Lenin (Reputations) - Tapa dura

This series looks at key historical figures and their reputations and tries to discover the reality behind them. It uses both primary and secondary sources and is intended for the 14-17 year old reader and to be used as a basis for GCSE project work and as background reading to class work. The marginal notes and questions running parallel with the text provide useful information to help the reader evaluate and interpret the evidence. Visual evidence in the form of photographs, paintings and cartoons is also included. Vladimir Lenin died in 1924 and it is often said that without him there would be no USSR today. He has been seen both as "the engine driver of history" (Trotsky) and as a man "intoxicated with the poison of power" (Gorky). This book sets out to investigate the man behind the myth and to discover whether he was a man of genius and vision or merely ruthless and fanatical. It work examines some of the controversies surrounding the life of Vladimir Lenin by the use quotations from his own words and his contemporaries, to establish whether his reputation is justified. The book also includes the views of later historians and commentators. It is divided into four sections which cover his reputation, the background, the interpretations and finally the conclusions.