Ronald lee clark biography books

A “nobleman by birth,” young Lenin was an introvert and a prize pupil with laser like concentration. He set himself upon a revolutionary path after his older brother was executed by the Tsarist regime for his own revolutionary aims. He became an atheist, and with Marx as his lodestone, a strict interpretation of socialism became his driving force. After obtaining a law degree, he was banished to Siberia for a few productive years before moving to Europe, where he lived a bourgeoisie life working essentially as a pamphleteer and professional revolutionary supported by family money and donations from wealthy socialists like Maxim Gorky. He and his wife Krupskaya even employed housekeepers, but that’s not to say Lenin didn’t work hard. His commitment to Marxism was evangelical, and he toiled tirelessly in its service, mostly through writing and lecturing like a professor, which is essentially what he was at the time. To call his writing voluminous would be understatement, and he must have written and published more than any other head of state in world history. But he never worked with hammer or sickle, nor did he ever throw a rock or take a bruise from a Billy club. The Russian Revolution was more than half over before Lenin returned from his long European residence, but he was given a hero’s welcome and he and his Bolsheviks rose quickly to power.

Then came the Red Terror and Lenin is revealed as ice cold to human suffering and ruthlessly brutal. When it came to wealthy peasants, priests, and landowners, Lenin could be downright bloodthirsty, as documented in his own written orders of mass murder of these groups. Indeed, Lenin was fairly open and honest about inflicting atrocity, and it became part of the socialist playbook. Stalin was certainly worse, but as the author makes clear, Lenin paved the way.

Lenin was shot in an assassination attempt by a woman - a fellow socialist who opposed his non-representative dictatorship. He survived but was plagued with ill health from then on. He was already a cult of personality before he died, but with death came a mystique and legend that would span the globe for generations. He boasts a long line of disciples, including a legion of contemporary Marxist professors.

Since a biography of Lenin must also be a summary of the Russian Revolution, authors who tackle the subject have their work cut out for them. Clark does an admirable job condensing some very dense history into a manageable package and he isolates and expands on the qualities that made Lenin successful.