Lenin

Lenin

Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov, better known as Lenin, became the leading revolutionary figure in Russia because of ability to lead the people and overthrow the government. As powerful, educated, and smart as he was Lenin remained obsessively secret about his personal life to all outsiders. His concern was that of revolution within Russia and once completed his focus was that of gaining and keeping as much self-power as he could. Lenin based his life around revolution and rejecting authority until he claimed complete control over Russia.

The Young Lenin focuses on Lenin's family background and what his life was like as a teenager and young adult. Leon Trotsky gives some very important details about Lenin which formed him into the revolutionary known throughout Russia. Born in 1870 as Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov, Lenin was part of a normal, happy family. His father, Ilya Ulyanov, was the superintendent of schools and had committed his life to education. In 1886, the first of two devastating experiences for Lenin took place. He watched his father die at 54 years old. Lenin's family became unhappy and broken after this death, and only more problems were to follow. One of Lenin's brothers and sister were arrested and on trial for an attempted assassination of the czar. After months of trial Lenin's brother was executed for his crime and his sister was found innocent. Between the death of his father and execution of his brother, Lenin could not take anymore. He became extremely negative and locked himself in his bedroom for hours only to come out and be silent. He completely kept to himself and shut off the outside world. In school, as a high school senior, he rejected authority such as his teachers and also his religion. Lenin became very critical of the church after his father's death. These were, in a way, his first steps towards becoming the "father of revolution" even though they were not directly related to politics and government.

Nikolay Valentinov writes about a specific meeting he had with Lenin in Lenin the Revolutionary. While speaking about books and popular writings of the time with Lenin and a couple of friends, Nikolay brings up a book called What Is to Be Done? By Chernyshevsky and also criticizes it. Before this Lenin had been quiet but after hearing Valentinov bash it he spoke up at once. This conversation continued for quite some time as each friend came in and out of the discussion asking Lenin all sorts of questions. What came out of this was learning the fact that this book What Is to Be Done? had been a major influence on Lenin much before Marx ever impacted his views in becoming a revolutionary. In fact, Lenin felt this book was so important that he named his first book the same thing; making strong political and revolutionary links between the two throughout but kept them quite hidden. Lenin not only read and reread Chernyshevsky's What Is to Be Done? but almost everything he had written. The more Lenin knew about Chernyshevsky and his thoughts, the stronger he would be in a revolution which, in turn, would bring more power to him. This man was clearly of significant importance to Lenin and impacted him greatly in numerous ways on his revolutionary views, beliefs, and thinking.

The Lenin of History by Robert V. Daniels focuses on Lenin's attempt