New Economic Developments in Peasant Life

by Vladimir Ilich Lenin

It took a good deal of negotiation and courage for Lenin and a group of like-minded Russian revolutionaries to travel from Switzerland back to Russia through the enemy country of Germany. The man who returned to Russia in the spring of 1917 was of medium height, quite bald, except for the back of his head, with a reddish beard. The features of his face were strikingslanted eyes that looked piercingly at others, and high cheek-bones under a towering forehead. The rest of his appearance was deceptively ordinary.

Fluent in many languages, Lenin spoke Russian with a slight speech defect but was a powerful public speaker in small groups as well as before large audiences. A tireless worker, he made others work tirelessly. He tried to push those who worked with him to devote every ounce of their energy to the revolutionary task at hand. He was impatient with any other activities, including small talk and discussions of political theories. Indeed, he was suspicious of intellectuals and felt most at home in the company of simple folk. Having been brought up in the tradition of the Russian nobility, Lenin loved hunting, hiking, horseback riding, boating, mushroom hunting, and the outdoor life in general.

Once he had returned to Russia, Lenin worked constantly to use the revolutionary situation that had been created by the fall of the czar and convert it into a proletarian revolution that would bring his own party into power. As a result of his activities, opinions in Russia quickly became more and more sharply at odds. Moderate forces found themselves less and less able to maintain any control. In the end, by October 1917 power fell into the hands of the Bolsheviks. As a result of the so-called October Revolution, Lenin found himself not only the leader of his party but also the chairman of the Council of People's Commissars (equivalent to prime minister) of the newly proclaimed Russian Socialist Federative Soviet Republic (the basis for the future Union of Soviet Socialist Republics).

Unknown Binding

First published January 1, 1893

About the author

Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov, better known as Vladimir Lenin, was a Russian revolutionary, leader of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party (Bolsheviks), statesman and political theorist. After the October Revolution he served as the first and founding head of government of Soviet Russia from 1917 until his death in 1924 and of the Soviet Union from 1922 until his death in 1924.

Reviews

[Derek · Rating 4 out of 5]

Idk anything about farming but lenin made points. Postnikov shouldve realized that fr

[Jonathan · Rating 2 out of 5]

I know it's a controversial view even amongst the far left but I think Lenin was pretty great and contributed a lot to Marxism theoretically. Whilst the bureaucracy under the his leadership did grow and this would be exacerbated enormously under Stalin's rule to try and link Lenin to the counter-revolutionary Stalin can only be done in a very superficial manner which ignores the material conditions Lenin dealt with under his rule, which while not excusing some of his more questionable decisions, does give them context.

Having said that this essay opening volume one of his collected works is pretty rubbish. While I'm sure it was of interest of the time it has little interest to the modern world, being about the Russian peasantry of the late 19th century and being bogged down in statistical data. What I did enjoy about it is that it showed even this early Lenin had a pretty good grasp of dialectics, although full of statistics like I said he doesn't confine himself to those statistics and doesn't treat the peasantry statically, he places them in the context of the times in which he's writing and makes his observations based on that. Unfortunately his observations aren't very interesting.

Well obviously for me they're not interesting, I'm sure for someone more interested in the history of that period in Russia they'd have a very different view of it than me, but I'm primarily interested in Lenin for his revolutionary theory and as I hope I've made clear this really is more of a historical artefact than anything else. If theory is a weapon then this essay is a butter knife.

I would recommend it to people with an interest in Russian history and people who think reading everything Lenin ever wrote down to drawings he done as a child is necessary to understand the man and his theory.

[Matvey xd · Rating 5 out of 5]

:thumbsup:

[Claire Binkley · Rating 3 out of 5]

I noted while reading this why V.I. Lenin is so scary.

I like this book since it smells so nice, which is somewhat shallow, but the best I can say about the dreadful Vladimir Ilyich Lenin.

I thought while reflecting on the economic development of peasant life that peasants don't have money, so they automatically don't have capital. The economy of peasants is different, in terms of labour and energy expense.