To What Extent Can Lenin be Regarded as the Most Significant Figure in Russia Between 1855 and 1924?
...justifiedly that Alexander III was the most significant figure in Russia at this time. If only more than Alexander II because many of his own actions and policies completely undermined those of his father. Another figure that can also be claimed to be the most significant of this time is Leon Trotsky. During the bloody Civil War when Soviet Russia was invaded by 21 foreign armies of intervention, and when the survival of the Revolution was in the balance, it was Trotsky that organized the Red Army and personally led the fight against the counterrevolutionary White armies, traveling thousands of kilometers in the famous armored train. “Show me another man”, he (Lenin) said, thumping the table “capable of organizing in a year an almost exemplary army and moreover of winning the esteem of the military specialists.” The fact that Lenin himself suggested that no other man, including himself, could have led the red army in such a successful way shows just how significant Trotsky was in Russia as a revolutionary as well illustrating that at this time Lenin saw Trotsky as something of an equal and a commendable ally. Trotsky’s role in consolidating the first Workers’ State in the world was not confined to the Red Army though, he also played the leading role, together with Lenin, in the building of the Third International, for the first four congresses of which Trotsky wrote the Manifestos and many of the most important policy statements; the period of economic reconstruction in which Trotsky reorganized the shattered railway systems of the USSR. In addition, Trotsky found time to write penetrating studies, not just on political questions but on art and literature (Literature and Revolution). Another reason why Trotsky can be seen as a more significant figure than Lenin is that even after Lenin’s death Trotsky continued his work as a revolutionary, and was seen, even at an old age, as such a rival and threat by Stalin, admittedly suffering from major paranoia, that he had him executed in 1940. Lenin is considered by many to be the most significant figure of this time for many reasons. The major reason is the extent Lenin believed in revolutionary work. On December 7, 1895, he was arrested and held by authorities for fourteen months, then exiled to the village of Shushenskoye in Siberia for the role he played in revolutionary propaganda. Even whilst in exile he continued to write about revolutionary ideas and in April 1899, he published the book “The Development of Capitalism in Russia” and founded the revolutionary newspaper “Iskra”. Lenin was also active in the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party and in 1903 he led the Bolshevik faction after a split with the Mensheviks that was partly inspired by his pamphlet “What is to be Done?”. In 1906 he was elected to the Presidium of the RSDLP. Lenin’s reputation as a revolutionary meant that after the 1917 revolution, even though he was isolated in Switzerland, Lenin was able to secure passage back to Russia through Germany. This was made possible by Kaiser Wilhelm II who is thought to have believed that Lenin would cause political unrest in Russia and end the war on Germany’s Eastern Front. The kaiser himself took the precaution of sending Lenin back in a sealed train and forbidding him to set foot outside of it whilst on German soil. On April 16, 1917, Lenin returned to Petrograd and took a leading role within the Bolshevik movement, publishing the April Theses which called for an uncompromising opposition to the provisional government. Initially by this lurch to the left Lenin isolated his party however, this uncompromising stand meant that the Bolsheviks were to become the obvious home for the masses as they became disillusioned with the provisional government. These factors show that Lenin was a very significant figure in this period but yet was to become even more so as he was elected as the Chairman of the Council of People's Commissars by the Russian Soviet Congress on November 8. Lenin’s first act in this position was to suggest a peace treaty between Russia and Germany however he met the oppositon of many of the other Bolshevic leading figures, including Trotsky, untill Geramny invaded and much of Russias western terriotories were lost. Due to this many of the Bolshavik leaders conceeded and gave Lenin their support. On March 3, 1918, Lenin removed Russia from World War I by agreeing to the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk. Under this treaty, Russia lost Ukraine, Finland, the Baltic states, and large areas to Poland. In 1919 a civil war broke out in Russia, the white army (Tzarists) versus the red army (bolshaviks, now renaimed communists). Spurred on by the victory of the red army Lenin bgan to believ that the time was right to spread the revolution to the West. Lenin saw Poland as the bridge that the Red Army would have to cross in order to link up the Russian Revolution with the communist supporters in the German Revolution, and to assist other communist movements in Western Europe. However the defeat of Soviet Russia in the Polish-...