Lenin, Vladimir Ilich

Average customer rating:

The Elementary Texts of Structuralist Marxism
One of the best!

Lenin and Philosophy and Other Essays
Louis Althusser , and Fredric Jameson
Manufacturer: Monthly Review Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Philosophy | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

Political | Philosophy | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

History & Theory | Politics | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

French | Foreign Language Nonfiction | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

Look Inside Nonfiction Books | Trip | Specialty Stores | Books

Nonfiction | French | Foreign Language Books | Specialty Stores | Books

All French Books | French | Foreign Language Books | Specialty Stores | Books
Similar Items:

For Marx (Radical Thinkers) (Radical Thinkers)
Selections from the Prison Notebooks
Reading Capital (The Verso Classics Series)
Postmodernism, or, The Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism (Post-Contemporary Interventions)
Dialectic of Enlightenment (Cultural Memory in the Present)

ASIN: 1583670394
Release Date: 2001-11-13

Book Description

No figure among the western Marxist theoreticians has loomed larger in the postwar period than Louis Althusser. A rebel against the Catholic tradition in which he was raised, Althusser studied philosophy and later joined both the faculty of the Ecole normal superieure and the French Communist Party in 1948. Viewed as a "structuralist Marxist," Althusser was as much admired for his independence of intellect as he was for his rigorous defense of Marx. The latter was best illustrated in For Marx (1965), and Reading Capital (1968). These works, along with Lenin and Philosophy (1971) had an enormous influence on the New Left of the 1960s and continues to influence modern Marxist scholarship.

This classic work, which to date has sold more than 30,000 copies, covers the range of Louis Althusser's interests and contributions in philosophy, economics, psychology, aesthetics, and political science.

Marx, in Althusser's view, was subject in his earlier writings to the ruling ideology of his day. Thus for Althusser, the interpretation of Marx involves a repudiation of all efforts to draw from Marx's early writings a view of Marx as a "humanist" and "historicist."

Lenin and Philosophy also contains Althusser's essay on Lenin's study of Hegel; a major essay on the state, "Ideology and Ideological State Apparatuses," "Freud and Lacan: A letter on Art in Reply to André Daspre," and "Cremonini, Painter of the Abstract." The book opens with a 1968 interview in which Althusser discusses his personal, political, and intellectual history.

Customer Reviews:

The Elementary Texts of Structuralist Marxism.......2005-10-07

Louis Althusser was the chief theorist of the French Communist Party (PCF). His life tarnished by its tragic ending (confined to an institute after murdering his wife) and by the common misconception of his lifework as a sort of Stalinist apologetics, Althusser is nevertheless a towering figure in 20th century intellectual life.

This collection includes some of his most essential essays and articles, in addition to a wonderful interview. It is in these writings that Althusser presents his key contributions to Marxist philosophy, critical theory, and psychoanalysis, astutely working to:

(1) demonstrate that Marxism is not a philosophy, but rather the "scientific," historical, and politico-economic theorization of all philosophy,

(2) separate the early, humanistic Marx from the late, Marxist Marx,

(3) problematize the superstructure and introduce the notion of ideological state aparatuses (ISAs) to explain how we are "born into" ideology just as we are "born into" language, and,

(4) promote the Lacanian school of psychoanalysis as radical and liberating (vs. the reactionary psychoanalysis of the "Freudian" mainstream).

Althusser's writing style, though dense (and always polemical), is made lucid by the translations. Anyone who appreciates Lacan (as I do) should be grateful to Althusser for the second to last article "Freud and Lacan." Despite the fact that Althusser totally misunderstood Lacan, it was the former's article which turned the intellectual spotlight on the latter. Had it not been for Althusser, Woman might exist after all!

One of the best!.......2002-04-30

This is an excellent text if you are interested in having your reality turned on its head. I have used this reference in almost every paper I have written since beginning my path down the winding road of critical theory. I recommend it to anyone who thinks about why we think the way we do, anyone interested in hegemony, and anyone who thinks something is wrong with our world but s/he feels s/he just can't put a finger on what it is. This is a foundational text for anyone studying literary theory or philosophy. It contains the famous I.S.A. essay, a must read for anyone who functions metacognitively!

Average customer rating:

Almost flawless.
A Book No Historian Can Be Without
Fatally Flawed
Pipes gives it to you piping hot!
Great read as usual for Pipes

Russia Under The Bolshevik Regime
Richard Pipes
Manufacturer: Knopf
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Japan | Asia | History | Subjects | Books

Russia | History | Subjects | Books

Eastern Europe | Europe | History | Subjects | Books

Russia | Europe | History | Subjects | Books

Look Inside History Books | Trip | Specialty Stores | Books
Similar Items:

The Russian Revolution
Russia under the Old Regime: Second Edition (Penguin History)
A People's Tragedy: The Russian Revolution: 1891-1924
Three " Whys" of the Russian Revolution
A Concise History of the Russian Revolution

ASIN: 0394502426
Release Date: 1994-03-15

Customer Reviews:

Almost flawless........2003-02-22

This is an extraordinary book. It is an extremely important companion to Conquest's "The Great Terror", for it sets the table. And what a feast it is. Many of the people reading this will have grown up like I did in a cold war household. In those days, in Canada anyway, I actually had friends who ardently espoused communism. Who extolled Lenin and even Stalin. Who saw the western democracies as weak, rotten to the core and on their last legs. We all knew people like that.

