Vladimir Ilyich Lenin is one of the most famous political figures of the 20th century. In the Soviet Union for seventy years he was considered a genius who tried to make backward Russia socialist, and then communist. He strove to realize his dream, where workers will receive according to their needs and give according to their ability.
early years
In 1887, the elder brother Vladimir Ulyanov (the real name of Lenin) was executed, and it was then that the future politician developed hatred of the tsarist regime inside. The elder brother Alexander was hanged as a member of the People's Will conspiracy against Emperor Alexander III. Vladimir was 17 years old at that time, he was the fourth child in the family of the superintendent of public schools in Simbirsk, Ilya Ulyanov. In the same year, he graduated from high school with a gold medal, immediately entered the faculty of Kazan University, deciding to become a lawyer.
The death of his brother turned everything upside down in Vladimir's soul. From that time on, he began to study little, more and more speaking with angry speeches. And a little later, he completely joined a group of revolutionary students, for which he was soon expelled from the university.
In 1894-1895 he wrote and published his first works. In them, he affirmed a new ideology - Marxism, criticized populism. At the same time, he visited France and Germany, went to Switzerland, met with Paul Lafargue and Karl Liebknecht.
Link for propaganda and agitation
In 1895, Vladimir Ulyanov returned to the capital together with Julius Tsederbaum, whose pseudonym is Lev Martov. They organized the Union of Struggle for the Liberation of the Working Class. In 1897, Vladimir Ilyich was arrested and exiled for 3 years for agitation and propaganda in the village of Shushenskoye, Yenisei province. While there, a year later, he married Nadezhda Krupskaya, his fellow party member. At about the same time he wrote the book "The Development of Capitalism in Russia".
After the link was over, he again went abroad. Together with Martov, Plekhanov and others, while in Munich, he began to publish the Iskra newspaper and the Zarya magazine. The literature produced was distributed exclusively in the Russian Empire. In 1901, in December, Vladimir Ilyich began to use a pseudonym, becoming Lenin.
Continuation of campaigning and active actions
In 1903, the II Congress of the Russian Social Democratic Labor Party (abbreviated RSDLP) was held there. Here the program and the party rules, worked out personally by Plekhanov and Lenin, were to be adopted. The minimum program included the overthrow of tsarism, the establishment of equality of peoples and nations, the establishment of a democratic republic. The maximum program was to build a socialist society through the dictatorship of the proletariat.
At the congress, some disagreements arose and as a result, two factions "Bolsheviks" and "Mensheviks" were formed. The Bolsheviks accepted Lenin's position, while the rest were opposed. Among the opponents of Vladimir Ilyich was Martov, who for the first time ever used the term "Leninism".
The revolution
Lenin was in Switzerland when the revolution began in Russia in 1905. He decided to be in the thick of things, so he arrived in St. Petersburg illegally under a false name. At this point, he started publishing the newspaper "New Life", as well as agitation for preparations for an armed uprising. When 1906 came, Lenin left for Finland.
Once in Petrograd, Lenin put forward the slogan "From the bourgeois-democratic revolution to the socialist." The main idea was in the words "All power to the Soviets!" Plekhanov, being by this time a former associate, called this idea madness. Lenin was sure that he was right, so he ordered on October 24, 1917 to start an armed uprising against the Provisional Government. The very next day, the Bolsheviks seized power throughout the country. The II All-Russian Congress of Soviets was held, where the state decrees on land and peace were adopted. The new government was now called the Council of People's Commissars, and Vladimir Ilyich Lenin was at its head.
Country rule and death
Until 1921, Lenin was engaged in the affairs of the country, many did not want to accept the ideas of the new head of state. The White movement was developing, someone emigrated. A civil war broke out in which millions of people died. By 1920, the industry had shrunk 7 times. Hunger and a difficult economic situation forced Vladimir Ilyich to adopt the New Economic Policy (NEP), which allowed free private trade. They tried to electrify the country, develop state-owned enterprises, and develop cooperation in the countryside and the city.
In 1923, Lenin fell seriously ill and spent a long time in the village of Gorki near Moscow. Stalin and Trotsky began to claim the place of the head of state. In his "Letter to the Congress" Lenin announced that he was opposed to Stalin's candidacy. The letter had no effect, and soon Vladimir Ilyich died of a cerebral hemorrhage.
