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'Lars T Lih's short biography is hardly "Why Lenin was right", although it is no less dramatic for that. Lih advances some seldom-heard historical and political arguments in an unassuming, informative way . . . . This excellent book advises us not to congratulate ourselves on our hindsight.' --The Guardian
'Any book that rejects the received wisdom that Lenin was intolerant, cruel and tyrannical, thus laying the basis for the inevitable rise of Stalinism, is to be welcomed. As such, Lars T Lih's concise biography of Lenin is a useful addition.' --Socialist Review
'This is an important contribution to our understanding of Lenin . . . . This slim volume is a welcome contribution to the battle to combat the lies and myths of both the Stalinist tradition and the right wing opponents of Bolshevism. The scholarly research which informs it makes it a valuable addition to anyone's library.' --Socialist Alternative
'Lars T Lih's excellent short biography of Lenin is a welcome addition to the serious socialist literature on classical Marxist history. Although it contains some nuggets from the archives and some references to interesting but lesser known contemporary sources, the book's chief merits are its strongly contextual interpretation of Lenin's life and its readable style.' --Worker's Liberty
'A carefully drawn, subtle yet compelling portrait of a revolutionary. This is probably the best and most reliable treatment we have had on Lenin in many decades, and it will fill a fair gap for scholars, students and the general public.'
--Professor Ronald Suny, University of Michigan, author of The Soviet Experiment: Russia, the USSR and the Successor States
'Any book that rejects the received wisdom that Lenin was intolerant, cruel and tyrannical, thus laying the basis for the inevitable rise of Stalinism, is to be welcomed. As such, Lars T Lih's concise biography of Lenin is a useful addition.' --Socialist Review
'This is an important contribution to our understanding of Lenin . . . . This slim volume is a welcome contribution to the battle to combat the lies and myths of both the Stalinist tradition and the right wing opponents of Bolshevism. The scholarly research which informs it makes it a valuable addition to anyone's library.' --Socialist Alternative
'Lars T Lih's excellent short biography of Lenin is a welcome addition to the serious socialist literature on classical Marxist history. Although it contains some nuggets from the archives and some references to interesting but lesser known contemporary sources, the book's chief merits are its strongly contextual interpretation of Lenin's life and its readable style.' --Worker's Liberty
'A carefully drawn, subtle yet compelling portrait of a revolutionary. This is probably the best and most reliable treatment we have had on Lenin in many decades, and it will fill a fair gap for scholars, students and the general public.'
--Professor Ronald Suny, University of Michigan, author of The Soviet Experiment: Russia, the USSR and the Successor States
Product Description
Lenin (1870-1924) was the leader of the communist Bolshevik party and founder of the Soviet Union. He was a key revolutionary thinker and a man who, at one time, lived in exile for his political views and survived several assassination attempts. The standard view of Lenin portrays him as a pessimist with a dismissive view of the revolutionary potential of the workers. In Lenin, Lars T. Lih presents a striking new interpretation, revealing that underneath the sharp polemics, Lenin was more a romantic enthusiast than a sour pragmatist, who imposed meaning on the whirlwind of events going on around him: the Russian proletariat were inspired by the prospect of socialism and went on to lead the Russian narod (the peasants in particular) to revolutionary victory. This concise biography of Lenin's life and outlook is based on wide-ranging new research that puts Lenin into the context both of Russian society and of the international socialist movement of the early twentieth century. It also sets the development of Lenin's political outlook firmly within the framework of his family background and private life. Using contemporary photographs, posters and drawings, Lih illustrates the emotional and physical features of Lenin's world. A non-partisan and vivid portrait of a pivotal figure in modern history, Lenin will appeal to scholars and general readers alike.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
6 of 7 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
This is an excellent, well written and easily read biography of Lenin that succeeds in accurately portraying his life, political programme and also tackles and clarifies aspects of his legacy which are sometimes controversial and are frequently distorted.
Lih takes as his starting point the execution of Lenin's older brother Alexander for plotting the assassination of the Tsar and Lenin's determination to find `another way' to transform Russia. This leads Lih to build the framework for his biography which Lih sees as Lenin's constructed `heroic scenario': the construction of a social democratic party that becomes leader of the working class, the working class leads the narod (people) in the overthrow of Tsarism and, finally, the party and the working class lead the way to socialism. According to Lih, Lenin constructs this scenario in the early 1890's and sticks to it throughout his life.