It was the western media, more than anything else that we had to thank for that. It was dominated by leftists, many of them (as hard as this is the believe) actually in the pay of, or beholden to, Russia. Those who weren't were hopelessly and wilfully blind. For me, one of the greatest mysteries of the 20th Century was how so many people came to be so thoroughly duped by a murderous gang of thugs who had hijacked the Russian people and sought to take over the world. How was it possible? Pipes tells this story.

And he pulls no punches. He comes from the Thucydidean school of history. He is absolutely unafraid to pass judgement. The first part of the book covers the Russian Civil war from 1918 - 1920. This strange, complex struggle still has yet to have a book length study devoted to it. But Pipes provides the reader with more than enough.

Like Conquest, Pipes is at pains to point out that there was nothing at all organic about the Russian Revolution. It was more of a coup d'etat, stage managed by a tiny cadre of Bolsheviks who had the army on their side. The workers and the peasants, and this is CRUCIAL for our understanding of what happened, had literally NOTHING to do with it.

Once Lenin and his gang were in control (and I use the term "gang" advisedly because they behaved and operated very like a criminal gang), they turned their attention to the rest of the world. They actually believed that their "revolution" was to be followed by a world revolution - which they would supervise. Pipes chapter entitled "Communism for Export" will have you shaking your head in disbelief.

The Russians knew they couldn't control what was written about them unless they controlled WHO did the writing. They did this by refusing the major press agencies access to Russia until Moscow had approved the journalist. The Sunday Times famously stood up to this bullying for decades. Not the New York Times. They sent a pre-approved journalist by the name of Walter Duranty. Ironically, Duranty was an out spoken anti-Communist. But he quickly realised that if he wrote what the Russians wanted, he would have access to inside information - with that would come influence and fame. Better yet for Duranty, he very early on identified Stalin as Lenin's likely successor (at a time which this was not at ALL obvious). He began to eulogise Stalin. He praised collectivisation, denied the Ukrainian famine - and resorted to lie upon lie upon lie. Such was the credulity of the western public and press that he was rewarded for his infamy with the Pulitzer Prize.

He was not alone. Muggeridge reports that all the correspondents voluntarily took their wire stories to the censors to be censored. John Reed, virtually canonised by the movie Reds (a movie which is in and of itself largely a shocking lie), was nothing more than a fellow-traveller blind to every excess of the Bolsheviks. The portrait of him in these pages will have your blood boiling. Randolph Hearst in a signed editorial in 1918 described Lenin's regime as the "truest democracy in Europe."

The point needs to be made bluntly. All of these journalists and fellow travellers have blood on their hands. Had the world stood up to first Lenin and later Stalin, millions, COUNTLESS millions could have been saved.

I have so little room to extol this book. I can only hope that my enthusiasm will in some way prove infectious and draw you to read it. I have focused on one aspect of this book. There is so much more. For example. Pipes makes persuasive case that Communism, Fascism and National Socialism have common roots. That Russian communism was eerily similar to Tsarism (only the Tsarists were more compassionate!)

Very importantly, Lenin comes in for the thrashing that he has so richly deserved all these long years. This zealot has escaped scrutiny for decades - largely because what came after him was so nightmarish. People for some reason like to think of Lenin as a benign philosopher - idealistic and pure - whose dreams were shattered by the evil that was to follow. Nothing, and I mean NOTHING could be farther from the truth. He was a murderer, a mass murderer, just like Stalin. The only difference was one of scale. The fact was that Lenin hated democracy - stamped it out - built a totalitarian dictatorship - and paved the way for one of the greatest monsters of all time. And it is small solace to know that Lenin and his gang of thugs reaped what they sowed. That years later Stalin would literally exterminate them with their own weapons.

Read this Book. It is one of the most important books about the 20th Century you will ever read - and it is filled with lessons that we must take to heart. We CAN learn from history. History teaches us to see patterns - it helps us to avoid repeating the mistakes of the past.

A Book No Historian Can Be Without.......2001-09-20

This is definitely one book that sheds light on the early years of Lenin's regime. This book covers many different aspects of the early regime, from the trials of the civil war to the regime's early attempts to spread communism across the western world. Other aspects included the early education programs of the regime and the government bureaucracy that grew like wildfire. The main time frame of this book is from just after the revolution to about the time of Lenin's death, although many topics extend into the 1930s. One can also pick out the topics that were obvious problems in the early 1920s, yet were still present upon the regime's demise in 1991.

Richard Pipes does an excellent job of providing the reader with a comprehensive view of the early regime - few topics go untouched. More importantly, this book is based on a large amount of factual, documented information, some of which has been made available by the recently opened archives in Russia.

This is one of the most authoritative books I have read about the Soviet Union. In the words of the person who recommended it to me - "You'll understand nothing about the Soviet Union if you haven't read this book."

Fatally Flawed.......2001-04-27

The second volume of Richard Pipes' history of the Russian Revolution shares many of the flaws as the first volume: a refusal to contemplate much recent scholarship, a correspondingly shallow sociological framework, and a complete lack of sympathy not merely for the Bolsheviks, but for the Russians as a whole. Only when they serve as victims of the Bolsheviks does Pipes profess any sympathy. Pipes devotes a whole chapter to Lenin's vicious persecution of religion. Yet one cannot forget Pipes' own comment in Russia Under the Old Regime that Russian Orthodoxy was the most sycophantic and callous of the Christian churches.

