik Party, one of the organizers of the October Revolution, chairman of the Soviet government - the Council of People's Commissars (Sovnarkom), founder of the Soviet state. Lenin was the ideologist of the Bolshevik Party, a Marxist who laid the teachings of K. Marx and F. Engels.
• V.I. Ulyanov (Lenin) was born into a noble family. He received a good education, showing great success. However, participation in student unrest did not allow him to graduate from Kazan University, from which he was expelled. He received a law degree from St. Petersburg University, having passed all the exams externally.
• An example of a revolutionary was his elder brother Alexander. However, the then young Volodya did not support his method of struggle - terrorism, therefore, after the execution of his brother for participating in the attempt on the life of Tsar Alexander III in 1887, he promised himself that he would go the other way. This path is the path of revolution, the seizure of power. He became a professional revolutionary in 1893.

• The character of Lenin was quite complex. He had no friends - only comrades-in-arms. Contemporaries noted his great conceit, arrogance, his speech was characterized by causticity, he practically did not consider the opinions of others, he only considered his point of view to be right.
• It is impossible not to mention one more feature of Lenin - his cruelty. It was on his orders that a terrible terror began in the country, millions died during the Civil War, the royal family was shot. It was in the first years of Soviet power that expressions such as “a step to the right, a step to the left - execution”, “who is not with us is against us” appeared.
• It was a strong personality. It was Lenin who became the leader of the proletariat, uniting all forces and standing at the head of the struggle for a new, Soviet power.
• Lenin's activities were assessed differently in our country. From exaltation (according to M. Gorky, he was “the most humane person”), practically a cult of his personality in the USSR, to the most severe criticism. Most likely, it is still impossible to give an unambiguous assessment. Yes, under him the formation of a totalitarian system began, the centralization of power was formed, but it was Lenin who for many years was the ideal for the Soviet people, great construction projects were carried out in his name, Soviet people died in the name of Lenin-Stalin, defending the country from fascism. Undoubtedly, the role of Lenin in the creation of a new state - the USSR - was great.

The main ideas of V.I. Lenin

• The main goal of the Communist Party is the implementation of the communist revolution, the creation of communism, a classless society.
• There is only class morality. Each class has its own principles and ideas. The morality of the proletariat is based on everything that suits its interests. From this point of view, cruel actions can be justified if they are aimed at the destruction of exploitation and contribute to the victory of the socialist revolution.
• A revolution can happen first in one country, and not all over the world at once, as K. Marx assumed. Then this country will help others to make revolutions. "Marxism is not a dogma, but a guide to action."
• At the turn of the century, capitalism passed into its highest stage—imperialism, which is characterized by the creation of international monopoly unions (empires) that divide the world among themselves. Each such union primarily seeks to obtain benefits, which means that wars are inevitable. Lenin wrote about the signs of imperialism in the article "Imperialism as the highest stage of capitalism" in 1916.

• The success of the revolution largely depends on the capture of communications - mail, telegraph, railway stations.
• Socialism is a transitional stage to communism. Under socialism, there is no longer exploitation, but there is also no material abundance that would make it possible to satisfy all the needs of people.
• Lenin’s economic views: state socialism, in which everyone works for the hire of the state, becomes workers of the nationwide state “syndicate”, a system of forced labor is created (“Who does not work, then does not eat”), the presence of strict discipline in production, command and administrative methods of leadership economy.
• Lenin was sure that communism would be built in the years 1930-50.
• The famous phrase "study, study and study" was set forth in the article "The Understandable Direction of Russian Social Democracy", written in 1899 and published in 1924.

