New words…

• Bolshevik – communist political party, its leader is Lenin.

• Proletariat – the social class of the workers. Those who earn a living through manual labour.

• Bourgeoisie - wage earning class, this class is known as the middle class.

• Menshevik – opposition to the Bolshevik party. • Marxism - the system of economic and political

thought developed by Karl Marx. Based on classless society.

What kind of person was Lenin?

• More than ever, Lenin struck me as a happy man. I tried to think of any other man of his calibre who had had a similar joyous temperament. I could think of none. This little, bald-headed, wrinkled man, who tilts his chair this way and that, laughing over one thing or another, ready any minute to give serious advice to any who interrupt him to ask for it, every one of his wrinkles is a wrinkle of laughter, not of worry. I think the reason must be that he is the first great leader who utterly discounts the value of his own personality. He is quite without personal ambition. More than that, he believes, as a Marxist, in the movement of the masses which, with or without him, would still move. He does not believe that any man could make or stop the revolution which he thinks inevitable. If the Russian revolution fails, according to him, it fails only temporarily, and because of forces beyond any man's control. It is not so much what he says that inspires confidence in him. He is, for himself at any rate, the representative, not the cause, of the events that will be for ever linked with his name.

1893 - Becomes active in Marxist study group. Moves to St. Petersburg in September.

April 1870 – Vladimir Lenin is born

1887 - Lenin enrolls at University. He is arrested for participating in student protests and is expelled.

1895 - Journeys to Europe to meet European and exiled Russian revolutionaries.

1892 Gains license to practice law.

1912 January Bolsheviks establish themselves as an independent political party.

1917 October. The Soviet government is formed, with Lenin as Chairman.

1924 January 21 Lenin dies from fourth stroke

1918 January Lenin dissolves Constituent Assembly

How did Communism change Russia?

Titles and ranks have been dropped.

Houses have been taken from their rich owners and shared among the workers.

Women are equal to men.

The workers have been told to take control of their factories and to run them by committee.

The state has taken control of the banks.

The peasants have been told to share out the land between themselves. All newspapers

except communist ones are banned.

No political parties are allowed, except the communist party.

People who were powerful and rich before the revolution are now known as ‘former people’. The wealth of these people has been confiscated by the state. ‘Former people’ cannot work so they have been forced to sell their belongings to pay for food.

Questions

• 1) How do you think the peasants (the proletariat) would react to these ideas?

• 2)How do you think the middle class (the bourgeoisie) would react to the ideas?

• 3)Why might the communist party (the Bolsheviks) not allow newspapers?

• 4) What message does the phrase, ‘former people’ convey?

• 5) In your own point of view, do you think communism would improve Russia or weaken it? Write about how communism would affect the economic, social and political situation in Russia?