Editing Leninism (section)

=== Debated influence on Stalinism ===
Some historians such as [[Richard Pipes]] consider [[Stalinism]] as the natural consequence of Leninism, that Stalin "faithfully implemented Lenin's domestic and foreign policy programs".<ref>{{cite book |first=Richard |last=Pipes |title=Three Whys of the Russian Revolution |pages=83–84}}</ref> [[Robert Service (historian)|Robert Service]] notes that "institutionally and ideologically Lenin laid the foundations for a Stalin ... but the passage from Leninism to the worse terrors of Stalinism was not smooth and inevitable."<ref>{{cite journal|title=Lenin: Individual and Politics in the October Revolution |journal=[[Modern History Review]] |volume=2 |year=1990 |number=1 |pages=16–19}}</ref> Historian and Stalin biographer [[Edvard Radzinsky]] believes that Stalin was a genuine follower of Lenin, exactly as he claimed himself.<ref name="Radzinsky">{{cite book |first=Edvard |last=Radzinsky |author-link=Edvard Radzinsky |title=Stalin: The First In-depth Biography Based on Explosive New Documents from Russia's Secret Archives |publisher=[[Anchor Books]] |date=1997 |isbn=0-385-47954-9}}</ref> Proponents of [[Continuity of government|continuity]] cite a variety of contributory factors, in that it was Lenin, rather than Stalin, whose [[Russian Civil War|civil war]] measures introduced the [[Red Terror]] with its hostage-taking and [[internment camps]]; that it was Lenin who developed the infamous [[Article 58 (RSFSR Penal Code)|Article 58]] and who established the autocratic system within the [[Communist Party of the Soviet Union|Russian Communist Party]].<ref name="Pipes">{{cite book |first=Richard |last=Pipes |author-link=Richard Pipes |title=Communism: A History |url=https://archive.org/details/communismhistory00pipe |url-access=registration |year=2001 |isbn=978-0-8129-6864-4 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/communismhistory00pipe/page/n90 73]–74 |publisher=[[Random House Publishing]]}}</ref> Proponents also note that Lenin put a [[Ban on factions in the Communist Party of the Soviet Union|ban on factions]] within the party and introduced the [[one-party state]] in 1921, a move that enabled Stalin to get rid of his rivals easily after Lenin's death and cite [[Felix Dzerzhinsky]], who exclaimed during the [[Bolshevik]] struggle against opponents in the [[Russian Civil War]]: "We stand for organized terror—this should be frankly stated."<ref>{{cite book |first=George |last=Leggett |title=The Cheka: Lenin's Political Police |date=1986 |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]]}}</ref>{{page needed|date=October 2024}}