Historical portrait of V.I. Lenin

Activities

1. Domestic policy

Activities	results
Creation of the party and the foundations of the ideology of the Bolsheviks.	1895 - became one of the founders of the Union of Struggle for the Emancipation of the Working Class. Revolutionary activity in emigration: the publication of the newspaper Pravda in 1900, with the help of which a huge network of party organizations promoting Marxism was created. April 7, 1917 in the newspaper Pravda, in 1902, the adoption of his pseudonym - Lenin, writing the article "What to do?", In which he outlined his vision of the future party - a small, strictly centralized organization that should become the vanguard of the working class. During the revolution of 1905-1907 he returned to Russia, after the defeat - again abroad, was preparing the revolution. After February he comes to Russia, and in October he leads the uprising. In April 1917, Lenin's "April Theses" were published, calling for a revolution, the seizure of power by the Bolsheviks, the establishment of the power of the Soviets, in which he called for an end to the war, the confiscation of landowners' lands, the nationalization of land and banks. The result of this work was the creation of the Bolshevik (Communist) Party, which was the leading force in the country for more than 70 years.
The seizure of power by the Bolsheviks and its retention, overcoming the counter-revolutionary resistance. Creation of the Red Army - the main force of the Bolsheviks.	October 25-26, 1917 - The October Revolution, as a result of which the Bolsheviks came to power. February 23, 1918 - the creation of the Red Army (RKKA - Workers 'and Peasants' Red Army, renamed Soviet in 1946) 1918-1920- Civil war. Overcoming the resistance of the Whites. The victory of the Red Army. Results of activities: under the leadership of V.I. Lenin, the power of the Soviets was established, victory was won in the Civil War with the help of a new army - the Red Army.
The struggle for the unity of the party.	The establishment of a one-party system in Russia (the dispersal of the Constituent Assembly on January 6, 1918), the adoption in 1921 of the resolution "On Unity in the Party", which banned all factions, established the power of the Bolsheviks-RKP(b). Lenin's letter to the congress (written in 1922, announced by N. Krupskaya in 1924 before the 8th Party Congress), warning the party against Stalin's policy, his desire to concentrate power in one hand. Late 1920-early 1921 - crisis in the party in connection with the "trade union discussion". Lenin believed that the party should not lose the main lever of control - the trade unions, to control their activities. Summary of activities: in the RSFSR, and then in the USSR, a one-party system was established, the party apparatus merged with the state. The general secretary of the party had great powers.
Creation of a new - Soviet statehood, strengthening of the dictatorship of the proletariat. Creation of the legislative base of the new state.	At the 2nd Congress of the RSDLP, the highest authorities were created - the All-Russian Central Executive Committee and the Council of People's Commissars (headed by Lenin), 10/28/1917 - police, 7.12. 1917 - Cheka. The supreme body of legislative power is the All-Russian Congress of Soviets. December 30, 1922 - the beginning of the formation of the USSR, the emergence of new authorities: the Soviets of People's Deputies of the USSR, the highest authority - the All-Union Congress of Soviets, the Central Executive Committee. Adoption of Constitutions: 1918 - RSFSR, 1924 - USSR Results of activities: during the period of activity Lenin, the Soviet statehood was created, with new organs of supreme power, the Communist Party became the leading force.
The rise of the Russian economy, the folding of the command-administrative system in managing the economy. Russia's withdrawal from the post-war devastation.	Lenin sought to strengthen the economy, to establish full control over it by the authorities. On December 2, 1917, a single body of economic management on a national scale was created - the Supreme Council of the National Economy (VSNKh). The tasks of wartime required the mobilization of all means and resources. Therefore, the policy of "war communism" was carried out in 1918-1920. with universal labor service, surplus appropriation, the abolition of private trade, etc., which made it possible to win the Civil War, but at the same time increased tension in the country. The introduction of the NEP in 1921: the permission of private trade, the introduction of a fixed tax in kind, the abolition of labor service. 1918-1919 - carrying out the nationalization of landowners' lands, enterprises, banks. On April 12, 1919, the first communist subbotnik was held at the Moscow-Sortirovochnaya station. 1921 (January-February) - famine, mass dissatisfaction with the country's economic policy, mass peasant and workers' protests, in February-March - an uprising of sailors in Kronstadt. All uprisings were suppressed with the help of troops. Adoption of the GOELRO plan - State Commission for the Electrification of Russia, February 1920. Results of activities: under Lenin, a solid system of new state management of the economy began to take shape - command-administrative, the entire economy was under the strict control of the authorities. The economy was based on state ownership. All private ownership of the means of production was nationalized.
Creation of the USSR.	December 22 On December 30, an agreement was signed on the creation of the USSR. It included the RSFSR, Ukrainian SSR, BSSR ZSFRP Over the next few years, the USSR included: 1922 - RSFSR, Ukrainian SSR, BSSR, Armyansk, Azerbaijan, Georgian - as part of the ZSFSR 1924-Turkmen, Uzbek 1929-Tajik 1936-Kazakh, Kyrgyz, 1940-Lithuanian, Latvian, Estonian, Moldavian. Summary of activities: Lenin initiated the creation of the USSR on the principle of federalism, with the right of nations to self-determination up to secession. The foundations of a new strong state were laid.
Implementation of social policy	The dictatorship of the proletariat was introduced (Decree on Power of 1917), classes of workers, peasants and intelligentsia were formed. 1919 - Decree "On the elimination of illiteracy among the population of the RSFSR", the construction of schools began, points for the elimination of illiteracy (literacy programs) were created, the formation of a new - working intelligentsia. An 8-hour working day was introduced. Results of activities: the elimination of estates, the formation of three classes that make up the working people of the country. Positive measures were taken in social policy to create a decent life for Soviet citizens. A particularly large role was assigned to education, the elimination of illiteracy, and the formation of a new intelligentsia.
Creation of philosophical and political works, presentation of their views, visions of the future of the country.	The most famous works of V.I. Lenin: "What to do?" 1902 "Materialism and epmirio-criticism" 1909. "April theses" 1917 "What are "friends of the people" and how they fight against the Social Democrats"1894 "Development of capitalism in Russia" 1899 "One step forward, two steps back" 1904 "On the Right of Nations to Self-Determination" 1914 "State and Revolution" 1917 "The tasks of youth unions" 1920 Summary of activities: Lenin continued the ideas of K. Marx and F. Engels, created the foundations of the ideology of communism - Leninism with the idea of ​​building a new communist society. In his works, Lenin criticized the oppositionists, enemies of the Soviet regime, expounded his vision of solving the problems of the time.
The development of the culture of the Soviet country.	The introduction of a single official communist ideology, a single method of culture - socialist realism. Carrying out an anti-religious policy, Decree 1918 on the separation of church from state, and schools from church. 1918 - Lenin put forward a plan for monumental propaganda, monuments to famous people began to be erected (the first was the monument to Radishchev in 1918 by sculptor L. Sherwood). 1919-formation of State publishing house. Much attention was paid to the publication of books and magazines, the propaganda of the Soviet way of life. Results of activity: the beginning of the creation of the official ideology of Marxism-Leninism was laid, total control was introduced over the activities of cultural workers who were supposed to fulfill the orders of the state, all methods were banned, except for socialist realism, which significantly restrained the manifestation of creativity, individuality of cultural figures.
Youth policy.	Ideologized children's and youth organizations have been created: October(included children 7-9 years old, founded in 1923, dissolved in 1991), pioneer ( established on May 19, 1922, liquidated in 1991, included children from 9 to 14 years old), Komsomol VLKSM (October 29, 1918, dissolved in 1991, age 14-28) Results of activity: it was under Lenin that an ideologized policy among children and youth began, bringing the process of educating future builders of communism to a standard.

2. Foreign policy

Activities	results
Establishment of peace, exit from the First World War.	On March 3, 1918, the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk was signed with Germany, according to which Russia was withdrawing from the war. Peace conditions were very difficult (Russia lost most of its territory: Poland, the Baltic States, Finland, Western Ukraine, Western Belarus, Moldova and part of Armenia) .Results of activities: the exit from the war made it possible to create the Red Army, to prepare for the repulse of the White Guard during the Civil War, to create the foundations of a new Soviet state.
Participation in the creation of an international organization of the revolutionary movement - the Communist International.	1919 - creation of the Comintern - an international organization to unite the communist parties of the world. The Comintern lasted until 1943. Results of activities: The Communist International, created with the active participation of Lenin, allowed the Land of Soviets to significantly influence the international revolutionary movement in the world, to impose its policy on many countries, primarily the countries of Eastern Europe.
Pursuing a policy of recognition of the USSR in the world.	1920-21 - peace treaties with Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Poland, Lithuania. 1921 - with Turkey, Iran, Afghanistan 1921-1922 - with England, Austria, Denmark, Norway, etc. Since 1924 - a strip of diplomatic recognition of the USSR with almost all Western countries, with major states of the world. Only with the United States did diplomatic relations develop later - in 1933, already under Stalin. Results of activities: difficult, slowly, but gradually a new country - the USSR - was recognized in the world as a sovereign independent state, diplomatic relations were established with many countries of the world
Participation in the war with Poland (January 28, 1919 - March 18, 1921)	Following the war part of the territories of Western Ukraine and Western Belarus passed to Poland (in 1939, as a result of the division of Poland, part of the territory would return to the USSR).

RESULTS OF ACTIVITIES

• Lenin's activities as the leader of the revolutionary movement in Russia in 1917 led to the victory of the Bolshevik Party, the establishment of Soviet power throughout the country.
• The successful leadership of the country during the years of the Civil War and intervention made it possible to win the Civil War and protect Soviet power.
• The greatest event during the years of Lenin's rule was the formation of the SSS in 1922, which later became one of the strongest states in the world.

• The economic policy pursued under the leadership of Lenin contributed to the restoration of the economy, destroyed by the First World War and the Civil War.
• Social policy was also successful: illiteracy was fought, schools and hospitals were built, jobs were created, and a policy of general employment was pursued.
• Lenin was the author of many philosophical and political works, in which he set out his vision of the future. All the years of Soviet power, these books were the basis of the political education of the Soviet people ("What is to be done?" others.)
• However, the policy of centralization of power, the dictatorship of the proletariat led to the formation of a one-party system in the country, which in the future will become the basis of Stalin's totalitarianism.
• The struggle for power cost the people of the country dearly: millions of people died from hostilities, hunger, the deterioration of the situation of the people in the first years of the formation of the new state - all this caused the anger and discontent of the people, resulting in mass demonstrations.
• Lenin's foreign policy was aimed at preserving the power of the Soviets at any cost. This price was the huge industrial and agricultural territories lost as a result of the Brest Peace. However, the successful diplomatic policy of the country, the growing power of the USSR led to a strip of recognition of the state on the world stage. This is a considerable merit of the leader - Lenin.

Thus. V.I.Lenin is the greatest personality in the history of Russia. Despite many excesses in his policy, one cannot but recognize his enormous role in the life of the people and the country for a fairly long period of time - more than 70 years of Soviet power in the country.

