The special assistant to Boris Yeltsin radically alters the traditional image of Lenin with a biography based on secret Soviet archives, revealing the Founding Father as a cruel, totalitarian leader who was responsible for the worst excesses of the Soviet state.
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"Based on research among thousands of unpublished documents concealed in the Communist Party's archives until the fall of the regime. 'Lenin: Life and Legacy' is a crushing indictment of the regime's founder".
Sally Laird, ' Observer'
"Written with insight and authority…excellently translated by Harold Shukman".
Ian McIntyre, 'The Times'
In the first fully documented life of one of the greatest revolutionaries in history, Dmitri Volkogonov is free for the first time t access Lenin's life and legacy, unconstrained by the demands of political orthodoxy. In addition to showing conclusively that the violence and coercion that characterised the Soviet system derived entirely from Lenin, the author also describes in detail the personal life of Lenin: his family antecedents, his private finances, the early funding of the Bolshevik Party, his relationship with his mistress Inessa Armand, and the debilitating illness that finally crippled the final years of his life.
"Volkogonov has done a remarkable job of researching into the newly available archives and reducing them to this manageable size. Harold Shukman has done an equally valuable job of editing and translating. Between them they have 'demolished the icon'".
David Floyd, 'Daily Telegraph'
"Serious and impressive…Volkogonov's biography is all the more moving in being an attempt of an honourable and honest representative of the Soviet military establishment to come to terms with the ideology, institutions and symbols which shaped the lifetime".
Dominic Lieven, 'The Spectator'
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First Sentence
Vladimir Ilyich Lenin did not appear fully fledged on the scene as the leader of the radical wing of Russian social democracy. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
Vladimir Ilyich Lenin did not appear fully fledged on the scene as the leader of the radical wing of Russian social democracy. Read the first page
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Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
5 of 6 people found the following review helpful
By A Customer
Format:Hardcover
This volume appears to be an abridged version of a much longer work in Russian and though it is labelled as a biography is much less linear in format and chronology than one normally expects from this designation. This is however no drawback and around the main developments in Lenin's life the writer frequently jumps forward in time, and occasionally backwards, to explore the consequences, or antecedents, of specific decisions, policies and actions of Lenin and his circle. A degree of familiarity with the revolutionary period is assumed - not unreasonably in the case of a Russian readership - and a Western reader coming fresh to the subject might more profitably start elsewhere - "A People's Tragedy" by Orlando Figges being a safe bet. The author writes from the position of a disillusioned disciple and, as a Kremlin insider in both the Late-Soviet and Post-Soviet periods, he gives valuable insights into the difficulties of breaking away from orthodoxies of thought built up over decades - even a character as courageous as Gorbachev is seen from minutes of a 1983 Central Committee meeting to be unable to cope with the challenge of a mildly dissident stage-play. The book draws heavily on Soviet archives that were secret to the early 1990s and, though one must have some uncertainty as to how selectively the author has utilised them, the overall argument that there is a considerably greater degree of continuity between Leninist and Stalinist attitudes policies than has hitherto been recognised is developed very powerfully. The writer anchors Lenin's personality, and the development of his thought, in his family background, in the Russia of the late nineteenth century, and in the artificial world of political exile in the years preceding the revolution.... Read more ›
By M. D. Holley
TOP 1000 REVIEWER
Format:Paperback
I really enjoyed this book. Of course the author has an agenda - to take Lenin off his pedestal. He also assumes that the reader has been brought up in the Soviet Union and is familiar with the official Soviet version of Lenin's life. But it is not difficult to see through this. The book represents the mood of a particular moment and place in time (early 1990's, ex Soviet bureaucrat comes to terms with his past) and is an interesting historical document in its own right.
The extensive use of Lenin's own writings and letters gives useful insight into his revolutionary fervour. His belief that he was fighting for a better future for the entire human race comes across strongly.
A lot of space is given over to the 'Legacy' of the title. Some reviewers have complained about this, but I liked the perspective it gives. One can sense that the system over time gave precedence to colourless and faceless leaders who progressed by avoiding the sin of 'independent thought' (and so became as different from Lenin himself as can be imagined).
In the end it is quite sad to contrast Lenis's utopian hopes with the final results of the revolution seven decades later. The revolution didn't spread worldwide within a few months; full communism was never achieved; the state did not disappear; the peaceful and happy life for the workers was illusory.
I suspect is is still too early for us to see Lenin in perspective. But in the meantime this thought provoking book, for all its flaws, is a good place to start.
The extensive use of Lenin's own writings and letters gives useful insight into his revolutionary fervour. His belief that he was fighting for a better future for the entire human race comes across strongly.
A lot of space is given over to the 'Legacy' of the title. Some reviewers have complained about this, but I liked the perspective it gives. One can sense that the system over time gave precedence to colourless and faceless leaders who progressed by avoiding the sin of 'independent thought' (and so became as different from Lenin himself as can be imagined).
In the end it is quite sad to contrast Lenis's utopian hopes with the final results of the revolution seven decades later. The revolution didn't spread worldwide within a few months; full communism was never achieved; the state did not disappear; the peaceful and happy life for the workers was illusory.