In discussing this book's weaknesses, three come to mind most strongly. The first is Pipes' explanation of the Civil War. According to Pipes although the Bolsheviks had virtually no popularity they were able to maintain control of Russia because they were fortunately centered in the heartlands of Russia's industrial might. With this centre under control they were able to conquer the rest of what would become the Soviet Union, which they did with appalling cruelty. Indeed, Pipes goes on to sneer at the Bolsheviks for taking so long and at Trotsky's skill as a military commander. But this is clearly flawed. After all, Mao Tse-Tung, Ho Chi Minh, Fidel Castro and no doubt many others had been heavily outnumbered and outgunned. Yet they still managed to triumph and win. The Whites were never able to create their own Yenan. Despite mass poverty, famine and economic collapse within the Red zone, they were never able to create a real war economy in their own areas and appeal to the rest of the country. The simple fact was that the Whites were too autocratic and dictatorial to mobilize the popular support they needed to win. Reading Jon Smele's monograph on the fate of Admiral Kolchak brings out their own cruelty and incompetence. Likewise Geoffrey Swain has lucidly argued that the anti-Bolshevik cause suffered a fatal defeat when the populist SRs were betrayed by the quasi-monarchist whites. I'm also not pleased at Pipes' treatment of atrocities. Pipes of course agrees that they were responsible for most of the pogroms committed against Jews. But one should point out that they could be quite vicious against Gentiles as well. And as one might expect from a Commentary contributor Pipes tries to show Woodrow Wilson as unduly soft-hearted and sympathetic towards the Reds. One should read David Foglesong's book on American intervention to find out what really happened.

Second, as a Polish refugee from the Nazi-Soviet pact, Pipes want to show as much as possible the identity of the two dictatorships, and how Leninism was the key inspiration of later totalitarian regimes. The key flaw in Pipes's approach is his tendentious and partial use of the literature. He relies on conservative scholars like Renzo De Felice, Ernest Nolte and James Gregor to help argue, among other things, that Mussolini was in many ways a socialist. By contrast Adrian Lyttleton's seminal work on the Fascist dictatorship and Denis Mack Smith's portrayal of Mussolini's breathtaking opportunism go by completely unmentioned. In order to emphasize Hitler's radicalism he often cites Herman Rauschning's "memoirs," yet recent scholars find him unreliable and inaccurate. Ian Kershaw's recent biography of Hitler does not cite him at all, and in turn Pipes ignores Kershaw's invaluable The Nazi Dictatorship. Pipes also relies heavily on David Schoenbaum's Hitler's Social Revolution, yet he makes no mention of the many scholars who have heavily qualified Schoenbaum's argument that there was one. Finally, Pipes quotes Domenico Settimbrini's suggestion that if Russia had been neutral in 1914, Lenin would have been as "interventionist" and militarist as Mussolini was in successfully agitating against Italian neutrality. In response one should point out that if Russia had been neutral in 1914, there would not have been a world war and there would have been no war for Lenin to intervene in. Second, if Lenin had supported intervention he would no doubt have been treated by Pipes with much more indulgence.

Finally, I can't help but object to Pipes's counter-revolutionary sententiousness. How else can one explain such fatuous statements that in Marxism, "social antagonism was for the first time accorded moral legitimacy: hatred...was made into a virtue." This incidentally occurs in a chapter where Pipes, while ostentatiously asserting the identity of right and left "extremism," cites against the Jacobins Pierre Gaxotte, anti-semite, member of Action Francaise, and Vichy's official historian of the French Revolution. And really one must object to Pipes quote of Karl Popper on the final page: "Everyone has the right to sacrifice himself for a cause he deems deserving. No one has the right to sacrifice others or to encite others to sacrifice themselves for an ideal." Is it too much to point out that Pipes and Popper cannot believe this? For a start it would forbid conscription, while "encitement" is an inseparable part of democratic debate. And from El Salvador to Palestine to Vietnam there has no been end of sacrifices the men of Commentary and Encounter have demanded from desperately poor and miserable people. Pipes' reputation reflects less on his skill as a historian than on the lock step mentality of conservative journals, and the unwillingness of the New Yorker and the New York Review of Books to challenge them. One should really turn instead to Catherine Merridale's recent work on Russian mourning and upcoming work by Lars Lih.

Pipes gives it to you piping hot!.......2001-01-18

Another fine book from the master himself. Mr. Pipes understands Eastern Europe as few others do, and tells us exactly what happened.

Great read as usual for Pipes.......2000-06-25

Having just read Richard Pipes' trilogy on the buildup and development of the Russian Revolution, I highly recommend them all and thoroughly enjoyed this closing edition. I certainly hope that Mr. Pipes continues the series into the Stalin era at some point.

Average customer rating:

Inaccurate and biased
Account of Lenin using his own words

Lenin: Profiles in Power Series
Beryl Williams
Manufacturer: Longman
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books

General | Historical | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books

Political | Leaders & Notable People | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books

Presidents & Heads of State | Leaders & Notable People | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books

Japan | Asia | History | Subjects | Books

General | Europe | History | Subjects | Books

Eastern Europe | Europe | History | Subjects | Books

Russia | Europe | History | Subjects | Books

Russia | History | Subjects | Books

General | World | History | Subjects | Books

Look Inside Biographies | Trip | Specialty Stores | Books
Similar Items:

A Radical Worker in Tsarist Russia: The Autobiography of Semen Ivanovich Kanatchikov
Memoirs of a Revolutionist
Village Life in Late Tsarist Russia (Indiana-Michigan Series in Russian and East European Studies)
Napoleon (Profiles in Power)
Hitler.