Chronology of the life and work of V.I. Lenin

1870-1924	Years of life of V.I. Lenin
April 22, 1870	Lenin was born in the family of an inspector of public schools in Simbirsk.
1887	Lenin's older brother, Ulyanov, was executed for participating in the assassination attempt on Alexander III.
1887	Lenin was admitted to Kazan University, but in December of the same year he was expelled for participating in student unrest.
1894	Acquaintance with N.K. Krupskaya - future wife.
1885	Beginning of professional revolutionary activity. Travels abroad to get acquainted with the revolutionary movement in the West and establish contact with the Marxist group Emancipation of Labor, which fights for the rights of the common people.
1895	Lenin is arrested in Petersburg.
1897, February-1900	The verdict was announced, Lenin was exiled to Siberia for 3 years in the village of Shushenskoye (Yenisei province)
1900 July	The first emigration, which lasted 5 years. Lived in London, Brussels.
1901-1902	Worked on the book What to Do?
1903 July 30 - August 23	Participated in the work of the 2nd Congress of the RSDLP.
1903 April 25 - May 10	3rd Congress of the RSDLP in London.
1905 November 21	Lenin returns to Petersburg.
1906, September - 1907, December	The first Finnish underground.
1908-1917	Lenin lives and works abroad: in Switzerland, London, Prague, on about. Capri.
April 1917	"April Theses", published in the newspaper "Pravda", a call for revolution..
From July 1917	Lenin is underground again, hiding in Finland.
1917, October 23	A secret assembly of Bolsheviks, the inevitability of an uprising.
October 25-26, 1917	October Revolution, the arrest of the Provisional Government. Power is in the hands of the Bolsheviks, led by Lenin. Decrees on peace, land, power.
January	Dispersal of the Constituent Assembly by the Bolsheviks.
1918, March 3	The signing of a separate peace with Germany, Russia's exit from the war.
1918 March	The relocation of the Soviet government to Moscow.
1918, August	Assassination attempt on Lenin F.Kaplan.
1919 March	1st Congress of the International
1920 July-August	2nd Congress of the Communist International.
1921, February-March	Suppression of the Kronstadt rebellion.
1921 March	Lenin signs the "Order of the Council of People's Commissars on the implementation of the beginnings of the NEP"
1922 May	The first attack of Lenin's disease (cerebral sclerosis)
1922 December	A sharp deterioration in Lenin's health
1922 December	Lenin dictates "Testament"
1924, January 21	Death of Lenin. Lenin's body rests in the Mausoleum in Moscow.

Note.

This material can be used when writing a historical essay (task No. 25).

Personality portraits that you can use when writing an essay.

Vladimir Ilyich Lenin (real surname Ulyanov, maternal surname Blank)
Years of life: April 10 (22), 1870, Simbirsk - January 22, 1924, Gorki estate, Moscow province
Head of the Soviet government (1917–1924).

Revolutionary, founder of the Bolshevik Party, one of the organizers and leaders of the October Socialist Revolution of 1917, chairman of the Council of People's Commissars (government) of the RSFSR and the USSR. Marxist philosopher, publicist, founder of Leninism, ideologist and creator of the 3rd (Communist) International, founder of the Soviet state. One of the most famous politicians of the 20th century.
Founder of the USSR

Biography of Vladimir Lenin

V. Ulyanov's father, Ilya Nikolaevich, was an inspector of public schools. After being awarded the Order of St. Vladimir III degree in 1882, he received the right to hereditary nobility. Mother, Maria Alexandrovna Ulyanova (née Blank), was a teacher, but did not work. The family had 5 children, among whom Volodya was the third. A friendly atmosphere reigned in the family; parents encouraged the curiosity of children and treated them with respect.

In 1879 - 1887. Volodya studied at the gymnasium, which he graduated from gold medal.

In 1887, for preparing an attempt on the life of Emperor Alexander III, his elder brother Alexander Ulyanov (Narodnaya Volya revolutionary) was executed. This event affected the lives of all members of the Ulyanov family (formerly a respected noble family was subsequently expelled from society). The death of his brother shocked Volodya, and since then he has become an enemy of the tsarist regime.

In the same year, V. Ulyanov entered the law faculty of Kazan University, but in December he was expelled for participating in a student meeting.

In 1891, Ulyanov graduated as an external student from the law faculty of St. Petersburg University. Then he came to Samara, where he began working as an assistant to a barrister.

In 1893, in St. Petersburg, Vladimir joined one of the many revolutionary circles and soon became known as an ardent supporter of Marxism and a propagandist of this doctrine in working circles. In St. Petersburg, he began an affair with Apollinaria Yakubova, a revolutionary, a friend of his older sister Olga.

In 1894 - 1895. Vladimir’s first major works, “What are “friends of the people” and how they fight against the Social Democrats” and “The Economic Content of Populism”, were published, in which the populist movement was criticized in favor of Marxism. Soon Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov met Nadezhda Konstantinovna Krupskaya.

In the spring of 1895, Vladimir Ilyich left for Geneva to meet with members of the Emancipation of Labor group. And in September 1895 he was arrested for creating the St. Petersburg Union of Struggle for the Emancipation of the Working Class.

In 1897, Ulyanov was exiled for 3 years to the village of Shushenskoye, Yenisei province. During the exile, Ulyanov married Nadezhda Krupskaya ...

Many articles and books on revolutionary topics were written in Shushensky. The works were published under various pseudonyms, one of which is Lenin.

Lenin - years of life in exile

In 1903, the famous II Congress of the Social Democratic Party of Russia took place, during which there was a split into Bolsheviks and Mensheviks. He stood at the head of the Bolsheviks, and soon created the Bolshevik Party.

In 1905, Vladimir Ilyich led the preparations for the revolution in Russia.
He directed the Bolsheviks to an armed uprising against tsarism and the establishment of a truly democratic republic.

During the revolution of 1905-1907. Ulyanov lived illegally in St. Petersburg and led the Bolshevik Party.

1907 - 1917 years were spent in exile.

In 1910, in Paris, he met Inessa Armand, with whom relations continued until Armand's death from cholera in 1920.

In 1912, at the Social Democratic Party Conference in Prague, the left wing of the RSDLP emerged as a separate party of the RSDLP(b), the Russian Social Democratic Labor Party of the Bolsheviks. He was immediately elected head of the central committee (CC) of the party.

In the same period, thanks to his initiative, the newspaper Pravda was created. Ulyanov organizes the life of his new party, encouraging the expropriation of funds (actually robbery) into the party fund.

In 1914, at the beginning of World War I, he was arrested in Austria-Hungary on suspicion of spying for his country.

After his release, he left for Switzerland, where he put forward a slogan calling for turning the imperialist war into a civil one, overthrowing the government that had drawn the state into the war.

In February 1917, I learned about the revolution that had taken place in Russia from the press. On April 3, 1917 he returned to Russia.

On April 4, 1917, in St. Petersburg, the theorist of communism outlined the program for the transition from the bourgeois-democratic revolution to the socialist one ("All Power to the Soviets!" or "April Theses"). He began preparations for an armed uprising and put forward plans to overthrow the Provisional Government.

In June 1917, the 1st Congress of Soviets was held, at which it was supported by only about 10% of those present, but it declared that the Bolshevik Party was ready to take power in the country into its own hands.

