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April 22: A Tribute to L

By       (Page 1 of 3 pages)   2 comments
Message Mark Sashine
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In   the Communist Russia April 22 was a day of the Communist Labor. On that day   people would come to work and clean their desks,   plant trees and flowers, repair   roads, etc.   There were songs   and drinks and   numerous reproductions of the old painting depicting    the first Communist Labor day in 1918. On that painting a small man was helping to carry a log.   Everyone in Russia knew who was that small   man.    In fact everyone in the world knew him.   Lenin. Vladimir Ilyich   Ulyanov- Lenin was born on April 22, 1870 and died   on January   6, 1924.    He was only 54 when he died.   Same age as Napoleon Bonaparte. And as Napoleon was the most famous man in the 19th Century Lenin by far was the most famous man in the 20th Century. He was a towering figure whose influence     and the consequences of whose deeds   practically defined   the life and death of millions of people, laid   the course of history and profoundly changed the human perception   about   many fundamental things in   life.   Lenin was and is one of those people whom you can either totally love or totally hate; there is   nothing   in between. That is why   it is so   disgusting to   watch the attitude to Lenin   demonstrated in abundance by the   predominantly Western pseudo-historians ( currently Russian too) who spend most of their unfortunate   efforts   not to somehow   assess Lenin but to denigrate him as a personality, to smear his greatness, to spread ugly and stupid rumors down to total   dirty pornography. I remember   reading   a   novel(!) by one American writer   in which an American secret agent travels incognito with Lenin on the train and Lenin there is just a dwarfish, constantly drinking bastard spewing obscenities.    I guess the author modeled Lenin   through   himself.

 

We take from history not ashes but     fire. These    words by Jean Jourice     exactly are applicable to the life of Lenin and, obviously     here I cannot reflect on all of   it. But   as in the symphony several key   points   can reflect the greatness     of the opus   the trends in the Lenin's character reveal themselves in his   key deeds.

 

Vladimir Ilyich means "Vladimir, son of Ilya'.   Ilya was his father.   In Russia as well as in other Christian Orthodox countries it is common to use a patrimonial when addressing an adult person as   a sign   of respect.   Ilya Nikolaevich   Ulyanov   belonged to the ancient indigenous tribe by origin and as baptized,   young   capable boy got a very good education and forever became a person working in that field.   By   the time Volodya was born   (his mother was a daughter of the local doctor), the 4th child in the family (totally 5- three sons and two daughters) Ilya Nikolaevich was already a civil general, inspector of the people's schools and   was granted a nobility by the Tzar for him and his family. Unfortunately   he died rather early and that early death   was a big blow to all in the family.

 

Volodya was a gifted young man (the whole family was). He graduated from the classical gymnasium as a valedictorian, with a golden medal. His older brother Alexander whom Volodya dearly loved graduated earlier   and entered the University. There he got involved   with the radical group and plotted to kill the Tzar. The plot was discovered and Alexander   Ulyanov was   executed for the conspiracy to commit murder.   That execution in no way prevented Vladimir from receiving the golden medal.   One can only guess what happened in him those days but it is true that he   started his path of the revolutionary Marxist   somewhere at that time.   He entered the Kazan University, then transferred to St. Petersburg   where   he   apparently instead of a regular coursework passed a set of special exams and was granted a degree in law, summa cum laud. That's when he demonstrated an extraordinary memory, capability to study languages (he knew French, English, German and  Latin; his Russian was impeccable) and unbelievable   stamina   at work. Lenin worked diligently   all his life, and aside of his political   activities wrote about 50 volumes of philosophical   books including several really significant   such as "Karl Marx' and' Materialism and Empiriocritism'- the ones establishing   the totally new step in Marxism, lately called Leninism.   Whenever I now look through the books of the current so-called theorists of the capitalism and compare their writings to the   brilliant   Lenin's style I can't help laughing at those pygmies who should   better return to the monkey state where they belong.

It was at that time when he   chose a pen-name Lenin, coming from the river Lena in Russia where   Lenskiy rasstrel (Lena massacre) happened; the Tzar's police together with the private   security   detail shot at   the demonstrating strikers and killed   a lot of people. That's how he started.

 

  Serious historians know that a person in history is judged by the level of the subjective concentrated effort    in the achievement of the goal chosen. Lenin had decided to     destroy   the pseudo-feudal   Tzarist regime   and he accomplished that task during his lifetime.   In 34 years of the active duty he organized a   revolutionary party, became its leader, introduced that party and its philosophy to Russia,   successfully   spread it and gained millions of supporters, overcame   the odds of biblical proportions    to survive, went through two revolutions before   orchestrating a socialist one, formed the first in history socialist/communist government, won the most bloody Civil War, survived an assassination attempt (two bullets at close range) and died   from the consequences of that attempt 6 years after.   No man in   the   history of the 20th Century   can boast such a life and such an achievement and    if we want to    name a genius- here he is, the most    well-known statesman produced by   the mankind.

 

I am not here to trace a biography but rather to emphasize the specific trends in him and his character which   proved beyond any reasonable doubt the   remarkable level of his personality. I already mentioned his working abilities. Two other outstanding qualities of his character were profound empathy and total lack of hypocrisy and malice.

Empathy, the ability to express and exercise a sincere interest   in   every person you encounter   was    a part of his character, not   some kind of a skill of a politician. Practically all people who somehow encountered him mentioned    the feeling of extraordinary comfort in communication with him, the feeling of "simplicity in discussion, freedom of mutual contact, no tension, no defensive posturing, pure and genuine goodwill.' That's a manifestation of the   natural empathy. Such people are extremely rare. Gandhi was like that     and   Mother Teresa. Mandela is like that. NONE of the current politicos are even close and     their false empathy-pretending just reveal    the unfortunate vices   Lenin never had -- hypocrisy and malice.

Lenin was   a     practical and ruthless politician. He was a man of action   personified,    fast and deadly in his decisions, capable of using power   in all its might, extremely straightforward and goal- oriented. But    again and again we can understand from the documents that he never deliberately     lied, never avenged mercilessly just for     not agreeing   with   him, never exercised personal malicious vendettas and never   basked himself in cheap hypocrisy.   In    1918 during the fateful Brest- Litovsk   negotiations with the German army Lenin fiercely fought with his own people for   what they called "a peace of treason'- the peace treaty which gave the Germans   a lot of territories in   the Western Russia. They were brutal and he still won but none of them     suffered any   bad feelings from him.   When his government proclaimed the right of   self-determination of the nations and Finland, former Russian Province   voted to secede and become independent Lenin put all his authority on the   line to   grant the Finland's request. He did not allow hypocrisy to rule the day; the word was the word and   the   Communist government granted Finnish independence. I am wondering if the    US government could do such a thing.   And as about putting all   your career on the line in the US Congress- forget it!

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The writer is 67 years old, semi- retired engineer, PhD, PE. I write fiction on a regular basis and I am also 10 years on OEN.

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