LENIN. DICTATOR OF SOVIET RUSSIA. WORLD-REVOLUTION AS GOAL
Nikolai Lenin, wlhose death is an- nounced on another page, wvas the pseudonym of Yladimir Ilyich Ulianov, the dictator of Soviet Rlussia. His real name has almost passed into oblivion. It was under his ,7o)n de querre that he becamo famous. It is as Lenin that he will pass into history. Tlhis extraordinary figure was first and foremost a professional revolutionary and conspirator. He had no other oecu- pation; in and by revolution he lived. Authorslhip and the social and economic studies to which he devoted his time were to him but the means for collecting fuel for a world-conflagration. The hope of that calamity haunted this cold dreamer from his schooldays. His is a striking instance of a purpose that fiom early youxth nmarched unflinchingly iowards a ehosan goal, iundisturbed by wyeariness or intellectual doubt, never halting at crime, lInowing no compunction. The goal was the universal social revolution. Lenin was born on April 10, 1870, at 3imbirsk,na little town set on a hill that overlooks the middle Volga and the east- ward rolling steppes. His father, born of a hIumble family in Astrakhan, had risen to the position of district director of selhool5 under the MIinistry of Education. T'hs atmosphere of the home was that of the middle-class urban intelligentsia, wvhich ardently eiltivated book-learning, was keenly interested in abstract ideas, but had little care for the arts and was, at best, indifferent to the Russian national tradition. Of Lenin's early life little is k;nown. 3-10 attended the local high selhool, the hcadynaster of which was Feodor Keren- sky, father of Alexander Kerensky, whom Lenin was one day to overthrow from political power. The boy appears to have been diligent in his studies, but re- tiring and morose. In 1887 his elder brother was executed for taking part in an attempt on the life of Alexander III. This event may possibly have intensified Lenin's revolutionary sentiments, though emotion never played a great part in his )prsonal life. He was guided by cold logic, though he well knew how to work on tho feelings of others and to transform them into the motive power he required for his own purposes. From the hiigh school he passed on into thle University of Kazan, where he became a student in the faculty of law. Ilere he came under the suspicion of the authorities, and was expelled frbrm the university on account of his " unsound political views." He continued his studies privately, and finally took his degree at the University of St. Petersburg. MARXISM IN ACTION. In the early 'nineties the radical intellectual circles in St. Petersburg were stirred by a new development of the Socialist movement. From the 'forties on- ward Socialism had been the accepted creed of a large proportion of Russian in- tellectuals, butitwas aromantic Socialism, mzainly of an agrarian character, and based on an extraordinary sympathy for an idealized peasantry. At the beginning of the 'nineties a small group of young men became enthusiastic advocates of what was known as the scientific S9ocialism of Karl Marx, and, in articles in reviews and in the theoretical public debates on economic subjects that the autocracy permitted at that time, they raised a revolt against the " Populist " Socialisrn that had become traditional in tbe intelligentsia. Peter Struve, whov later became a Liberal, and even developed Conservativo leanings, and Michael Tugann-Baranovskv, who in thle ead became a popular and l higlhly re- spected Professor of Political Economy, were the leaders of the Marxian, group.' Lenin joined them and wxas greatlyassisted' by them in his early literary efforts, which consisted of polemicai- articles on the aspects of Socialism that were then in debate. At that time he Wr6te under the pseudonym of Ilyin. Lfenin never wrote'ia first-class sciea4- tific work. He was not .'primarily a theorist or a writer, but a propagandist. For him articles and books werem-but means to an end. It was when 'the Marxists turned from theoretical dis- cussioIn to the organization, of ,party. effort that Lenin found his true vocation. In 1898 the Ruissian Social Democratic Party came into being. It was, of course, a conspirative organization. Political activities were under the ban. No political parties, whether Liberal, 'Con- servative, or Socialist, wero permitted publicly to exist. The secret parties, or rather clubs, organized by the revolu- t ionaries, recruited their adherents among the intelligentsia, and only to a very small e-xtent among the woikmen and peasants. The 'Marxists organized among the workmen of St. Petersbarg and other towns clandestine classes for instruction in Socialist doctrine. 