Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    Vladimir Lenin, Joseph Stalin & Leon Trotsky: The Soviet Union's Big Three
    Vladimir Lenin, Joseph Stalin & Leon Trotsky: The Soviet Union's Big Three
    Vladimir Lenin, Joseph Stalin & Leon Trotsky: The Soviet Union's Big Three
    Ebook126 pages2 hours

    Vladimir Lenin, Joseph Stalin & Leon Trotsky: The Soviet Union's Big Three

    By Cre

    3.5/5

    ()

    Read preview

    About this ebook

    Among the leaders of the 20th century, arguably none shaped the course of history as much as Vladimir Lenin (1870-1942), the Communist revolutionary and political theorist who led the Bolshevik Revolution that established the Soviet Union. In addition to shaping the Marxist-Leninist political thought that steered Soviet ideology, he was the first Soviet premier until his death and set the Soviet Union on its way to becoming one of the world’s two superpowers for most of the century, in addition to being the West’s Cold War adversary. As it turned out, the creation of the Soviet Union came near the end of Lenin’s life, as he worked so hard that he had burned himself out by his 50s, dying in 1924 after a series of strokes had completely debilitated him. Near the end of his life, he expressly stated that the regime's power should not be put in the hands of the current General Secretary of the Communist Party, Joseph Stalin.

    Of course, Stalin managed to do just that, modernizing the Soviet Union at a breakneck pace on the backs of millions of poor laborers and prisoners. If Adolf Hitler had not inflicted the devastation of World War II upon Europe, it’s quite likely that the West would consider Joseph Stalin (1878-1953) the 20th century’s greatest tyrant. Before World War II, Stalin consolidated his position by frequently purging party leaders (most famously Leon Trotsky) and Red Army leaders, executing hundreds of thousands of people at the least. In one of history’s greatest textbook examples of the idea that the enemy of my enemy is my friend, Stalin’s Soviet Union allied with Britain and the United States to defeat Hitler in Europe, with the worst of the war’s carnage coming on the eastern front during Germany’s invasion of Russia. Nevertheless, the victory in World War II established the Soviet Union as of the world’s two superpowers for nearly 50 years, in addition to being the West’s Cold War adversary.

    Along with Vladimir Lenin, Trotsky led the October Bolshevik Revolution of 1917 and held crucial posts in the early Soviet governments, but after Lenin’s death Trotsky was exiled, persecuted and finally murdered at the behest of his arch-rival, Joseph Stalin. For the final decade of his life, Trotsky was a man trapped in between two worlds. A communist seeking refuge in the capitalist West, Trotsky was deemed a secret agent of the capitalist powers by Stalin’s propaganda, but the Soviet Union’s enemies also viewed him with suspicion.

    In the initial aftermath of Lenin’s death, Trotsky had been his ally’s heir apparent, and for those inclined to believe the Soviet experiment had started promisingly but gone astray, Trotsky became the embodiment of the betrayed promise of the early Bolshevik revolution. There were certain ironies in this widespread sympathetic interpretation of Trotsky’s legacy. For the Marxists and Marxist sympathizers appalled by Stalin’s paranoid police state, Gulag concentration camps, and strict suppression of dissent, Trotsky was viewed as a humane and cosmopolitan opposite to Stalin. But Trotsky himself had overseen and spearheaded campaigns of persecution against Russians suspected of “counterrevolutionary” leanings, and he had written a long tract defending these “terroristic” measures as necessary safeguards of the revolution.

