Lenin's Legacy of Hatred

American Thinker ^ | 4 Aug, 2021 | W.R. Wordsworth

[MtnClimber]

Those who fail to meet the Left's political expectations are all enemies to the Left -- whether they see themselves as such or not.

It is sobering to recognize how many crimes against humanity first recommended themselves as admirable courses of action prompted by the benignly framed ideological obsessions of activist intellectuals. It would seem that there is nothing inherently civilizing in the pursuit of what has been called "the life of the mind," especially if the mindful individual is merely looking for a more solid foundation on which to ground and justify his hatreds. V.I. Lenin stands as the paradigmatic exemplar of this. His place in history is secure, but only owing to his improbable success in seizing, holding, and then ruthlessly exercising power in an exhausted and fragmented Russia. Had his gamble failed -- had his coup fizzled -- history would have remembered him (if at all) as a minor journalist and political organizer operating on the fringes of the international socialist movement. Yet with his triumph, history decided otherwise, leaving us stuck with Lenin and his legacy. A thoughtful examination of that legacy, and of the monomania that drove it, is key to understanding the Left.

As a Marxist, Lenin held that the whole of human history is driven by class struggle. If any teaching were central to Lenin's thinking, it was this. Indeed, for Lenin virtually every aspect of the human experience could be identified with this one thing. Not only politics, but also art, science, and philosophy were all reduced to arenas of class struggle. The political supervision of all cultural activity would be one of the ways in which victory would be consolidated once the Bolsheviks seized power.

[dfwgator]

The NKVD was merely a continuation of the Okhrana, the Czar’s secret police.

[otness_e]

Technically, the NKVD was a continuation of the Chekha, not the Okhrana. It’s the Chekha that was a continuation of that group (though that said, I’m not entirely sure it was a true continuation since Lenin apparently removed any and all restrictions from them, while even the Okhrana had some restraints placed upon them. Just ask Gary Saul Morson).

[linMcHlp]

Grand Duchess Elizabeth Feodorovna

http://www.unofficialroyalty.com/execution-of-grand-duchess-elisabeth-feodorovna-and-five-other-romanovs/

In 1918, Vladimir Lenin ordered the Cheka to arrest Elisabeth . . .

Lenin welcomed Elisabeth’s death, remarking that “virtue with the crown on it is a greater enemy to the world revolution than a hundred tyrant tsars”

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Princess_Elisabeth_of_Hesse_and_by_Rhine_(1864-1918)