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Vladimir Lenin

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   Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov "Lenin"
   Влади́мир Ильи́ч Улья́нов, "Ле́нин"
   Vladimir Lenin
     __________________________________________________________________

   Chairman of the Council of People's Commissars
   In office
   November 8, 1917 –  January 24, 1924
   Preceded by Alexander Kerensky
   Succeeded by Alexey Ivanovich Rykov
     __________________________________________________________________

   Born April 22, 1870
   Simbirsk, Russia
   Died January 21, 1924
   Moscow, USSR
   Political party Bolshevik Party
   Profession Politician

   Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov (Russian: Владимир Ильич Ульянов, better known
   by the alias Lenin  (Ленин)) ( April 22, 1870 – January 21, 1924), was
   a Russian revolutionary, a communist politician, the main leader of the
   October Revolution, the first head of Soviet Russia, and the primary
   theorist of the ideology that has come to be called Leninism, which is
   a variant of Marxism.

Early life

   Vladimir Ulyanov (Lenin) circa 1887
   Enlarge
   Vladimir Ulyanov (Lenin) circa 1887

   Born in Simbirsk, Russian Empire (now Ulyanovsk), Lenin was the son of
   Frank , a Russian official in public education who worked for
   progressive democracy and free universal education in Russia, and Maria
   Alexandrovna Ulyanova. The family was of mixed ethnic ancestry.
   "Lenin's antecedents were Russian, Kalmyk, Jewish, German and Swedish,
   and possibly others". Lenin was baptized into the Russian Orthodox
   Church.

   Two tragedies occurred early in his life. The first occurred when his
   father died of a cerebral hemorrhage in 1886. In May 1887, his eldest
   brother Alexander Ulyanov was hanged for participating in a terrorist
   plot (bomb attack) threatening the life of Tsar Alexander III; his
   sister Anna, who was with Alexander at the time of his arrest, was
   banished to his family estate, the village of Kokushkino, about 40 km
   (25 mi) off Kazan. This radicalized Lenin. His official Soviet
   biographies have this event as central to his revolutionary exploits. A
   famous painting by Belousov, "We Will Follow a Different Path",
   reprinted in millions of Soviet textbooks, depicted young Lenin and his
   mother grieving the loss of his elder brother. The phrase "We will
   follow a different path" meant that Lenin chose a Marxist approach for
   a popular revolution, instead of anarchistic, individualistic methods.
   As Lenin became interested in Marxism, he got involved in student
   protests and was subsequently arrested. He was then expelled from Kazan
   University. He continued to study independently and by 1891 had earned
   a license to practice law. He also distinguished himself in Latin and
   Greek, and also learned German, French and English. Lenin is also
   credited with translating the Communist Manifesto into Russian in the
   period between being expelled from the University and obtaining his
   license to practice law.

Philosophical work

   Lenin was an author of several theoretical works in philosophy such as
   Materialism and Empiriocriticism which became fundamental in
   Marxist-Leninist philosophy.

Revolutionary

   Lenin worked for some years in Samara, Russia, then in 1893 moved to St
   Petersburg. Rather than settling into a legal career, he became more
   involved in revolutionary propaganda efforts and the study of Marxism.
   On December 7, 1895, he was arrested and held by authorities for 14
   months, then exiled to the village of Shushenskoye in Siberia.
   Lenin's mug shot, Dec. 1895
   Enlarge
   Lenin's mug shot, Dec. 1895

   In July 1898, he married Nadezhda Krupskaya, who was a socialist
   activist. In April 1899, he published the book The Development of
   Capitalism in Russia. In 1900 his exile ended and he travelled in
   Russia and elsewhere in Europe. He lived in Zurich, Geneva (where he
   lectured and studied at Geneva State University), Munich, Prague,
   Vienna, Manchester and London, and during his exile co-founded the
   newspaper Iskra with Julius Martov, later a leading opponent. He also
   wrote several articles and books related to the revolutionary movement.
   At this period, he started using various aliases, finally settling upon
   Lenin.

