“Whatever one can say, we must admit that Lenin’s undeniable merit is that he managed, during less than a year after taking power in Russia, to transform the utopian model of communism into a totalitarian, antiutopian one. This unique performance, achieved in practice in the USSR, was one of the main sources of inspiration for a number of famous writers, such as the British writer with socialist visions, George Orwell, author of the immortal masterpieces: “One thousand nine hundred eighty-four”, “Animal Farm” etc..."
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Of the dead only ... the truth
January 21, 2024 marked exactly one century since the passing away of Bolshevik leader Vladimir Lenin. The centenary cannot simply be overlooked and it is important to keep in mind the old dictum: of the dead nothing but good or nothing but truth. It’s true that the admirers, as well as those who detest him, recognize that Lenin’s revolutionary activity influenced the fates of the world, causing wars and tens of millions of victims. Likewise, it’s true that Lenin and his Bolshevik party sailed extremely skillfully to seize power in the chaos following the abdication of Tsar Nicholas II, followed by the formation of the Provisional Government in Russia. The fact that General Kornilov’s August putsch failed, while the Bolshevik putsch of November 1917 was successful is a proof of this.
It is also true that Lenin and his Bolshevik party were model propagandists, who knew how to launch, at the right time, in a certain context, the most attractive slogans: The power to the soviets! Peace to the people! Factories to the workers! Land to the peasants! Therefore, it would be right for Lenin to be recognized as the founding father of populism. Especially since in less than half a year since taking power, not even a shadow of those promises remained. The power to the soviets instantly became a fiction as the real power was concentrated in the hands of the Bolshevik party. On December 20, 1917 already, there was created the All-Russian Extraordinary Commission (Cheka) attached to the Council of People’s Commissars (Sovnarkom) – a special organ for the fight against counterrevolution and the imposition of the dictatorship of the proletariat. From the establishment of the communist regime until its collapse in 1991, the Cheka changed only its name as the repressive essence remained unchanged when it turned into the GPU, NKVD, MGB or KGB.
Instead of Peace to the People, according to the Leninist theory, a civil war triggered and this lasted for another four years after the end of World War I, claiming the lives of more than 10 million people. The civil war brought with it the policy of war communism. Respectively, instead of Factories to the Workers, after the introduction of the so-called workers’ control, the nationalization of all enterprises took place. Instead of Land to the Peasants, there was introduced prodrazverstka – forced confiscation of bread and other food products from peasants, according to Sovnarkom’s decree of May 9, 1918. It’s true that the avoidance of a catastrophe was possible thanks to the introduction, in 1921, of the New Economic Policy.
However, the ideological legacy of the Bolshevik leader after his death came down to: forced collectivization, accompanied by Holodomors; industrialization at the expense of the enslaved peasantry that was ruthlessly exploited, obviously for the sake of militarization, in the interests of the world revolution; forced communization of Central and Eastern European countries after World War II, followed by a demonstration of determination to keep Hungary under control, in 1956, and Czechoslovakia, in 1968; the attempt to communize Afghanistan in 1979-1989, followed by the collapse of the Leninist project in 1991.
The most humane among humans...
Immediately after Lenin’s death, the Soviet elite entered the fever of debates on immortalizing the memory of the Bolshevik leader. In this regard, after examining various proposals and ideas, in November 1924, People’s Commissar for Education Anatoly Lunacharsky presented a report on the need to mummify Lenin’s body. The goal was to transform the communist ideology into a simulacrum of the pagan religion, while the mortal remains of the founding fathers into holy relics. Respectively, measures were also taken to transport Karl Marx’s bones to Moscow to be buried next to Lenin’s mummy, near the mausoleum, which was supposed to become a kind of sanctuary, but the idea was rejected by Marx’s relatives. Exactly in the same period, in October 1924, the proletarian poet Vladimir Mayakovsky published his poem “Vladimir Ilyich Lenin”, glorifying the Bolshevik leader and asking rhetorically: “What has he done, who is he, where did this most humane among humans come from?”.
We must admit that the questions of writer Vladimir Mayakovsky are masterful. An appropriate answer could come only from another as famous writer, for example, Venedict Erofeev, who dedicated, in fact, two unique monuments to the work of the Bolshevik leader and its result. The first monument in this regard can be considered the poem “Moscow – Petushsky”, which was immortalized in monuments and multiple plays of the most important theaters. Through this prose poem, Erofeev immortalized particular aspects of developed socialism, built according to the Leninist plan, describing in detail the aspirations of the Soviet man during the stagnation in the Brezhnev era. Otherwise, the poem wouldn’t have enjoyed the unimaginable popularity it attained. The second monument dedicated to the leader of the world proletariat - My Little Leniniana - proved to be very modest, but extremely useful, based exclusively on memoirs and quotations from the complete works of Ilyich. In fact, Erofeev didn’t intend to answer Mayakovsky's questions. However, after reading My Little Leniniana, one can come to no other conclusion than that Lenin was, in fact, a cynical, unscrupulous, vengeful, bloodthirsty individual who achieved his revolutionary goals, it’s true, but only through terror, applying the dirtiest and most inhuman methods.
The dimensions of Leninist humanism were reflected on by others, such as the deputy director of the Institute of History of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Vladimir Lavrov, who became famous after he asked the Russian Investigative Committee in 2012 to check Lenin’s work for the propagation of extremism, insisting that Lenin “must be convicted of crimes against humanity that have no statute of limitations, treason, extremism and terrorism”. The complaint contains concrete quotations from the edited works of the leader of the world proletariat and is topical as, in a number of post-Soviet republics, there are communist parties that glorify Lenin, propagating his work and ideas.
Don’t make idols
Anyone can ask, what relevance do Lenin’s figure and the events related to his work or death have to the Republic of Moldova? The question is legitimate, especially since the Party of Communists of the Republic of Moldova (PCRM), which declares itself to be Marxist-Leninist, has reached a rating of only about 3%. It’s true, but we must not forget about the strange relationship that the PCRM has established with the Orthodox Church of Moldova, the latter remaining the institution that the citizens trust the most. In fact, the PCRM no longer has a distinct identity – it is no longer a promoter of militant atheism, as Lenin was, but neither can it be considered a credible supporter of the Church when it continues to venerate the mummified idol.
Metaphorically speaking, we could say that, in fact, the PCRM is no longer either a dog or a puppy. Therefore, he kowtows to the Church, trying to camouflage himself as a defender of traditional values, as the Moldovan Socialists do. In such circumstances, it is appropriate to remind the Moldovan Communist-Socialists, but also the clergy who still coquet with them, that Patriarch Tikhon, in 1918, gave anathema to the Bolshevik regime: “Come to your senses, fools, stop the bloody reprisals. What you are doing is not just cruelty, it is truly a satanic act, for which you will be subjected to the fire of Gehenna in the next life – the afterlife and the curse of your descendants in this earthly life... I urge all of you, faithful children of the Orthodox Church of Christ, not to enter into any relationship with such monsters of the human race.” In response, on the initiative of the most humane among humans, the persecution of the Church started, with the confiscation of its assets and the mass murder of God’s servants was started. This is where the traditional values promoted by the Communist-Socialist bloc of the Republic of Moldova come from.
Conclusions
Whatever one can say, we must admit that Lenin’s undeniable merit is that he managed, during less than a year after taking power in Russia, to transform the utopian model of communism into a totalitarian, antiutopian one. This unique performance, achieved in practice in the USSR, was one of the main sources of inspiration for a number of famous writers, such as the British writer with socialist visions, George Orwell, author of the immortal masterpieces: “One thousand nine hundred eighty-four”, “Animal Farm” etc.
