- Hardcover: 588 pages
- Publisher: Harvard University Press (19 Sep 2000)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0674003306
- ISBN-13: 978-0674003309
- Product Dimensions: 24.2 x 16.3 x 4.7 cm
- Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (23 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 1,630,147 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
Lenin: A Biography
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Amazon.co.uk Review
Few political reputations have collapsed quite as quickly as that of Lenin, the ideological guru of Russian Communism, the hero of the revolution of October 1917, and the first leader of the Soviet Union. Just as the Berlin Wall was pulled to the ground, so were thousands of statues of Lenin toppled across Eastern Europe and the new Russia in the early 1990s. But now that the dust has settled, and the Cold War is over, historians can be more objective about the life and achievements of Vladimir Ilich Ulyanov (Lenin was his adopted revolutionary name). Robert Service's book is the first major biography of Lenin for several decades and it benefits from the thaw that has opened up previously inaccessible material, particularly on Lenin's family and his medical history. Born into a wealthy family of landowners, lawyers and government officials, Lenin's revolutionary path was marked out when his elder brother was executed for his part in an assassination plot on the Tsar. From that point on, aided by his sisters, his wife and a loyal but argumentative band of Bolshevik followers, Lenin committed himself to the overthrow of the Tsarist regime, enduring exile, prison and ostracism in the process. This compelling and action-packed book brings Lenin and Leninism to life in a way that no previous account has managed to do. --Miles Taylor
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Review
Lenin was the one essential personality of the communist movement that shook the world for most of the twentieth century. In this marvelous synthesis of previously known history and information newly available since the dissolution of the Soviet Union that Lenin founded, Robert Service lays out how that came to be...Service is able to humanize Lenin without suggesting that in that humanity lies any explanation of or excuse for the excesses of the revolution he led.--Charles Radin"Boston Globe" (01/11/2001)
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Format:Kindle Edition|Amazon Verified Purchase
One cannot understate the scholarly nature of Robert Service's Lenin. Here we have one of the most mythologized characters of the 20th century presented to us in entirely human form.
Service traces every aspect of Lenin's life, including some interesting background information on his father and grandfather, which can seem like a digression at times.
However, what we have is a complete portrait, including events that shaped his early life such as the execution of his elder brother Alexander and the early death of his father.
Around two thirds of the book takes place prior to the October Revolution, and Lenin's travels and correspondences shape who he was considerably.
There are no attempts by Service to airbrush out any of Lenin's faults. We learn that he believed zealously in the use of state terror on Bourgeoisie, Kulaks and other reactionaries, he sought Europe wide revolution, and believed wholeheartedly in the violent seizure of power. Lenin was very principled, but also very rigid and zealous in the prosecution of his ideology.
Service not only tracks the intimate details of Lenin's life, but he also chronicles Lenin's intellectual development. Therefore this book serves as more than just a biography, but an aide to anyone studying Marxism-Leninism.
In short a scholarly, and very compelling biography.
Service traces every aspect of Lenin's life, including some interesting background information on his father and grandfather, which can seem like a digression at times.
However, what we have is a complete portrait, including events that shaped his early life such as the execution of his elder brother Alexander and the early death of his father.
Around two thirds of the book takes place prior to the October Revolution, and Lenin's travels and correspondences shape who he was considerably.
There are no attempts by Service to airbrush out any of Lenin's faults. We learn that he believed zealously in the use of state terror on Bourgeoisie, Kulaks and other reactionaries, he sought Europe wide revolution, and believed wholeheartedly in the violent seizure of power. Lenin was very principled, but also very rigid and zealous in the prosecution of his ideology.
Service not only tracks the intimate details of Lenin's life, but he also chronicles Lenin's intellectual development. Therefore this book serves as more than just a biography, but an aide to anyone studying Marxism-Leninism.
In short a scholarly, and very compelling biography.