Lih then constructs his biography based around Lenin's `heroic scenario'. This device, simple yet accurate, is used to explain Lenin's thoughts and actions over the next 3 decades.
Lih tackles issues such as controversy over the interpretation of Lenin's view of the spontanaiety of the working class in `What Is To Be Done?', although I would have liked more detail here, the Bolshevik attitude to the peasantry - seeing their revolutionary as opposed to counter-revolutionary potential. War Communism and grain requisition is also tackled and Lih shows how this was unlike Stalin's collectivisation programme - a charge of inspiration that is usually levelled at Lenin - and the paradox of the revolutionary democrat inhibiting democracy in the circumstances of the early 1920's. Lih is also very good at showing how Lenin was a follower of Karl Kautsky and a mainstream European social democrat and that it was social democracy, rather than Lenin, which changed in 1914.
Lih's view of the 'April Theses' as not being something of a break with previous Bolshevik thought is controversial and I would have liked to see his argument fleshed out a bit more. I would have liked to see more discussion on some of Lenin's works such as `State and Revolution' and `Imperialism', both are glossed over somewhat and there is no discussion of `Left-Wing Communism. An Infantile Disorder'. Some figures to compare Red and White Terrors would have been useful, although Lih tackles the issue of the Red Terror well by exploring the context and reality of what actually occured surrounding a now notorious telegram of Lenin's that urges mass executions, Lenin's Testament is also skimmed over and Kronstadt doesn't warrant a mention at all. Irritatingly, the book lacks an index.
Still, these gripes aside, this is an excellent counter to dominant and distorted narratives of Lenin.
Lih takes as his starting point the execution of Lenin's older brother Alexander for plotting the assassination of the Tsar and Lenin's determination to find `another way' to transform Russia. This leads Lih to build the framework for his biography which Lih sees as Lenin's constructed `heroic scenario': the construction of a social democratic party that becomes leader of the working class, the working class leads the narod (people) in the overthrow of Tsarism and, finally, the party and the working class lead the way to socialism. According to Lih, Lenin constructs this scenario in the early 1890's and sticks to it throughout his life.
Lih then constructs his biography based around Lenin's `heroic scenario'. This device, simple yet accurate, is used to explain Lenin's thoughts and actions over the next 3 decades.
Lih tackles issues such as controversy over the interpretation of Lenin's view of the spontanaiety of the working class in `What Is To Be Done?', although I would have liked more detail here, the Bolshevik attitude to the peasantry - seeing their revolutionary as opposed to counter-revolutionary potential. War Communism and grain requisition is also tackled and Lih shows how this was unlike Stalin's collectivisation programme - a charge of inspiration that is usually levelled at Lenin - and the paradox of the revolutionary democrat inhibiting democracy in the circumstances of the early 1920's. Lih is also very good at showing how Lenin was a follower of Karl Kautsky and a mainstream European social democrat and that it was social democracy, rather than Lenin, which changed in 1914.
Lih's view of the 'April Theses' as not being something of a break with previous Bolshevik thought is controversial and I would have liked to see his argument fleshed out a bit more. I would have liked to see more discussion on some of Lenin's works such as `State and Revolution' and `Imperialism', both are glossed over somewhat and there is no discussion of `Left-Wing Communism. An Infantile Disorder'. Some figures to compare Red and White Terrors would have been useful, although Lih tackles the issue of the Red Terror well by exploring the context and reality of what actually occured surrounding a now notorious telegram of Lenin's that urges mass executions, Lenin's Testament is also skimmed over and Kronstadt doesn't warrant a mention at all. Irritatingly, the book lacks an index.
Still, these gripes aside, this is an excellent counter to dominant and distorted narratives of Lenin.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
1 review
13 of 17 people found the following review helpful
Lenin as Genuine Revolutionary
24 April 2011
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov (1870-1924) -- who became known globally by his underground pseudonym, Lenin -- is presented in this succinct yet substantial work of scholarship as a genuine revolutionary, in stark contrast to the cold-blooded totalitarian monster that has become all-too-common in accounts from both the Cold War and post-Cold War eras. A student of the fine, honest "sovietologist" Robert C. Tucker (whose two-volume unfinished biography on Stalin has yet to be surpassed -- Stalin as Revolutionary 1879-1929: A Study in History and Personality (Acls History E-Book Project Reprint Series) and Stalin in Power: The Revolution from Above, 1928-1941), Lars Lih made a major step in shattering myths about Lenin in his massive earlier work, Lenin Rediscovered: What Is to Be Done? In Context (Historical Materialism Book Series). He continues that good work in this readable and informative biography.
