If not for the tyrants of the Second World War who overshadowed him, Vladimir Lenin would have surely been one of the most talked about figures of the 20th century. He played a key role in bringing the Soviets to power in Russia, actualizing a Marxist dream that doomed half the world to two generations of authoritarian governments, corrupted bureaucracies and economic despair. And this man was eclipsed by greater dictators? Yes, it was that kind of century.
Mr. Service, a celebrated professor of Russia at Oxford University, grasps the whole of Lenin's long and winding life in a lengthy biography of a man who did as much damage to his country as any of the czars he so vociferously condemned. Though many have argued that Lenin was radicalized by the government crackdown on his brother and sister for their failed attempt to assassinate czar Alexander III in 1887, Mr. Service contends that Lenin was already well on the road to his destiny before his brother's brashness. Fifty years of subversive writing, beginning with the Decembrists and culminating with chernyshevsky, had already planted the seed of violent revolt in Lenin's powerful mind. Couple this to a well-nurtured sense of intellectual superiority and one has all the necessary ingredients to create an autocratic leader. Lenin, who practiced law, seems to have managed his career as if waiting for the right moment to speak out, deliberately, provocatively, that he might leave the company of acceptable voices and earn his stripes as a true Russian radical. After all, political exile, as a result of government censure, carried with it not only the weight of Russian tradition, but the clout necessary to earn himself a spot amongst the ranks of the revolutionaries he wanted to lead and guide. Though his position was at various times challenged by other radical Bolsheviks, Lenin was never dethroned. And so, when the February Revolution overthrew the monarchy in 1917, he was in the perfect position to return to Russia, claim credit for the revolt and force himself and his party into the halls of Russian power, establishing a system of government Stalin would use to slaughter millions of his own people.
Mr. Service is a first rate historian. His chronicle benefits from the access he had to the papers on Lenin in the Russian archives which were opened up, briefly, to public scrutiny after the fall of the Soviet Union, but his own knack of engraving his narrative with the sights and smells of the time, with the undercurrents of the contemporary culture, makes his work shine. The reader is allowed to acclimate to a time and a world he may not know well, emerging from the reading with a sense of the big picture, not just the recitation of a series of facts. He does bog down from time-to-time in the Bolshevik infighting, but these episodes pale next to the excellent portrait he draws of a man who wanted power at all costs. I'd forgotten that, after the abdication of Nicholas II in 1917, Russia had a provisional government composed of parliamentarians who could have, if given time, implemented liberalizing reforms that might have lead to democracy, science and economic freedom. But Lenin refused to allow that government to function. He smashed it, believing that he knew best, that he was the man to lead Russia forward, that nothing but Leninized Marxism would do for his country. These are all, of course, conceits to hide a darker truth, that Lenin revolted not for the betterment of Russians. He revolted because he believed that he ought to occupy the pinnacle of power, not some foppish czar.
A challenging read, but absolutely worth it, not just for what it tells us about the man, but for what it says about the folly of extremism and the dangerous, selfish intractability of those who practice it. (4/5 Stars)
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