Why do people hate vladimir lenin

In fact, it started in Vladimir Putin's own hometown. And as the centennial of the Bolshevik Revolution approaches -- and approaches with Russia's economy heading into a tailspin -- this uncomfortable historical fact is very much on Putin's mind. Speaking to pro-Kremlin activists this week in the southern city of Stavropol, the Kremlin leader raised eyebrows by denouncing Soviet founder Vladimir Lenin and the Bolsheviks for executing Tsar Nicholas II along with all his family and servants, killing thousands of priests, and placing a "time bomb" under the Russian state.

Putin's comments expanded on remarks he made in Moscow on January 21 , the 92nd anniversary of Lenin's death. In the end that idea led to the fall of the Soviet Union," he said.

The Kremlin leader's flurry of anti-Lenin comments is only the most recent example of the regime's skittishness and schizophrenia about how to approach next year's big anniversary. They also illustrate palpable fears among the Russian elite that could turn out to be a revolutionary year. Putin's Kremlin fears any revolution "regardless of its color or meaning" because "the present-day Russian authorities subconsciously fear an analogous outcome for themselves," political commentator Alina Vitukhnovskaya wrote recently.

Instead of marking the 98th anniversary of the Bolshevik Revolution on November 7, Russia commemorated the 74th anniversary of a parade that marked the 24th anniversary of the revolution. Thousands gathered on Red Square for a reenactment of the massive November 7, military parade that both marked the revolution -- and also sent Russian soldiers off to fight in World War II.

But which Soviet past the Kremlin has chosen to glorify speaks volumes about the regime's thinking -- and its fears. The idealism and upheaval of is out. The military discipline of Josef Stalin's Soviet Union is in. Revolution is out. Repression and mobilization are in. Lenin the revolutionary out. Or, if you are already a subscriber Sign in. Other options. Close drawer menu Financial Times International Edition. Search the FT Search. World Show more World. US Show more US.

Companies Show more Companies. Markets Show more Markets. Opinion Show more Opinion. Lenin was, of course, more right than he could have known.

Stalin, whom Lenin also described as "coarse" and "intolerable" would indeed go onto betray the ideals of the revolution, and victimise his own people. That was a terrible crime, but not one which we can lay at the feet of Lenin. Stalin was bad. But here's the ugly truth: Lenin was the same. No: Lenin erected the very apparatus of the police state, and simply passed the baton of brutality to Stalin. Lenin, says Ryan, was "the first and most significant Marxist theorist to dramatically elevate the role of violence as revolutionary instrument".

Consider that number for a moment. As Richard Pipes says, Lenin had such "utter disregard for human life, except where his own family and closest associates were concerned. The aim of the Terror was described by one of Lenin's foot soldiers as being to "kill our enemies in scores of hundreds For the blood of Lenin Lenin ordered the creation of the Cheka, the secret police organisation which was a model for Hitler's Gestapo.

The Cheka were responsible for unspeakable cruelties - their methods included crowning victims with barbed wire, stoning them to death, dunking people in boiling water, and scalping them.

Lenin himself explicitly and proudly declared that "terror" was their aim. Anyone questioning the revolution was fair game.