0 It was dangerous work, but Russian revolutionaries were never deterred by the fear of imprisonmnent or exile. Lenin began his career as an active revolu- tionary in this comparatively innocuous form of effort. Ho was catught by the police, as many others were, imprisoned, and sent to Siberia. As compared with many others, his experience of police persecution was brief indeed, but it is significant that during his banishment in Siberia his character as a deliberate fomenter of discord among tho revo- lutionary parties was already sharply revealed. The older exiles, who held fast to the " Populist " tradition, were for the most part gentle, humane, and easy- going. They formed a class apart, with a strong esprit de corps, with fixed habits of comradely intercourse. Wllhen Lenin and the other MIarxists came, the peace was broken, a new aggressive tone was introduced, and perpetual intrigue led to perpetual dissension and suspicion. HOW BOLSHEVISM BEGAN. Lenin escaped from Siberia to Western Europe in 1900, and took up his abode in Switzerland. Here he became one of tlle leaders in the revolutionary activities of the band of refugees organized under the name of the Russian Social Democratic Party, and in 1901 he joined the editorial staff of their review, IAra (the Spark). The party retained until the Bolshevist ltevolution the title of "lhe One (or l'nited) Russian Social Democratic Party." As a matter of fact it was not long before Lenin himself split tte party into two warring sections. At the second congress of the party, held in London in 1003, a fierce discussion arose over questions of tactics,and ended in a vote which yielded a majority (bolshinstvo) for the view advocated by Lenin. The supporters of the majority view came to be known as Bolsheviki, whrle the ad. herents of the minority (men shin8two) were called Mensheviki. Lenin stood at this conference for an extreme centraliza. tion of the party organization and for the adoption of direct revolutionary methods, as opposed to the educational and evolutionary tactics advocated by the other side. He displayed then the temperament that moulded' his career. A man of iron will and inflexible arbition, he hadUlo sorupler dbbilt mea -eat6d human beings as mere material for his purpose. Trotsky, then Lenin's oppo- nent on the question of tactics, and later his chief colleaguo in the Council of Pcople's Commissaries, has given a vivid description of Lenin's ;conduct on this occasion. At the second congress of the Rlussian Social Democratic Party (he vrote), this man, with his habitual talent and enetgy pxlayed the part o? disof.anizer of the party. . .- . Comrade Lenin made.a-mental review of the membership of the party, and came to tho concltlsioi that.the iro6n baud needed for organization belonged to him. He was right. The leadership of f4ocial Democrac. in the stnig.gle for liberty inegnt- in reality the leadership of Lenin over Social Democracy.- DICTATORSHIP AS A PRINCIPLE. . It is innecessary to dwell at length on the theoretical side of the coitroversy between Lenin and the MeniAievists. Both sides published in support of their views a large number of fiercely polemical articles and pamphlets, which' for the uninitiated mako extrenmely dull reading, though for the patient historian they may provide a- vivid illustration of revolutionary mentality. Lenin's idea was that the Central Committee should absolutely dominate every iidividual and every local group in the party.. He was opposed to any. sort of demnocratic equality or local autonomy in the party organization. Dictatorship by a compact central group was the principle on which he 'worked. "Give ug an organization consisting of true revolutionaries," he wrote, " and we will tura Russia upside. down." He regarded his opponents in the party as opportunists, and no true revolutionaries. He was for direct action, for cutting loose from all. entanihg compromise with Liberals and more cautious Socialists. The Social Democrats argued vehe- mently and incessantly, bhut this did not prevent them from agtating, organizing, and conspiring in Russia. While the rival party, the Socialist Revolutionaries, agitated among the peasantry and. planned and carried out. a series of terrorist acts, of which several Minister&. Governors, and the Grand Duke Serge were the victims,. the Social Democrats developed their propaganda among the factory workmen, with but slight success until 1905,.when the discontent caused by the Japanese War and the shooting of workmen in St. Petersburg on Red Sunday, January 22, provoked an opeailv revolutionary movement throughout