ASIN: 0582437601

Book Description

Lenin, from the October Revolution to the U.S.S.R. <UL><LI> Lenin's life and thoughts and the importance of ideology in both. </LI><LI> The cultural revolution is examined. </LI><LI> Explores Lenin's cult and the re-evaluation of his legacy. </LI></UL> Beryl William's Lenin is a clear and interesting introduction to the life, ideology and impact of Lenin, one of the formative figures of he twentieth-century. Lenin provides an excellent introduction to Lenin and his role in the Russian Revolution and provides an objective account of his years in power between 1917 and 1924. The author has written in light of new documents made available since the Gorbachev era and the end of the Soviet Union. Lenin provides as up-to-date evaluation of Lenin's life and thoughts and the importance of ideology in both, the cultural revolution, Lenin's foreign policy and expansionism and Lenin's cult and the re-evaluation of his legacy that has taken place during the last decade. Lenin is a study of his life and work in the context of the period and like other titles in the Profiles in Power series, it is not a biography, though inevitably it contains much biographical material, it instead analyzes the major features, achievements and failures of Lenin's career.

Customer Reviews:

Inaccurate and biased.......2005-06-08

The author makes more of an argument for hating Lenin than explaining his life, which makes the book into a long essay instead of a short biography.

The first few chapters are a fairly good explanation of Lenin as a youngster and how certain events may have influenced his ideological choices. The problem is, when arguing her point, Williams chooses to use a lot of speculation instead of fact.

The second half of the book blames the downfalls of the Revolution, the civil war, famine, disease, and every other obstacle in Russia on Lenin. It is argued that the main betrayal of the revolution lies in the fact that Lenin is a power-hungry man who will not compromise with anybody despite their position or knowledge. He also is sponsering terrorism and randomly shooting his own citizens for various reasons (strikes, being middle/upper class), and sometimes just for intimidation. Even if all the atrocities are true, and every decision did come directly from Lenin, she still does not explain his reasoning for doing so. More importantly, she did not answer the question, "Why did Lenin commit these horrible atrocities if he fought his whole life to make a better society?" Why would he randomly kill peasants while trying to elevate their position in society? Everything definately does not fit together by the end of this book. One is left feeling hatred for Lenin and his ideals. She does make him out to be a complete psychopath who is jaded by his brother's execution at the hands of the czar, and desperately wants revenge on everyone in Russia.

I could go on about how bad this book is, but I think you get the picture. If you are looking to argue with friends and colleagues about why Lenin is the first terrorist and the worst leader ever, still don't get this book. This book provides a very weak argument. On the back cover this book sounds as if you can make your own choice at the end, but Beryl Williams tries to make up your mind for you the whole book with some of the most idiotic arguments ever!

Account of Lenin using his own words.......2003-11-18

After a brief intro about Lenin's early years, Williams covers Lenin from the time he joined the ranks of other Russian political revolutionaries to his death. The emphasis is on his actions in acquiring and maintaining power in the swirl of competing political leftist parties before and during the revolution, and his later actions with regard to keeping the reins of national political control following the revolution. In the context of this narrative, he discusses Lenin's views on politics, ideology, and policy during the different time periods covered in the book. The quotes from Lenin reveal a man concerned with power. Williams shows how Lenin's orders and actions left a legacy of justifications for killing people and destroying entire families and villages in the name of the "party" or the "revolution." He demonstrates in Lenin's own words the link from Lenin to Stalin.

Lenin's Last Struggle (Ann Arbor Paperbacks for the Study of Russian and Soviet History and Politics)

Average customer rating:

Succeeds in its purpose, but not much more

Lenin's Last Struggle (Ann Arbor Paperbacks for the Study of Russian and Soviet History and Politics)
Moshe Lewin
Manufacturer: University of Michigan Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books

Presidents & Heads of State | Leaders & Notable People | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books

Japan | Asia | History | Subjects | Books

General | Europe | History | Subjects | Books

Russia | History | Subjects | Books

Look Inside Biographies | Trip | Specialty Stores | Books

Qualifying Textbooks - Spring 2007 | Stores | Books
Similar Items:

The Structure of Soviet History: Essays and Documents
Conversations with Stalin
The Soviet Experiment: Russia, The USSR, and the Successor States
Russia's Unfinished Revolution: Political Change from Gorbachev to Putin
Journey into the Whirlwind (Helen and Kurt Wolff Books)

ASIN: 0472030523

Customer Reviews:

Succeeds in its purpose, but not much more.......2006-06-15

"Lenin's Last Struggle" is basically an overview of Lenin's opinions and views on a great variety of policy matters in the period from the Revolution to his death, as portrayed by the Soviet historian Moshe Lewin. Lewin has a tendency to be too positive about Lenin (at least in a moral kind of estimation) than is perhaps warranted, and that goes for this book as well, but it is fortunately not uncritical. The overview of Lenin's views itself is excellent and his contrasting of Lenin to Stalin well-done. The book's main flaw is that it is too short, with a mere 141 pages of actual content, and that Lewin generally assumes a pretty strong knowledge of history of the Soviet Union. In that sense, this book is mostly useful as a good summary of the Lenin of 1918-1924 for people already interested and somewhat knowledgable about the USSR.

The book includes a series of appendices with primary documents by Lenin. Very useful is the inclusion of Lenin's famous essay "Better Fewer, But Better", which is crucial for understanding Marxism-Leninism in practice.