Some scholars have had a differing view and attributed the establishment of the one-party system in the Soviet Union to the wartime conditions imposed on Lenin's government<ref>{{cite book |last1=Rogovin |first1=Vadim Zakharovich |title=Was There an Alternative? Trotskyism: a Look Back Through the Years |date=2021 |publisher=[[Mehring Books]] |isbn=978-1-893638-97-6 |pages=13–14 |language=en}}</ref> and others have highlighted the initial attempts to form a coalition government with the [[Left Socialist-Revolutionaries|Left Socialist Revolutionaries]].<ref>{{cite book |last1=Carr |first1=Edward Hallett |title=The Bolshevik revolution 1917 - 1923. Vol. 1 |date=1977 |publisher=[[Penguin Books]] |isbn=978-0-14-020749-1 |pages=111–112 |edition=Reprinted}}</ref> According to historian [[Marcel Liebman]], Lenin's wartime measures such as banning opposition parties was prompted by the fact that several political parties either [[left-wing uprisings against the Bolsheviks|took up arms]] against the new [[Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic|Soviet government]], or participated in sabotage, [[Collaborationism|collaborated]] with the deposed [[absolute monarchy|Tsarists]], or made [[Assassination attempts on Vladimir Lenin|assassination attempts against Lenin]] and other Bolshevik leaders.<ref name="Leninism Under Lenin">{{cite book |last1=Liebman |first1=Marcel |title=Leninism Under Lenin |date=1985 |publisher=Merlin Press |isbn=978-0-85036-261-9 |pages=1–348 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=OQjzAAAAMAAJ |language=en}}</ref> Liebman also argued that the banning of parties under Lenin did not have the same repressive character as later bans enforced under the Stalinist regime.<ref name="Leninism Under Lenin"/> Several scholars have highlighted the socially progressive nature of Lenin's policies such as [[Universal access to education|universal education]], [[universal healthcare]] and [[Women in Russia|equal rights for women]].<ref>{{cite book |last1=Adams |first1=Katherine H. |last2=Keene |first2=Michael L. |title=After the Vote Was Won: The Later Achievements of Fifteen Suffragists |date=10 January 2014 |publisher=McFarland |isbn=978-0-7864-5647-5 |page=109 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=oyaxYvSG6gAC&dq=lenin+universal+literacy+after+the+vote+was+won&pg=PA109 |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Ugri͡umov |first1=Aleksandr Leontʹevich |title=Lenin's Plan for Building Socialism in the USSR, 1917–1925 |date=1976 |publisher=Novosti Press Agency Publishing House |page=48 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=gXknAQAAMAAJ&q=lenin+universal+literacy |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Service |first1=Robert |title=Lenin: A Political Life |volume=1: The Strengths of Contradiction |date=24 June 1985 |publisher=Springer |isbn=978-1-349-05591-3 |page=98 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ntiuCwAAQBAJ&q=universal+education&pg=PA98 |language=en}}</ref> Conversely, Stalin's regime reversed Lenin's policies on social matters such as [[gender equality|sexual equality]], legal restrictions on [[marriage]], rights of sexual minorities and [[abortion|protective legislation]].<ref>{{cite book |last1=Meade |first1=Teresa A. |author-link=Teresa Meade |last2=Wiesner-Hanks |first2=Merry E. |title=A Companion to Gender History |date=15 April 2008 |publisher=[[John Wiley & Sons]] |isbn=978-0-470-69282-0 |page=197 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ZtQP5why918C&dq=stalin+criminalize+abortion+religion+nationalism&pg=PA197 |language=en}}</ref> Historian [[Robert Vincent Daniels]] also viewed the Stalinist period as a counter-revolution in Soviet cultural life which revived [[Soviet patriotism|patriotic propaganda]], the Tsarist programme of [[Russification]] and traditional, [[military ranks]] which had been criticized by Lenin as expressions of "Great Russian chauvinism".<ref>{{cite book |last1=Daniels |first1=Robert V. |title=The End of the Communist Revolution |date=November 2002 |publisher=[[Routledge]] |isbn=978-1-134-92607-7 |pages=90–94 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ZKeJAgAAQBAJ&dq=stalin+abortion+criminalised&pg=PA94 |language=en}}</ref> Daniels also regarded Stalinism to represent an abrupt break with the Leninist period in terms of economic policies in which a deliberated, [[scientific socialism|scientific system]] of [[economic planning]] that featured former [[Menshevik]] [[economists]] at [[Gosplan]] had been replaced with a hasty version of planning with unrealistic targets, bureaucratic waste, [[Bottleneck (production)|bottlenecks]] and [[shortages]].<ref>{{cite book |last1=Daniels |first1=Robert V. |title=The End of the Communist Revolution |date=November 2002 |publisher=[[Routledge]] |isbn=978-1-134-92607-7 |pages=90–92 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ZKeJAgAAQBAJ&dq=stalin+abortion+criminalised&pg=PA94 |language=en}}</ref>

