Lenin

Unknown Narrator

Lenin is the revolutionary leader whose pragmatic and ruthless policies clash with the narrator's idealistic anarchist principles.

Unknown Narrator

Lenin is the revolutionary leader whose pragmatic and ruthless policies clash with the narrator's idealistic anarchist principles.

Preface to First Volume of American Edition

Referenced as a Marxist leader who adopted anarchist revolutionary tactics, part of the Bolshevik leadership.

Preface to Second Volume of American Edition

Mentioned as deceased; his New Economic Policy (NEP) raised hopes that were later dashed by renewed terror.

V: Meeting People

Lenin dismisses free speech as a bourgeois notion, insists on working under the Third International, and views people in utilitarian terms for his revolutionary scheme.

XII: Beneath the Surface

Lenin is implicated in the same deceptive methods, having assured the narrator that no anarchists of ideas were in prison while many were incarcerated.

XVI: Maria Spiridonova

Mentioned as claiming credit for victories attributed to peasant and worker povstantsi rather than the Red Army.

XX: Poltava

Korolenko writes appeals to Lenin to intervene against executions.

XXII: Odessa

Mentioned by Doctor N as the source of the motto 'Rob the robbers,' which led to corruption and ruin in Ukraine.

XXV: Archangel and Return

Leads a faction in the trade union debate, denounces the Labour Opposition as 'anarcho-syndicalist' and advocates its suppression.

Death and Funeral of Peter Kropotkin

The Funeral Commission wires Lenin requesting the release of imprisoned Anarchists for the funeral; the Central Committee responds by proposing release at the Cheka's discretion.

XXVII: Kronstadt

Quoted at the Tenth Congress: 'The sailors did not want the counterrevolutionists, but they did not want us, either.'

XXVIII: Persecution of Anarchists

Mentioned for his speech at the Tenth Congress declaring 'merciless war' against 'petty bourgeois Anarchist elements,' which coincided with mass arrests.

XXIX: Travelling Salesmen of the Revolution

Received delegates and 'talked to' them; referred to as 'pope' of the Communist Church during the Congress.

Education and Culture

His sister Ulyanova, chief of the Central Educational Department, signed a secret order to eliminate non-Communist literature.

Afterword

Critiqued as a pliable politician who sacrificed revolutionary ideals for state power, issuing the slogan 'Rob the robbers' and implementing policies that led to bureaucracy and inequality.

I

Mentioned as a nimble acrobat who introduced the New Economic Policy to avert disaster.

The Betrayal of the Revolution

Portrayed as a shrewd, pliable politician who prioritized the centralized state over revolution or communism, willing to sacrifice both for his political scheme.

IV

Referenced as an example of the Bolshevik conception of revolution, where Lenin takes the seat of the Romanovs, symbolizing a mere change of dictatorship.