Vladimir Ilyich Lenin

A few months ago I attended as an observer at a school tour of the History Olympiad among students in grades 8-9. In the last task at the competition, it was necessary to write an essay on the topic “The role of personality in history.” Stolypin, Kutuzov, Tchaikovsky, Mendeleev and others were offered as examples. A task is a task, in short. But imagine my surprise when a 9th grade student suddenly told me that he really would not like to write an essay on the proposed personalities, arguing his point of view by saying that “they are monarchists.” When asked who he considers to be a truly great personality in Russian history, the guy answered: “Lenin.” And he wrote the best work!

The ghost of Vladimir Ilyich is always somewhere nearby, and today, on the anniversary of his death, I would like to dwell on this topic separately.

It would seem that everything has been done to destroy the name of Ulyanov-Lenin once and for all. His teaching was mercilessly distorted, simplified and vulgarized by Stalin. Even worse, it was elevated to the rank of a kind of state religion and, in the form of dry dogmas, was hammered into the heads of the younger generations, naturally causing the most negative reaction from the latter. The horrors of the civil war, Stalinist repressions and even the cult of personality (which directly contradicts all the foundations of communist teaching!) are somehow latently associated in the media with the name of Vladimir Ilyich. That ugly state formation into which the USSR turned, and which did us - the new left, neo-Marxists - a “disservice” (for for a long time they will poke us into the negative experience of supposedly “victorious socialism”) - it is this very thing that is presented, not without malicious intent, as Lenin's real ultimate goal. But to say that “socialism” was built in the Soviet Union is possible only if you are a person who is not burdened with his head, a complete ignoramus in the field of political doctrines, or a malicious disinformer.

I will not remember all the slag that is poured out by gentlemen liberals and, partly, nationalists. And the result? Many years after the collapse of the USSR, an Interfax opinion poll suddenly showed Vladimir Ilyich in a leading place in the ranking of “the greatest people of the 20th century.” A similar opinion was expressed by 500 politicians, cultural and scientific figures around the world. Lenin is studied in universities, people are interested in him, and they RESPECT him. Moreover, among the supporters of the Bolshevik leader there are by no means only senile old women lamenting that “the grass was greener before.” These are representatives of young people who, fortunately, perceive Lenin’s teachings in their original form, reading and rethinking his works, in which one can see answers to the burning questions of our time.

So, gentlemen, liberals, you can hiss, you can growl, you can lie, make jokes and make fun of Lenin. Well, what can one do when 55 volumes of the complete works continue to act like a time bomb for the current system?