   He was active in the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party (RSDLP;
   РСДРП in Russian), and in 1903 he led the Bolshevik faction after a
   split with the Mensheviks that was partly inspired by his pamphlet What
   is to be Done?. This is said to be one of the most influential
   pamphlets in pre-revolutionary Russia, with Lenin himself claiming that
   3 out of 5 workers had read it or had it read to them. In 1906 he was
   elected to the Presidium of the RSDLP. In 1907, he moved to Finland for
   security reasons. He continued to travel in Europe and participated in
   many socialist meetings and activities, including the Prague Party
   Conference of 1912 and the Zimmerwald Conference of 1915. Lenin was the
   main leader of the Zimmerwald Left. When Inessa Armand left Russia and
   settled in Paris, she met Lenin and other Bolsheviks living in exile,
   and it is believed that she became Lenin's lover during this time.
   Lenin later moved to Switzerland.
   House where Lenin lived in 1916 in Zurich, Switzerland.
   Enlarge
   House where Lenin lived in 1916 in Zurich, Switzerland.

   When the First World War began in 1914 and the large Social Democratic
   parties of Europe (at that time self-described as Marxist), including
   luminaries such as Karl Kautsky, supported their various countries' war
   efforts, Lenin was shocked, at first refusing to believe that the
   German Social Democrats had voted for war credits. This led him to a
   final split with the Second International, which was composed of these
   parties. Lenin adopted the position that what he described as an
   'imperialist war' should be turned into a civil war between the
   classes.

   After the 1917 February Revolution in Russia and the overthrow of Tsar
   Nicholas II, Lenin knew he needed to travel back to Russia as soon as
   possible. But he was isolated in neutral Switzerland as the First World
   War was raging. The Swiss communist Fritz Platten, however, managed to
   negotiate with the German government for Lenin and his company to
   travel through Germany by train. The German government hoped Lenin
   would cause political unrest back in Russia, which would help to end
   the war on the Eastern front. Once through Germany, Lenin continued by
   ferry to Sweden, and the rest of the trip through Scandinavia was
   arranged by the Swedish communists Otto Grimlund and Ture Nerman.

   On April 16, 1917 Lenin arrived in Petrograd and took a leading role
   within the Bolshevik movement, publishing the April Theses, which
   called for an uncompromising opposition to the provisional government.
   Initially, Lenin isolated his party through this lurch to the left.
   However, this uncompromising stand meant that the Bolsheviks were to
   become the obvious home for all those who became disillusioned with the
   provisional government, and with the "luxury of opposition" the
   Bolsheviks did not have to assume responsibility for any policies
   implemented by the government.
   Lenin disguised as "Vilén" wearing a wig and with his beard shaved off
   in Finland August 11, 1917
   Enlarge
   Lenin disguised as " Vilén" wearing a wig and with his beard shaved off
   in Finland August 11, 1917

   Meanwhile, Aleksandr Kerensky and other opponents of the Bolsheviks
   accused Lenin of being a paid German agent. In response Leon Trotsky,
   formerly a Menshevik, but now moving closer to the Bolshevik position,
   made a defensive speech on July 17, saying: "An intolerable atmosphere
   has been created, in which you as well as we are choking. They are
   throwing dirty accusations at Lenin and Zinoviev. Lenin has fought
   thirty years for the revolution. I have fought twenty years against the
   oppression of the people. And we cannot but cherish a hatred for German
   militarism. ... I have been sentenced by a German court to eight
   months’ imprisonment for my struggle against German militarism. This
   everybody knows. Let nobody in this hall say that we are hirelings of
   Germany."

   After a failed Bolshevik rising in July, Lenin fled to Finland for
   safety. Here he wrote " State and Revolution" , which called for a new
   form of government based on workers' councils, or soviets elected and
   revocable at all moments by the workers. He returned to Petrograd in
   October, inspiring the October Revolution with the slogan "All Power to
   the Soviets!" Lenin directed the overthrow of the Provisional
   Government from the Smolny Institute from the 6th to the 8th of
   November 1917. The storming and capitulation of the Winter Palace on
   the night of the 7th to 8th of November marked the beginning of Soviet
   rule.

Head of the Soviet state

   On November 8, Lenin was elected as the Chairman of the Council of
   People's Commissars by the Russian Soviet Congress.

   "Communism is Soviet power plus the electrification of the entire
   country," Lenin said, emphasizing the importance of bringing
   electricity to all corners of Russia and modernizing industry and
   agriculture. "We must show the peasants that the organization of
   industry on the basis of modern, advanced technology, on
   electrification which will provide a link between town and country,
   will put an end to the division between town and country, will make it
   possible to raise the level of culture in the countryside and to
   overcome, even in the most remote corners of land, backwardness,
   ignorance, poverty, disease, and barbarism." He was very concerned
   about creating a free universal health care system for all, the
   emancipation of women, and teaching the illiterate Russian people to
   read and write. But first and foremost, the new Bolshevik government
   needed to take Russia out of the World War.