4 of 5 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Until the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, it was extremely difficult to write anything meaningful about the founder of the world's first Communist state. The archives were closed; and there was a stupefying conformity about Communist historiography, not confined to that which emanated from Moscow. The message given by most writers on the Left was 'Stalin, lousy guy, Lenin, good guy', to which the Trotskyites wanted to add 'Trotsky good guy too.' In fact, as this book shows, Lenin was just as murderous and dictatorial as Stalin, it was just that he had a much shorter time in which to show his proclivities, and the circumstances he operated under were more difficult.
Robert Service had the inestimable advantage that he could access the files, almost for the first time; and in addition, he did not approach his task with a closed mind. He shows what people on the Right have always known or long suspected: that Lenin was an arrogant pedant, who always thought he was right but was usually wrong about everything other than how to gain power, and who unfortunately got the opportunity to inflict his dogmatic views on millions of people.
As a young man, I used to think that the Soviet Union was a noble experiment, which had somehow gone wrong. I now realise that it was a monstrous tyranny from the start; and this book helps to explain why.
Robert Service had the inestimable advantage that he could access the files, almost for the first time; and in addition, he did not approach his task with a closed mind. He shows what people on the Right have always known or long suspected: that Lenin was an arrogant pedant, who always thought he was right but was usually wrong about everything other than how to gain power, and who unfortunately got the opportunity to inflict his dogmatic views on millions of people.
As a young man, I used to think that the Soviet Union was a noble experiment, which had somehow gone wrong. I now realise that it was a monstrous tyranny from the start; and this book helps to explain why.
13 of 17 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This biography is so focused on its subject that important events like the First World War, the Russian Civil War and the murder of the Romanovs barely feature. Some readers might feel that is how a biography should be but I believe a biography of a man who may well have single handedly toppled an Empire and imposed a political system that shattered the world consensus (and still reigns supreme in the world's up-and-coming superpower, China) needs to have a wide historical and social backdrop. Compare Service's narrow approach to Robert Massie's "Nicholas and Alexandra" or "Peter the Great" where you feel you are in the middle of Russia, a strange state which seems familiar and European on one hand yet strange and Asiatic on the other.
The book covers the basic facts - the names, dates and places - but uncovers little of the man himself. Perhaps this is because so much has been hidden or destroyed by the Communists who tried to turn Lenin into a secular saint or perhaps because a non-Russian simply does not have enough insight into Russian culture.
Lenin is portrayed as a bookworm steeped in Marx and Engels who is more concerned with scoring philosophical points at interminable meetings* than a man who became the dictator of Russia even though he had spent most of the previous 20 years in exile. Just how Lenin managed to achieve this prestige while he was wandering around France, Switzerland, Germany, Italy and England, usually accompanied by his mother, sister and wife (believe it or not), is simply not explained.
The author blames most of Lenin's hatred for the Tsarist regime on the fact that his elder brother was hanged while a student for involvement in a plot to assassinate Emperor Alexander III. This might be true but he provides no proof. He also makes a lot of the ménage à trois Lenin seems to have had with his wife and another woman but, apart from a few notes and letters, does not provide any real proof that Lenin was passionate about the other woman.
Leading characters like Stalin and Trotsky make only minor appearances. For example, Trotsky's role in running the Red Guard, which defeated the wide variety of domestic and international forces which attacked the revolution, is skated over. Stalin's rise to power is virtually ignored. Nothing is made of the attempts to assassinate Lenin, one of which left two bullets in his body and hastened his death in his early 50s. We never learn who was behind these attempts or what happened to the would-be assassins. How something as important as this can be ignored is beyond me.
The conclusion of this work which is almost 500 pages long is feeble to say the least: "The future does not lie with Leninist Communism. But if the future lies anywhere, we do not know where exactly. Lenin was unexpected. At the very least, his extraordinary life and career prove the need for everyone to be vigilant. Not many historical personages have achieved this effect. Let thanks be given."
To sum up, this book is better as a rather plodding history text than a biography.
*My favorite is pure Monty Python: "...the Congress agreed to drop the slogan "All Power to the Soviets" After a lengthy debate about slogans, it was decided to replace it with "All Power to the Proletariat Supported by the Poorest Peasantry and the Revolutionary Democracy Organized into Soviets of Workers', Soldiers' and Peasants' Deputies"
The book covers the basic facts - the names, dates and places - but uncovers little of the man himself. Perhaps this is because so much has been hidden or destroyed by the Communists who tried to turn Lenin into a secular saint or perhaps because a non-Russian simply does not have enough insight into Russian culture.
