Lenin: Bringing Reform Worldwide

On September 1917, two months before the Bolsheviks seized control of the Russian government, Lenin, from his exile in Finland, urged other Bolshevik leaders to end their speechmaking and oral rallies and take action. "History will not forgive us if we do not assume power now," was Lenin's argument for the full-scale revolution. Today, years after the Cold War and well into global free-enterprise economies, Marxism and Lenin's attempt to apply it to Russia along with firm government guidance seems like just another unsuccessful attempt in mankind to produce a society accordingly to ideals. However, even though Communism was deemed the "evil" and "wrong" concept of economy and society this century, it was because of Communism and Lenin's efforts that many other nations, including the United States, improved upon capitalism and a democratic government. How is it logical for Lenin to be helpful to the world, one might ask, since Communist nations have all fallen and the capitalist nations are today's most successful ones? This question can be answered with a simple look at capitalism today and capitalism a century ago. Capitalism was a system which, at its pace a century ago, was crashing and about to fall on itself. Owners accumulated wealth while the working class received wages not high enough to sustain sufficiency in life. However, with Marxist ideas becoming popular among the working classes all over the world and eventually, the first Communist revolution occurring in Russia, many capitalist nations were afraid the same might happen to them. To prevent this, they adopted many of the socialist ideas such as worker's benefits, social security, compensation, pensions, and all the necessary things to keep the workers satisfied even in hard times. Thus, capitalism was saved because Lenin had brought fear to the rich and powerful. This might qualify Lenin as a hero of some sort to the world, but there were flaws in his plans as well as unlucky circumstances which prevented Russia from establishing the ideal communist state. Karl Marx's original philosophy of communism and revolution was meant to be applied to heavily industrial and capitalistic nations in Western Europe, and even Marx was unsure if Russia would benefit from a revolution. However, Lenin believed that even the feudal state of Russia would improve if peasants were given equal land and industries were established. His New Economic Policy helped Russia recover from its losses during the revolution and quickly brought economic recovery to Russia. Free enterprise and private sales were encouraged to help the economy grow, but it was during these better days of Communist rule that Lenin suffered in health. Lenin's plan was to develop a strong Communist government without any opposition and produce able leaders to help the workers become their own rulers. This meant a political police force, the Cheka, erasing all voicing out against Lenin. His rule was of cruelty and many died even before Stalin took over, but nearing his own death, Lenin began to question the ideas of his Bolshevik government, asking whether a bureaucratic government was necessary. He wished to remove Stalin from succeeding him because Stalin lacked the talents and virtue, but his poor health prevented him and he died in 1924 with a Communist government quickly transforming into a totalitarian state, erasing the fine blueprints of the Communism Lenin had hoped to achieve. If Karl Marx was the most influential person in the 19th Century with his philosophy of a socialist state, then Lenin was the most influential leader in the 20th, turning Marx's ideas into reality and showing the world that if the workers were not appreciated at all, there would be an uprising. We owe many of our comforts and guarantees in our society to Lenin, and though many have tried to show him as the evil man and father of totalitarianism, it was he who brought out the best in capitalism as well. § by Peter Kang       Go back to main page