Average customer rating:

Poorly written and filled with speculation
Balanced, definitive biography
Pyschobabble with a generous mix of bizarre hatred
Great Book Whether you love him or hate him.
Interesting... but Ultimately Disappointing

Lenin: A Biography
Robert Service
Manufacturer: Belknap Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books

General | Historical | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books

Presidents & Heads of State | Leaders & Notable People | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books

Japan | Asia | History | Subjects | Books

Russia | History | Subjects | Books

Eastern Europe | Europe | History | Subjects | Books

Russia | Europe | History | Subjects | Books

History & Theory | Politics | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

Qualifying Textbooks - Spring 2007 | Stores | Books
Similar Items:

Stalin: A Biography
A History of Modern Russia: From Nicholas II to Vladimir Putin
Stalin: The First In-depth Biography Based on Explosive New Documents from Russia's Secret Archives
Essential Works of Lenin: "What Is to Be Done?" and Other Writings
Khrushchev: The Man and His Era

ASIN: 0674003306

Book Description

Lenin's politics continue to reverberate around the world even after the end of the USSR. His name elicits revulsion and reverence, yet Lenin the man remains largely a mystery. This biography shows us Lenin as we have never seen him, in his full complexity as revolutionary, political leader, thinker, and private person.

Born Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov in 1870, the son of a schools inspector and a doctor's daughter, Lenin was to become the greatest single force in the Soviet revolution--and perhaps the most influential politician of the twentieth century. Drawing on sources only recently discovered, Robert Service explores the social, cultural, and political catalysts for Lenin's explosion into global prominence. His book gives us the vast panorama of Russia in that awesome vortex of change from tsarism's collapse to the establishment of the communist one-party state. Through the prism of Lenin's career, Service focuses on dictatorship, the Marxist revolutionary dream, civil war, and interwar European politics. And we are shown how Lenin, despite the hardships he inflicted, was widely mourned upon his death in 1924.

Service's Lenin is a political colossus but also a believable human being. This biography stresses the importance of his supportive family and of its ethnic and cultural background. The author examines his education, upbringing, and the troubles of his early life to explain the emergence of a rebel whose devotion to destruction proved greater than his love for the "proletariat" he supposedly served. We see how his intellectual preoccupations and inner rage underwent volatile interaction and propelled his career from young Marxist activist to founder of the communist party and the Soviet state--and how he bequeathed to Russia a legacy of political oppression and social intimidation that has yet to be expunged.

Customer Reviews:

Poorly written and filled with speculation.......2007-05-10

I'm amazed that anyone could enjoy this biography, regardless of the depth of new information it contains. Robert Service apparently doesn't know how to write a cohesive story. When I first started reading, his psychological insights into Lenin seemed stretched, and I kept wondering how he knew these internal secrets about Lenin's inner thoughts and emotions. By the time I was halfway through the book I realized it was mostly speculation, casting doubt on other statements he made.
Personally, I think Lenin was an evil man, but Service's moralistic slams against Lenin quickly became annoying. Again and again he made snide little remarks especially about Lenin's hypocrisy, which may be true, but become silly after a while.
These problems, however, pale in comparison to Service's writing style. His paragraphs seem to jump from subject to subject without warning. He will begin a story and never finish it, often abruptly moving to a new subject without properly explaining the first. He continually begins paragraphs with connect phrases, such as "In light of this. . ." When one actually reads the new paragraph, however, one sees absolutely no connection with the previous discussion. Although you might think this is simply a minor criticism, it becomes quite serious when the book lacks a sense of logical and narrative flow.
Having said that, I learned an enormous amount from reading this book. The experience, however, was also the most unpleasant I have undergone in reading a biography. If you want a lot of fascinating insight into Lenin's life, perhaps this is a good source. If you want to enjoy the process of obtaining that insight, however, go elsewhere.

Balanced, definitive biography.......2007-03-15

Like Lenin's life, this book goes through slow, quiet times as well as periods of frenetic activity. Especially interesting are sections on Lenin's childhood and family, the October Revolution itself, and Lenin's final political struggle with Stalin as he battled his failing health. The chapters dealing with his nearly 20 years in exile are a bit of a slog, but do necessary justice to this phase of his life and illustrate that Lenin spent most of his adult life in petty but ruthless fights with other Bolsheviks.

Robert Service does not paint a pretty picture, but no honest biographer could with the today's open archives. Lenin was ruthless in pursuit of his socialist vision, destroying political rivals, horrifying many erstwhile allies with his ferocity, and never hesitant to use violence, and deceit. A bookish intellectual, Lenin advocated terror but let others do his dirty work. Lenin demonstrated remarkable tactical flexibility (several amazing flip flops are documented) even when his primary goals and assumptions never changed. As a young man, Lenin refused to engage in famine relief work with his family noting that peasant suffering and starvation will push Russia through necessary stages of economic development towards the inevitable communist utopia. With this, and other similar episodes, Service argues that Lenin was motivated more by hatred and revenge towards the tsarist regime than any sympathy towards the poor.

The book is quite successful as a biography in that it gives you a feel for Lenin's personality, family, likes and dislikes. He has a cosmopolitan love for European culture and a general disdain for all things Russian. Lenin is fastidious, cannot stand noise while working, and is obsessive about keeping his pencils sharp. His outward politeness disguised an inner ruthlessness. He is something of a spoiled "wonder child", adored and idolized by his mother, sisters, and wife. The biography does justice to the complexity of Lenin's character, and Service occasionally allows himself a little affection for his subject without ever condoning or whitewashing the horrors he perpetrated.

Note this is primarily a biography of Lenin, not a history of the Russian Revolution. Lenin's contributions and reactions to key events are given more attention than narration of the events themselves. Depending on your interests, you may want to consult a general history of the Russian Revolution instead of, or in addition to, this book. Sheila Fitzpatrick's "The Russian Revolution" is a concise and solid introduction.

This may be the best all-purpose Lenin biography out there. The treatment of Lenin is balanced, and Service presents alternative viewpoints fairly even when he dismisses them in favor of his own opinions. I preferred it to Volkogonov's biography, which is really directed at a Russian audience.

