The Unknown Lenin: From the Secret Archive

Annals of Communism

by Vladimir Lenin

Was Lenin a visionary whose ideals were subverted by his followers? Or was he a cynical misanthrope, even crueler than Stalin? This book, which contains newly released documents from the Lenin archive in Russia, lays bare Lenin the man and the politician, leaving little doubt that he was a ruthless and manipulative leader who used terror, subversion, and persecution to achieve his goals.

Edited and introduced by the eminent scholar Richard Pipes in collaboration with Y.A. Buranov of the Russian Center for the Preservation and Study of Documents of Recent History in Moscow, the documents date from 1886 through the end of Lenin's life. They reveal, among other things,

• Lenin's purpose in invading Poland in 1920 was not merely to sovietize that country but to use it as a springboard for the invasion of Germany and England;

• Lenin took money from the Germans (here we have the first incontrovertible evidence for this);

• in 1919 Lenin issued instructions to the Communist authorities in the Ukraine not to accept Jews in the Soviet government of that republic;

• as late as 1922 Lenin believed in the imminence of social revolution in the West, and he planned subversion in Finland, Turkey, Lithuania, and other countries;

• Lenin had little regard for Trotsky's judgment on important matters and relied heavily on Stalin;

• Lenin assiduously tracked dissident intellectuals and urged repressive action or deportation;

• Lenin launched a political offensive against the Orthodox Church, ordering that priests who resisted seizure of church property be shot--"the more the better."

Genres: History, Biography, Nonfiction, Russia, Politics

216 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1996

About the author

Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov, better known as Vladimir Lenin, was a Russian revolutionary, leader of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party (Bolsheviks), statesman and political theorist. After the October Revolution he served as the first and founding head of government of Soviet Russia from 1917 until his death in 1924 and of the Soviet Union from 1922 until his death in 1924.

Reviews

[Noella · Rating 2 out of 5]

Ik had dit boekje vroeger al eens gelezen. Ik was er nu terug in begonnen, maar vond het niet meer zo interessant en heb het niet meer uitgelezen.

[Michael Neltner · Rating 3 out of 5]

Uniquely organized. This book is a mass of documents written by Lenin and co. apropos of events in the initial years following the Russian Revolution 1917. Pipes introduces many of these letters with a paragraph on their importance and relevance.
The letters could be organized better (i.e. by author, by topic, by lesson learned) and the book was at times a drudge to read.
High points are the subtexts that give brief notes on otherwise unknown people and background information as well as the paragraphs of introduction explaining the significance of certain letters.

Be that as it may, Pipes does God’s work in elucidating, 70 years hence, the misconceptions many half-baked history buffs have about Lenin: he was a monster ‘a egalite’ with Stalin, just perhaps wilier and with only a fledgling bureaucracy to support his Terror.

[Frau · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good book but I was surprised to learn that Lenin was a simp. His letters to his love was... yeah.

[Shane Hill · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book and others warns us that Lenin would have been as much a monster as Stalin....but he would have done it with more nuance......and erudition....