On October 24, 1917, he led the uprising in the Smolny Palace. And on October 25 (November 7), 1917, the Provisional Government was overthrown. The Great October Socialist Revolution took place, after which Lenin became chairman of the Council of People's Commissars - the Council of People's Commissars. He built his policy, hoping for the support of the world proletariat, but did not receive it.

At the beginning of 1918, the leader of the revolution insisted on signing the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk. As a result, a huge part of the territory of Russia departed to Germany. The disagreement of the majority of the population of the country of Russia with the policy of the Bolsheviks led to the Civil War of 1918-1922.

The left-SR rebellion that took place in July 1918 in St. Petersburg was brutally suppressed. After that, a one-party system is established in Russia. Now V. Lenin is the head of the Bolshevik Party and all of Russia.

On August 30, 1918, an attempt was made on the life of the Head of the Party, he was seriously wounded. After that, the "Red Terror" was declared in the country.

Lenin developed the policy of "war communism".
The main ideas are quotes from his writings:

• The main goal of the Communist Party is the implementation of the communist revolution, followed by the construction of a classless society free from exploitation.
• There is no universal morality, but only class morality. The morality of the proletariat is that which meets the interests of the proletariat (“our morality is completely subordinated to the interests of the class struggle of the proletariat”).
• The revolution will not necessarily take place all over the world at the same time, as Marx believed. It can first occur in one, separately taken country. This country will then help the revolution in other countries.
• Tactically, the success of the revolution depends on the rapid capture of communications (post, telegraph, railway stations).
• Before building communism, an intermediate stage is necessary - the dictatorship of the proletariat. Communism is divided into two periods: socialism and communism proper.

According to the policy of “war communism”, free trade was prohibited in Russia, barter in kind (instead of commodity-money relations) and surplus appropriation were introduced. At the same time, Lenin insisted on the development of state-type enterprises, on electrification, and on the development of cooperation.

A wave of peasant uprisings passed through the country, but they were brutally suppressed. Soon, on the personal orders of V. Lenin, the persecution of the Russian Orthodox Church began. About 10 million people became victims of "war communism". Russia's economic and industrial indicators have declined sharply.

In March 1921, at the Tenth Party Congress, V. Lenin put forward the program of the "new economic policy" (NEP), which slightly changed the economic crisis.

In 1922, the leader of the world proletariat suffered 2 strokes, but did not stop leading the state. In the same year, Russia was renamed the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR).

At the beginning of 1923, realizing that a split was emerging in the Bolshevik Party, and that his state of health had worsened, Lenin wrote his Letter to the Congress. In a letter, he gave a characterization to all the leading figures of the Central Committee and proposed to remove Joseph Stalin from the post of General Secretary.

In March 1923, he suffered a third stroke, after which he became paralyzed.

January 21, 1924 V.I. Lenin died in the village. Gorki (Moscow region). His body was embalmed and placed in the Mausoleum on Red Square in Moscow.

After the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, the question was raised about the need to remove the body and brain of the first leader of the USSR from the Mausoleum and bury it. In modern times, there are still discussions about this by various government officials, political parties and forces, as well as representatives of religious organizations.

V. Ulyanov also had other pseudonyms: V. Ilyin, V. Frey, Iv. Petrov, K. Tulin, Karpov and others.

In addition to all his deeds, Lenin stood at the origins of the creation of the Red Army, which won the civil war.

The only official state award that a fiery Bolshevik was awarded was the Order of Labor of the Khorezm People's Socialist Republic (1922).

Lenin's name

The name and image of V. I. Lenin was canonized by the Soviet government along with October Revolution and Joseph Stalin. Many cities, towns and collective farms were named after him. In every city there was a monument to him. Numerous stories about “grandfather Lenin” were written for Soviet children, the words “Leninists”, “Leniniad”, etc.

Images of the leader were on the front side of all tickets of the State Bank of the USSR in denominations from 10 to 100 rubles from 1937 to 1992, as well as 200, 500 and 1 thousand "Pavlovian rubles" of the USSR 1991 and 1992 issue.

Lenin's works

According to a poll by the FOM in 1999, 65% of the Russian population considered the role of V. Lenin in the history of the country positive, and 23% - negative.
He wrote a huge number of works, the most famous:

• "The Development of Capitalism in Russia" (1899);
• "What to do?" (1902);
• "Karl Marx (a short biographical sketch outlining Marxism)" (1914);
• "Imperialism as the highest stage of capitalism (popular essay)" (1916);
• "State and Revolution" (1917);
• "The Tasks of Youth Unions" (1920);
• "On the pogrom persecution of Jews" (1924);
• "What is Soviet power?";
• "Our Revolution".

The speeches of the fiery revolutionary are recorded on many gramophone records.
Named after him:

• Tank "Freedom Fighter Comrade Lenin"
• Electric locomotive VL
• icebreaker "Lenin"
• "Electronics VL-100"
• Vladilena (852 Wladilena) - a minor planet
• numerous cities, villages, collective farms, streets, monuments.

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 Vasilievich Ulyanov, a serf from the Nizhny Novgorod province, later lived in the city of 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 Alexandrovna Ulyanova (nee Blank), the daughter of a doctor, having received a home education, passed the exams for the title of teacher externally; devoted herself entirely to the upbringing of 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.

In 1879-87 L. (Lenin) studied at the Simbirsk Gymnasium. The spirit of protest against the tsarist system, social and national oppression, awakened early in him. 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 he was arrested for active participation in a revolutionary gathering of students, expelled from the university, and exiled to the village of Kokushkino in the Kazan province. From that time on, L. devoted his entire life to the struggle against autocracy and capitalism, to the cause of the liberation of 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, G. V. Plekhanov were studied and discussed. The works of Marx and Engels played a decisive role in shaping L.'s worldview—he became a staunch Marxist.

In 1891, L. passed the exams externally for the Faculty of Law at St. Petersburg University and began working as an assistant to a barrister in Samara, where the Ulyanov family moved in 1889. Here he organized a circle of Marxists, established contacts with the revolutionary youth of other cities of the Volga region, and delivered essays directed against populism. The first of the surviving works of L. belongs to the Samara period - the article "New Economic Movements in Peasant Life."

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. . Unshakable faith in the victory of the working class, extensive knowledge, a 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 the St. Petersburg Marxists and made L. their recognized leader. He establishes contacts with advanced workers (I. V. Babushkin, V. A. Shelgunov, and others), 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 of the Russian Marxists to set the task of creating a party of the working class in Russia as an urgent practical task and led the struggle of the revolutionary Social Democrats for its implementation. L. believed that it should be a proletarian party of a new type, in terms of its principles, forms and methods of activity meeting the requirements of a new era - the era of imperialism and socialist revolution.

Having accepted the central idea of ​​Marxism about the historical mission of the working class as the grave-digger of capitalism and the builder of communist society, L. devotes all the strength of his creative genius, all-encompassing erudition, colossal energy, and rare capacity for work to selfless service to the cause of the proletariat, becomes a professional revolutionary, and takes shape as the 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?” In late 1894 and early 1895, the work “The economic content of populism and criticism of it in the book of Mr. Struve (Reflection of Marxism in bourgeois literature )". Already these first major works of L. were distinguished by a creative approach to the theory and practice of the labor movement. In them, L. subjected the subjectivism of the Narodniks and the objectivism of the “legal Marxists” to devastating criticism, and showed a consistently Marxist approach to the analysis of Russian. In reality, he characterized the tasks of the proletariat of Russia, developed the idea of ​​an alliance between the working class and the peasantry, substantiated the need to create a truly revolutionary party in Russia. In April 1895, L. went abroad to establish contact with the Emancipation of Labor group. In Switzerland he met Plekhanov, in Germany - with W. Liebknecht, in France - with P. Lafargue and other leaders of the international working-class movement. In September 1895, returning from abroad, L. visited Vilnius, Moscow and Orekhovo-Zuevo, where he established contacts with local Social Democrats. In the autumn 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 Emancipation of the Working Class, which was the germ of a revolutionary proletarian party and for the first time in Russia began to unite scientific socialism with the mass working-class movement.