Pyschobabble with a generous mix of bizarre hatred.......2007-01-18

As someone interested in the Russian Revolution, I found this book at a school library and read it. I was not favorably impressed. Lenin is pushed down to the level of megalomaniac idiot. You don't have to like the guy to try to really explain his motivations or to seek real answers to the questions that bamboozle people. In addition to the pyscho-babble mentioned by other reviewers, I had a problem with Robert Service picking on someone who is to dead to sue him for slander. Robert Service accuses Lenin of shooting down his own Soviet troops (an absolute idiocy in the middle of a civil war).It may be fashionable to produce "exposes" of Soviet leaders, but that doesn't make it a good trend. Modern biographers of the Russian revolutionaries need to remember that Joe McCarthy and his Committee are no longer here to black-list them. In Robert Service's biography, I was upset to find the author judging Lenin through 21st century glasses. By this I mean:
1. Cutting out the context of the Russian economy's ruin during the Civil War.
2. The abject failures of the "democrats"
3. Forgetting what the alternatives would have been had the opposition won (I don't mean the Whites- even the peasants hated them)
I wonder what Mr. Service would do if he were in Lenin's shoes... While I'm wondering, I think I'll go pick up W. Bruce Lincoln's books on how the revolution happened and what happened during and after the civil war.

Great Book Whether you love him or hate him........2006-07-22

This book would be great for a research paper about Lenin! I enjoyed reading it immensly. It is well researched and well written. (see below for more on that) Whether you love him or hate him, if you are looking to find out anything about the man behind the name, then this is for you.

The only reason I do not give this 5 stars is because the language can be a bit hard to read for some. I am an avid reader, and am well educated, but even I had to get out the dictionary a few times.

Interesting... but Ultimately Disappointing.......2006-05-31

I approached this book with some enthusiasm as an introduction to a major 20th century figure about whom I knew very little. Now having completed the book I can say that I have a grasp of Lenin as a man, as a politician and as a historical figure but it took me a while to get there. Service paints a well rounded picture and clearly reveals Lenin's ruthlessness and intolerance and illuminates many other aspects of the man's character. Ultimately Lenin comes across as a monomaniacal egotist driven to impose his view of Marxism on others and uniterested in anything but politics.

The book though is marred by two failings. The first, which has been pointed out be other reviewers before me, is that Service occasionally overreaches on his conclusions regarding Lenin's psychological motivations. Certainly speculation is a part of historical biography but Service often gives the impression that he knows Lenin's thoughts. Secondly, and this is purely subjective, the book just didn't "grab" me. I have read several major biographical works of historical figures and the best ones draw me in as if I were reading a novel. This one did not, though I cannot explain exactly what it is about the book that fails in this regard. Perhaps Lenin is such an unsympathetic character and such a total politician that ultimately I could not find anything to relate to.

Average customer rating:

Que Hacer?
Vladimir Ilich Lenin , and V. I. Lenin
Manufacturer: Nuestra America
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Politics | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

Spanish | Foreign Language Nonfiction | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

Average customer rating:

Against revisionism
Vladimir Ilich Lenin
Manufacturer: Foreign Languages Pub. House
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding
ASIN: B0006DBWSA

Vladimir Ilich Lenin (World Leaders Past and Present)

Average customer rating:

Lenin - The Man for Social & Economic Justice

Vladimir Ilich Lenin (World Leaders Past and Present)
John Haney
Manufacturer: Chelsea House Publications
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Library Binding

Europe | History & Historical Fiction | Children's Books | Subjects | Books

General | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books

General | Biographies & Memoirs | Teens | Subjects | Books

Look Inside Teen Books | Trip | Specialty Stores | Books
ASIN: 0877545707

Customer Reviews:

Lenin - The Man for Social & Economic Justice.......2006-07-05

Written for school children, this book describes Lenin "as a man of powerful intellect and unwaivering commitment". Later the author calls Lenin "a skillful organizer and a brilliant political theorist". My favorite statement from the book is "though historians continue to criticize his methods, Lenin was always at the center of the popular struggle for social and economic justice and his vision remains the guiding philosophy of communist movement worldwide".

Average customer rating:

AN EX-STALINIST'S REVISION OF LENIN
Not a biography
Subject Without Objectivity
Blind spot of the west
The Most Evil Man Bertrand Russell Ever Met

Lenin: A New Biography
Dmitri Volkogonov
Manufacturer: Free Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Irish | Ethnic & National | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books

General | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books

Japan | Asia | History | Subjects | Books

Russia | History | Subjects | Books

Eastern Europe | Europe | History | Subjects | Books

Russia | Europe | History | Subjects | Books
Similar Items:

Trotsky: The Eternal Revolutionary
Stalin
Autopsy for an Empire : The Seven Leaders Who Built the Soviet Regime
Lenin: A Biography
The Harvest of Sorrow: Soviet Collectivization and the Terror-Famine

ASIN: 0029334357

Customer Reviews:

AN EX-STALINIST'S REVISION OF LENIN .......2007-04-04

In my political life I have read numerous biographies, sketches and essays on the Russian Bolshevik leader Vladimir Lenin, none of them recently. Thus, in looking for a new book on Lenin's life I was searching for one that would reflect the latest information from the various archives opened up by the demise of the Soviet state in 1991-92. With that in mind I happened upon this biography by a Soviet historian who had intimate access to and control over the Soviet archives. However, even with that imprimatur this hostile biography could easily have been written in 1955 by any number of former communist turned anti-communist Western writers during the heart of the Cold War under the influence of the `god that failed' theory of anti-communism. So much for the virtue of access to the new files! Moreover, after reading the biography I found that it told more about the author than the subject. He was a good Khrushchevite when Khrushchev was in power. He was a good Brezhnevite when Brezhnev was in power. He was a good Gorbachevite when Gorbachev was in power. Finally, after the demise of the Soviet Union and the capitalist counter-revolution under Yeltsin he was a good Yeltsinite. No one can deny that the author knew how to trim his sails to determine which way the political winds blew. Whether such a checkered personal biography permits him then to write a critique of a revolutionary leader, any revolutionary leader, apparently without the least embarrassment is another question. Well, such is the literary life.

