Putin rails against Lenin

[Sinister Cultural Marxist]

Vladimir Putin accuses Lenin of placing a 'time bomb' under Russia

Russian president blames revolutionary’s federalism for break up of Soviet Union and creating ethnic tension in region





1,733 (http://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/jan/25/vladmir-putin-accuses-lenin-of-placing-a-time-bomb-under-russia#comments)






Vladimir Putin (http://www.theguardian.com/world/vladimir-putin) has denounced Lenin and his Bolshevik government for their brutal repressions and accused him of having placed a “time bomb” under the state.
The criticism of Lenin, who is still revered by communists and many others in Russia (http://www.theguardian.com/world/russia), is unusual for the Russian president, who in the past carefully weighed his comments about the nation’s history to avoid alienating some voters. At the same time, he signalled that the government had no intention of taking Lenin’s body out of his Red Square tomb, warning against “any steps that would divide society”.




Putin’s assessment of Lenin’s role in Russian history during Monday’s meeting with pro-Kremlin activists in the southern city of Stavropol was markedly more negative than in the past. He denounced Lenin and his government for brutally executing Russia’s last tsar along with all his family and servants, killing thousands of priests and placing a time bomb under the Russian state by drawing administrative borders along ethnic lines.
As an example of Lenin’s destructive legacy, Putin pointed to Donbass, the industrial region in eastern Ukraine where a pro-Russia separatist rebellion flared up weeks after Russia’s March 2014 annexation of Crimea (http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/mar/18/putin-confirms-annexation-crimea-ukrainian-soldier-casualty). More than 9,000 people have been killed in the conflict since April 2014, and clashes have continued despite a February 2015 peace deal.
He said Lenin’s government had whimsically drawn borders between parts of the USSR, placing Donbass under the Ukrainian jurisdiction in order to increase the percentage of proletariat in a move Putin called “delirious”.
Putin’s criticism of Lenin could be part of his attempts to justify Moscow’s policy in the Ukrainian crisis, but it also may reflect the Kremlin’s concern about possible separatist sentiments in some Russian provinces.



Putin was particularly critical of Lenin’s concept of a federative state with its entities having the right to secede, saying it has heavily contributed to the 1991 breakup of the Soviet Union. He added that Lenin was wrong in a dispute with Joseph Stalin, who advocated a unitary state model. Putin has in the past denounced Stalin for the purges that killed millions, but noted his role in defeating the Nazis in the second world war.
In Monday’s comments, Putin also criticised the Bolsheviks for making Russia suffer defeat at the hands of Germany in the first world war and ceding large chunks of territory just months before it lost. “We lost to the losing party, a unique case in history,” Putin said.
Putin said he sincerely believed in Communist ideology when he served in the KGB, adding that while its promises of a fair and just society “resembled the Bible quite a lot”, the reality was different. “Our country didn’t look like the City of the Sun” envisaged by socialist utopians, he said.



Well, its funny he makes these criticisms. Of course, I think there's some fair criticism of ethnic federalism as pursued by the USSR, but Putin obviously approaches it from an equally nationalist direction in that it weakened Russian power by splitting off these other provinces.

It's ridiculous to criticize the treaty with Germany, considering all that territory was regained in short order. It's not like Germany still occupies the Ukraine and Belarus. It shows an ignorance of the sentiments of the Russian people in 1917 against continued war, considering the suffering they had already encountered. Considering the challenges the Bolsheviks faced, the treaty may well have been the best alternative in the moment.

It just goes to highlight though how those Russophile "leftists" who support Putin as a kind of opposite international pole to the West are wrongheaded - he's not a Leftist, he's a Russian Imperialist who is angry at Lenin for crippling the Russian Empire and replacing it with an internationalist federal republic. He and his oligarchic elites may have believed whatever they did 30 years ago, but they have profited hugely off of the destruction of the Soviet state.

[Exterminatus]

In Monday’s comments, Putin also criticised the Bolsheviks for making Russia suffer defeat at the hands of Germany in the first world war and ceding large chunks of territory just months before it lost. “We lost to the losing party, a unique case in history,” Putin said.
Putin said he sincerely believed in Communist ideology when he served in the KGB, adding that while its promises of a fair and just society “resembled the Bible quite a lot”, the reality was different. “Our country didn’t look like the City of the Sun” envisaged by socialist utopians, he said.

This is pathetic on so many levels. He talks about "winning" or "losing" WW1. He knows nothing about Bolsheviks. But this is not surprising, even before he spoke how Jewish Bolsheviks organized revolution and other drivel. I mean, how could a rabid nationalist like Putin even understand iinternationalist spirit of Communism. And lol at age-old anti-communist garbage " muh communizm is religion".

