Journal 117 – Today is April 22. Vladimir Lenin was born on April 22,1870, in Simbirsk. In those days, it was a quiet town on the Volga River. Lenin’s real name was Vladimir Ilyich Ylyanov. He adopted the name Lenin in 1901. The name may refer to the Lena River of Siberia.
Lenin was a founder the Communist Party in Russia and set up the world’s first Communist Party dictatorship.
He led the October Revolution of 1917. In that year the Communists seized power in Russia. He then ruled the country until his death in 1924.
Lenin put into practice the theories of Karol Marx who was a German social philosopher. According to Karol Marx, the free enterprise system, which is based on privately owned business, would eventually destroy itself.
Lenin established a pattern for Communist revolutions. He took control of the government, and ruled as a dictator. All political parties, anti-Communist speeches and publications abolished.
Lenin was devoted to his Communist goals. He despised all religions, too. He is an author of the statement that, “Religion is opium for people”. The Russian people had religious beliefs, so Lenin didn’t try to close all the churches. Later, during the Stalin’s area, many of them exchanged in the museums of atheism.
The empire established by Lenin collapsed only in 1991. Communism as a political and social idea didn’t come true.