On the night of December 8 (20) to December 9 (21), 1895, L., together with his associates 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, prepared materials for his book "The Development of Capitalism in Russia." In February 1897, L. was exiled for 3 years to the village. Shushenskoye, Minusinsk district, Yenisei province. For active revolutionary work, N. K. Krupskaya was also sentenced to exile. As the bride of L., she was also sent to Shushenskoye, where she became his wife. Here L. established and maintained contact 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, 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 pamphlet "The Tasks of the Russian Social Democrats", which were of great importance for the development of the program, strategy and tactics of the party. In 1898, the First Congress of the RSDLP was held in Minsk, proclaiming the formation of a Social Democratic Party in Russia and publishing the Manifesto of the Russian Social Democratic Labor Party. With the main provisions of the "Manifesto" L. solidarized. However, the party has not actually been created yet. The congress, which took place without the participation of L. and other prominent Marxists, was unable to work out a program and party rules and 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 to become, as L. believed, 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 the international Social Democracy (E. Bernstein and others) and their supporters in Russia (the Economists). In 1899 he composed the "Protest of the Russian Social Democrats" directed against "Economism". The "Protest" was discussed and signed by 17 exiled Marxists.

After the end of his exile, L. on January 29 (February 10), 1900, left Shushenskoye. Following to a new place of residence, L. stopped in Ufa, Moscow, etc., illegally visited St. Petersburg, everywhere establishing ties with the Social Democrats. Having settled in Pskov in February 1900, L. did a great deal of work in organizing the newspaper, and in a number of cities he created strongholds for it. In July 1900, L. went abroad, where he set up the publication of the Iskra newspaper. L. was the direct head of the newspaper. Iskra played an exceptional role in the ideological and organizational preparation of the revolutionary proletarian party, in demarcation with the opportunists. It became the center of association of parties. forces, education desks. frames. Subsequently, L. noted that “the entire flower of the class-conscious proletariat took the side of the Iskra” (Poln. sobr. soch., 5th ed., vol. 26, p. 344).

From 1900 to 1905, 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, and others).

In the struggle to create a new type of party, Lenin's work What Is To Be Done? Painful questions 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 questions 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 editors 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 is 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 was held. 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,” L. wrote in 1920 (ibid., vol. 41, p. 6). After the congress, L. launched a struggle against Menshevism. In 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 the 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 directed the activities of the Central Committee and the St. Petersburg Committee of the Bolsheviks, and the preparation of an armed uprising. L. headed the work of the Bolshevik newspapers Vperyod, Proletary, and Novaya Zhizn. 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 reaction years of 1908–10, Leningrad waged a struggle to preserve the illegal Bolshevik Party against the liquidator Mensheviks and Otzovists, against the splitting actions of the Trotskyists (see Trotskyism), and against conciliation to opportunism. He deeply analyzed the experience of the Revolution of 1905–07. At the same time, L. rebuffed the offensive of the 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 the revisionists to distort the philosophy of Marxism, and developed dialectical materialism.

From the end of 1910, a new upsurge of the revolutionary movement began in Russia. In December 1910, on the initiative of L., 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 cadres of party workers, L. in 1911 organized a party school in Longjumeau (near Paris), in which he gave 29 lectures. In January 1912, under the leadership of L., the Sixth (Prague) All-Russian Conference of the RSDLP was held in Prague. In order 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 Pravda newspaper, and directs 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 working people in the spirit of proletarian internationalism. He wrote program works: "Critical Notes on the National Question" (1913), "On the Right of Nations to Self-Determination" (1914).

From October 1905 to 1912 L. was the representative of the RSDLP in the International Socialist Bureau of the 2nd International. Heading a Bolshevik delegation, he took an active part in the work of the Stuttgart (1907) and Copenhagen (1910) International Socialist Congresses. L. waged a resolute struggle against opportunism in the international working-class movement, rallying leftist 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 turning the imperialist war into a civil war. The war found L. in Poronin. On July 26 (August 8), 1914, on a false denunciation, L. was arrested by the Austrian authorities and imprisoned in Novy Targ. Thanks to the assistance of the 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”, “The military program of the proletarian revolution”, “The 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 during the war. L.'s work Imperialism, the Highest Stage of Capitalism (1916) provided a profound foundation for the Party's theory and policy on questions of war, peace, and revolution. During the war, L. worked a lot on questions of philosophy (see "Philosophical Notebooks"). Despite the difficulties of wartime, L. established a regular publication of the Central Organ of the party of the newspaper "Social Democrat", established links with the party organizations of Russia, directed their work. At international socialist conferences in Zimmerwald (August (September) 1915) and Kienthal (April 1916), L. defended revolutionary Marxist principles and fought against opportunism and centrism (Kautskyism). By rallying the revolutionary forces in the international working-class movement, L. laid the foundation for the formation of the Third, Communist International.

Having received in Zurich on March 2 (15), 1917, the first reliable news of the February bourgeois-democratic revolution that had begun in Russia, L. determined the new tasks of the proletariat and the Bolshevik Party. In Letters from Afar, he formulated the political course of the party for the transition from the first, democratic, stage to the second, socialist, stage of the revolution, warned against supporting the bourgeois Provisional Government, put forward the position on the need to transfer all power into the hands of the Soviets. On April 3 (16), 1917, L. returned from exile to Petrograd. Solemnly greeted by thousands of workers and soldiers, he made a short speech, ending it with the words: "Long live the socialist revolution!" On April 4 (17), at a meeting of the Bolsheviks, L. delivered a document that went down in history under the title of V. I. Lenin’s April Theses (“On the Tasks of the Proletariat in the Present 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 tactics of the party in conditions of dual power - installation on the peaceful development of the revolution, put forward and justified the slogan "All power to the Soviets!". Under the leadership of L., 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, spoke at meetings and rallies. From April to July 1917, L. wrote over 170 articles, pamphlets, draft resolutions of the Bolshevik conferences and the Central Committee of the Party, appeals. At the First All-Russian Congress of Soviets (June 1917), L. delivered speeches on the question of the 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 liquidation of dual power and the concentration of power in the hands of the counter-revolution, the peaceful period of the 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 behind the lake. Spill, near Petrograd, then until the beginning of October - in Finland (Jalkala, Helsingfors, Vyborg). And in the underground, he continued to direct the activities of the party. In the theses "Political Situation" and in the pamphlet "To the Slogans" L. defined and substantiated the tactics of the party in the new conditions. Based on Lenin's guidelines, the 6th Congress of the RSDLP (b) (1917) decided on the need for the working class to take power in alliance with the poorest peasantry through an armed uprising. In the underground, L. wrote the book The State and Revolution, the pamphlet The Threatening Catastrophe and How to Fight It, and Will the Bolsheviks Retain 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 the uprising”, and then on September 29 (12 October) article "Crisis is ripe". In them, on the basis of a deep analysis of the alignment and correlation of class forces in the country and in the international arena, L. concluded that the moment had come for a victorious socialist revolution, and developed a plan for an armed uprising. In early 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. 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 the enlarged meeting of the Central Committee of the RSDLP (b) L. in his report defended the course of the uprising, sharply criticized the position of the opponents of the uprising L. B. Kamenev and G. E. Zinoviev. L. Trotsky considered the position of postponing the uprising until the convocation of the Second Congress of Soviets to be extremely dangerous for the fate of the revolution. 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 (VRC), formed at the suggestion 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 speaking out is like death” (ibid., vol. 34 p. 436).

