Robert Service: Lenin, a biography

[beardie]

Just finished reading this. A very good read, didn´t really have any slow parts although it´s 580 pages.

It really didn´t make me a Leninist. It´s clear that Lenin was very much a human being with a lot of flaws. He was persistent to the extreme, and that was what made the Russian revolution and held it up (plus a big amount of luck). Service said it well in the book, that in a chaotic post- revolutionary situation it´s a very few individuals that are able and willing to really take hold of the power that´s given to them, most of us are too doubtful of ourselves when it comes down to it. Lenin was one of these rare individuals. But he was also cruel, endorsed terror and extreme centralism.

A good book. 86/100.

[blake 3:17]

Sorry, but Service is pretty stupid. Dude's a clown.

Couldn't find video of him on Lenin, but this one with Hitchens cracks me up: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cuzXR-5w4Qk

[Brutus]

'When Lenin was 3, he destroyed a paper mâché horse that he got for his birthday. This was a sign showing what Lenin would be a cruel, malevolent, evil dictator.'
Seriously, service is stupid.

[Lord Hargreaves]

It really didn´t make me a Leninist.

I don't know any Leninist that rates Robert Service's book at all, so I'm not particularly surprised.

But if this biography has made you more curious and wanting to know more, then I guess he's done a good enough job.

[beardie]

I would be very interested if you could point me towards a more balanced take on Lenin.

[blake 3:17]

There's a not bad bio of Lenin by David Shub, who was a rightish Menshevik, and very critical but not stupid. It's a good book.

There's been a recent explosion of literature on Lenin, mostly due to Lars T Lih. I haven't followed all the discussion and debate very closely.

The classic from the current I came out of is Leninism Under Lenin by Marcel Liebman. It's fifteen years since I read it, so don't feel I can say much very meaningful about it. It is pretty widely recognized by others on the Left as a good take on Lenin.

I did enjoy Lenin Reloaded which has a mix of Orthodox Marxists/Leninists and some not so orthodox. It seems easily available for free online.

[Akshay!]

Robert Service did his research in the right wing Hoover Institution and needless to say, he's a complete bonehead. Nobody on the left takes him seriously.

He has written 3 biographies - on Lenin, Trotsky, and Stalin. If you haven't read his biographies, here's a summary of all of them - "Lenin, Trotsky, and Stalin were all evil, dictators who wanted to kill as many people as they can. And there was literally no difference between them."

Check out this article where Tariq Ali criticized the biography - http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2009/oct/31/trotsky-stalin-service-patenaude

[blake 3:17]

@Akshay! thanks for the Ali review. Better than the ponderous ones that responded point by point. When I was reading it I kept thinking, Oh well, kind of interesting, umm, Oh wow!, didn't know that, etc and as I kept going there were so many factual errors that those interesting new "facts" became meaningless.

I'd love a good bio of Trotsky by a conservative. Not interested in shitty ones whatever the politics of the author.

[Brutus]

@Akshay! thanks for the Ali review. Better than the ponderous ones that responded point by point. When I was reading it I kept thinking, Oh well, kind of interesting, umm, Oh wow!, didn't know that, etc and as I kept going there were so many factual errors that those interesting new "facts" became meaningless.

I'd love a good bio of Trotsky by a conservative. Not interested in shitty ones whatever the politics of the author.

In defence of Leon Trotsky by David north
Disproves a lot of service

[Bardo]

Having not heard of Service, I picked up Spies & Commissars: The Early Years of the Russian Revolution last year.

What a waste of time and money. I won't be reading his other works.

[beardie]

I would still be interested in hearing any suggestions for better bios. I wasn´t able to find Liebman´s or Shub´s books.

[Ismail]

I would still be interested in hearing any suggestions for better bios. I wasn´t able to find Liebman´s or Shub´s books.There's a 1965/66 biography of Lenin published by the Soviets that's nearly 600 pages and aptly titled Vladimir Ilyich Lenin: A Biography. Obviously you can't expect it to say anything bad about the man, but it's still occasionally cited by bourgeois historians due to its large amount of information. Also it's only $4 on Amazon right now: http://www.amazon.com/Vladimir-Ilyich-Lenin-A-Biography/dp/B000GLD05U

If you're looking for a critical bio of Lenin then check out Volkogonov. Politically he's ridiculous (he says that Brest-Litovsk was an example of Lenin "betraying" Russia), but the value of his book (and those on Trotsky and Stalin) is that he had pretty much unlimited access to the archives and took advantage of this fact.

Here's an example:

“In January 1920 [Trotsky] received a telegram from the Ukrainian Anarchist military leader Nestor Makhno, explaining why he, Makhno, was not willing to go to the Polish Front. While continuing ‘peace talks’ with Makhno, Trotsky maintained contact with the Revolutionary Military Committee through Stalin, to whom he cabled: ‘Do you think it would be possible to encircle Makhno right away and carry out a complete liquidation? It would probably be possible to destroy his artillery base if we sent some entirely reliable people there posing as anarchists. Makhno uses hardly any security measures, so we could most probably destroy his ammunition stores.’ Stalin replied: ‘The encirclement of Makhno was started a few days ago and will be accomplished by the ninth. The order [for him] to move against the Poles was issued with the intention of collecting extra material against Makhno.’”
(Volkogonov, Dimitri. Trotsky: The Eternal Revolutionary. New York: Free Press. 1996. p. 158.)

Another semi-critical book you could check out is Lenin: the Man, the Theorist, the Leader, which is also $4: http://www.amazon.com/Lenin-Man-Theorist-Leader-Reappraisal/dp/B000MMUZBU

[beardie]

I found the Volkogonov- book from my library! Thanks.