Learning History from a Leader

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• Learning History from a Leader
• Lenin

This project aims to bring out the importance
of Vladimir Ilyich Lenin (1870- 1924 ) in shaping
the history of both Russia and modern world.
Moreover, it hopes to arouse students interest
and motivation in self-learning through the
effective use of sources in this History
project.
First of all, Lets have some GAMES first!
Wendy Chan F.6U (2004-05)
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Game 1
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Who was Lenin?
Game Time!
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• The Child on the left
• was Lenin
• The baby girl was Lenins sister Olga

Answer!
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Game 2
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• Who
• was
• Lenin?

Answer He was the first one from the right!
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• Game 3
• How old was Lenin?

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Learning from the PastThe Man Who Changed
HistoryLenin
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Content

• Introduction
• Karl Marxs Communist Manifesto
• Lenin The communist believer and revolutionary
  leader

Second Part - Background of Russia under the
Romanov Dynasty - The February Revolution 1917
and the Provisional Government - The October
Revolution 1917 and the rise of Bolsheviks -
Reasons for the success of the Bolsheviks - How
Lenin changed history and his legacy
Third Part - How can students today learn from
Lenin - Incorporation of Habits of Mind into
this project Acknowledgement
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Communist Manifesto by Karl Marx
I believe in The history of all society is a
history of class struggle. Therefore, the poor
and exploited working class (proletariat) should
Rise up against the capitalists
End all private ownerships of land and industry
Karl Marx
Proletariat should rule by dictatorship
All these were acted out by Lenin after the
1917 October Revolution
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Lenin The Communist Believer and Revolutionary
---- who acted out

• Lenin was born into a middle class family.
  He received a good education and took a bachelor
  of law. During his years of St. Petersburg
  University, he became a Marxist and decided to
  work out the doctrine. He was determined that a
  proletarian revolution was indeed essential to
  erase the class inequalities. Therefore he
  started to take part in revolutionary activities
  in the following years.
• Lenin became the leader of the Bolsheviks in
  1903, and the Bolsheviks joined in the 1905
  Revolution. Although the revolution turned out to
  be a failure, he continued directing Bolshevik
  activities abroad and published his ideas in
  Pravda.
• Finally, the Bolsheviks succeeded in seizing
  control of the country after the 1917 October
  Revolution. Thus Lenin adopted the main
  principles of communism in this first communist
  state --- the USSR A state without private
  ownership while people were put under central
  guidance force and terror were used to silence
  opposition.

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Russia under the Czar (king of Russia) until
1917
Corrupt, inefficient, autocratic, reactionary
Czarist government. Failures in reforms.
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Witness the Russian
Wars.
Poverty, hunger
Brutal repression
hardship..
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Because the Russian anger had risen to the peak

• All these hardships resulted in.
• 1917 February Revolution

Aim To overthrow the Czar and the Romanov Dynasty
Image from East and West (Macmillan)
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• The Czarist government was overthrown
  successfully, and a new Provisional Government
  was established in March 1917.

Czar Nicholas II
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The Provisional Government of Russia A
Non-Communist One

• Since the Russians succeeded with the
  revolution, a newly established provisional
  government, ruled by the previous members of the
  Duma (The Legislature) was established.
  Nonetheless, this temporary government
  represented mainly the views of the middle class
  and aristocracy (the nobility). Most importantly,
  the government made several fatal mistakes

The government continued Russian warfare in World
War I.
They didnt improve peoples livelihood poverty
and starvation were serious.
The views and interests of the workers and
peasants were ignored.
The release of political prisoners (the
Bolsheviks) by the Kerensky Government in Sept.
1917.
These mistakes were favourable factors for the
rise of Lenin and the Bolsheviks!
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Gaining Popular Support for The October
Revolution 1917

• Since Lenin clearly saw the political
  mistakes made by the Provisional Government, he
  made promise to the Russian people Peace, Land,
  Bread in his famous April Theses in April 1917.
• He had attracted more people to support the
  Bolsheviks. However, because the July Days riots
  1917, the Provisional Government arrested a lot
  of Bolshevik figures and Lenin had to flee to
  Finland for safety.
• Nevertheless, an opportunity came for Lenin
  after the amnesty of political prisoners (the
  Bolsheviks were imprisoned after July 1917)
  proclaimed by the Provisional Government headed
  by Kerensky in Sept 1917. The Bolsheviks
  gradually gained mass support. Finally, Lenin
  started the October Revolution with the
  well-trained and disciplined red army headed by
  Trotsky.

