Lenin's Revolution

An exciting account and analysis of Lenin's role in the Russian Revolution and the creation of the Soviet system.



How did a revolutionary leader who was frequently surprised by events - and was often compelled to observe them from abroad - finally seize power in a bloodless coup? This study, besides charting his rise to power, examines Lenin's propagandist skill in crafting resonant slogans to fit every changing situation. He made failure look like success, and won the debate while seeming to lose it. Lenin's legacy of government by propaganda still survives in Putin's' sovereign democracy' - itself a propaganda triumph. This is the Bolshevik Revolution seen from the 21st century, when President Putin attends Christmas eucharist in Moscow Cathedral and commends religion for promoting traditional Russian values. If historians of the Khrushchev era did not foresee so improbable a transformation of Lenin's Russia, Lenin himself was also' unexpected'.