Who is stalin and lenin

In his mind, the survival of Soviet rule was closely linked with the success of world revolution, which depended on the rise of the working class in Germany, France and Britain, and then on the nationalist movements in China, India and Western colonies in Asia. Lenin stays firm: All republics should have 'separate but equal' status.

Stalin, recognizing that an enlarged Russian Federation would create a poor image for the multinational communist state as a community of equals, proposed simply to turn the Russian government bodies into all-Union ones. As he saw it, there was no need for another level of bureaucracy. Some way had to be found to accommodate rising non-Russian nationalism. Stalin backed down. But by the time the Congress was called to order, Lenin disappeared from sight.

The year-old leader of the Bolsheviks, who had fought tooth and nail for the creation of the Union, stayed put in his Kremlin apartment, a short walk from the Bolshoi Theatre, where the Congress was holding its sessions. Eight days earlier, on December 12, he had suffered a major stroke and lost control of his right hand and leg. Although Stalin and many of his supporters, such as Ordzhonikidze and Dzerzhinsky, were non-Russians Stalin and Ordzonikidze hailed originally from Georgia, Dzerzhinsky from Poland , Lenin accused them of Russian chauvinism.

But the stroke prevented him from taking any decisive steps against them. But they also served a political purpose. Barred from attending the congress and not trusting Stalin to fully implement his line, the paralyzed Lenin resolved to dictate his thoughts on the nationality question in a document to be passed on to the party leadership. Lenin was prepared to replace the Union he had originally proposed with a looser association in which the centralized powers might be limited to defense and international relations alone.

Stalin visiting Lenin in Gorky in Lenin, who was in semi-retirement after suffering his second stroke, died the following year, making way for Stalin to succeed him as leader of the Soviet Union. Stalin did his best to isolate Lenin from the rest of the leadership and keep his last letters secret.

When Lenin heard of it, he became furious and demanded an apology. Stalin wrote back saying he apologized, but did not know what Lenin wanted of him—he had just been protecting the leader from unnecessary stress. The next day, he suffered his third stroke, which left him permanently paralyzed. He died on January 21, Ultimately, the Soviet Union, created in the midst of a battle between Lenin and Stalin, became a compromise between two visions and approaches.

The Russian Academy of Sciences, for example, would become an all-Union body. But he won on the issue of the structure of the Union—the collection of discreet republics—a victory that, ironically, would ultimately have greater consequences for the Russians than for the others. In the state envisioned by Stalin, the Russians would have continued to share all those features with the empire, now renamed a Union.

Almost by default, Lenin became the father of the modern Russian nation, while the Soviet Union became its cradle. History Reads features the work of prominent authors and historians. Although Lenin can be fondly referred to as the father of Soviet Russia, he is often accused of setting the scene for Stalin's campaigns of forced labour and mass murder. During the revolution, Lenin imprisoned and exiled his opponents, caused large-scale famine with his agricultural policies, and forced thousand of peasant farmers, amongst others, into forced labour camps.

Shortly before his death, Lenin called for Stalin's removal from office due to growing popularity, both within the communist party and amongst the Russian public. Stalin managed to maintain his position as party secretary and ascended to autocratic leadership with Lenin's death. Stalin's regime is recorded as one of the bloodiest in history.

Millions were killed through the purges, through famine, and through forced labour. It has even been suggested that deaths at the hands of Stalin's regime outweigh those caused by the brutality of the Nazi regime. Political Importance: Russia and the subsequent challenge to capitalism. The West was nervous about the new developments in the Soviet Union, the largest country in the world. This is because the Soviets' ideology of communism posed a direct threat to Western democracy and capitalism.

Stalin was viewed as a despot intent on achieving world power and ideological domination. During this War, the Soviets and the Americans took over the reigns from Britain and Western Europe as world leaders and developed into superpowers. When the War ended and their common enemies were defeated, the two strongest nations in the world became embroiled in a bitter power struggle that would last for more than 40 years, and threatened to destroy the whole planet. It was known as the Cold War, and between and countries all over the world got involved in some way or another, as governments were forced to choose sides either for or against communism and the Soviet Union.