And so what is the latest in Soviet historiography on Lenin? The author retails every `horror' story about Lenin that has been sifted through the anti-communist milieu since Lenin first came on the political scene at the turn of the 20th century Russia. Of course, the author starts with the Bolshevik-Menshevik split in 1903- that is the `original sin' for all anti-Leninists who claim to stand in any tendency of the international social democratic tradition. He then goes through the litany of later sins; the anti-nationalist, anti-war Bolshevik propaganda of the First World War; the hoary tales of `German' gold to the Bolsheviks in the wake of the February Revolution in Russia; the `sealed train' through Germany bringing Lenin and other Social Democrats back to Russia; the defeatism toward the Provisional Government; the Bolshevik `coup' in October; the outrage to the author's nationalist sentiments of the Brest Litovsk Treaty with Germany; and, the horrors of the Civil War, lightly passing over the White internal and foreign counterrevolutionary actions and placing the onus on the Bolsheviks. And much more in that same vane.

The real point of the documentation presented throughout the book, however, is to buttress the author's central argument that bad old Stalinism was not some sort of distortion of Bolshevism and Leninist thought but the true and natural heir of Leninism. Others have argued that position far more persuasively with far less access to the archives. The fact of the matter, at least based on this exposition, is that the archives provide little new hard material about Lenin and the early Bolshevik regime that has not already been in circulation for a long time. Take one example, the `relationship' between the Bolsheviks and the German military High Command during World War I that has been speculated on in reams of material. He sets up his argument for such an alliance using the time worn innuendoes of secret meetings, use of intermediaries, etc. However, if an author is using this argument in the post-Soviet period then one would expect some new information that definitely links Lenin to German `gold' or let it rest. Where is the smoking gun? As there is nothing new the author lets us off with some dubious circumstantial evidence and lots and lots of conjecture. It goes on and on like that throughout most of the book. The author has personal axes to grind here and the archives only marginally help him in his critique.

Finally, what of the counterfactual argument that every historian makes to argue that an alternative situation to the one that occurred was possible? Here the author argues that in 1917 some form of Menshevik/Social Revolutionary government or a more stable Kerensky government i.e. bourgeois governments could have brought Russia out of its impasse and into the Western democratic parliamentary tradition. He even has a kind word for the Czar in retrospect, at least as a battering ram against the Bolsheviks. This hardened Stalinist who has since found `religion' attempts to argue a very, very improbable position. Kerensky was the best, and I do mean best, those forces had at their command. And he was by all accounts (except his own) a lightweight. No more need be said.

Well, we do not always get the revolutions in the pristine condition we would like and this is not the place to argue extensively about the author's politics but both by their actions and by the crush of events the possibility of some kind of bourgeois democracy in 1917 Russia was the least likely possibility. In short, like in other such revolutionary periods, it was the Bolsheviks or the counterrevolutionary Whites. And one had to act accordingly.

Not a biography.......2007-03-07

I'm sorry, but there's no reason to give this a good review. First of all, the book is extremely slanted. In the beginning it's not so bad, but the author's country, Russia, is just coming out of Communism, and apparently he really hated that economic system. This guy was hell-bent on proving Lenin, as well as Communism, to be two great evils. Time and again he talked about Lenin's poor ability as a statesman, his bad decisions, his use of terror and his close-mindedness, among other things. For a chapter this author even goes into Stalin, when this book isn't even supposed to be about him! And then sometimes it goes into the last couple of decades of the Soviet country, talking about how some of the leaders were still applying Leninist and Stalinist use of terror and censorship! None of this has anything to do with Lenin's life, and it's simply used to show how bad Communism was. Apparently they spent so much time brainwashing their people that the only way for one person to convince himself Soviet Communism was wrong was to write a book disproving it. The first 100 pages or so are good and actually deal with Lenin, and are interesting, but as a biography... this is an EXTREME let down. It is NOT a biography. This is a history of Lenin, his friends, and Soviet Russia. It is like a book about Lenin and everything related to him. It could be retitled "The Leninist peroid in early Russia and it's effects on the country later on" and be more accurate. This book was not written by an experienced author, but probably published solely for the reason that this author had access to the secret soviet archives. Do not by this book -- find another biography.

Subject Without Objectivity.......2005-12-23

There is no doubt that Lenin achieved a level of recognition that will continue for as long as humans maintain a sentient capacity. The fact remains, however, that he gained this recognition largely through his association with others. Dmitri Volkogonov's biography does not acknowledge this aspect and is therefore singularly shallow. In fact, those central to Lenin's rise are not even mentioned.
Truman Capote brilliantly encapsulated this problem in his 1994 New York Times review: 'Volkogonov's biography of this unique figure is flawed not by its inclusions but by its myopic exclusions. It is impossible to present a balanced account of Lenin without reference to the other three Beatles.'

Blind spot of the west.......2005-11-22

For some reason westerners continue to have something of a blind spot for V.I. Lenin. The conception that Stalin perverted Lenin's idealist vision, that Lenin's communism might have been a more viable utopian ideal had he survived, remains strong. This is one of several books that should help to shatter that illusion once and for all as it comprehensively documents the extent to which Stalinism was firmly rooted in Lenin's murderous totalitarian revolution.