[John Nada]

Of course Putin is talking shit about Lenin. Putin's leading a counterrevolutionary capitalist restorationist regime that flushed nearly all Lenin and the Soviet people's accomplishments down the drain. With a bad recession looming, Putin thinks if he knocks down Lenin a notch it'll make him look better. His state is an empty postmodern shadow of it former self that is now in a recession. Fact is 100 years from now people worldwide will still remember Lenin and not give a fuck about Putin.

Lenin and the Soviet people keep most of the former Russian Empire together in face of 14 invading imperialist armies and the proto-fascist White Army seeking to turn Russia into a bunch of colonies or the first fascist state. Lenin and Soviets refused to yield to imperialism and fight the British, French and American bourgeoisie's unjust war for them. Putin can barely keep Russia together under his rule and faces a mortal threat by US-NATO proxies. The Soviets went from a semi-feudal backwater ravaged by war to a space-faring nuclear superpower in less than 40 years. Russia and other nations of the fSU still haven't recovered from self-imposed neoliberalism 25 years later. Big shoes that no capitalist can fill.
Vladimir Putin has denounced Lenin and his Bolshevik government for their brutal repressions and accused him of having placed a “time bomb” under the state.That "time bomb" was placed by the Tsar, with the colonization of nations such as the Central Asian, Caucasus region and Ukrainian nations. The civil war in Ukraine is a result of Tsarist Russia's Russification campaign, resulting in Eastern Ukrainians facing discrimination over language.
Putin was particularly critical of Lenin’s concept of a federative state with its entities having the right to secede, saying it has heavily contributed to the 1991 breakup of the Soviet Union. He added that Lenin was wrong in a dispute with Joseph Stalin, who advocated a unitary state model. Putin has in the past denounced Stalin for the purges that killed millions, but noted his role in defeating the Nazis in the second world war.Well they had the chance to change that in the 1977 constitution, and didn't. Though I very much doubt Communist expected the Russian Soviet Republic would secede 14 years later.:confused:

Right of oppressed nations to self-determination was supposed to be an example for future decolonization as well as possible new Soviet Republics had the revolution spread. Arguably this did greatly influence post-war decolonization(abet not without flaws). It's the only non-chauvinist policy not just Russia but possible future revolutions in France, UK, the Netherlands, US, ect. could've taken on their colonies, unless European Communist missionaries waging war against Africa and Asia is "progressive" and totally not racist

Had the Soviet not upheld the right to self-determination, it's likely the Soviet Union would've just fallen into an even bloodier civil war. instead of a superficially "peaceful" counterrevolution.

[Sinister Cultural Marxist]

Juan your critique of his views reflects pretty well my own. In fact, I imagine you're preaching to the choir (at least, I sincerely hope you're preaching to the choir). No serious Leftist would take Putin's criticisms of Lenin seriously, except as an example of where the Russian government is today. Certainly, we all recognize (1) the revolutionary situation that forced the Bolsheviks to cede territory, (2) the effectiveness of the Bolsheviks in resisting Imperialist aggression during the Civil War, and (3) the fact that the nationalities problem was created by Romanov imperialism, not the Bolshevik attempt to solve it.

However, I wonder about the timing of this. As you say, Russia is facing a serious recession, and I would add that Putin has no real political opposition. The "official" KPRF is more rightwing than revolutionary, the liberals aren't taken seriously by many in Russia, and he has effectively outmaneuvered a vocal but small far right. However, Putin will certainly face a serious political crisis once the social and economic costs of the current oil decline become more acute for the general population, as much as other governments, to the "Left" in Venezuela or to the right in the Gulf Arab states.

The other issue though is it highlights the important risk of continued Russian revanchism. If Putin identifies the loss of territory as the worst thing about the fall of the USSR (and not the various social and economic problems which resulted), then the actions in Ossetia, Abkhazia, Crimea and the Donbass are only the beginning. If revanchism is his solution to the political crisis which will result from the economic crisis, there will just be more border conflicts of the kind we've seen in the past few years.

It is also curious how he tries to absolve the late USSR that he himself was a part of from the collapse of the Soviet Union. The goal in my mind is to defend the security apparatus of the current Russian state, which is largely a holdover from the Soviet period, against the system of economic planning and against the attempts to limit Russian chauvinism in the USSR

[Comrade #138672]

How weak. Blaming your own failure on some guy that died around a century ago.