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Civic Discussion Presentation- A New Biography

  • Dmitri Volkogonov was the author of the book Lenin: A New Biography
  • He was a historian and a former general in the Soviet Army
  • He was Director of the Soviet Union’s Institute for Military History, where he was known as the first researcher to gain access to the most secret archives

  • His information comes with all the details that the secret archives provide, which was from a man who was once one of Lenin’s devout followers

  • Volkognov's main claim in the article is that yes, Lenin did sow the seeds for Stalinism

  • Article claims that "It was Lenin who initiated the subordination of human life to ideological objectives without regard to the number of lives lost"
    • Argues that it was Lenin who introduced executions, mass terror, concetration camps, and slave labor
  • Focuses on the "legalization of terror" and provides examples such as…
    • Cheka shootings was the thousands in cellars without trial
    • Suppression of free press
    • Subordination of trade unions to the state
    • Liquidation of "hundreds of thousands of private owners, middle and upper bourgeoisie, and intellectuals"
    • Crushing of churches and slaughter of the clergy
    • Heartless acceptance of mass starvation
      • 25 million people were starving at the same time funds were sent overseas to help Communist parties in 1921-1922
    • These examples barely scratch the surface of what Volkogonov recounts from his archives