Russia. The movement culminated in the granting of a Constitution on O6tober 30, 1905. During the months imme- diately preceding and following this event the Socialist agitation was at its height. Then, for the first time, the masses of the Russian people, became acquainted with Socialist principles, and the agitators gained experience in dealiug with the masses. PROPAGANDA WORK. Lenin's name was not prominent during the firsX Revolution. He was very active behind the scenes. organizing, directing, pushing things in his own direction, noting the readiness of the masses to respond to extreme and demoralizing watchwords, sneering at all hints of compromise, at every stage forcing a disruption between the Social Democrats and the bourgeai8 parties. It is curious' that he refused to become a member'of the first short-lived St. Petersburg Council of Workmen's Deputies, formed after the promulgation of the Constitu- tion. Trotsky played a prominent part in this Soviet. It is characteristic of Lenin that he only adopted the Soviet idea at the moment-twelve years later- when it suited his own purposes. - From 1905 to 1907 Lenin lived in Russia under an assumed name, en- deavouring to keep alive and to organize the revolitionary moverment, which, in, the end, the Stolypin Government ruth-' lessly supprcssed. His, name, is . con-. nected with severial cases bf " expropria- tion." Apparently he did not personally organize these armed raids;on banks and post-offlces, but 'c6nsider'abl& sums seized ini such robberis 'were h'anded over to the Bolshevists':and use'd by Lenin to developi his propaganda at home and abroad. He. left Russia 'when the collapse of the 190.5 Revolution bec~me alaparent, and resuined his activities 'in Geneva` On the "whole,' his' positiofi amolg the revolutiianaries had been g&4ly strengthened, and among the mnixed crow'd of new exiles who iis4 b;een thrown out of Russia by the' failure .of the first'4raolutioriary offensive he foundL in#ny instrumnents suitable&fbr his un-- scapulous piurpose. In W12 he moved.'to Caeoow so as to be in clsEer toueh With his agents iu Russia. A singular episode, characteristic of his contempt for bourgeois morality, was his hintrigue; in&;cqpllpsion with the Secret Police, to split the small Social Democratic Party in the Duma through a certain Malinovsky, who visited him in Cracow with the 'knowledge of the Head of the Dcpartment of Police. In 1914, at the outbreak of war, Lenin was in Galicia. As a Russian subject he was arrested by the Austrian. authori- ties, but he was released when it was discovered tl at he would be a useful agent in the task of weakening Russia. He returned to Switzerland, where he carried on defeatist propaganda with -the object of transforming the war between the nations into a revolutionary civil war within each nation. He was joined by defeatist Socialists from various countries. The funds for these opera- tions were perhaps provided by Germany, since the sums Lenin had received from expropriations during the first revo- lution were exhausted. The activities of this little group of Socialists were hardly noticed amid the great events of the war. The conferences of Zimmerwald and Kienthal in 1915 had'the appearance of insignificant gatherings of crazy fana- tics. Yet they 'drafted the defeatist revolutionary programme and framed the watchwords which later acquired enor- mous power in Russia and inffuenced.the working classes throughout Europe. Lonia regarded the vicissitudes of the war purely from the standpoint of. revolutionary tactics. He noted the lessons of war, industry, and State-control, and the effects of war on mass-psychology. THE REVOLUTION OF 1917. The revolution that suddenly broke out in Russia in March, 1917, gave Leain his long-souight-for opportunity. The Provisional Goverrnent formed after the. abdication of the Emperor Nicholas proclaimed unrestricted liberty and encouraged the return of the poli- tical' exiles, who came flocking back in thousands. Thlere was sorme .difference of opinion in the'Government about per- mitting the return of such a notorious defeatist as Lenin. He came asverthe. less, transported through Germany-with the help of the German General Staff. Ludendorff considered that he was likely to be a mOst effective agent in disorganiz- ing the Russian Army; and wrecking the Russian front. In this he was not mis- taken; what he. did not foresee wa3 that Lenin wbuld provole a violent re: volutionary niovement that was later to react on Germany herself.. Lenin was received in Petrograd with all revolutionary honours. Searchlights from armoured cars lighted up the Finland railway station, whliih