   Faced with the threat of a continuing German advance eastwards, Lenin
   argued that Russia should immediately sign a peace treaty. Other
   Bolshevik leaders, such as Bukharin, advocated continuing the war as a
   means of fomenting revolution in Germany. Trotsky, who led the
   negotiations, advocated an intermediate position, of "No War, No
   Peace", calling for a peace treaty only on the conditions that no
   territorial gains on either side be consolidated. After the
   negotiations collapsed, the Germans renewed their advance, resulting in
   the loss of much of Russia's western territory. As a result of this
   turn of events, Lenin's position consequently gained the support of the
   majority in the Bolshevik leadership. On March 3, 1918, Lenin removed
   Russia from World War I by agreeing to the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk,
   under which Russia lost significant territories in Europe.

   After the Bolsheviks lost the elections for the Russian Constituent
   Assembly, they used the Red Guards to shut down the first session of
   the Assembly on January 19 and relied on support from the soviets. This
   marked the beginning of the steady elimination from political life of
   all factions and parties whose views did not correspond to the position
   taken by Lenin and the Bolsheviks, especially as further exhibited by
   the Civil War pattern of repeatedly dissolving not-so-favourable
   Congresses of Soviets.
   Joseph Stalin, Vladimir Lenin and Mikhail Kalinin 1919
   Enlarge
   Joseph Stalin, Vladimir Lenin and Mikhail Kalinin 1919

   The Bolsheviks formed a coalition government with the left wing of the
   Socialist Revolutionaries. However, their coalition collapsed after the
   Social Revolutionaries opposed the Brest-Litovsk treaty, and joined
   other parties in seeking to overthrow the Bolshevik government. Lenin
   responded to these efforts by a policy of wholesale persecution, which
   included jailing some of the members of the opposing parties.

   Lenin had a certain admiration for the Irish socialist revolutionary
   James Connolly, and the Soviet Union was the first country to recognise
   the Irish Republic.

   Lenin in his Kremlin office, 1918
   Enlarge
   Lenin in his Kremlin office, 1918

Creation of the secret police

   From early 1918, Lenin campaigned for a single, democratically
   accountable individual to be put in charge of each enterprise, contrary
   to most conceptions of workers' self-management, but absolutely
   essential for efficiency and expertise. As S.A. Smith wrote: "By the
   end of the civil war, not much was left of the democratic forms of
   industrial administration promoted by the factory committees in 1917,
   but the government argued that this did not matter since industry had
   passed into the ownership of a workers' state."

   To protect the newly-established Bolshevik government from
   counterrevolutionaries and other political opponents, the Bolsheviks
   created a secret police, the Cheka. The Bolsheviks had planned to hold
   a trial for the former Tsar, but in August 1918, when the White Army
   was advancing on Yekaterinburg (where the once royal family was being
   held), Sverdlov acceded to the request of the local Soviet to execute
   the Tsar right away, rather than having him taken by the Whites. In the
   event both the Tsar and the rest of his immediate family was executed,
   though whether this was a decision of the central government or the
   local Soviet remains the subject of historical dispute. (For the most
   recent and most extensive investigation into these murky events and
   into the question of who was ultimately responsible for the killings
   see The Fate of the Romanovs (2003) by Greg King and Penny Wilson .)
   Lenin and Fritz Platten in 1919.
   Enlarge
   Lenin and Fritz Platten in 1919.

Assassination attempt

   On January 14, 1918, an assassination attempt was made against Lenin’s
   car in Petrograd by unknown gunmen. Lenin and Fritz Platten were in the
   back of the car together, after having given a public speech. When the
   shooting started, "Platten grabbed Lenin by the head and pushed him
   down. ... Platten’s hand was covered in blood, having been grazed by a
   bullet as he was shielding Lenin."

