lenin ‘An excellent biography, which captures the real Lenin – part intel- lectual professor, part ruthless and dogmatic politician.’ Geoffrey Swain, University of the West of England ‘A fascinating book about a gigantic historical figure. Christopher Read is an accomplished scholar and superb writer who has pro- duced a first-rate study that is courageous, original in its insights, and deeply humane.’ Daniel Orlovsky, Southern Methodist University Vladimir Il’ich Ulyanov, known as Lenin was an enigmatic leader, a resolute and audacious politician who had an immense impact on twentieth-century world history. Lenin’s life and career have been at the centre of much ideological debate for many decades. The post-Soviet era has seen a revived interest and re-evaluation of the Russian Revolution and Lenin’s legacy. This new biography gives a fresh and original account of Lenin’s personal life and political career. Christopher Read draws on a broad range of primary and secondary sources, including material made available in the glasnost and post-Soviet eras. Focal points of this study are Lenin’s revolutionary ascetic personality; how he exploited culture, education and propaganda; his relationship to Marxism; his changing class analysis of Russia; and his ‘populist’ instincts. This biography is an excellent and reliable introduction to one of the key figures of the Russian Revolution and post-Tsarist Russia. Christopher Read is Professor of Modern European History at the University of Warwick. He is author of From Tsar to Soviets: The Russian People and Their Revolution, 1917–21 (1996), Culture and Power in Revolutionary Russia (1990) and The Making and Breaking of the Soviet System (2001). ROUTLEDGE HISTORICAL BIOGRAPHIES Series Editor: Robert Pearce Routledge Historical Biographies provide engaging, readable and academically credible biographies written from an explicitly histori- cal perspective. These concise and accessible accounts will bring important historical figures to life for students and general readers alike. In the same series: Bismarck by Edgar Feuchtwanger Churchill by Robert Pearce Gladstone by Michael Partridge Henry VII by Sean Cunningham Henry VIII by Lucy Wooding Hitler by Martyn Housden Jinnah by Sikander Hayat Martin Luther King Jr. by Peter J. Ling Mary Queen of Scots by Retha Warnicke Martin Luther by Michael Mullet Mao by Michael Lynch Mussolini by Peter Neville Nehru by Ben Zachariah Emmeline Pankhurst by Paula Bartley Richard III by Ann Kettle Franklin D. Roosevelt by Stuart Kidd Stalin by Geoffrey Roberts Trotsky by Ian Thatcher Mary Tudor by Judith Richards LENIN A REVOLUTIONARY LIFE Christopher Read First published 2005 by Routledge 2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada by Routledge 270 Madison Ave., New York, NY 10016 Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2005. “To purchase your own copy of this or any of Taylor & Francis or Routledge’s collection of thousands of eBooks please go to www.eBookstore.tandf.co.uk.” © 2005 Christopher Read All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilized in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data Read, Christopher, 1946– Lenin : a revolutionary life / by Christopher Read.-- 1st ed. p. cm. -- (Routledge historical biographies) Includes bibliographical references and index. 1. Lenin, Vladimir Il’ich, 1870-1924--Juvenile literature. 2. Revolutionaries--Soviet Union--Biography--Juvenile literature. 3. Heads of state--Soviet Union--Biography--Juvenile literature. 4. Soviet Union--Politics and government--1917-1936--Juvenile literature. I. Title. II. Series. DK254.L455R43 2005 947.084'1'092--dc22 2004026081 ISBN 0-203-64479-4 Master e-book ISBN ISBN 0-203-67416-2 (Adobe eReader Format) ISBN 0–415–20648–0 (hbk) ISBN 0–415–20649–9 (pbk) CONTENTS LIST OF PLATES vi ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS vii CHRONOLOGY ix Introduction 1 1 Choosing revolution 4 2 Laying the foundations of Leninism (1896–1902) 29 3 Constructing Leninism 63 4 Imperialism, war and revolution 106 5 From the Finland station to the Winter Palace 142 6 From classroom to laboratory – early experiments 184 7 Revolutionary war 205 8 Re-evaluation, succession and testament 256 Conclusion: Lenin lived! Lenin lives! Lenin will live forever! 