Common themes in much anti-Lenin scholarship (ranging from Adam Ulam and Alfred Meyer to Richard Pipes and Robert Service) are: Lenin distrusted the capacity of the working class to be truly revolutionary; he consequently veered away from Marxist orthodoxy in order to develop a "vanguard party" dominated by intellecutals such as himself in order to accomplish the revolutionary task; he was so utterly fanatical that he refused to tolerate any and all disagreement, and even turned away from music because he feared it would make him too "soft." Lenin's inhumanity, according to such acocunts, was manifest from his early callous rejection of efforts to help starving peasants during the famine of 1891-92 down through to his unrelentingly authoritarian violence utilized to force the intractable Russian masses to live up to his utopian ideals after the 1917 Russian Revolution.
Lih's well-documented account demonstrates the mythological character of these and other well-worn assertions. Steeped in Marxist thought, in fact "in love" with Marx's writings, Lenin maintained throughout his life the belief in a "heroic working class" that would inevitably prove itself capable of leading (in alliance with Russia's peasant majority) both a democratic revolution to overthrow the absolute monarchy of Tsar Nicholas II and a subsequent socialist revolution (in alliance with workers of other lands) that would bring to birth a society in which (to use Marx's words) the working class would "win the battle of democracy," leading to a socialist or communist future that would be "an association in which the free development of each would be the condition for the free development of all." The revolutionary party that Lenin helped create (the Bolsheviks) was fundmanetally democratic, evolving through sharp debates and disagreements, sometimes even splits (though sometimes unifications), a collectivity of activists in which Lenin was more than once over-ruled but within which he earned considerable authority. Far from developing a blueprint for an authoritarian order, Lenin's "blueprints" (such as they were) projected a workers' and peasants' republic of democratic councils (soviets) which would, increasingly, replace what he and other Marxists perceived as the economic dictatorship of capitalism with the economic democracy of socialism. Of course, things did not turn out that way.
In this fine and richly-textured book, Lenin is placed securely in context: the context of European and Russian history, the context of the broader socialist movement (a truly mass phenomenon before World War I), the context of truly heroic workers' struggles and of the Russian Social Democratic Labor Party (and later the Communist Party) that contained a number of other experienced and strong-minded individuals. We are given a sense of the qualities that enabled this human being to have the impact that he did in such contexts. An iron will is combined with a brilliant intellect, with a profoundly realistic and practical theoretical and organizational bent, yet also with a desire to learn from others and -- by no means inconsequentially -- a capacity for charm and humor, and for genuine kindness.
At the same time, there definitely was a quality akin to arrogance, if we are to believe Lih's account, and at times an inclination to see a highly complex reality through the distorting lens of his revolutionary assumptions and his faith that the "heroic working class" could and would overcome all obstacles. Lih shows us that this perspective could not survive the escalation of problems and horrific crises that beset the revolutionary regime after 1917. A brutalizing civil war, combined with foreign invasions and economic blockades, and exaccerbated by terrible mistakes of the revolutionaries themselves, swept away the autonomy of revolutionary soviets and quickly evaporated the once-potent energy of "workers' democracy". In order to survive and create order amid the chaos, Lenin and his comrades implemented emergency policies and improvisations that closed down civil liberties, gave a political monopoly to the Communist Party, and generated the hot-house development of a bureaucratic order. The rescue from this dilemma that Lenin and the Bolsheviks had expected from workers' revolutions in other countries, and for which they had begun building the Communist International in 1919, failed to materialize. Modifying his expectations while engaging in initial problem-solving efforts, Lenin never abandoned the fundamental ideas and ideals that had animated him. But he was soon devastated by a series of catastrophic strokes, which ended his political activity by 1922-23 and brought death soon after.
Lih's biography of Lenin is a substantial contribution for those who would like to understand important aspects of recent history, and perhaps to gain some understanding as well of current and future possibilities. It would make sense, while engaging with Lenin's life and times, to engage also with some of his writings, a comprehensive survey (and introductory essay complementing Lih's findings) which can be found in a recent volume entitled Revolution, Democracy, Socialism: Selected Writings (Get Political).