[[Revisionist historians]] and some [[Post–Cold War era|post–Cold War]] and otherwise [[dissident Soviet]] historians, including [[Roy Medvedev]], argue that "one could list the various measures carried out by Stalin that were actually a continuation of anti-democratic trends and measures implemented under Lenin", but that "in so many ways, Stalin acted, not in line with Lenin's clear instructions, but in defiance of them."<ref>{{cite book |first=Roy |last=Medvedev |author-link=Roy Medvedev |date=1981 |title=Leninism and Western Socialism |publisher=[[Verso Books]]}}</ref>{{page needed|date=June 2024}} In doing so, some historians have tried to distance Stalinism from Leninism to undermine the [[totalitarian]] view that the negative facets of Stalin were inherent in communism from the start.<ref>{{cite book |first=Moshe |last=Lewin |author-link=Moshe Lewin |date=2005 |title=Lenin's Last Testament |publisher=[[University of Michigan Press]]}}</ref>{{page needed|date=June 2024}} Critics include anti-Stalinist communists such as [[Leon Trotsky]], who pointed out that Lenin attempted to persuade the Russian Communist Party to remove Stalin from his post as its [[General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union|General Secretary]]. [[Lenin's Testament]], the document which contained this order, was suppressed after Lenin's death. Trotsky also argued that he and Lenin had intended to lift the ban on the [[List of political parties in the Soviet Union|opposition parties]] such as the [[Mensheviks]] and [[Socialist Revolutionaries]] as soon as the economic and social conditions of [[Soviet Russia]] had improved.<ref name="books.google.com">{{cite book |last1=Deutscher |first1=Isaac |title=The Prophet: The Life of Leon Trotsky |date=5 January 2015 |publisher=[[Verso Books]] |isbn=978-1-78168-721-5 |pages=528 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=YGznDwAAQBAJ&q=isaac+deutscher+trotsky+the+prophet |language=en}}</ref> Various historians have cited Lenin's proposal to appoint Trotsky as a [[Deputy Premier of the Soviet Union|Vice-chairman of the Soviet Union]] as evidence that he intended Trotsky to be his successor as head of government.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Danilov |first1=Victor |last2=Porter |first2=Cathy |title=We Are Starting to Learn about Trotsky |journal=History Workshop |date=1990 |issue=29 |pages=136–146 |jstor=4288968 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/4288968 |issn=0309-2984}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Daniels |first1=Robert V. |title=The Rise and Fall of Communism in Russia |date=1 October 2008 |publisher=Yale University Press |isbn=978-0-300-13493-3 |page=438 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=27JGzAoMLjoC&dq=Victor+Danilov+Trotsky&pg=PA438 |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Watson |first1=Derek |title=Molotov and Soviet Government: Sovnarkom, 1930-41 |date=27 July 2016 |publisher=Springer |isbn=978-1-349-24848-3 |page=25 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xhm_DAAAQBAJ&dq=Trotsky+chairman+rykov&pg=PA25 |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Deutscher |first1=Isaac |title=The prophet unarmed: Trotsky, 1921-1929 |date=1965 |location=New York |publisher= [[Vintage Books]] |isbn=978-0-394-70747-1 |page=135 |url=https://archive.org/details/prophetunarmed00isaa/page/134/mode/2up?q=promote+rykov+}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Dziewanowski |first1=M. K. |title=Russia in the twentieth century |date=2003 |publisher=Upper Saddle River, N.J. : Prentice Hall |isbn=978-0-13-097852-3 |page=162 |url=https://archive.org/details/russiaintwentiet0000dzie/page/162/mode/1up?view=theater}}</ref> In his biography of Trotsky, Polish-British historian [[Isaac Deutscher]] says that, on being faced with the evidence, "only the blind and the deaf could be unaware of the contrast between Stalinism and Leninism."<ref>{{cite book |first=Isaac |last=Deutscher |author-link=Isaac Deutscher |title=Trotsky: The Prophet Unarmed (1921–1929) |url=https://archive.org/details/prophetunarmedtr0000unse_c1b0 |url-access=registration |year=1959 |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |pages=[https://archive.org/details/prophetunarmedtr0000unse_c1b0/page/n497 464]–465}}</ref> According to Stalin's secretary, [[Boris Bazhanov]], Stalin was jubilant over Lenin's death while “publicly putting on the mask of grief”.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Kuromiya |first1=Hiroaki |title=Stalin |date=16 August 2013 |publisher=[[Routledge]] |isbn=978-1-317-86780-7 |page=60 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=BRV4AAAAQBAJ&dq=Stalin+swearing+Lenin+testament&pg=PA59 |language=en}}</ref> French historian [[Pierre Broue]] disputed the historical assessments of the early Soviet Union by modern historians such as [[Dmitri Volkogonov]] in which he argued had falsely equated Leninism, [[Stalinism]] and [[Trotskyism]] to present the notion of ideological continuity and reinforce the position of [[anti-communism|counter-communism]].<ref>{{cite book |last1=Broue |first1=Pierre |title=Trotsky: a biographer's problems. In The Trotsky reappraisal. Brotherstone, Terence; Dukes, Paul,(eds) |date=1992 |publisher=[[Edinburgh University Press]] |isbn=978-0-7486-0317-6 |pages=19, 20}}</ref> Other revisionist historians, such as [[Orlando Figes]], whilst critical of the Soviet era, acknowledge that Lenin had actively sought to counter the growing influence of Stalin through a number of actions such as his alliance with Trotsky in 1922–23, opposition to Stalin on [[foreign trade]], the [[Georgian affair]] and proposed party reforms which included the democratisation of the [[Central Committee]] and recruitment of 50–100 ordinary workers into the lower organs of the party.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Figes |first1=Orlando |title=A people's tragedy : a history of the Russian Revolution |date=1997 |location=New York, NY |publisher=[[Viking Books]] |isbn=978-0-670-85916-0 |pages=796–801 |url=https://archive.org/details/peoplestragedyhi00fige/page/796/mode/2up}}</ref>