   On August 30, 1918, Fanya Kaplan, a member of the Socialist
   Revolutionary Party, approached Lenin after he had spoken at a meeting
   and was on the way to his car. She called out to Lenin, who turned to
   answer. She immediately fired three shots, two of which struck him in
   the shoulder and lung. Lenin was taken to his apartment in the Kremlin,
   refusing to venture to a hospital since he believed that other
   assassins would be waiting there. Doctors were summoned but decided
   that it was too dangerous to remove the bullets. Lenin eventually
   recovered, though his health declined from this point. It is believed
   that the incident contributed to his later strokes.
   Lenin with Trotsky and soldiers in Kronstadt, 1921
   Enlarge
   Lenin with Trotsky and soldiers in Kronstadt, 1921

   The Communist government responded to the assassination attempt, and to
   the increasingly mobilizing anti-communist offensive of which it was a
   component, with what they termed the Red Terror. Tens of thousands of
   real and perceived enemies of the Revolution, many accused of actively
   conspiring against the Bolshevik government, were executed or put in
   labor camps. The Red Terror coincided with the escalation of the Civil
   War and the implementation of a policy known as War Communism. Amongst
   other things this involved forced grain requisitions from the
   peasantry, and became a cause of widespread famine. .

   According to Orlando Figes, Lenin had always been an advocate of "mass
   terror against enemies of the revolution" and was open about his view
   that the proletarian state was a system of organized violence against
   the capitalist establishment. Figes also claims that the terror, while
   encouraged by the Bolsheviks, had its roots in a popular anger against
   the privileged. When in late 1918 Kamenev and Bukharin tried to curb
   the "excesses" of the Cheka, it was Lenin who defended it. Lenin
   remained an enthusiastic advocate of mass terror. In 1922, on his
   instigation, some 8000 priests and laymen were executed, following an
   uprising by the clergy in the textile town of Shuia.

Russian Communist Party and civil war

   In March 1919, Lenin and other Bolshevik leaders met with revolutionary
   socialists from around the world and formed the Communist
   International. Members of the Communist International, including Lenin
   and the Bolsheviks themselves, broke off from the broader socialist
   movement. From that point onwards, they would become known as
   communists. In Russia, the Bolshevik Party was renamed the " Russian
   Communist Party (Bolsheviks)," which eventually became the CPSU.

   Meanwhile, the civil war raged across Russia. A wide variety of
   political movements and their supporters took up arms to support or
   overthrow the Soviet government. Although many different factions were
   involved in the civil war, the two main forces were the Red Army
   (communists) and the White Army (traditionalists). Foreign powers such
   as France, Britain, the United States and Japan also intervened in this
   war (on behalf of the White Army), though their impact was peripheral
   at best. Eventually, the more organizationally proficient Red Army, led
   by Leon Trotsky, won the civil war, defeating the White Russian forces
   and their allies in 1920. Smaller fights, however, continued for
   several more years.
   "Comrade Lenin Cleanses the Earth of Filth," 1920 Communist poster
   Enlarge
   "Comrade Lenin Cleanses the Earth of Filth," 1920 Communist poster

   Both White and Red Army forces, during this tumultuous time of war and
   revolution, "behaved with great brutality and cruelty in areas they
   controlled. Towns were burned, property destroyed or stolen, peasant
   farmers' crops and livestock taken by force — if people objected, they
   faced torture and execution." Far from being dictated by military
   necessity, Brovkin has argued that this level of terror was highly
   counterproductive. Alienation of the population behind the lines can
   explain, according to him, both red and white defeats during the civil
   war.

   In late 1919, successes against the White Russian forces convinced
   Lenin that it was time to spread the revolution to the West, by force
   if necessary. When the newly independent Second Polish Republic began
   securing its eastern territories annexed by Russia in the partitions of
   Poland in the late 18th century, it clashed with Bolshevik forces for
   dominance in these areas, which led to the outbreak of the
   Polish-Soviet War in 1919. With the revolution in Germany and the
   Spartacist League on the rise, Lenin viewed this as the perfect time
   and place to "probe Europe with the bayonets of the Red Army." Lenin
   saw Poland as the bridge that the Red Army would have to cross in order
   to link up the Russian Revolution with the communist supporters in the
   German Revolution, and to assist other communist movements in Western
   Europe. However the defeat of Soviet Russia in the Polish-Soviet War
   invalidated these plans.

   Lenin was a harsh critic of imperialism. In 1917 he declared the
   unconditional right of self-determination and separation for national
   minorities and oppressed nations, usually defined as those
   nation-states that were previously subject to capitalist imperial
   control. However, when the Russian Civil War was won he used military
   force to assimilate the newly independent nations Armenia, Georgia, and
   Azerbaijan, arguing that the inclusion of those countries into the
   newly emerging Soviet government would shelter them from capitalist
   imperial ambitions.

