Vladimir Lenin: The Architect of the Russian Revolution and Leninism

 "Every question “runs in a vicious circle” because political life as a whole is an endless chain consisting of an infinite number of links. The whole art of politics lies in finding and taking as firm a grip as we can of the link that is least likely to be struck from our hands, the one that is most important at the given moment, the one that most of all guarantees its possessor the possession of the whole chain."

     Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov better known for his alias, Vladimir Lenin was born on April 22, 1870 in Ulyanovsk, Russia. Born to family in which his parents were well educated, the passion and need to obtain knowledge was instilled in him from an early age.

     Life for Lenin was mostly normal for a well-off family in Russia at that time, but the stability and happiness of learning ended in 1887. Prior to 1887 Lenin and Aleksandr, Lenin’s older brother, were the head of the house due to their father’s sudden death. In 1887 Aleksandr a university student at the time was arrested for the attempted assassination of Emperor Alexander III. Aleksandr was executed for the attempted assignation, this some would say was the spark that ignited the ideal of revolution in Lenin’s mind.

     Shortly after enrolling in university he was expelled for making political expressions. This lead to him being exiled to a village in Kokushkino. This village is where Lenin really started to ingest a swath of radical literature. This literature includes the now widely known philosophies of Karl Marx. The incorporation of Marx’s writings into Lenin’s own personal philosophy lead to him proclaiming himself as a Marxist in 1889.

     In 1892 Lenin obtained his law degree and moved to St. Petersburg and continued his political cause. This didn’t particularly excite the Russian government at the time. As a result, he was arrested and sentenced to exile in Siberia.  After returning from his sentence Lenin stepped up his role in the revolutionary movement, and actually spoke in front of the Second Congress of the Russian Social Democratic Labor Party in 1903 disbursing his forceful call for revolution.

     Many took heed to this call to action and culminated in an armed group that tried to storm the palace, which ended in many of the armed citizens being killed form the palace guards. The emperor presented an olive branch with a few governmental reforms but Lenin Denied the offer, and was exiled once again this time in Switzerland, he stayed there until the end of world war I. With Russia coming back from a bitter war with the Japanese and others they were brittle as a population and as a government. Lenin saw this and was convinced that this was his opportunity. This lead to what is known now as the October Revolution in 1917. Which sparked a civil war which would last for three years.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vladimir_Lenin

http://www.notablebiographies.com/Ki-Lo/Lenin-Vladimir.html

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/commandingheights/shared/minitext/prof_vladimirlenin.html