“Lenin was lucky to die in his bed” – BBC

Who financed the October Revolution, Lenin why cheated on his wife and admired Stalin, and he thought of himself Ilyich and how it is seen by now, in the 145th birthday of Vladimir Lenin “to the Newspaper “said British historian Robert Service, who wrote one of the most detailed biography of the Soviet leader.

– Why did you decide to study the life of Vladimir Lenin, and then wrote his biography?

– About Lenin I started writing after having spent a large-scale study of the structure of the Bolshevik Party in 1917 period -1923′s. Then I studied not only those who belonged to the Central Committee, but the rank and file Communists. Actually, I wanted to understand what responsibilities the Communists for the terrible events that took place in Russia and other countries. To do this I need to analyze the political, economic and cultural background of the October Revolution of 1917.

In addition, I had to identify the contribution of individual leaders, beginning with the founder of the Soviet state – Vladimir Lenin. But to understand Lenin, to study general facts was not enough.

– Was it difficult to get access to the archives?

– When in the early 1980s, I began to write his trilogy about the political life of Lenin, access to Soviet archives could only those historians who have trusted in the Soviet Union and considered their. Everything changed in 1991: in September of this year, I came to Moscow. It was then – after the August coup – has access to the archival documents of the Central Committee of the CPSU.

During the two years I have studied these previously inaccessible treasure.

By the way, recently, such studies it is much easier to get in archive Hoover Institution on War, Revolution and Peace at Stanford University. There are documents about the Soviet Union and Russia is no less than in the Russian archives!

– What struck you in the biography of Lenin?

– Access to the main sources of the life and work of Lenin over the years has been limited by the Soviet authorities. After Lenin’s death became a kind of icon. Both in the East and in the West his image (no matter what – positive or negative) was maintained in the context of the policy. And when the archives were opened, it was possible to understand how Lenin was in purely human terms.

It was a bright man who blinded own brightness. He had his own charm. Lenin was impartial in their calculations. At the same time overwhelmed his uncontrolled passions, including the obsession with Marxism. Finally, Lenin changed his long-suffering wife betrayed.

He was a spoiled child and a dangerous genius rolled into one.

– What is the achievement of Lenin you would call the chief?

– Lenin contributed to the fact that Russia has emerged from the First World War and then saved the country from German intervention. And he was able to achieve this, in spite of the active opposition within his party. Nevertheless, many of the earth, which were part of the Russian Empire, were occupied by Germany.

More importantly, what Russia’s withdrawal from the war contributed to the fact that Germany has not won it barely. Such a scenario would be fatal for Lenin, but this did not happen.

Thus, his greatest achievement paved the way for the worst of nightmares.

Still, you should not put on a pedestal of Lenin. He never would have taken power if Russia in 1917 was not in the acute phase of the economic, political and military crisis.

– What about foreign funding?

– Of course, the Bolsheviks received money from the German authorities, who wanted to weaken the Russian army and bring to power a “party of peace “. Of course, this is not the only reason that Lenin came to power. But no German money in the beginning of 1917 Lenin would not have happened.

– would leave anything without Trotsky?

– Leon Trotsky was a strategist and tactician seizure of power in Petrograd in October 1917. He also persuaded Lenin to abandon the association with other left-wing parties. Trotsky was an important figure. But like many politicians who have written about their activities, their own contribution to the cause of the revolution he exaggerated.

In my opinion, Trotsky – a wonderful example of arrogant revolutionary politician who together with Lenin did not realize how dangerous dictatorship.

Lenin was lucky to die in his bed! But Trotsky in 1940 fell victim to the system that he helped build.

– And if you remember Joseph Stalin?

– Lenin always felt that Stalin can be used. In general, he appreciated the ability to control Stalin, intimidate and destroy. Lenin was a mistake that he believed that Stalin always be able to keep under control. However, when Lenin began to experience health problems, Stalin stopped to listen. Lenin felt like his father, with whom decided not know your own son.

However, the Russian and Western historians tend to exaggerate the importance of the contradictions that arose between Lenin and Stalin in 1922-1923 years.

This conflict – very minor thing, especially in light of the Soviet system taking shape.

In general, Lenin and Stalin in many birds of a feather: they have established a one-party system management, mobilized society created manipulative state, committed the judicial tyranny and stood at the head of militant atheism. Let’s not idealize Lenin!

– Can I then called the path that Lenin chose to build the state, realistic?

– Oh, you’re kidding, probably! Is it possible to modernize the country and improve the lives of people, if the economy and society quarantined?

Lenin did not even secure Russia in international relations. Yes, he restrained the Communist International from making dangerous decisions, but it happened after the invasion of Poland in 1920, which turned into a nightmare for most of Lenin and the Red Army.

– How to change the perception of the personality of Lenin?

– Once upon a time it was considered quite controversial figure. Western Communists admired, colleagues rely on it.

I think that now Lenin is not particularly popular. A conclusion that Leninism – a catastrophic way of organizing society, the economy and politics is obvious.

Who chooses dictatorship, if there is democracy?

There should be no doubt: the democratic scenario after the overthrow of the Romanovs in 1917 was impossible. Although Russia’s position while envy is difficult …

– What Lenin gave modern politics?

– He was instrumental in the invention of totalitarianism. He had precursors in revolutionary France, and later followers from among the leaders of the world communist movement of the XX century.

Despite his brilliant intellect (and perhaps because of it), he does not know what they do. Lenin looked at the world through a glass darkly. And for this it “myopia” and uncertainty in the lives of millions of people paid the price.

– What is the Leninist legacy?

– Lenin left behind authoritarianism and a system of “government knows better than the people,” as well as crypto-imperialism.

The communist past still affects the contemporary Russia, despite the fact that the Communists themselves long lost power in the country. Demolition of monuments to Lenin did not help – it is necessary to reform approaches and practices. And only then we can say that there was a “deleninizatsiya.”

And the Lenin Mausoleum, standing on the Red Square in his honor, not only causing the architectural object: a symbol of the unwillingness of the Russian authorities to abandon the past, has brought the pain of not only Russia, but also to other states.