On the evening of October 24 (November 6), L. illegally arrived at 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 localities into the hands of the Soviets, L. made presentations 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 masses of Russia for the solution of the problems of the dictatorship of the proletariat, for the building of socialism. Under the leadership of L., the party and government created a new, Soviet state apparatus. The confiscation of landed estates was carried out and the nationalization of all land, banks, transport, large-scale industry, a monopoly of foreign trade was introduced. The Red Army was created. The national oppression has been destroyed. The party enlisted the broad masses of the people in the grandiose work of building the Soviet state and carrying out 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 became the basis of the first Soviet Constitution of 1918. Thanks to L.’s principles and perseverance, as a result of his struggle against the “Left Communists” and Trotskyists, the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk 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 his work The Immediate Tasks of Soviet Power, in his work On "Left" Childishness and Petty-Bourgeoisness (1918), and others, L. outlined a plan for laying the foundations of a socialist economy. In May 1918, on the initiative and with the participation of L., decrees on the food question were drafted and adopted. At L.'s suggestion, food detachments of workers were created and sent to the countryside to raise the poor (see Committees of the Poor Peasants) to fight against the kulaks, to fight for bread. The socialist measures of the Soviet government met with 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 a terrorist Social Revolutionary F. E. Kaplan.

During the years of the Civil War and the military intervention of 1918–20, L. was chairman of the Workers' and Peasants' Defense Council, which was set up 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 the leadership of L., the party and the Soviet government in a short time were able to rebuild the country's economy on a war footing, developed and put into practice 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 on the Eastern Front" (April 1919), letter of the Central Committee of the RCP (b) to all organizations of the party " 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 the troops of foreign interventionists.

At the same time, L. continued to conduct theoretical work. In the autumn of 1918 he wrote the book The Proletarian Revolution and the Renegade Kautsky, in which he exposed Kautsky's opportunism and showed the radical opposition between bourgeois and proletarian democracy, Soviet democracy. L. pointed to the international significance of the strategy and tactics of the Russian Communists. “... Bolshevism,” L. wrote, “is suitable as a model of tactics for everyone” (ibid., vol. 37, p. 305). L. basically drafted the second Party Program, which determined the tasks of building socialism, adopted by the 8th Congress of the RCP (b) (March 1919). The focus of L. was then 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 - the article "Economics and Politics in the Era of the Dictatorship of the Proletariat", in the spring of 1920 - the article "From the destruction of the age-old way of life to the creation of a new one." In these and many other works, L., generalizing the experience of the dictatorship of the proletariat, deepened the Marxist doctrine of the transitional period, shed light on the most important questions 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 the working people of the Soviet Republic for the restoration and further development of the economy, and directed cultural construction. In the Report of the Central Committee to the Ninth Congress of the Party, L. defined the tasks of economic development and emphasized the exceptional importance of a single economic plan, the basis of which should be the electrification of the country. Under the leadership of L., 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).

In late 1920 and early 1921, a discussion unfolded in the party about the role and tasks of the trade unions, in which questions were actually decided about the methods of approaching the masses, the role of the party, and 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 the school of communism in general, the trade unions should be for the working people, in particular, the school of economic management.

At the Tenth Congress of the Russian Communist Party (Bolsheviks) in 1921, L. summed up the results of the trade union discussion in the party and put forward the task of transitioning from the policy of “war communism” to the New Economic Policy (NEP). The congress approved the transition to the New Economic Policy, which ensured the strengthening of the alliance between the working class and the peasantry, the creation of the production base of a socialist society; adopted written L. resolution "On the unity of the party." In the pamphlet On the Food Tax (The Significance of the New Policy and Its Conditions) (1921) and the article On the Fourth Anniversary of the October Revolution (1921), L. revealed the essence of the New Economic Policy as the economic policy of the proletariat in the transitional period and outlined the ways of implementing it.

In his speech “The 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 in other works, L. the creation of a socialist culture, the tasks of the party's ideological work; L. showed great concern for the development of science.

L. identified ways to solve the national question. The problems of nation-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 Outline of Theses on National and Colonial Questions” (1920) for the 2nd Congress of the Comintern, In his letter “On the Formation of the USSR” (1922) and others, L. developed the principles for uniting the Soviet republics into a single multinational state on the basis of voluntariness and equality—the Union of the SSR, which was created in December 1922.

The Soviet government, headed by L., consistently fought for the preservation of peace, for the prevention of a new world war, and sought to improve 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, the consequences of being wounded in 1918 undermined L.'s health. In May 1922, he fell seriously ill. In early October 1922, L. returned to work. His last public speech was November 20, 1922 at the plenum of the Moscow City Council. On December 16, 1922, L.'s health deteriorated sharply again. In late December 1922 and early 1923, L. dictated letters on internal party and state issues: “Letter to the Congress”, “On the Attribution of Legislative Functions to the State Planning Commission”, “On the Question of Nationalities or “Autonomization”” ”and a number of articles -“ Pages from a diary”, “On cooperation”, “On our revolution”, “How do we reorganize the Rabkrin (Proposal to the XII Party Congress)”, “Better less, but 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 a generalized form the program for the socialist transformation of the country and the prospects for the world revolutionary process, and the fundamentals of the party's policy, strategy, and tactics. He substantiated the possibility of building a socialist society in the USSR, developed the propositions on the industrialization of the country, on the transition of the 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 between the working class and the peasantry, 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 questions for discussion at regular party congresses and conferences, plenums of the Central Committee and the Politburo of the Central Committee of the party, All-Russian Congresses of Soviets, sessions of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee and meetings of the Council of People's Commissars. 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, Ya. M. Sverdlov, I. V. Stalin, P. I. Stuchka, M. V. Frunze, G. V. Chicherin, S. G. Shaumyan and others.

L. was the leader not only of the Russian, but also of 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 the initiative of L. in 1919, the 3rd, Communist International was created. Under the leadership of L. passed the 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th congresses of the Comintern. He drafted many resolutions and congress documents. In the works of L., primarily in the work “Children's disease of “leftism” in communism” (1920), the program 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 the body of L. was transported to Moscow and installed in the Hall of Columns. For five days and nights, the people said goodbye to their leader. On January 27, the funeral took place on Red Square; the coffin with the embalmed body of L. was placed in a specially built Mausoleum (see Mausoleum of V. I. Lenin).