   The long years of war, the Bolshevik policy of War communism, the
   Russian famine of 1921, and the encirclement of hostile governments
   took their toll on Russia, however, and much of the country lay in
   ruins. There were many peasant uprisings, the largest being the Tambov
   rebellion. After an uprising by the sailors at Kronstadt in March 1921,
   Lenin replaced the policy of War Communism with the New Economic Policy
   (NEP), in a successful attempt to rebuild industry and especially
   agriculture. The new policy was based on a recognition of political and
   economic realities, though it was intended merely as a tactical retreat
   from the socialist ideal. The whole policy was later reversed by
   Stalin.

Lenin's stance on anti-Semitism

   - On a gramophone recording in 1919, Lenin stated: - - "The Tsarist
   police, in alliance with the landowners and the capitalists, organized
   pogroms against the Jews. The landowners and capitalists tried to
   divert the hatred of the workers and peasants who were tortured by want
   against the Jews. ... Only the most ignorant and downtrodden people can
   believe the lies and slander that are spread about the Jews. ... It is
   not the Jews who are the enemies of the working people. The enemies of
   the workers are the capitalists of all countries. Among the Jews there
   are working people, and they form the majority. They are our brothers,
   who, like us, are oppressed by capital; they are our comrades in the
   struggle for socialism. ... Shame on accursed Tsarism which tortured
   and persecuted the Jews. Shame on those who foment hatred towards the
   Jews, who foment hatred towards other nations." - - While Lenin
   remained opposed to outward forms of anti-semitism (and all forms of
   racism), allowing Jewish people to rise to the highest offices in both
   party and state, the record of his government in this regard was highly
   uneven. The 1921 campaign against religion saw the seizure of many
   synagogues. Lenin, moreover, was aware of pogroms carried out by units
   of the Red Army during the war with Poland, though the whole issue was
   effectively ignored. It has been said of this by the Russian historian
   Dimitri Volkogonov that "While condemning anti-Semitism in general,
   Lenin was unable to analyse, let alone eradicate, its prevalence in
   Soviet society." - - However, according to Jewish historian Zvi
   Gitelman: "Never before in Russian history - and never subsequently has
   a government made such an effort to uproot and stamp out
   anti-Semitism". -

Later life

   Kamenev and Lenin at Gorki Leninskiye, 1922
   Enlarge
   Kamenev and Lenin at Gorki Leninskiye, 1922

   Lenin's health had already been severely damaged by the strains of
   revolution and war. The assassination attempt earlier in his life also
   added to his health problems. The bullet was still lodged in his neck,
   too close to his spine for medical techniques of the time to remove. In
   May 1922, Lenin had his first stroke. He was left partially paralyzed
   on his right side, and his role in government declined. After the
   second stroke in December of the same year, he resigned from active
   politics. In March 1923, he suffered his third stroke and was left
   bedridden for the remainder of his life, no longer able to speak.

   After his first stroke, Lenin dictated several papers regarding the
   government to his wife. Most famous of these is Lenin's Testament,
   which among other things criticized top-ranking communists, especially
   Joseph Stalin. Of Stalin, who had been the Communist Party's general
   secretary since April 1922, Lenin said that he had "unlimited authority
   concentrated in his hands" and suggested that "comrades think about a
   way of removing Stalin from that post." Upon Lenin's death, his wife
   mailed his Testament to the central committee, to be read at the 13th
   Party Congress in May 1924. However, because the will criticized all of
   the most prominent figures in the central committee: Zinoviev, Kamenev,
   Bukharin and Stalin, the committee had a vested interest in not
   releasing the will to the wider public. The central committee justified
   this by stating that Lenin had been mentally ill in his final years
   and, as such, his final judgments were not to be trusted. Lenin's
   Testament was first officially published in 1926 in the United States
   by Max Eastman.

   Lenin died on January 24, 1924 (not January 21), aged 53. Rumors of
   Lenin having syphilis sprang up shortly after his death. The official
   cause given for Lenin's death was cerebral arteriosclerosis, or a
   fourth stroke. But out of the 27 physicians who treated him, only eight
   signed onto that conclusion in his autopsy report. Therefore, several
   other theories regarding his death have been put forward.