was. thronged with people.; Socialists of all parties made speeches, but Lenin was not to b' led away by any external success. He wanted real power. On April 14, the -day'' ' ' ' -aft6r * ' 'his "''".rrl ' -h& 'laid MASTER OF THE TERROR. Lenin took up his 'residence in the Kremlin, and from that ancient citadel of autocracy and. orthodoxy launched his propaganda of world-revolution. Out- n4rdly he lived as modestly, as when he had been an obscure 'political "refugee. Both'he and-his wife-he had married late in the 'nineties Nadiezhda Krups- kaya-had the scorn of sectarians for bourgeois inventions and comforts. Short and sturdy, with a bald head, small beard, and keen, bright, deep-set eyes,' Lenin looked like 'a small tradesman. When he spoke at meetings his ill-fitting suit, his crooked-tie, his generally nonde- script appearance, disposed the crowd in his favour. " lie is not one'of the gentle- folk," they would say, ",he is one of us." This is not the place to describe in detail the terrible achievements of Bol- shevism-the shamieful peace 'with Ger- many, the plundering of the educated and propertied classes, the long-continued terror with its thousands of innocent vic- tims, the Communist experiment carried to the point of suppressing private trade, and making practically all the adult, population of the towns servants and slaves of the Soviet Government;' the civil war, the creation and strengthening of the -Red Army, the' fights with the border peoples, the Ukraine, with Koltchak and Donikir and with Poland, culminat- ing in 1920 in the defeat of the White Armies and the conclusion of peace with Poland. Never in modern times has'any great country passed thirough sueh a con- 'vulsion as that brought about by Lenin's xmplacable effort to establish Communism -in Russia, and thence to spread it throughout the world. . In the'. light of these world-shaking events'- Lenin's personality acquired ana immense significance.. He. retained control. He was the- directive force. He was in effect Bolshevism. His associates were pygmies compared with him. Even Trotsky, 'who dis- played great energy and ability in organizing the Red Army, deferred to Lenin. Both the Communist Party and the Council of People's Commissaries were compleiely' under Lenin's ' control. It happened sometimes that after listening to a discussion of two conflicting. motions in some meeting under his chairmanship. Lenin 'would 'dictate to the secretary, without troubling to argue his point some third resolution entirely his own. ite had an uncanny skill in detecting the weak- nesses of his adversaries, and his asso- ciates regarded him with awe as a supreme tactician. His judgment was final. his programme before the Social Democratio Conference, a programme which sib months afterwards he carried ouq to the letter in his decrees. At the tinre his 'speech was ridiculed- by the moderate Socialistsi Only a, smAll group of: Bolshevists applauded' their leader when he declared that peace with the Germnans must be concluded. at once,. a Solviet, Republic founded, the. banks closed, that all 'pover 'must' be given to the workers, and that' the Social- Democrats must henceforth -call them- sclvcs Communists. lis motion was re- 'ieted bv 115 to 20. _. Lenin had at his back a compact .organization well equipped with money. Tlhe Bolshevists displayed ectraordinary a:etivity in demoralizing tho Army and the workmen and in provoking riots among the peasantry. There was no power to restrain them. In Petrograd Lenin took up his quarters in the house of the dancer Kaszesinska,. and from the balcony addressed large crowds day after day. In July 'he attempted a coUp d'Etat,'but failcd. He went into h.iding, Oqttcontinued to diiect his. subversive movement. The Provisional Government .under Kerensky shrank from coercive measures. The Socialist Revolutionaries and Social- Democrits who controlled the Petrograd Soviet partly sympathize.d with the Bol- shevists, partly feared them, but in their appeals to the masses they were always outbid by Lenin's followers, and speedily thleylost ground. After the failure of Korniloff's attempt in August to re-establish law and prder the general -demoralization increased. The Army went to pieces, and, taking advan- tage of this disorganized host of armed men,' to. whom he promised immediate peace, Lenin effected a coup d'Etat on November 7, 1917, this time Avithout any difficulty. Lenin appeared . with 'his followers in a Congress of Soviets, and was aeclaimed as Dictator. The members of tlie Pi6visional Governmenf'were im- prisoned,.all but Kerensky, who escaped. There was a. sharp, struggle in Moscow, where for several days boys