Never since Marx has the history of the emancipation movement of the proletariat provided the world with a thinker and leader of the working class, of all working people, on such a gigantic scale 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. boundlessly believed in the creative forces of the masses, was closely associated with them, enjoyed their boundless trust, love and support. All the activity of L. is 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, the subordination of his whole life to the struggle for the liberation of working people from social and national oppression, love for the motherland and consistent internationalism, implacability towards class enemies and touching attention to comrades , demanding of oneself and others, moral purity, simplicity and modesty are the characteristic features of Lenin - a leader and a man.

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 she laid only the cornerstones of the science that socialists must move forward 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, enriched 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 the transition of mankind from capitalism to socialism and the building 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 constituent parts of Marxism—philosophy, political economy, and scientific communism (see Marxism-Leninism).

Generalizing from the standpoint of Marxist philosophy the achievements of science, especially physics, of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, 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, developed the fundamental problems of the theory of human reflection of objective reality and the theory of knowledge. L.'s great merit is the comprehensive development of materialist dialectics, in particular the law of unity and struggle of opposites.

“Lenin was the first thinker of the century who saw the beginning of a grandiose scientific revolution in the achievements of contemporary natural science, 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 science knowledge” (ibid., p. . fourteen).

L. made a major 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 the development of society, about the development of productive forces and production relations, about the relationship between the base and the superstructure, about classes and the class struggle, about the state, about the social revolution, the nation and national liberation movements, the relationship between objective and subjective factors in public life, public consciousness and the role of ideas in the development of society, the role of the masses and the individual in history.

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

L. created the doctrine of imperialism as the highest and last stage in the development of capitalism. Having revealed the essence of imperialism as monopoly and state-monopoly capitalism, having characterized its main features, showing the extreme sharpening of all its contradictions, and the objective acceleration of the creation of the material and sociopolitical 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 epoch. He deeply developed the idea of ​​the hegemony of the proletariat in the revolution, the need for an alliance between the working class and the working peasantry, determined the attitude of the proletariat towards the various sections of the peasantry at different stages of the revolution; created the theory of the development of the bourgeois-democratic revolution into a socialist revolution, shed light on the question of the relationship between the struggle for democracy and for socialism. Having revealed the mechanism of operation of the law of uneven development of capitalism in the era of imperialism, L. made the most important conclusion, which is of great theoretical and political significance, about the possibility and inevitability of the victory of socialism initially in a few or even in one single 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 building of socialism in countries where the proletarian revolution has triumphed. L. developed propositions about a revolutionary situation, about an armed uprising, about 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 epoch 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 on the complete equality of nations, on the right of the 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 the working people 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 the national liberation movements. He came up with the idea of ​​organizing a united front of the revolutionary movement of the international proletariat and of national liberation movements against the common enemy—imperialism. He formulated a proposition 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, nationalities, their close rallying and rapprochement.

L. defined the main content of the modern era as the transition of mankind from capitalism to socialism, characterized the driving forces and prospects for 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 an integral theory of the transition period from capitalism to socialism, revealed its content and patterns. Generalizing the experience of the Paris Commune and the 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 the non-proletarian strata of the working people 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. In the works of L. deeply illuminated 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, the achievement of higher labor productivity than under capitalism. Of decisive importance in building socialism are the creation of an appropriate material and technical base and the industrialization of the country. L. deeply worked out the question of the socialist reorganization of agriculture through the formation of state farms and the development of cooperation, the transition of the peasants to large-scale social production. L. put forward and substantiated the principle of democratic centralism as the basic 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, to implement the principle of material interest.

L. considered the implementation of a cultural revolution as one of the main conditions for building socialism: the rise of popular education, the introduction of the broadest masses to knowledge and cultural values, the development of science, literature, and art, the provision of a profound revolution in the consciousness, ideology, and spiritual life of the working people, and their re-education in the spirit of socialism. . L. emphasized the need to use the culture of the past, its progressive, democratic elements in the interests of building a socialist society. He considered it necessary to enlist the 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 party spirit in literature and art, considered their role in the class struggle of the proletariat , formulated the principle of party leadership in literature and art.

In the works of L. developed the principles of socialist foreign policy as an important factor in building a new society, the development of the world revolutionary process. This is the policy of a close state, economic and military alliance of the socialist republics, solidarity with the peoples fighting for social and national liberation, peaceful coexistence of states with different social systems, international cooperation, and resolute 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 basis 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 the 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 inner-party democracy, the activity of party members and the collective leadership, intransigence towards 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 indispensable conditions for this victory: the unity of the revolutionary forces of our time - the world system of socialism, the international working class, the national liberation movement; the correct strategy and tactics of the communist parties; resolute struggle against reformism, revisionism, right and left opportunism, nationalism; solidarity and unity of the international communist movement on the basis of Marxism and the principles of proletarian internationalism.

Theoretical and political activity of L. marked the beginning of a new, Leninist stage in the development of Marxism, in the international working-class movement. The name of Lenin and Leninism are associated with the greatest revolutionary accomplishments of the 20th century, which radically changed the social face of the world and marked the turn of mankind 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 building of a developed socialist society in the USSR are the triumph of Leninism. Marxism-Leninism, as the great and united international doctrine of the proletariat, is the property 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 on the basis of the ideological heritage of L., guided by a reliable compass—the ever-living and creative Marxist-Leninist teaching. The Appeal 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 movement, has confirmed the international significance of the Marxist-Leninist doctrine. The victory of the socialist revolution in a group of countries, the emergence of the world system of socialism, the conquest of the working-class movement in capital countries, the entry into the arena of independent socio-political activity of the peoples of the former colonies and semi-colonies, the unprecedented upsurge in the anti-imperialist struggle—all this proves the historical correctness of Leninism, which expresses the fundamental needs of the modern era. "(" International Conference of Communist and Workers' Parties. Documents and Materials, M., 1969, p. 332).

The CPSU attaches great importance to the study, preservation, 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 Institute of Marx-Engels-Lenin was formed 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). More than 30,000 Lenin's documents are stored in the Central Party Archive of this institute. Five editions of Lenin's works have been published in the USSR (see the Works of V. I. Lenin), and "Lenin Collections" are being published. Thematic collections of works by L. and his individual works are printed in millions of copies. Much attention is paid to the publication of memoirs and biographical works about L., as well as literature on various problems of Leninism.

The Soviet people sacredly honor the memory of Lenin. The All-Union Communist Youth Union and the Pioneer Organization in the USSR bear Lenin's name, and many cities, including Leningrad, the city where Leningrad proclaimed the power of the Soviets; 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. in 1930, the highest award in the USSR, the Order of Lenin, was established; the Lenin Prizes were established for outstanding services in the field of science and technology (1925), in the field of literature and art (1956); International Lenin Prizes "For strengthening peace among peoples" (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, 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.

Compositions:

• Collected works, vols. 1-20, M. - L., 1920-1926;
• Soch., 2nd ed., vols. 1-30, Moscow-Leningrad, 1925-1932;
• Soch., 3rd ed., vols. 1-30, Moscow-Leningrad, 1925-1932;
• Soch., 4th ed., vols. 1-45, Moscow, 1941-67;
• Complete collection of works, 5th ed., vols. 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. Abstracts of the Central Committee of the CPSU, 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. Memories of V. I. Lenin, vol. 1-5, M., 1968-1969;
6. Krupskaya N. K., About Lenin. Sat. Art. and speeches. 2nd ed., M., 1965;
7. Leninian, Library of V. I. Lenin's works and literature about him 1956-1967, in 3 volumes, vols. 1-2, M., 1971-72;
8. Lenin is still more alive than all the living. Advisory 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 frames, vols. 1-2, Moscow, 1970-72.

