“ Learning to Lead our Lives ”

1. “Learning to Lead our Lives” The Trial of Lenin Skill: Historical Enquiry Working with others NGfL: Russia 1900-1924

2. Did Lenin betray communist principles? Reproduced with kind permission of Novosti

3. Think about the following interpretations of Lenin. What impression do you have of Lenin from them? On January 21, 1924 Lenin died. Millions of people were overcome with sorrow... On the morning of January 27 his remains were brought to Red Square, where an endless mass of people streamed past the coffin. The working people of the entire world also paid their last tribute. Factory workers in many countries stopped work for five minutes in homage ...For the first time in the history of mankind the death of one man moved hundreds of millions of people throughout the world. Everyone had heard the name of Lenin.. From a Soviet Textbook published in 1976

4. This extraordinary figure was first and foremost a professional revolutionary ...A man of iron will and inflexible ambition he had no scruple about methods and treated human beings as mere material for his purpose. Short and sturdy, with a bald head, small beard and deep-set eyes, Lenin looked like a small tradesman. When he spoke at meetings his ill-fitting suit, his crooked tie ...turned the crowd in his favor...This is not the place to describe in detail the terrible achievements of Bolshevism-the shameful peace with Germany, the plundering of the educated and propertied classes, the long continued terror with its thousands of innocent victims ...The Communist experiment brought Russia to economic ruin, famine and barbarism. From the Times 23 January 1924