V.I. Lenin 2
V.I. Lenin
What could be described as the beginning of the end was precipitated by two events. The first was the unexpected passing of Lenin’s father Ilya, and what was a surprise to everyone in the family the arrest from plotting the assassination of Alexander III and eventual hanging of elder brother Alexander (Sasha). The biggest misconception of Lenin's rise to a revolution was the sensationalism of saying Ulya planted these seeds of a revolutionary mindset in the young Volodya and the hanging of his brother Sasha pushed him over the edge. Firstly, Lenin's father was deeply pious, conservative, and most importantly thought highly of Alexander II for his family had flourished under the tsar’s reforms. He was deeply troubled by the assassination of Alexander II. Ilya had a desire to protect his children from this revolutionary pattern of thought. The 1860s had been a period of great reforms. In other words, Russia had been launched on a path of reform in the general direction, if not of liberal democracy, than at least of social modernization. The revolutionary movements were spawned by students who wanted to completely overhaul the present political structure of Russia or even better have the tsarist regime removed completely. To support the reformist trend was to be progressive, to oppose it reactionary, and to dismiss both sides of the argument revolutionary. Ilya definitely belonged to the first category. The Ulyanovs cultivated free thinking. In other words, Ilya and Maria set the Ulyanov children, especially Alexander and Vladimir onto the path of critical thinking in order to change, if they felt there was need for change in every aspect of life, personal or political. Lastly and simply, Sasha’s death was simply a precursor to events that would catapult Lenin into a new frame of thought.
Sasha enrolled in St. Petersburg University in 1883 and quickly became one of the top students at the college. Prior to the death of Ilya, Sasha won a the University gold medal for work on annelid worms. He interests rested on zoology, not politics. At the beginning of his college years, Sasha was uninterested in the political lifestyle until his friends introduced him to the writings of Marx, Engels, and Plekhonov. For them Marxism emphasized the need for violence to change existing conditions. At first, Sasha was wrapped up in his scientific plans and discoveries, merely listened, but gradually he was won over by the apparent logic of his friends’ radicalism, and came to feel it was morally unacceptable to stand aside from 'the ideas of progress and revolution,' as they put it. It had been 2 years since Alexander II was assassinated by a college student affiliated with the terrorist group, the People's Will. Students at this time, were more closely watched and harassed by the police than ever before, and Sasha’s entry into a group of conspirators who were planning the assassination of Alexander III is commonly explained by the violent dispersal by the police of a student demonstration in memory of the radical thinker Dobrolyubov on November 17 of 1886. After the arrest and deportation of several of Sasha’s friends, he took on the 'by any means necessary' mantra. Sasha’s belief system was against immoral acts such as terrorism but after this incident, he became an advocate. The plot of assassination went into effect on February 26, 1887 watching the tsar’s route from the palace to St. Isaac’s Cathedral. With the student’s inexperience with such intricate affairs the plan came abruptly to an end. On March 1st, the police intercepted a letter from one of conspirators and the whole group was arrested. The trial was very short, lasting only from March 15 to 19. All but five had their death sentences commuted to hard labor. With that Alexander Sasha Ulyanov was hanged. When one closely examines the ramifications of the assassination attempt, it represents an important phase in the emergence of social democracy in Russia, and provided the starting point from which Lenin's theory and practice of revolution were to evolve.
To speak the obvious, Vladimir was affected is at best an understatement. In the same breath this did not affect him negatively. The real problems began when he was expelled from college and had the doors of education slammed in his face. When he entered Kazan University in 1887, he went with a glowing testimonial from his headmaster in Simbirsk, Fedor Kerensky, who wanted to protect him from adverse association with his brother’s notoriety. Unfortunately for Vladimir, he was a marked man because of his brother’s notoriety. Vladimir took part in a demonstration that amounted to little more than running up and down a corridor, but in the view of the fact that he was the brother of a condemned 'state criminal,' Vladimir was not merely expelled but also sent away from Kazan to the family estate at Kokushkino. The expulsion from the university was the first tangible personal experience by Lenin of the injustice and harshness of the Russian political system. As Vladimir's attempts to be reinstated at Kazan University, with the help of his mother, were continuously rejected, he became in effect, 'closer' to his brother. Vladimir had no choice but to adapt to the situation presented to him. He was in effect alienated, demoralized, and within Vladimir a storm was brewing. He had an ineradicable hatred of regime. He had to be careful of his actions for his was constantly under the microscope of the local police. It wasn't so much he cared the local police were watching him but he didn't want his mother to endure any more heartache. During his exile, Vladimir began to immerse himself in reading a wide range of Western and Russian social-political literature, including Marx’s Capital. He also used this time to prepare for examinations to enter St. Petersburg College as an external student earning a first class diploma, and at age twenty-two became a lawyer’s assistant. Lenin's career as a lawyer did not last long and was something he never discussed. The author that seemed to move Lenin the most was the radical nineteenth century philosopher Nikolai Chernyshevsky and his novel entitled What Is To Be Done? Written in 1864, it was to inspire an entire generation of Russian youth with ideas of self-emancipation and the duty to bring knowledge to the peasants. Two opposing views on what propelled Lenin in the direction he took both came to the same conclusion, Chernyshevsky was Lenin’s John the Baptist thanks to the tragedy of Alexander (Sasha). Ultimately, whatever Lenin took from him, made it possible for the young man to absorb a profound hostility towards liberalism. Lenin's radicalism during this time took the form of meet and greets with other Marxists by way of illegal meetings. Although Lenin was not a full-blown Marxist, Chernyshevsky's writings that attacked bourgeois economics and his brother's condoning and translating of Marxism ultimately would lead Vladimir to read extensively the writings of Marx, in particular The Communist Manifesto. In a nutshell, Chernysheysky was the stepping stone Karl Marx. Although many were considered Marxist including his brother at this time, Lenin was still on the fringe. His mind craved knowledge and his constant research, reading and authorship of articles were in effect following the “yellow brick road.” The Wizard being Karl Marx. Lenin’s “discovery” of Marxism was thus extremely selective; he saw in it only what he wanted to see. For Lenin, Marxism meant above all one thing, and that was revolution. It was the revolutionary message of the doctrine that attracted him in the first place. He absorbed it's ideas and propositions as a convinced pragmatist, and was less interested in the early humanistic writings of Marx and Engels than he was in those concerned with class struggle.
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