from officers' training schools defended the Kre'mlin, but they finally succumbed. He was ultirnmtely responsible for the terror as for all the other main lines of Bolshevist policy. He presided over the meeting of the Council of People's Corm- missaries which, in July, 1918, approved the foul murder of Nicholas II. and his family by the Ekaterinburg Soviet. The Communist experiment brought Russia to economic ruin, famine, and barbarism. Under Soviet rule the Rus- sian people suffered unheard-of calamity. To Lenin this mattered little. Wheni the famine came in 1921 he remarked, with a scornful smile,.." It's a. trifle if twenty millions or so die." He did realize, however, that the effort to maintain undiluted Communism was endangering the existence of his Govern- ment. . In March, 1921, he called a halt. Against the wishes of the majority of his followers he. proclaimed a new econoinic policy, consisting in a temporary com- promise between Socialism and Capi- talism, with the CoXnmunist movement in complete control. His hope was that this policy Nvould secure a breathing space during Nvhich the Comrmunists iniRht rally for a new attackl on world capitalism. The fainine raged. Russia sank deeper and deeper into the mire. The iresources of the Soviet Government, the gold reserve of the Imperial Government which they had squandered in their wild propaganda and in .their feeble pretence of foreign trade,-Nwere almost exhausted. Their one hope lay in bluffing Europe, and to this task they set themselves- with great zest and incompairable skill. LAST ILLNESS. In the midst of the rapid crumbling of all his plans, Lenin fell ill towards the end of' 1921, and for many veeks was mnable to take any public part in affairs. The nafure of his ,complaint was obscure. Experts were summohed from Germany, and a bullet was extracted that had been fired 6o Lenini when an attempt was made on his life by the_Jewish Socialist- revolu- tionary, Dora Kaplan, in 1918. There ivas a brief interval, during iwhich Lenin's health was apparently ,rst6rcd, and he made, speeches declaring that* the flew economic ,policy, would go no farther, and that concessions to capitalists,were at an end. He was ulnable to attend the Genoa Conference, and shortly after the con- clusion of the Conference the reports as to his health became more alaiming. Ger- man specialists wc-re again summoned, and his condition became.so grave that steps were taken by his associates to establish a directorate to' earry on his functions. One paralytic stroke was followed by another, and it became clear that Lenin would never return to affairs, that his days were nunibered;' He was remnoved' to a coun,try house near Moscow, where, under tha' care of nurses, he lingered on till his naane grew shadowy and his party was divided by an-open dispute for the succession. ' ' : - - - LEON TROTSKY
THE BOLSHEVIST REVOLUTION Leon Trotsky, Lenin's principal asso- ciate in the Bolshevist Revolution, and the organizer of the Red Army, died at Mexico City on Wednesday night, tele- graphs our New York Correspondent, of the effects of the murderous attack made on him on Tuesday. Lev Davidovitch Bronstein, later known as Trotsky, was born in a small town in South Russia in 1879-and educated in Odessa. At the age of 19 he was arrested as a member of a Marxist group. and sent to Siberia. He escaped in 1902, joined Lenin in London, worked-and then broke-with him, and in the famous split in the party adhered'; to the Menshevik wing. He returned to Russia in the 1905 revolution, became President of the first Soviet in St. Petersburg, and was once more im- prisoned and exiled to Siberia. Escaping a second time, he led the wandering life of a revolutionary refugee in Austria, Switzerland, and France, editing mnore than one revolu- tionary journal and contributing to many others, besidcs being the author of numerous pamphlets. When war broke out in 1914 Trotskv. who had by this time broken with the Mensheviks, moved to Paris, and conducted a vigorous anti-war campaign. At the Zimmerwald Con- ference he once more drew ncarer to Lenin, and was expelled from France in 1916. From Spain he went-to New York, where he won popularity among the Russian Jews and the International Workers of the World. After the March Revolution in 1917 he started off for Russia, breathing out threats to the American Government. On his way he was arrested by the British authorities at Halifax, Nova Scotia, as a dangerous revolutionary, but was ultimately released at the request of the Russian Provisional Goveinment and allowed to con- tinue his journey. On his return to Russia he was made a member of the Petrograd