Lenin And Stalin Ideology Essays - Marxist Theorists, Old Bolsheviks

Lenin And Stalin Ideology Compare and contrast the ideologies and the political and economic practice of Lenin and Stalin. Every state is based upon and driven by some ideology. Imperial Russia was based upon autocratic absolutism for over 400 years. Following the Bolshevik seizure of power in 1917, a new era dawned upon Russia. For the next 36 years she would be in the hands of two men that would attempt to apply a new, vastly different creed in ruling and transforming this country. Vladimir Ilich Lenin, as the leader of the Bolshevik party, ruled Russia from October 1917 till his death in January 1924. He was succeeded by Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin, who also ruled until his death in March 1953. Both men claimed to ascribe to the broad ideology of Socialism and Marxism; both were to develop their own versions later to be called Leninism and Stalinism; both were to attempt to practically apply their respective ideologies whilst attempting to deal with a plethora of prevailing conditions such as internal resistance and civil war, economic collapse and foreign invasion. This paper will examine the simil arities and differences between both the ideologies, and the actual economic and political practice, of Lenin and Stalins beliefs. A significant historiographical issue to be aware of in the comparison of Lenin and Stalin is that between the two, Lenin was by far the greater political theorist and ideologue and yet had much less effective time, 6 years, to put his ideas into practice . Stalin on the other hand, was much more a man of action who produced comparatively far less written material, but who exercised his power for almost 30 years. Also Lenin had the unique opportunity to oversee the installation of a new order from scratch whereas Stalin came to power with the foundations of the new state already laid and therefore had the responsibility of continuing the work already begun. As such any comparison then, will be somewhat uneven as we will compare not only actions to actions, but in Stalins case, his actions to Lenins theory as well as to speculation, as to what Lenin may have done in practice, if he had lived longer. The main aspects of Lenins ideology were outlined in a number of written works, the most important of these were: What Is To Be Done (1902) and The State and Revolution (1917). In What Is To Be Done? Lenin presented the idea that although the Russian peasantry was a potential revolutionary force, it was not capable of developing a revolutionary consciousness of its own. Marx had regarded revolutionary class consciousness to be the natural and spontaneous product of the life experience of the working class . Lenin, by contrast, concluded that class political consciousness can be brought only from the outside. Without the assistance of the revolutionary intelligentsia, he argued, the working class could only develop a trade-union consciousness . Lenins solution was a revolutionary vanguard party that would come not from the peasantry or proletariat, but from the bourgeoisie and be composed of mainly middle class intellectuals. (Strangely enough he seemed to fit this criteria quite snuggly!) This party, he postulated, would have to be a small, closely knit, highly centralized, highly disciplined, conspiratorial and quasi-military organization of professional revolutionaries. It would have to be a fighting organization composed of men totally dedicated to the destruction of the old and the establishment of a new social order . Lenin said, Give us an organization of revolutionaries, and we will turn Russia upside down! Also amongst the core principles of Lenins vanguard party would be the use of violence as an instrument of policy. Lenin stipulated the need for smashing and destroying the bourgeois state and was not shy in saying in reference to class enemies (a term applied to priests, Imperial Army officers, large and small businessmen, landowners and anyone else who opposed his brand of socialism), that one has to beat their heads in without mercy. In this respect especially, as will be shown, Stalin was to be in complete concordance with Lenin. The aspect of Lenins ideology, from which Stalin was to later most significantly differ and diverge from, was that regarding international socialist revolution. In