Common themes in much anti-Lenin scholarship (ranging from Adam Ulam and Alfred Meyer to Richard Pipes and Robert Service) are: Lenin distrusted the capacity of the working class to be truly revolutionary; he consequently veered away from Marxist orthodoxy in order to develop a "vanguard party" dominated by intellecutals such as himself in order to accomplish the revolutionary task; he was so utterly fanatical that he refused to tolerate any and all disagreement, and even turned away from music because he feared it would make him too "soft." Lenin's inhumanity, according to such acocunts, was manifest from his early callous rejection of efforts to help starving peasants during the famine of 1891-92 down through to his unrelentingly authoritarian violence utilized to force the intractable Russian masses to live up to his utopian ideals after the 1917 Russian Revolution.
Lih's well-documented account demonstrates the mythological character of these and other well-worn assertions. Steeped in Marxist thought, in fact "in love" with Marx's writings, Lenin maintained throughout his life the belief in a "heroic working class" that would inevitably prove itself capable of leading (in alliance with Russia's peasant majority) both a democratic revolution to overthrow the absolute monarchy of Tsar Nicholas II and a subsequent socialist revolution (in alliance with workers of other lands) that would bring to birth a society in which (to use Marx's words) the working class would "win the battle of democracy," leading to a socialist or communist future that would be "an association in which the free development of each would be the condition for the free development of all." The revolutionary party that Lenin helped create (the Bolsheviks) was fundmanetally democratic, evolving through sharp debates and disagreements, sometimes even splits (though sometimes unifications), a collectivity of activists in which Lenin was more than once over-ruled but within which he earned considerable authority. Far from developing a blueprint for an authoritarian order, Lenin's "blueprints" (such as they were) projected a workers' and peasants' republic of democratic councils (soviets) which would, increasingly, replace what he and other Marxists perceived as the economic dictatorship of capitalism with the economic democracy of socialism. Of course, things did not turn out that way.
In this fine and richly-textured book, Lenin is placed securely in context: the context of European and Russian history, the context of the broader socialist movement (a truly mass phenomenon before World War I), the context of truly heroic workers' struggles and of the Russian Social Democratic Labor Party (and later the Communist Party) that contained a number of other experienced and strong-minded individuals. We are given a sense of the qualities that enabled this human being to have the impact that he did in such contexts. An iron will is combined with a brilliant intellect, with a profoundly realistic and practical theoretical and organizational bent, yet also with a desire to learn from others and -- by no means inconsequentially -- a capacity for charm and humor, and for genuine kindness.
At the same time, there definitely was a quality akin to arrogance, if we are to believe Lih's account, and at times an inclination to see a highly complex reality through the distorting lens of his revolutionary assumptions and his faith that the "heroic working class" could and would overcome all obstacles. Lih shows us that this perspective could not survive the escalation of problems and horrific crises that beset the revolutionary regime after 1917. A brutalizing civil war, combined with foreign invasions and economic blockades, and exaccerbated by terrible mistakes of the revolutionaries themselves, swept away the autonomy of revolutionary soviets and quickly evaporated the once-potent energy of "workers' democracy". In order to survive and create order amid the chaos, Lenin and his comrades implemented emergency policies and improvisations that closed down civil liberties, gave a political monopoly to the Communist Party, and generated the hot-house development of a bureaucratic order. The rescue from this dilemma that Lenin and the Bolsheviks had expected from workers' revolutions in other countries, and for which they had begun building the Communist International in 1919, failed to materialize. Modifying his expectations while engaging in initial problem-solving efforts, Lenin never abandoned the fundamental ideas and ideals that had animated him. But he was soon devastated by a series of catastrophic strokes, which ended his political activity by 1922-23 and brought death soon after.
Lih's biography of Lenin is a substantial contribution for those who would like to understand important aspects of recent history, and perhaps to gain some understanding as well of current and future possibilities. It would make sense, while engaging with Lenin's life and times, to engage also with some of his writings, a comprehensive survey (and introductory essay complementing Lih's findings) which can be found in a recent volume entitled Revolution, Democracy, Socialism: Selected Writings (Get Political).
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