Soviet. He now joined the Bolshevist Party, took part in the abortive July revolt. and with Lenin was mainly responsible for organzing the successful revolution of November 7. As Commissar for Foreign Affairs in Lenin's Government it fell to Trotsky to conduct ihe negotiations with the Germans that culminated in the peace of Brest-Litovsk. He tried to .evade the crushing demands of the Germans, but his sneeches and-his revolutionary procla- mations availed nothing against the mailed fist. The Bolshevists had to accept humiliating terms, and Tchitcherin was sent to conclude the negotiations. The war with Germany was over and the civil war began. Trotsky was appointed Commissar for War, and he brouglht a new Red Army into being. Communist dis- cipline was enforced by propaganda and by that system of universal political espionage and terror on which the Bolshevist Government relied. Since Trotsky's fall, official historians have done everything to belittle his role. But at the time his name was coupled everywhere with that of Lenin. His resource and driving power were made' use of to the full by the inner circle of Communists, but, as a late-comer.to the party, he was never com- pletely trusted. In 1923 rumours spread that he was suffer- ing from some illness. The death of Lenin was a fatal blow to his influence. For -ears d long and obscure struggle had raged between Stalin,whohadunder his control the machinery of the Communist Party, and Trotsky, wlho had a much greater personal prestige inside and outside Russia. Step by step Trotsky was ejected from all his posts. In January, 1925, he ceased to be Commissai for War; and Stalin steadily and skilfully contrived to remove all Trotsky's adherents from prominent posts in the Government. In 'October, 1926, Stalin even ventured to eject Trotsky himself from the Politbureau. In the surnmer of 1927. the three Soviet diplomats- Krestinsky, Rakovsky, and Kameneff-joined the Opposition, and at the Party Congress in November, 1927, Trotsky and his followers were expelled from the party. Trotsky was sent into exile to Central Asia. He was under a strict surveillance by the Ogpu, and any communication with the outer world became very difficult. But Trotsky could not be silent. A violent attack on Stalin, published in Germany under the title The True Situation in Russia and containing letters in which Lenin foresaw the Stalin-Trotsky feud and warned his colleagues against Stalin's autocratic ambition, caused a rift in the party abroad and determined Stalin to expel his rival from Russia. In 1929 Trotsky was sent to Constantinople, where for some years he dwelt on Prinkino Island. He con- tinued to agitate and intrigue, and vainlv asked permission to repair to England. His" iiistory of the Russian Revolution did not endear him the more to his rival, and he finally left Turkey for France. But Stalin's hostility, his own inability to refrain from political activities, and his dangerous interest in' world revolu- tion made no country willing to keep him for long. Hc was requested to'leave France in 1935, after being accuse4 by Moscow of complicity in the Kiroff murder. His old associates were " liquidated," and in the following year the Russian Government asked for his expulsion from Norway, where he bad taken refuge. Early in 1937 he found asylum in Mexico. There, after he had been con- demned to dcath in ab.ence bv a Soviet Court, he figured in an " unofficial inquiry " into his alleged guilt, conducted by a committee of prominent Americans, and disposed of somc of the circumstantial evidence produced at the Moscow trials. He was in constant danger from-Russian agents, and last May he narrowly escaped from an armed band who attacked his villa near Mexico City. Trotsky was emotional and vain, energetic and ruthless, capable of raoid decision in moments of danger, but far inferior to Lenin in judgment and foresight. Of medium height, with a high forehead, from which was brushed back a big mane of black liair, with stronzly marked Jewish features and grey eyes that peered sharply through pince- nez, he was not an attractive mersonality. In his later ycars he became the natural focus of those Communists who opposed the oppor- tunistic policy of Stalin. But he remained a name rather than the leader of a party and had little gift for inspirinc the loyalty and devotion of his disciples. His literary abilities.were outstanding: and his autobiography and his "History of the Russian Revolution," both of which have appeared in.En'lish .transhations, are the most readable writings of any of the Russian' revolutionaries.
'Бій відлунав. Жовто-сині знамена затріпотіли на станції знов'