Lenin is portrayed as a bookworm steeped in Marx and Engels who is more concerned with scoring philosophical points at interminable meetings* than a man who became the dictator of Russia even though he had spent most of the previous 20 years in exile. Just how Lenin managed to achieve this prestige while he was wandering around France, Switzerland, Germany, Italy and England, usually accompanied by his mother, sister and wife (believe it or not), is simply not explained.
The author blames most of Lenin's hatred for the Tsarist regime on the fact that his elder brother was hanged while a student for involvement in a plot to assassinate Emperor Alexander III. This might be true but he provides no proof. He also makes a lot of the ménage à trois Lenin seems to have had with his wife and another woman but, apart from a few notes and letters, does not provide any real proof that Lenin was passionate about the other woman.
Leading characters like Stalin and Trotsky make only minor appearances. For example, Trotsky's role in running the Red Guard, which defeated the wide variety of domestic and international forces which attacked the revolution, is skated over. Stalin's rise to power is virtually ignored. Nothing is made of the attempts to assassinate Lenin, one of which left two bullets in his body and hastened his death in his early 50s. We never learn who was behind these attempts or what happened to the would-be assassins. How something as important as this can be ignored is beyond me.
The conclusion of this work which is almost 500 pages long is feeble to say the least: "The future does not lie with Leninist Communism. But if the future lies anywhere, we do not know where exactly. Lenin was unexpected. At the very least, his extraordinary life and career prove the need for everyone to be vigilant. Not many historical personages have achieved this effect. Let thanks be given."
To sum up, this book is better as a rather plodding history text than a biography.
*My favorite is pure Monty Python: "...the Congress agreed to drop the slogan "All Power to the Soviets" After a lengthy debate about slogans, it was decided to replace it with "All Power to the Proletariat Supported by the Poorest Peasantry and the Revolutionary Democracy Organized into Soviets of Workers', Soldiers' and Peasants' Deputies"
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Scholarly and readable
An excellent biography of a difficult subject. Unlike most biographies, I felt this work really helped me to gain an understanding of who Lenin was, and why he acted as he did. Read more
Published 22 months ago by Kate
A 'Personal' Biography
I found this immensely valuable. Passions still run high about Lenin and it's an achievement to produce such a lively but balanced account. Read more
Published on 19 May 2010 by conjunction
Laboured
The first 250 pages are generally tedious; full of stuff about factionalism and pathetic insights such as 'there can be no doubt that Lenin loved his mother'. Read more
Published on 17 Jan 2010 by Dublin 4
it is good reading
i have enjoyed reading the book it has opened up my views
thank you so very much
thank you so very much
Published on 14 Oct 2009 by Michael Reardon
Excellent, enjoyable read!
Perhaps surprisingly for such a book, this is really lucidly written and kept my attention throughout. Read more
Published on 27 Sep 2009 by WeatherNerd
Theory is Grey, but Life is Green
"Theory is grey but Life is green" said Goethe, a citation used by Lenin more than once. This book is not dry and grey but lively and it does bring to life a figure otherwise and... Read more
Published on 8 Aug 2009 by Ian Millard
Well researched, but selective and biased
Robert Service in 'Lenin' does not give an account that is satisfyingly representative of the man. Service, despite his obvious learning, seems totally ignorant of established... Read more
Published on 21 Jun 2009 by F. Lawton
Research Service first!
People should look at the life of Robert Service and his political leanings before summing up his book. Read more
Published on 16 Jan 2009 by D. Gwynne
Excellent book, impressively written
Definitely a must-have for anyone interested in Russian history. Well written, brilliantly researched, a classic.
Published on 26 July 2008 by J. de Jonge
Lenin - The Genius
What do you know about Lenin? I knew he was chief instigator of the October Revolution and the man behind Leninism and inside the mausoleum. Read more
Published on 10 Mar 2008 by demola
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