V. I. Lenin: A Brief Sketch of His Life and Activities

by Marx-Engels-Lenin Institute

332 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1943

About the author

The Marx–Engels–Lenin Institute, established in Moscow in 1919 as the Marx–Engels Institute (Russian: Институт К. Маркса и Ф. Энгельса), was a Soviet library and archive attached to the Communist Academy. The Institute was later attached to the governing Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union and served as a research center and publishing house for officially published works of Marxist thought.

The Marx–Engels Institute gathered unpublished manuscripts by Karl Marx, Friedrich Engels, Vladimir Lenin and other leading Marxist theoreticians as well as collecting books, pamphlets and periodicals related to the socialist and organized labor movements. By 1930, the facility's holdings included more than 400,000 books and journals and more than 55000 original and photocopy documents by Marx and Engels alone, making it one of the largest holdings of socialist-related material in the world.

In February 1931, director of the Marx–Engels Institute David Riazanov and others on the staff were purged for ideological reasons. In November of that same year, the Marx–Engels Institute was merged with the larger and less scholarly Lenin Institute (established in 1923) to form the Marx–Engels–Lenin Institute and its director became Vladimir Adoratsky.

The Institute was the coordinating authority for the systematic organization of documents released in the multi-volume editions of the Collected Works of Marx, Engels, Lenin, Stalin and numerous other official publications. It was officially terminated in November 1991, with the bulk of its archival holdings now residing with a successor organization, the Russian State Archive of Socio-Political History (RGASPI).

Reviews

[Lentšik Tiiger Linin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Väga põnev, motiveeriv ja traagiline(lõpu osa). Pani palju emotsioone tundma.
Pole 5 tärni sellep et ei räägitud monest asjast millest ma oleks tahtnud rohkem kuulda v mis jäeti üldse mainimata, aga noh nagu pealkiri ütleb siis "lühike ülevaade".(minu raamat 160lk ka)
Millalgi tulevikus tahax pikemat biograafiat ka lugeda, nii külluslik ja huvitav elu lis.
Ning kuna ta elu nii ajalooga kaasas otseselt siis paralleelselt saad 19saj lopu ja 20saj alguse sotsialismi liikumisest ka palju teada. See on nagu samal ajal lis NSV tekkimise ajalugu x lenini biograafia. Meeletult põnev!

[Voyager · Rating 5 out of 5]

Without a doubt the best biography of Lenin I have read. Avoiding the attempts to make him look like a spineless coward bereft of principle like later biographies from the time of Khrushchev and beyond, this biography, written during the height of World War II certainly with the intent of raising the spirits of the Soviet people by inspiring them with the history of the founder of their state and father of Bolshevism, tells Lenin's life as it was: a life of unending struggle against all enemies of the working class and for the defence of the principles of Marxism.

This biography, being written by the staff of the Marx-Engels-Lenin Institute of the Soviet Union, breaks with the trend of bourgeois and later revisionist historians who fail to analyse Lenin's life and position from the perspective of dialectical materialism, the authors being educated Marxists themselves and brilliantly applying the Marxist method of historical analysis to the life of Lenin. For example, the authors show how Lenin's upbringing from a family of intellectuals and educators, close to the poorest of the Russian Empire, and certain trends both in Russian society and government at the time imbued in Lenin a progressive mindset eventually leading him to Marxism. The authors are likewise able to analyse brilliantly, with extensive citations, the key works of Lenin like What is to be Done?, One Step Forward..., and Imperialism..., and go to great efforts, drawing from the works of Lenin along with the reminiscences of those who knew him, to show the thinking of Lenin at different periods and on the most burning questions. All of this gives the book a tremendous theoretical value, showing how the father of Bolshevism thought and worked, in addition to satisfying a biographical interest.

From a biographical and theoretical perspective, I cannot recommend this book enough.

[Odhran · Rating 3 out of 5]

The most interesting thing about this was the bit, near the end, where the time Lenin left Stalin a note was the subject of discussion. Quite obvious that it was all about justifying Stalin's rule.