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Lenin
 
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Lenin (Hardcover)

by R Service (Author)
3.8 out of 5 stars See all reviews (14 customer reviews)

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Product details

  • Hardcover: 592 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: 3.8 out of 5 stars See all reviews (14 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 1,789,718 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)
  • See Complete Table of Contents

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Product Description

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
The best place to begin assessing Boshevism's founder is the work of the British historian Robert Service. The present volume, "Lenin: A Biography," is the fourth the author has devoted to his lifelong subject, its three predecessors, published between 1985 and 1995, being a meticulous chronicle of Lenin's political life. Yet the past decade has produced sufficient archival material to make possible a biography of Lenin the man, and this is the new volume's task. It may also serve as a summary of the preceding trilogy, to which readers can refer back for fuller details at any point...Even in Russia, historians prefer Service's nuanced and judicious account to the more sensational work of the late Dmitri Volkogonov, as well as to the standard Western treatments. Indeed, Service is consciously writing against the predominant Lenin canon in both East and West...[He] seeks to reconstruct Lenin's motives historically, decision by decision, as the settings of his action changed. Moreover, his analysis has been refined by the vicissitudes of time. -- Martin Malia "New York Review of Books" (11/01/2001)

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Customer Reviews

14 Reviews
5 star:
 (4)
4 star:
 (5)
3 star:
 (3)
2 star:
 (2)
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Average Customer Review
3.8 out of 5 stars (14 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

 
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars Very Good, 17 Dec 2007
This review is from: Lenin: A Biography (Paperback)
Lenin by Robert Service is a very interesting and well-written book which deals with the life of the great revolutionary. Although it is perhaps not as detailed as some people would like it is very enjoyable and gives an insight into the life of this middle-class intellectual who became a working-class leader.
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7 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars Lenin - The Genius, 10 Mar 2008
This review is from: Lenin: A Biography (Paperback)
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. That was all until this book came along. It turns out that Volodya was an intellectual jagganath and an egoist of manic proportions.

It is instructive to trace how someone so well educated can turn out to be so tunnel visioned and so monstrous. I think Robert Service provides an incredible account from Lenin's youth and his stellar academic record to his conversion to the cause through to his duplicitous rise to power. This is an amazing tale of a madcap without whom the history of the 20th century would have been so very different and arguably better.

The problem here is that Service spoils the good work with a healthy sprinkling of personal comments like "that serves him right" etc. This give the writing a polish of amateurism. Nevertheless, this is the only Lenin book that I will read. If you're looking for a book heavy on political writings and revolutionary theory then this is probably quite not the book for you. However if you just wish to understand this oddball of a genius - spoilt brat, lover, anarchist, marxist, fervid revolutionary, friend and foe, doublecrosser, rhetorician, leftist saint - then you should read this.

Take care to step over the author's irritating opinions.
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7 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars Well written, but don't expect the full story of 1917, 3 Jan 2007
By Mr. Paul J. Bradshaw (Midlands, UK) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   
This review is from: Lenin: A Biography (Paperback)
A very well written book that successfully evokes the atmosphere of turn of the century Russia. Unusually for a biography, the youth of Lenin is actually quite interesting, and Service knows to quickly move on to keep the narrative moving. Occasionally, however, you wish for more details - the execution of his brother, for example, happens so suddenly it is almost shocking.

By the middle of the book you are yearning to get to the revolutionary events of 1917, but again once there, it would have been good to have more details about events 'on the ground', and if you want a book about the 1917 revolution, it may be better to buy something more specifically about that (the impression here is that Lenin capitalised on circumstances more than he was actually involved in them). That aside, the whole is a fascinating tale told well. Service is not afraid to give his own occasional opinion on matters, while there's some analysis of how the communist revolution affected politics elsewhere in Europe, particularly in the reactive rise of fascism.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews

2.0 out of 5 stars 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 25 days ago by F. Lawton

3.0 out of 5 stars Research Service first!
People should look at the life of Robert Service and his political leanings before summing up his book. Read more
Published 6 months ago by D. Gwynne

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent book, impressively written
Definitely a must-have for anyone interested in Russian history. Well written, brilliantly researched, a classic.
Published 11 months ago by J. de Jonge

3.0 out of 5 stars A Party Without Guests
There is no doubt that Lenin achieved a level of recognition that will continue for as long as humans maintain a sentient capacity. Read more
Published 18 months ago by Phil O'Pastry

2.0 out of 5 stars Robert Service on Lenin
A book that tells us a lot more about Robert Service than it does aboutLenin. Despite the extensive research, it is packed with irritatingspeculation and blunt assertions and the... Read more
Published on 25 April 2004 by Paul Jakes

5.0 out of 5 stars A Fine Example of the Biographer's Art
This is one of the finest biographies I have ever read. Service provides a detailed and convincing analysis of Lenin's personality and how it drove him to become the leader of the... Read more
Published on 29 May 2003 by jimzovich

5.0 out of 5 stars a fascinating look into the mind of a infamous revolutionary
this book is a well written and thoroughly fascinating look into the background and motivation that drove Vladimir Illich Ulyanov Lenin to seize power in post-tsarist russia. Read more
Published on 17 April 2002

4.0 out of 5 stars The best book on Lenin I have ever read.
This is by far the best biography of Lenin I have read. It covers all aspects of Lenin's life, both domestic and political. Read more
Published on 10 Nov 2001

5.0 out of 5 stars By far the greatest work on Lenin ever published. Excellent.
Service's biography of Lenin is a masterpiece. Utilising the most up-to-date material from the recently-opened Soviet archives, Service charts the life of one of the twentieth... Read more
Published on 18 Jul 2001

4.0 out of 5 stars Excellent, avoids academic over-theorising and gives detail
This is a rare thing; a biography of a major political figure by an academic which isn't dry as twigs. Read more
Published on 12 Sep 2000

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