[[File:First edition of Krushchev's "Secret Speech".jpg|thumb|180px|{{lang|pl|O kulcie jednostki i jego następstwach}}, Warsaw, March 1956, first edition of the Secret Speech, published for the inner use in the [[PUWP]].]]

[[Nikita Khrushchev]], Stalin's successor, argued that Stalin's regime differed profusely from the leadership of Lenin in his "[[On the Cult of Personality and Its Consequences|Secret Speech]]", delivered in 1956. He was critical of the [[Joseph Stalin's cult of personality|cult of the individual]] which was constructed around Stalin whereas Lenin stressed “the role of the people as the creator of history”.<ref name="archive.org">{{cite book |last1=Khrushchev |first1=Nikita Sergeevich |author1-link=Nikita Khrushchev |title=The Crimes Of The Stalin Era, Special Report To The 20th Congress Of The Communist Party Of The Soviet Union. |date=1956 |pages=1–65 |url=https://archive.org/details/TheCrimesOfTheStalinEraSpecialReportToThe20thCongressOfTheCommunistPartyOfTheSovietUnion.}}</ref> He also emphasized that Lenin favored a [[collective leadership]] which relied on personal persuasion and recommended the removal of Stalin from the position of General Secretary. Khrushchev contrasted this with the “despotism” of Stalin which require absolute submission to his position and he also highlighted that many of the people who were later annihilated as “enemies of the party", "had worked with Lenin during his life”.<ref name="archive.org"/> He also contrasted the “severe methods” used by Lenin in the “most necessary cases” as a “struggle for survival” during the Civil War with the extreme methods and mass repressions used by Stalin even when the Revolution was “already victorious”.<ref name="archive.org"/> In his memoirs, Khrushchev argued that Stalin's widespread purges of the "most advanced nucleus of people" among the [[Old Bolsheviks]] and leading figures in the [[military]] and [[Science and technology in the Soviet Union|scientific]] fields had "undoubtedly" weakened the nation.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Khrushchev |first1=Nikita Sergeevich |last2=Khrushchev |first2=Serge_ |title=Memoirs of Nikita Khrushchev |date=2004 |publisher=[[Penn State Press]] |isbn=978-0-271-02861-3 |page=156 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=uv1zv4FZhFUC&dq=stalin+weaken+soviet+union+old+bolsheviks&pg=PT170 |language=en}}</ref>

Some Marxist theoreticians have disputed the view that the Stalinist dictatorship was a natural outgrowth of the Bolsheviks' actions as most of the original central committee members from 1917 were later eliminated by Stalin.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Grant |first1=Alex |title=Top 10 lies about the Bolshevik Revolution |url=https://www.marxist.com/top-10-lies-about-the-bolshevik-revolution-part-one.htm |website=In Defence of Marxism |language=en-gb |date=1 November 2017}}</ref> [[George Novack]] stressed the initial efforts by the Bolsheviks to form a government with the [[Left Socialist Revolutionaries]] and bring other parties such as the Mensheviks into political legality.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Novack |first1=George |title=Democracy and Revolution |date=1971 |publisher=Pathfinder |isbn=978-0-87348-192-2 |pages=307–347 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=bLMgAQAAIAAJ |language=en}}</ref> [[Tony Cliff]] argued the Bolshevik-Left Socialist Revolutionary coalition government dissolved the democratically elected [[Russian Constituent Assembly]] due to a number of reasons. They cited the outdated voter-rolls which did not acknowledge the split among the Socialist Revolutionary party and the assemblies conflict with the [[All-Russian Congress of Soviets|Russian Congress of the Soviets]] as an alternative democratic structure.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Cliff |first1=Tony |author-link=Tony Cliff |title=Revolution Besieged. The Dissolution of the Constituent Assembly) |url=https://www.marxists.org/archive/cliff/works/1978/lenin3/ch03.html |via=[[Marxists Internet Archive]]}}</ref>