   Documents released after the fall of the U.S.S.R., along with memoirs
   of Lenin's physicians, suggest that Lenin was treated for syphilis as
   early as 1895. Documents suggest that Alexei Abrikosov, the pathologist
   in charge of the autopsy, was ordered to prove that Lenin did not die
   of syphilis. Abrikosov did not mention syphilis in the autopsy;
   however, the blood-vessel damage, the paralysis and other incapacities
   he cited are typical of syphilis. Upon a second release of the autopsy
   report, none of the organs, major arteries, or brain areas usually
   affected by syphilis were cited.

   In 1923, Lenin's doctors treated him with Salvarsan, the only drug at
   the time specifically used to treat syphilis, and potassium iodide,
   which was customary at the time in treating the disease.

   Although he might have had syphilis, he had no visible lesions anywhere
   on his body that normally accompany the later stages of the disease.
   Most historians still agree that the most likely cause of his death was
   a stroke induced by the bullet still lodged in his neck from the
   assassination attempt.
   Lenin's body in the Lenin Mausoleum, Moscow
   Enlarge
   Lenin's body in the Lenin Mausoleum, Moscow

   The city of Petrograd was renamed Leningrad in his honour three days
   after Lenin's death. This remained the name of the city until the
   collapse and liquidation of the Soviet Union in 1991, when it reverted
   to its original name, St Petersburg.

   During the early 1920s the Russian movement of cosmism was quite
   popular and there was an intent to cryonically preserve Lenin's body in
   order to revive him in the future. Necessary equipment was purchased
   abroad, but for a variety of reasons the plan was not realized. Instead
   his body was embalmed and placed on permanent exhibition in the Lenin
   Mausoleum in Moscow on January 27, 1924.

After death

   The Lenin Mausoleum at Red Square, Moscow
   Enlarge
   The Lenin Mausoleum at Red Square, Moscow

   Lenin's preserved body is on permanent display at the Lenin Mausoleum
   in Moscow. Because of Lenin's unique role in the creation of the first
   Communist state, and despite his expressed wish shortly before his
   death that no memorials be created for him, his character was elevated
   over time to the point of near religious reverence. By the 1980s, every
   major city in the Soviet Union had a statue of Lenin in its central
   square, either a Lenin street or a Lenin Square near the centre, and
   often 20 or more smaller statues and busts throughout its territory.
   Collective farms, medals, hybrids of wheat, and even an asteroid were
   named after him. Children were taught stories about "granddad Lenin"
   while they were still in nursery.

   Since the fall of the Soviet Union, the level of reverence for Lenin in
   post-Soviet republics has gone down considerably, but he is still
   considered an important figure by the generations who grew up during
   the Soviet period. Most statues of Lenin have been torn down in Eastern
   Europe, but many still remain in Russia. The city of Leningrad returned
   to its original name, St Petersburg, but the surrounding Leningrad
   Oblast still carries his name. The citizens of Ulyanovsk, Lenin's
   birthplace, have so far resisted all attempts to revert its name to
   Simbirsk. The subject of interring Lenin's body has been a recurring
   topic for the past several years in Russia.

Lenin's brain study

   Lenin's brain was removed before his body was embalmed. The Soviet
   government commissioned the well-known German neuroscientist Oskar Vogt
   to study Lenin's brain and to locate the precise location of the brain
   cells that are responsible for "genius". The study was performed in
   Vladimir Bekhterev's Institute of the Brain. Vogt published a paper on
   the brain in 1929 where he reported that while the brain was
   discolored, shrunken, and showed "widespread areas of softening" , some
   pyramidal neurons in the third layer of Lenin's cerebral cortex were
   very large. However, the conclusion of its relevance to genius was
   contested. Vogt's work was considered unsatisfactory by the Soviets.
   Further research was continued by the Soviet team, but the work on
   Lenin's brain was no longer advertised. Contemporary anatomists are no
   longer convinced that morphology alone can determine the functioning of
   the brain.

Censorship of Lenin in the Soviet Union

   Lenin's writings were carefully censored under the Soviet regime after
   his death. In the early 1930s, it became accepted dogma under Stalin to
   assume that neither Lenin nor the Central Committee could ever be
   wrong. Therefore, it was necessary to remove evidence of situations
   where they had actually disagreed, since in those situations it was
   impossible for both to have been right at the same time. Trotsky was a
   particularly vocal critic of these practices, which he saw as a form of
   deification of a mere human being who could, and did, make mistakes.
   Later, even the fifth complete Soviet edition of Lenin's works
   (published in 55 thick volumes between 1958 and 1965) left out parts
   that either contradicted dogma or showed their author in too poor a
   light.

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