Lenin speaking of April Theses
Lenin speaking to the red troops, with Trotskys
presence.
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The October Revolution
And Lenin Succeeded
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Reasons for the Success of October Revolution
1917

• Capable Leadership
• of Lenin

• Weaknesses of the Provisional Government

His Peace, Land, Bread program attracted the
Russian mass.
It failed to deal with the social and economic
problems.
It released political prisoners.
The revolution was well-planned and carefully
organized by him and Trotsky.
It did not have a strong army.
Lenin understood the mass psychology of the
discontented Russians and was able to take
advantage.
It lost support from peasants and workers.
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How Lenin Changed History, and his Legacy
He established the first Communist state, and
renamed Russia as Union of Soviet Socialist
Republic (USSR)
He set up the Comintern (Communist
International) in 1919 to spread
communism throughout the world
The communist regime established by Lenin, erased
all past politics, history, different ideologies
and oppositions.
Example The founding of the Chinese Communist
Party in 1921
His successors, Stalin and Khrushchev, had turned
many East European countries into communist
states after World War II which brought about
the Cold War The Communist Bloc v.s. The
Capitalist Bloc
He even set up the first example of a
concentration camp for political prisoners, and
even, a totalitarian state all Russians could
survive only by obeying the communist orders.
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1
2
The first communist state USSR was
established
1.China became a communist state after the
establishment of PRC on 1st Oct 1949. A group of
Chinese youths looked optimistically toward the
future under communist leadership.
2. Soviet Union and communist China maintained
the alliance until 1960. Mao Zedong
(representing PRC) and Khrushchev (representing
USSR) at a meeting in 1958.
Capitalist Bloc ( Dominating Power USA )
Communist Bloc ( Dominating Power USSR )
VS
The Cold War started after World War II
North Atlantic Treaty Organization 1949
The Warsaw Pact 1955
VS
The communist Red Army won the Civil War 1918-21.
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How can students today learn from Lenin

• The success of Lenin in building up the first
  communist state in the world were partly due to
  the favourable circumstances and his personal
  qualities. His comrades described him

He never imposed his views on his co-workers.
He tried to convince he patiently explained his
opinions to others Khrushchev, Stalins
successor.
The theories of Lenin are only for the
preparation of his proletarian revolution.
Trotsky, the commander of the Red Army.
He remained a peculiarly modest figure who wore
a shabby waistcoat, worked 16-hour days and read
extensively
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• Be humble to learn

Be optimistic and strong ( Lenin had been
arrested and exiled many times!)
Dont stick to the texts. Work out the
theories!
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Incorporation of Habits of Mind in this
project
Striving for accuracy --- the course of events,
the biography of Lenin, the historical
information were all checked and proved.

• Creating --- creative animation
• can add fun to this
• learning activity!

Persisting --- dont give up in doing a big
project!
Thinking flexibly --- what to have and what
ought not to have in the presentation
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Evaluation

• In doing this project, I think the most
  difficult part was the selection of materials and
  how to bring out Lenins importance in
  influencing history. Nonetheless, it was
  interesting to read through different sources
  which would never appear in textbooks. Moreover,
  it can refresh my mind of all the lost history
  knowledge after the Cert Exam!
• Wendy Chan F.6U (2004-2005)

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Reference Book List

• Russia and the USSR Nelson
• The Russian Revolution Thomson Learning
• Russia and the USSR Heinemann
• East and West Macmillan
• Lenin for Beginners Writers and Readers

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Acknowledgement

• All material used here is intended for
  educational purposes. There is no intention to
  reproduce material by any means (electronic,
  mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise)
  without permission of the publishers.
• The images used in this presentation are taken
  from either the internet or reference books.
• For internet sources, the pictures are mainly
  extracted from
• www.cqzg.cn
• www.mina.ru
• http//www.marxists.org/archive/lenin/photo/index.
  htm
• Information about Lenin and images are drawn from
  reference books
• Russia and the USSR Nelson
• The Russian Revolution Thomson Learning
• Russia and the USSR Heinemann
• East and West Macmillan
• Some information about Lenin is drawn from the
  following websites
• http//www.marxists.org/archive/lenin/
• http//www.time.com/time/time100/leaders/profile/l
  enin.html

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Thank You