Stalin was the authoritarian, Lenin was more of a leftist who aimed to empower the working class and had a relatively more democratic and pragmatic point of view compared to Stalin. Lenin actually warned people about Stalin and advocated that he be removed from power.
Not that I don’t have major issues with Lenin’s approach as well, but it was far better than Stalin and I believe he meant well at least.
Lenin complained in his letters that[29] his bureaucratic “apparatus has already become gigantic — in some places excessively so — and under such conditions a “personal dictatorship” is entirely unrealizable and attempts to realize it would only be harmful.”[31] Loginov explains that Lenin attempted to compensate this “lack of real power” with either with “abundance of decrees” or “simply with strong words.”[29]
The Bolsheviks also used terror as a means to dissuade unrest. On August 20, 1918 Lenin wrote to Nikolai Semashko, ‘I congratulate you on your energetic suppression of the kulaks and White Guards in the district. We must strike while the iron’s hot and not lose a minute, organize the poor of the district, confiscate all the grain and all the property of the rebellious kulaks, hang the kulak ringleaders, mobilize and arm the poor under reliable leaders out of our own unit, arrest hostages from among the wealthy and hold them.’[32]
Interesting I’ll look more into that. Admittedly I don’t have a super deep understanding of all the intricacies of that era and must have got some bad information.
It was over a century ago and pretty much the only people who talk about him still are his worshippers.
But as a general rule of thumb:
Anyone that says they’re a socialist/communist while living in a palace and ordering their followers to mob up and kill people for disagreeing with their leader…
I’m glad you’re out here correcting people. I’m definitely a layman, but as I see it the entire concept of the Vanguard is immediately antithetical to communism, so I think Leninism is at best a bastardization of Marxist communism. Again, at least as far as my very uneducated opinion goes based on my understanding
You might be confusing Lenin with Stalin.
Stalin was the authoritarian, Lenin was more of a leftist who aimed to empower the working class and had a relatively more democratic and pragmatic point of view compared to Stalin. Lenin actually warned people about Stalin and advocated that he be removed from power.
Not that I don’t have major issues with Lenin’s approach as well, but it was far better than Stalin and I believe he meant well at least.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_Terror
Lenin wanted to be an authortarian and publicly complained his followers weren’t mobbing up to kill more people he politically disagreed with…
So yeah, I stand by my comment.
Lenin intentionally set the stage for Stalin, but would have done worse if he had the following.
Interesting I’ll look more into that. Admittedly I don’t have a super deep understanding of all the intricacies of that era and must have got some bad information.
No worries.
It was over a century ago and pretty much the only people who talk about him still are his worshippers.
But as a general rule of thumb:
Anyone that says they’re a socialist/communist while living in a palace and ordering their followers to mob up and kill people for disagreeing with their leader…
They’re really a far right authoritarian
I’m glad you’re out here correcting people. I’m definitely a layman, but as I see it the entire concept of the Vanguard is immediately antithetical to communism, so I think Leninism is at best a bastardization of Marxist communism. Again, at least as far as my very uneducated opinion goes based on my understanding