    The Soviet Union's Big Three explores the lives and legacies of Lenin, Trotsky and Stalin before the Bolshevik Revolution, as well as the crucial roles they played in establishing the Soviet Union and turning it into a modern superpower.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherCharles River Editors
    Release dateMay 10, 2013
    ISBN9781475324280
    Vladimir Lenin, Joseph Stalin & Leon Trotsky: The Soviet Union's Big Three

    Read more from Cre

    Related to Vladimir Lenin, Joseph Stalin & Leon Trotsky

    Related ebooks

    Asian History For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      Rivals Of The Revolution

      Mar 18, 2021

      Rivals Of The Revolution
      4 min read

    • Article

      The Seduction Of Socialism

      Jul 26, 2018

      For the current generation, sometimes referred to as millennials, it appears one thing is more seductive than sex -- and that's socialism. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) and 28-year-old Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, winner of a New York Democratic primary, a

      2 min read

    • Article

      The Terrible First Tsar Ivan

      Apr 23, 2020

      The Terrible First Tsar Ivan
      11 min read

    • Article

      What Happened Next

      Mar 18, 2021

      What Happened Next
      3 min read

    • Article

      'Lenin' Illuminates One of History's Most Destructive Leaders

      Nov 13, 2017

      'The regime [Lenin] created was largely shaped by his personality,' writes Victor Sebestyen, 'secretive, suspicious, intolerant, ascetic, intemperate.'

      4 min read

    • Article

      The Russian Empire Must Die

      Nov 14, 2022

      The Russian Empire Must Die
      10 min read

    • Article

      The World’s Greatest Novel?

      May 8, 2020

      The World’s Greatest Novel?
      2 min read

    • Article

      Reading in the Dark

      Feb 1, 2017

      In the age of Trump, literature can sustain those searching for the courage to resist the politics of division.

      4 min read

    • Article

      Enigma From the East

      Dec 3, 2018

      Enigma From the East
      4 min read

    • Article

      Lenin In London

      May 21, 2020

      Lenin In London
      8 min read

    • Article

      Russia’s Doomed Revolution

      Jun 9, 2022

      Russia’s Doomed Revolution
      10 min read

    • Article

      Editorial: Ten Days That Shook a Century: How the Russian Revolution Still Echoes

      Nov 8, 2017

      An editorial from the Los Angeles Times: ------ A band of political radicals seized the reins of power in post-tsarist Russia a century ago this week, installing Vladimir Lenin as their first leader and setting in play some of the forces that made th

      3 min read

    • Article

      Blood-Red Century

      Nov 30, 2017

      Blood-Red Century
      5 min read

    • Article

      We Russians Will Have To Bear Our Guilt Until The Doomed Regime Collapses. For It Surely Will Collapse – The Attack On A Free Ukraine Is The Beginning Of The End Putin’s Crumbling Pyramid Of Power

      Mar 4, 2022

      We Russians Will Have To Bear Our Guilt Until The Doomed Regime Collapses. For It Surely Will Collapse – The Attack On A Free Ukraine Is The Beginning Of The End Putin’s Crumbling Pyramid Of Power
      8 min read

    • Article

      Lenin On Stamps

      Jan 12, 2024

      Lenin On Stamps
      3 min read

    • Article

      In A Nutshell

      Nov 24, 2022

      In A Nutshell
      4 min read

    • Article

      Divided We Stand

      Dec 4, 2018

      Divided We Stand
      13 min read

    • Article

      Muzzled in Moscow

      Jun 24, 2021

      TWO QUOTATIONS from prominent Russians in Assignment Moscow call for juxtaposition. The first comes from Maxim Gorky, world-famous writer and friend to Lenin and the Bolsheviks, who in 1921 appealed “to all honest European and American people” for ai

      4 min read

    • Article

      Stalin’s Scheherazade: Was Nobel Prize-Winner Mikhail Sholokhov a Brilliant Writer or a Communist Con Man?

      Mar 7, 2019

      Rising from obscure, rural origins, Sholokhov impersonated a great writer long enough to truly become one. The post Stalin’s Scheherazade: Was Nobel Prize-Winner Mikhail Sholokhov a Brilliant Writer or a Communist Con Man? appeared first on The Milli

      4 min read

    Related categories

    Reviews for Vladimir Lenin, Joseph Stalin & Leon Trotsky

    3.5/5

    2 ratings0 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

      Book preview

      Vladimir Lenin, Joseph Stalin & Leon Trotsky - Cre

      Enjoying the preview?
      Page 1 of 1