Stalin and Lenin
... Compare the characters and beliefs of Lenin and Stalin. Some aspects of Lenin and Stalin’s personalities are the same. Both Lenin and Stalin had no scruples, this means they had no worries about the methods they used to keep in power. ... Lenin and Stalin were also two very diligent men, this meant that they were very hardworking and thorough in their work. ... There were also many differences between Lenin and Stalin’s personalities. Stalin had to change his policies frequently to get more support, where-as Lenin had the respect of other communists and inspired everyone to follow him, without changing his policies to suit everyone else. This is partly shown by the fact that millions of Lenin’s supporters mourned when he died. Lenin was a demagogue, this means that he held everyone’s attention when he spoke, and he was a God like figure. On the other hand, Stalin was called the ‘grey blur’ because he was in the background all the time. Stalin had very little imagination, but Lenin had had clear confident aims. Lenin also had inflexible ambition and was daring and he had iron will. Unlike Stalin who showed no political ambition who was cunning and sly. Stalin was a megalomaniac, this means he was a power freak, he was also good at organising details but he was a poor speaker. Lenin however was a good speaker, but he disliked attention and was not a very good organiser of his things. Lenin was an intellectual and resource man, this meant that his leadership was never challenged. Stalin was different, he was a dull mediocrity, and he was an average man who wasn’t very good at anything. As well as their personalities, Stalin and Lenin’s beliefs also had similarities and differences. Stalin killed everyone he thought was against him, this was called the purges. Similarly, Lenin scared all his opponents using terror and murder; this was called the Red Terror. Both Lenin and Stalin had got rid of their opponents but in different ways. Lenin believed in War Communism, this was when the peasants were forced to hand over their food supply to the Red Army. Also Lenin wanted the immediate war to end. Equally, Stalin believed in industrialisation, this was the five year plans to build up Russia’s industrialisation. ... There were many more difference between Lenin and Stalin’s beliefs. The most important difference was that although both of the man believed in socialism, Stalin wanted to concentrate on it being in one country, where-as Lenin wanted it in the whole world. Stalin wanted socialism in one country. He wanted to concentrate on communism in Russia, which was new to him and only wanted revolution in one country; where-as Stalin wanted world revolution. Lenin wanted the workers to control the industrial production and all land to be given to the peasants, with no compensation the landowner.