A similar analysis is present in more recent works such as those of Graeme Gill, who argues that "[Stalinism was] not a natural flow-on of earlier developments; [it formed a] sharp break resulting from conscious decisions by leading political actors." However, Gill notes that "difficulties with the use of the term reflect problems with the concept of Stalinism itself. The major difficulty is a lack of agreement about what should constitute Stalinism."<ref>{{cite book |last=Gill |first=Graeme J. |title=Stalinism |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3Pt35DCU580C |year=1998 |publisher=[[Palgrave Macmillan]] |page=1 |isbn=978-0-312-17764-5 |access-date=7 October 2020 |archive-date=16 June 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130616092149/http://books.google.com/books?id=3Pt35DCU580C |url-status=live}}</ref> Revisionist historians such as [[Sheila Fitzpatrick]] have criticized the focus on the upper levels of society and the use of Cold War concepts such as totalitarianism, obscuring the system's reality.<ref>{{cite book |title=Beyond Totalitarianism: Stalinism and Nazism Compared |last1=Geyer |first1=Michael |author1-link=Michael Geyer |last2=Fitzpatrick |first2=Sheila |editor1-first=Michael |editor1-last=Geyer |editor2-first=Sheila |editor2-last=Fitzpatrick |author2-link=Sheila Fitzpatrick |year=2009 |publisher=[[Cambridge University Press]] |isbn=978-0-521-72397-8 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3wzDPQAACAAJ |doi=10.1017/CBO9780511802652 |access-date=7 October 2020 |archive-date=6 February 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210206043119/https://books.google.com/books?id=3wzDPQAACAAJ |url-status=live}}</ref>

Russian historian [[Vadim Rogovin]] stated that "Under Lenin, the freedom to express a real variety of opinions existed in the party, and in carrying out political decisions, consideration was given to the positions of not only the majority, but a minority in the party". He compared this practice with subsequent leadership blocs which violated party tradition, ignored proposals of opponents and expelled the [[Left Opposition|Opposition]] from the party on falsified charges which culminated with the [[Moscow Trials]] of 1936–1938. According to Rogovin, 80-90% of the members of the Central Committee elected at the [[6th Congress of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party (Bolsheviks)|Sixth]] through to the [[17th Congress of the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks)|Seventeenth Congresses]] were physically annihilated.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Rogovin |first1=Vadim Z. |title=Was There an Alternative? 1923-1927: Trotskyism: a Look Back Through the Years |date=2021 |publisher=[[Mehring Books]] |isbn=978-1-893638-96-9 |pages=494–495 |language=en}}</ref>

The [[Right Opposition]] and [[Left Opposition]] have been held by some scholars as representing political alternatives to Stalinism despite their shared beliefs in Leninism due to their policy platforms which were at variance with Stalin. This ranged from areas related to [[socialist economics|economics]], [[foreign policy]] and [[cultural]] matters.<ref>"While Trotsky was strongly biased toward industrial development, there is little basis to suppose that he would have adopted Stalin’s forcible collectivization, slapdash economic planning, anti expert campaigns, or cultural know-nothingism. Neither Trotsky nor Bukharin would have pursued anything like Stalin’s pseudo-revolutionary “[[third period]]” foreign policy and his connivance in the advent of Hitler, another product of his political manoeuvring against the Bukharinists".{{cite book |last1=Daniels |first1=Robert V. |title=The Rise and Fall of Communism in Russia |date=1 October 2008 |publisher=[[Yale University Press]] |page=396 |isbn=978-0-300-13493-3 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=27JGzAoMLjoC |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Day |first1=Richard B. |title=The Blackmail of the Single Alternative: Bukharin, Trotsky and Perestrojka |journal=Studies in Soviet Thought |date=1990 |volume=40 |issue=1/3 |pages=159–188 |doi=10.1007/BF00818977 |jstor=20100543 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/20100543 |issn=0039-3797}}</ref>