Volkogonov's book is far from perfect in this English translation. The opening chapters are somewhat non-linear and unfocused (it only really picks up once it starts discussing Germany's role in Lenin's return to Russia in 1917, about a third of the way in), for all his supposed access to secret archive documentation the author is occasionally prone to speculation (though he usually admits as much, for example in discussing Lenin and Sverdlov's roles in the murder of the Tsar's family), and the English translator freely admits that he's cut out large sections of deeply Russian philosophical discussions.

But for all that, the book remains a powerful testament to Lenin's flaws. Few details in the book were that new to me. I knew the Germans had helped the Bolsheviks for their own ends in 1917; I knew about Lenin's almost mindless obsession with violence as the sole true path to revolution; I knew about Lenin's cynical willingness to discard almost any principles in the pursuit of power for the Bolsheviks. But seeing all of this documented - and far more of it is documented than some reviewers are suggesting - by the Bolsheviks' own hands makes it all the more powerful.

Nor do I think that the book is that biased. Certainly Lenin still comes off better than Stalin; Lenin doesn't so much come across as personally evil as he does blindly obsessed with the idea that his great misguided experiment justified the implementation of any means, however cruel, deadly or violent. But unlike Stalin, he wasn't interested in personal power for its own sake or personal self-aggrandisement. It's a small distinction, but an important one - though I would argue that a genuine belief in your visionary ideal makes it no more forgiveable when that ideal requires killing millions.

This isn't a book that's going to appeal to all tastes; some will find the first third (which, as others have noted, isn't really a traditional Western biography) hard going, and it probably isn't the only biography of Lenin that those interested in the subject should read. But readers who stick with it will nonetheless be richly rewarded.

The Most Evil Man Bertrand Russell Ever Met.......2004-11-08

For years after Nikita Khruschev's famous "secret speech" in 1956 denouncing Stalin and some of his crimes, apologists for the USSR and its Communist system continued to claim that if only Lenin had lived longer, Soviet-style Communism would have evolved in a much more benign direction than it ultimately did under the bloodthirsty Stalin. This book, written by a formerly high-ranking member of the Soviet military establishment who himself believed this, tears this myth to shreds. By getting unprecendented access to secret Soviet archives, Volkogonov clearly shows that the criminal nature of the regime was instituted by Lenin and his associates from the first day they came to power. There never was an "idealistic", clean phase to the Bolshevik Revolution. The corruption and tyranny began at once. Although the author points out that Bolsehvism appeals to universal ideas of social justice, when Lenin called to turn the "imperialist war" (i.e. the First World War) into a "civil war", the writing was on the wall for anyone who wanted to see it that it was the Bolshevik's intention to tear Russian society apart, and not just provide the people "peace, land and bread" as Lenin also claimed in order to get the naive to support his agenda for revolution.
Lenin never had any intention to improve the lives of the Russian people because at a time of mass famine during the "War Communism" repression at the time of the Civil War after the October Revolution, the Bolshevik regime was sending millions of dollars out of the country in order to stir up revolutions in other countries while letting their own people starve. Lenin was only interested in political power leading to what he hoped would be "world revolution" and class struggle. All morality was subordinated to the goal of attaining and keeping power, and any deceit and violence was justifiable for these purposes.
I think it can be stated that Communism was the greatest fraud in history because millions of otherwise well-meaning people were conned by Lenin and his successors into supporting this gigantic criminal enterprise.
It should be pointed out that this book is not really a comprehensive biography of Lenin, but is rather the story of "Leninism" and the creation and consequences of the Leninist system that ran the USSR for over 70 years. Important events in Lenin's life before the October Revolution are skimmed over. For example Lenin's seminal work "What Is To Be Done" is simply mentioned in passing. However, in spite of this, the book is very worth reading, especially by someone who is not well-informed about Soviet history. Volkogonov, who died in 1995, warned that the perversion of morality that Lenin and Leninism brought to Russia did immense damage to the country and its people and this will make the rooting of truly democratic institutions in that country very difficult, in spite of the collapse of the Leninism system. This has proven prophetic as we now see Putin slowly restoring an authoritarian system in that country which has suffered so much in the 20th century.

Trotsky's Notebooks, 1933-1935: Writings on Lenin, Dialectics, and Evolutionism

Average customer rating:

Trotsky's Notebooks, 1933-1935: Writings on Lenin, Dialectics, and Evolutionism
Leon Trotsky
Manufacturer: Columbia University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books

General | Popular Economics | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books

Japan | Asia | History | Subjects | Books

Russia | History | Subjects | Books

Eastern Europe | Europe | History | Subjects | Books

Russia | Europe | History | Subjects | Books

Political | Philosophy | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

Book Description

These two notebooks were discovered while Philip Pomper was doing research at Harvard’s Russian Research Center for a book on Trotsky, Lenin and Stalin after the Russian Revolution and were published by Columbia University for the first time in 1986.

They present fascinating new insights into Trotsky’s philosophy, politics, and psychology and this volume is a significant addition to an understanding of his revolutionary career. They shed new light on his relationship to Lenin and Bolshevism, his criticism of dialectics and Darwin evolutionism, and his reflections of Freudian psychology as he ponders the relationship of the unconscious mind to the philosophical issues surrounding dialectics.

The original Russian text of the notebooks, prepared and annotated by Felshtinsky, is also presented here to make the material available to readers of Russian.

Rulers and Royalty:

Rulers and Royalty

Rulers and Royalty