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"Arguments and Facts" continues the story of the last year of life, illness and "adventures" of the body of the leader of the world proletariat (beginning - in).

The first bell about the illness, which in the 23rd turned Ilyich into a weak and feeble-minded person, and soon brought him to the grave, rang in 1921. The country was overcoming the consequences of the civil war, the leadership was rushing from war communism to the new economic policy (NEP). And the head of the Soviet government, Lenin, whose every word was eagerly caught by the country, began to complain of headaches and fatigue. Later, numbness of the limbs, up to complete paralysis, inexplicable attacks of nervous excitement are added to this, during which Ilyich waves his arms and talks some kind of nonsense ... It comes to the point that Ilyich “communicates” with those around him with just three words: “ just about", "revolution" and "conference".

In 1923, the Politburo already managed without Lenin. Photo: Public Domain

"Makes some strange noises"

Doctors for Lenin are being discharged from Germany. But neither the “gust-arbeiters” from medicine, nor the domestic luminaries of science can in any way diagnose him. Ilya Zbarsky, son and assistant of a biochemist Boris Zbarsky, who embalmed Lenin’s body and for a long time headed the laboratory at the Mausoleum, being familiar with the leader’s medical history, described the situation in the book “Object No. instead of articulate speech, it makes some obscure sounds. After some relief in February 1923, complete paralysis of the right arm and leg sets in ... The gaze, previously penetrating, becomes inexpressive and dull. German doctors invited for big money Förster, Klemperer, Nonne, Minkowski and Russian professors Osipov, Kozhevnikov, Kramer again at a complete loss."

In the spring of 1923, Lenin was transported to Gorki - in fact, to die. “In the photograph taken by Lenin's sister (six months before her death. - Ed.), We see a thinner man with a wild face and crazy eyes,” continues I. Zbarsky. - He cannot speak, night and day he is tormented by nightmares, at times he screams ... Against the background of some relief on January 21, 1924, Lenin feels general malaise, lethargy ... Professors Foerster and Osipov, who examined him after dinner, do not find any alarming symptoms. However, at about 6 pm the patient's condition deteriorates sharply, convulsions appear ... the pulse is 120-130. Around half past seven, the temperature rises to 42.5°C. At 6:50 p.m.... doctors declare death.”

The broad masses of the people took the death of the leader of the world proletariat to heart. On the morning of January 21, Ilyich himself tore off a page of the flip calendar. Moreover, it is clear that he did it with his left hand: his right was paralyzed. In the photo: Felix Dzerzhinsky and Kliment Voroshilov at Lenin's coffin. Source: RIA Novosti

What happened to one of the most extraordinary figures of his time? As possible diagnoses, doctors discussed epilepsy, Alzheimer's disease, multiple sclerosis, and even lead poisoning from a bullet fired by Fanny Kaplan in 1918. One of the two bullets - it was removed from the body only after the death of Lenin - broke off part of the shoulder blade, touched the lung, and passed in close proximity to the vital arteries. This allegedly could also cause premature sclerosis of the carotid artery, the extent of which became clear only during the autopsy. Excerpts from the protocols in his book cited Academician of the Russian Academy of Medical Sciences Yuri Lopukhin: sclerotic changes in the left internal carotid artery of Lenin in its intracranial part were such that blood simply could not flow through it - the artery turned into a continuous dense whitish cord.

Traces of turbulent youth?

However, the symptoms of the disease were little like ordinary vascular sclerosis. Moreover, during the life of Lenin, the disease most of all resembled progressive paralysis due to brain damage due to late complications of syphilis. Ilya Zbarsky draws attention to the fact that this diagnosis was definitely meant at that time: some of the doctors invited to Lenin specialized in syphilis, and the drugs that were prescribed to the leader made up a course of treatment for this particular disease according to the methods of that time. However, some facts do not fit into this version. Two weeks before his death, on January 7, 1924, on the initiative of Lenin, his wife and sister arranged a Christmas tree for children from the surrounding villages. Ilyich himself seemed to feel so well that, sitting in a wheelchair, for some time he even took part in the general fun in the winter garden of the former manor estate. On the last day of his life, he tore off a sheet of a loose-leaf calendar with his left hand. As a result of the autopsy, the professors who worked with Lenin even made a special statement about the absence of any signs of syphilis. Yuri Lopukhin, however, on this occasion refers to the note he saw of the then People's Commissar of Health Nikolai Semashko pathologist, future academician Alexey Abrikosov- with a request "to pay special attention to the need for strong morphological evidence of the absence of Lenin's luetic (syphilitic) lesions in order to preserve the bright image of the leader." Is it to justifiably dispel rumors or, conversely, to hide something? The “bright image of the leader” remains a sensitive topic today. But, by the way, it is never too late to put an end to the debate about the diagnosis - out of scientific interest: Lenin's brain tissues are stored in the former Brain Institute.

Hastily, in 3 days, the knocked together Mausoleum-1 was only about three meters in height. Photo: RIA Novosti

"Relics under communist sauce"

Meanwhile, while Ilyich was still alive, his associates began an undercover struggle for power. By the way, there is a version why on October 18-19, 1923, the sick and partially immobilized Lenin got out of Gorki to Moscow for the only time. Formally - to an agricultural exhibition. But why did he visit the Kremlin apartment for the whole day? Publicist N. Valentinov-Volsky, who emigrated to the United States, wrote: Lenin in his personal papers was looking for compromised Stalin documentation. But the papers, apparently, someone has already "thinned out".

Even with the leader alive, the members of the Politburo in the autumn of 23 began to vividly discuss his funeral. It is clear that the ceremony should be majestic, but what to do with the body - cremate according to the proletarian anti-church fashion or embalm with the latest word of science? “We ... instead of icons, hung leaders and will try for Pakhom (a simple village peasant. - Ed.) And the “lower classes” to open the relics of Ilyich under communist sauce, ”the party ideologist wrote in one of his private letters Nikolai Bukharin. However, at first it was only about the farewell procedure. Therefore, Abrikosov, who performed the autopsy of Lenin's body, also performed embalming on January 22 - but the usual, temporary one. “... Opening the body, he injected into the aorta a solution consisting of 30 parts of formalin, 20 parts of alcohol, 20 parts of glycerin, 10 zinc chloride and 100 water,” explains I. Zbarsky in the book.

On January 23, the coffin with the body of Lenin, with a large gathering of people who had gathered, despite the severe frost, was loaded into a mourning train (the locomotive and carriage are now in the museum at the Paveletsky railway station) and taken to Moscow, to the Hall of Columns of the House of Unions. At this time, near the Kremlin wall on Red Square, deep frozen ground is being crushed with dynamite to equip the tomb and the foundation of the first Mausoleum. The newspapers of that time reported that in a month and a half the Mausoleum was visited by about 100 thousand people, but a huge queue is still lining up at the doors. And in the Kremlin, they begin to convulsively think about what to do with the body, which in early March begins to rapidly lose its presentable appearance ...

For the materials provided, the editors would like to thank the Federal Security Service of Russia and Doctor of Historical Sciences Sergey Devyatov.

About how the leader was embalmed, Mausoleum-2 was built and destroyed, the body was evacuated from Moscow during the war, read in the next issue of AiF.