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This political cartoon explores the contrasting views on Lenin's impact and legacy. Join the debate and decide for yourself whether he was a hero or a villain.
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What are 2 messages of this cartoon? • There is suffering in the Soviet Union in 1921 – famine is its central cause. • Lenin appeals to the proletariat around the world for support. • Charity (the West) calls Lenin the reason for his people’s suffering.
Lenin Domestic Policies and Impact
Lenin’s Goals • Seize power and establish a communist “dictatorship of the proletariat” • Spread the socialist consciousness, crushing all non-socialist ideas • Perpetuate global/permanent revolution
Bolshevik Revolution • Three views • Popular uprising expertly led by Lenin • Coup d’etat with limited popular support • Now thought of as popular unrest combined with dynamic Bolshevik leadership • Immediate decrees as response to calls for progressive reform • Sovnarkom established late 1917 • Name for the early government
Lenin’s First Actions • Decree for Land • Made land seizures of gentry legal, no private ownership of land, held in common by the people that farmed it • Decree for Peace • Russia would pull out of the war and begin negotiations with Germany, no further secret diplomacy • Treaty of Brest-Litovsk negotiated by Trotsky and Lenin in 1918 • ‘Robber Peace’
Lenin’s Actions • Decree of the Rights of the Peoples of Russia • Set up the structure of the U.S.S.R, said any republic could leave • Lenin has already indicated he does not want to share power • The Provisional Government had promised a Constituent Assembly • Thought he was more democratic than Parliament • Held elections, did not get a majority, so he closed the Constituent Assembly down • Liberal parties banned in 1918,until 1921 when there was no more opposition allowed
Response to Opposition • In reality, those three decrees were in many ways anti-Bolshevik, but they did consolidate support • Edward Acton: No Russian government had ever been more responsive to pressure from below or less able to impose its will upon society. • Methods to gain control • Control of press • War Communism economics • Enforced by the CHEKA • Calls for continued class warfare • 1921 Ban on Factions
Economics • War Communism successful in winning the Civil War • Famine and poor working conditions • Widespread opposition rising shown in Kronstadt Revolt • Turns to the New Economic Policy in March 1921 • Return of private sectors • Move away from collectivization, socialism • Primarily agricultural • Lenin justified it as ‘state capitalism’
Lenin’s End • 1922 U.S.S.R declared • Three strokes in the next year • Politically incapacitated • Rivalry below him • Trotsky a potential successor • Stalin well positioned as General Secretary, in charge of his health care • Died without his will read, a warning against Stalin • Stalin will exploit Leninism to his advantage in rise
Success or Failure? Hero or Villain? Consider not only his goals and his policies, but also quantifiable effects in Russia or the U.S.S.R. Evaluating Lenin
Hero conclusion • This slide will be determined through group discussion.
Villain conclusion • This slide will be determined through group discussion.
Video: http://ed.ted.com/lessons/history-vs-vladimir-lenin-alex-gendler Historical Summary
Construct a political cartoon related to your personal evaluation of Lenin’s legacy. These will be part of a class exhibit on the socialist leader. Do your best! Political CArtoon