I suspect is is still too early for us to see Lenin in perspective. But in the meantime this thought provoking book, for all its flaws, is a good place to start.
8 of 12 people found the following review helpful
By Paulo1985
Format:Hardcover
This book has many problems, the biggest that Volkogonov clearly has his own axe to grind with Lenin and the second most important being that Volkogonov's work simply doesn't concentrate on Lenin as such! We are treated throughout to Volkogonov talking incessantly about how Stalin did this, and Stalin did that, and how Lenin did something remotely vague to it. There seems more of an element of trying to liken Lenin to Stalin than any discussion about what Lenin did. Occasionally he does throw up a few gems, but they are few and far between.
Volkogonov is possibly the worst of the Lenin biographers that i've come across, simply as he doesn't stick to the point, and it's hard to know whether or not he's giving us Lenin's or Stalin's life story - as another reviewer has mentioned before this book should be called "Lenin and his followers". The biggest flaw of this is that the book doesn't read very well, for some reason we have transcripts of Gorbachev talking to somebody between some occurence in the 1930s and the early 1920s which somehow cuts back to what happened in 1937 and the gulag system. This book tries to be too critical for its own good, Volkogonov loses sight of what he ought to do and simply ends up going in circles on his own arguments and I think he forgets what the Bolsheviks were going through in order to secure power - he underestimates the destruction wrought by the first world war and the civil war, no wonder Lenin had to do what he did if his regime were to stay in power.
I'd recommend Shub's biography of Lenin - it's far better paced, better researched and actually sticks to the point of the Lenin question!
Volkogonov is possibly the worst of the Lenin biographers that i've come across, simply as he doesn't stick to the point, and it's hard to know whether or not he's giving us Lenin's or Stalin's life story - as another reviewer has mentioned before this book should be called "Lenin and his followers". The biggest flaw of this is that the book doesn't read very well, for some reason we have transcripts of Gorbachev talking to somebody between some occurence in the 1930s and the early 1920s which somehow cuts back to what happened in 1937 and the gulag system. This book tries to be too critical for its own good, Volkogonov loses sight of what he ought to do and simply ends up going in circles on his own arguments and I think he forgets what the Bolsheviks were going through in order to secure power - he underestimates the destruction wrought by the first world war and the civil war, no wonder Lenin had to do what he did if his regime were to stay in power.
I'd recommend Shub's biography of Lenin - it's far better paced, better researched and actually sticks to the point of the Lenin question!
5 of 8 people found the following review helpful
By A Customer
Format:Hardcover
Before reading this book, it is necessary to understand the author's agenda in writing it. Following the collapse of the USSR in 1991, a substantial portion of the Russian population remained loyal to the Communist party, and many more loyal to the ideals of Lenin himself. Volkogonov tries to "break" the myth of Lenin in this book, in an attempt to fight any revival of Leninism in Russia. Thus, he attempts to link Stalinism with Lenin himself, arguing that the latter necessarily led to the former.
With this in mind, it becomes easier to understand Volkogonov's style when writing this book. Much of the book is devoted to the atrocities committed by the Bolsheviks prior to the rise of Stalin, as well as Lenin's authoritarianism.
That the early Bolsheviks committed atrocities should really come as no surprise given that Russia, in the early 20's, was gripped by a civil war, and that the White Army, sponsored by foreign imperialists, was by no means inno! cent of atrocities either. A war was being waged, and a fight to the death was taking place.
That Volkogonov lists the violent and intolerant acts committed by the Bolsheviks to remain in power is to be expected. What is annoying, however, is the omission of the violent and intolerant acts committed by the White Army. One simply has to consider the massacre of workers that would have followed a White victory over Bolshevism. In other words, in Volkogonov's book, Bolshevism is stripped of its context, painting Lenin as a bloodthirsty tyrant without explaining the reasons behind Bolshevik authoritarianism and violence.
Volkogonov's omissions serves his agenda well, but does little to obtain a balanced picture of Lenin as a leader.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
A first rate reexamination of Lenin
Simply put, the others below who write of Volkogonov as some mere right wing pedant are far from any truth in the matter. Read more
Published on 5 Sep 1999
1.0 out of 5 stars
Extremely biased
This book is supposed to be an "objective" biography of Lenin, supported by some documents made public for the first time. Read more
Published on 2 July 1999
1.0 out of 5 stars
this book is completly off the topic of lenin for a majority
I had to read this book for a history project. why that it is titled a "biography" of Lenin, I do not know. Read more
Published on 1 Jun 1999
5.0 out of 5 stars
An Amazing Intellectual Journey
What makes Dmitri Volkogonov's work so important, is not the fact that he is the first to publicize these formerly secret documents, but that as a former Leninist he made the... Read more
Published on 22 May 1999
5.0 out of 5 stars
An updated biography de-mythologizing Lenin
Readers are now treated to an updated biography of Lenin,
with a work that includes all the information about him in the
once top-secret Soviet archives. Read more
with a work that includes all the information about him in the
once top-secret Soviet archives. Read more
Published on 12 Oct 1996
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