283 NOTES 292 FURTHER READING 300 INDEX 303 PLATES (between pages 180 and 181) 1 The Ulyanov family in Simbirsk, 1879, Vladimin is bottom right 2 Lenin as a university student, 1891 3 Lenin and the Petersburg League of Struggle, 1895. Lenin is in the centre seated behind the table 4 Forged passport, 1917 5 Lenin sitting at his desk, c. 1921 6 Lenin, Krupskaya and children on a bench, 1922 7 Lenin in a wheelchair, 1923 8 Crowd at Lenin’s funeral, 1924. The cult begins 9 Lenin’s work goes on – Pravda editors at work (Bukharin and Maria Ulyanova, Lenin’s sister), 1925 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Many people have helped me understand something of Lenin and develop my ideas about him, especially colleagues, visitors and students in the History Department of the University of Warwick and at the Centre for Russian and East European Studies in Birmingham. I am deeply indebted to them all. While my ideas differ from theirs (and theirs differ from each other) two people I initially met as my teachers have exerted a lasting influence over the subsequent decades. James White, at Glasgow, opened up what were, for me, hidden aspects of the Russian Revolution and the creative differences we have had since con- tinue to stimulate. The influence of the late Leonard Schapiro also looms large over this study. His sharply critical but well-founded and path- breaking studies remain a model of liberal scholarship. This volume was initially commissioned by Heather McCallum who has since left Routledge. She did, however, have a decisive influence on its emergence. When I signed up to write it I was attracted by two aspects above all: the challenge, for a temperamentally and unfashion- ably structuralist historian like myself, of writing about an individual and secondly the fact that no up-to-date one-volume scholarly study of Lenin’s life had been published for nearly two decades. However, the ink had hardly dried on the contract when I attended a study day in London for college students studying the Russian Revolution. During a break between lectures I was leaning on the imposing lectern in the hallowed Victorian lecture theatre of the Royal Institution. I turned to my two friends and fellow speakers asking them about the progress of their cur- rent research. Beryl Williams replied that she was in the throes of com- pleting her one-volume biography of Lenin. Robert Service said he was nearing completion of his one-volume life of Lenin which was comple- mentary to his three-volume political biography. Beryl’s excellent book came out some months later and Bob’s heavyweight tome went on to win prizes and appear in many ‘book of the year’ lists in the cultural journals. In the meantime, knowing by then that James White was also working on his biography of Lenin, I went back to Heather and pointed out that, apart from mine, there were at least three other Lenins in preparation. Was it worth continuing? ‘Why ever not?’, she replied. viii acknowledgements ‘There are sixteen Gladstones out there being written.’ Only the reader will judge whether she was right to encourage me. Since Heather’s departure Vicky Peters has been a friendly, support- ive and patient editor. I am, above all, indebted to Robert Pearce, the series editor, for very helpful and detailed comments on the first draft and also to Dan Orlovsky and Geoff Swain who have made many perti- nent, penetrating, helpful, positive and supportive observations on the typescript. Despite all their efforts to put me right there will still be errors and misunderstandings. These are entirely my responsibility. CHRONOLOGY Year Lenin's Life Russian Events World Events 1870 born in Simbirsk (10/22 April) 1871 Germany unified; German Empire proclaimed 1877–8 Russo–Turkish War 1881 Tsar Alexander II assassinated 1886 father dies; Alexander Ulyanov arrested for terrorist offences; takes school leaving exams and enters Kazan University 1887 Alexander Ulyanov executed (May); expelled from university 1892 awarded first-class degree in law from University of St Petersburg 1893 first pamphlet published 1895 first foreign journey; returns to help found League of Struggle for the Emancipation of the Working Class; first arrest (December) 1896 spends the year in prison 1897 exiled to Shushenskoe in Siberia 1898 marries Nadezhda Russian Social Krupskaya Democratic Labour Party founded in Minsk x chronology Year Lenin's Life Russian Events World Events 1899 Development of Capitalism in Russia published 1900 returns from Siberia first issue of Iskra (January) and leaves published; for western Europe Liberation (July); lives in Munich movement, later Constitutional Democratic Party (Kadets), set up 1901 Krupskaya joins Lenin; Socialist pseudonym ‘Lenin’ Revolutionary (SR) used for first time Party founded 1902 What is to be Done? published 1903 with Krupskaya moves Second Party