No matter how insignificant they seem, every person who has set foot on this earth has made some impact on the course history. Judas betrayed Jesus. In every generation there exist a small number of individuals who not only set the world climate during their lifetimes but also irrevocably and irrefutably change the way people view the past, the present, and the future. Did Lenin betray the Russian people?

Vladimir Lenin was born Vladimir Ilich Ulyanov on April 10, 1870 to a fairly average Russian family who lived in the costal town of Simbirsk. Most of Simbirsk’s citizens lived their lives constantly “[struggling] . . . to make enough money to survive” as farmers or fisherman. However, unlike most of their neighbors, the Ulyanov’s had strong educational backgrounds. Lenin’s father worked for the Russian government as an inspector of public schools. And both his father and his mother placed high value on intellectual pursuits and urged their six surviving children to do the same. The children displayed above average intelligence and aptitude for learning, and perhaps partly because of this they received constant pressure to excel. Even in an academically gifted family, Vladimir stood above the rest. In school he received unusually high marks and displayed a personal drive separate from the exhortation of his parents.

The education that Vladimir Lenin received as a child affected the rest of his life. During that time, the Russian government pressured schools to place a high emphasis on “classical” education. “The Ministry of Popular Enlightenment saw Classics as purveying the ideals of belief, truth, endurance and courage.” As a result, young Russian children learned years of Latin and Greek and spent time translating the classic scholars. Ironically, they read hardly any of their own country’s literature. Government officials believed that most of the known Russian authors expressed too many revolutionary tendencies and did not want to introduce that to the minds of the citizens. This classical influence remained with Lenin throughout his life; as an adult he constantly quoted the ancient authors in his papers and books.

Both his father and his older brother died while Lenin was still relatively young. His father died of natural causes and his brother, Aleksandr, was executed for his participation in an assassination attempt against Emperor Alexander III. During this time, Vladimir Lenin grew more rebellious as he began to delve further into revolutionary literature while attending university.

After graduating he found work as a law assistant but soon took up company with a group of Marxist revolutionaries. As time progressed he became influential among the group and participated in many labor strikes. In 1895 the government exiled Lenin to a village in Siberia. During his three years there he increased his involvement with the Marxist cause, wrote vast amounts of literature, and married Nadezhda Krupskaya.

1903 saw the Second Congress of the Russian Social Democratic Labor Party. As would prove true of all his political opinions, Lenin argued for the existence of a smaller, more exclusive movement made up of only the most radical people. For some time, two parties co-existed within the Marxist movement: the Mensheviks and the Bolsheviks. Even while living in Europe for over a decade, Lenin organized and led the radical Bolshevik party from its early beginnings to its split from the Mensheviks in 1912 and on to the Bolshevik Revolution in 1917. The Menshevik party wanted to pursue a less radical approach and try to work with the more moderate parties that already existed. “Lenin . . . [demanded] no less than the complete overthrow of the monarchy.”

As World War I continued to rage, Russia also faced a civil war among its own citizens. Immediately after Nicholas II's abdicated power in 1917, a Provisional Government led by Alexander Kerensky called for free elections and had the support of the allied nations of WWI. To counter this action, Germany sent Lenin back to Russia with the finances to to overthrow Kerensky. As pay back for German help in eliminating the Constituent Assembly in the Winter Palace and other anti-Bolshevik forces, Lenin betrayed millions by signing the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk which allowed Germany to move 17 divisions from the eastern front to the western front. During this process of consolidating power, the White Russians rebelled against the Bolsheviks (Red Russians) and insisted that the war would only end if Russia “[rejoined] the Allied cause.” In 1918 Lenin survived an assassination attempt from the White Russians. However, this only strengthened his following with the people because his recovery made him appear even more invincible in their eyes. To increase Russia's distaste for war, Lenin began stealing from the farmers in order to support the wage of war. Unfortunately, these farmers and other unsatisfied Russians began to create more disturbances that “[threatened] the stability of the Society government.”

In the early 1920s, Lenin experienced a series of health crises and began to take measures to secure the future of the government. He desired that a “collective rule” be established in order to avoid “complex bureaucracy” and dictatorship. Although Lenin warned the party about Joseph Stalin, who advocated for centralized power, it was Stalin that took over after Lenin died of a stoke in 1924.

Obviously Lenin made a huge impact on society during his lifetime. However, the concepts and ideas that he nurtured in his countrymen led to an iron grip that eventually controlled not only Russia but Eastern Europe and Central Asia as well and lasted for over fifty years. His radicalism caused him to split from the “moderate” revolutionary groups and in turn bred an even more extreme radicalism and cruelty that resulted in the death of millions of people at the hand of Stalin and the members of his government. Although the USSR destroyed nearly 70,000 churches, Christians can have faith in God’s eternal kingdom as the only kingdom that will never pass away.

Philippians 2: 3-4 says, “Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit . . . each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others.” Although this sounds like pure communism, it can only be accomplished through the power of the Holy Spirit. Lenin denied the power of God and the USSR eventually crumbled. God "increaseth the nations, and destroyeth them: he enlargeth the nations and straiteneth them again" (Job 12:23). It is telling that the Russian Communist Party which Germany promoted during Lenin's Bolshevik Revolution in 1917, would come to occupy Germany in WWII. "He who digs a pit will fall into it" (Proverbs 26:27). The WWI gold that Germany sent with Lenin bought the shovel that buried Germany in WWII at the cost of around 20 million Russian lives. Betrayed? Yes.

Sources:
Robert Service. Lenin. Great Britain: Macmillan Publishers Ltd., 2000

“Lenin, Vladimir Ilich.” Microsoft Encarta Reference Library 2002. 1993-2001.

"Vladimir Lenin" http://www.sparknotes.com/biography/lenin/htimeline.html