Lenin and what is to be done?

Not from one book...but from the ideas held in it, and others which were the expressions of the rulers of Russia in the post revolutionary period.

Remember...Kronstadt was necessary

He did go back on some of the things he said, but through a look at the history of the post 1917 revolution till 1923 (Lenin died in 1924 but he was basically only a statesman till 1923) shows that alot of the dictatoral ideas were embedded in some of Lenin/ Trotskys thought. In regards to the quotes i'm asking for, its to go in a 4000 word essay asking to question how did the civil war between 1918-1922 help to establish a one party dictatorship in Russia? (you can even read it if you want 8) )

Lenin altered ideas between 1905 till 1917 and after, hell he even gave some praise to anarchists pre-1917!! But then they were some of the first to be killed in the citys in 1917/1918. Examples such as Tabov, 1921 city strikes, Kronstadt, workers cooperatives and all around the Ukraine showed how there was inherent dicatoral emphasis in the early ideas of Bolshevism i.e. pre Stalin. The Cheka (having killed an estimated 250,000 from 1917-1920) and such laid down the skelentol body for a dictatoral system.

In the big book on the Russian Revolution by Orlando Figes he mentions, ' ‘The Red Terror did not come out of the blue. It was implicit in the regime from the start… the Bolsheviks were forced to turn increasingly to terror to silence their political critics and subjugate a society they could not control by other means.'

Again another document on this website quotes a Bolshevik ( Gavrii ll’ich Miasnikov ) who opposed many of Lenin's ideas and in a letter direct to Lenin in 1921 wrote- "Freedom of opinion in the party is being suppressed by the foulest and in a letter sent directly to Lenin in 1921 he questioned the violence of the regime in the Civil War, "The trouble is that, while you raise your hand against the capitalist, you deal a blow to the worker. You know very well that for such words as I am now uttering hundreds, perhaps thousands, of workers are languishing in prison. That I myself remain at liberty is only because I am a veteran Communist, have suffered for my beliefs, and am known among the mass of workers. Were it not for this, were I just an ordinary mechanic from the same factory, where would I be now? In a Cheka prison or, more likely, made to 'escape,' just as I made Mikhail Romanov [Miasnikov killed him] 'escape.' Once more I say: You raise your hand against the bourgeoisie, but it is I who am spitting blood, and it is we, the workers, whose jaws are being cracked."

The internal party gag took full hold in the Tenth Party Congress when any sort of internal faction was banned, with Lenin not planning to lift it or Trotsky.

You had a look at any of what Emma Goldman wrote about Russia?

Also I believe people make their own history, but in the face of alot of repression and oppression these movements are often crushed. I am not a big supporter of the 'large man' of history idea.

I take Lenin as a focal point of looking at the time frame from 1917 through to 1923 as he was the leader of that state. Of course there were others involved, Trotsky being a main figure, but Lenin directed and agreed with many of the oppressive measures set up post October 1917. The Civil War did indeed have many aspects to it outside of the Bolsheviks control such as a low heavy industry, the sheer size of Russia, the amount of opposing forces (a dozen was it??) and the lack of raw materials needed to fight a war, but surely policies implimented in the Civil War did not have to be carried over into the post Civil War period. Indeed, most of the oppressive measures were set up pre Civil War, the Cheka being a key point.

I feel Lenin was not as bad as Stalin, he did worry about the way Stalin was taking over the Party near the end of his life, and he did not have the paranoid mass purges that Stalin did, and I feel he did indeed worry, at least in part, about some of the repressive measures taken.

Heres abit from the essay- ''Under mounting pressures from such opposition, the Bolshevik leadership assumed an increasingly dictatorial position. One by one, the goals of 1917 proletarian democracy, social equality, and workers’ self-management-were thrust aside. The institutions of the new society were recast in an authoritarian mould, and a new bureaucratic edifice was constructed, with its attendant corruption and red tape. In government and party, in industry and army, hierarchy and privilege were restored. For collective management of the factories Lenin substituted one-man management and strict labour discipline. He reinstated higher pay for specialists and managers, along with piece rates and other discarded features of capitalism. Soviets, trade unions, and factory committees were transformed into tools of the state apparatus. Authority was increasingly concentrated in the hands of party elite. All of these features of the emerging new state were in place before the Civil War.''

Thanks for the quotes.

I mentioned the objective factors, so has many pieces of anarchist literature i've read. Funny how many Trotskyists won't stop banging on about the objective factors and not look at the inherent ideas of Bolshevism or excuse out of hand or twist facts to fit the specfic 'party line'.

Also I don't believe in the 'great man' view of the Russian Revolution or any part of history, I use Lenin and Trotsky as they were the most prominant thinkers and activists in the Bolsehvik party post 1917.

So all the rest I said in regards to the Bolsheviks wasen't of importance? Please, my posts arn't that bad that you just look at one sentence in it . How about the fact I have recognised a few times in many of my posts that Lenin and Trotsky did achieve some good things in Russia and objective factors were important in many of the things they did. What about the fact that regardless of objective factors, the ideological facts still stand- check out the pamphlet http://libcom.org/library/beyond-kronstadt. Or for the internal crackdown on Bolshevik dissidents see http://libcom.org/library/lenins-terror-bolshevik-party-maximov (surely this was not motivated in large part by objective factors, more ideology?) Maybe you have read these already, i'd recommend the first one, I found it a good intro.

And please enlighten me as to how Lenin's understanding of international revolution changes a large amount of what he ('they') did? Sure the lack of/ failure of other revolutions to occur in other countrys in the post 1917 period can be a factor in the degeneration of Russia, but does this change the basic precents of the Bolshevik ideology? On the note of revolution, I belive that the Bolsheviks were not the main instigators the revolution, nor where they the 'controllers' of it.