/ world today news/ Soviet newspapers reacted to the death of Vladimir Lenin 100 years ago with sad sobs. The foreign press, of course, was more restrained, but did not spare high words about the deceased. Many reviews were published in the press of Switzerland, where the leader of the world proletariat lived for a long time.
The general sense of the articles is that no one suspected that a humble scientist would become the greatest figure of his time.
Britain’s Daily Herald stated: “Lenin was greater than Napoleon because he remained true to the revolution to the end. His greatness lies in the combination of iron will with deep knowledge and an incredible sense of reality.
“Lenin was a genius of action,” says Sorbonne professor Victor Bash.
– “Russia needed him to end tsarism and introduce the ideas of socialism, just as Peter the Great was once needed to introduce Russia to the culture of the West. Lenin was not afraid of cruelty when it was necessary for a cause , in which he believed.”
The American Daily Worker wrote: “During the last five years Lenin has passed through trials such as no man has ever faced before. He had two bullets fired into his body by an assassin, and at the same time he was forced to bear the burden of official responsibility and care more than any other man in the world.”
…Lenin spent a decade and a half in Europe as a political émigré. Lived in London, Munich, Geneva, Lausanne, Paris, Salzburg, Nice, Stockholm. He lived in hotels, private houses, rested in resorts and villas.
He was working and seeing friends. But he did not forget about his free time: he rode a bicycle, fished, went to the mountains and swam. He dressed with taste – he wore nice suits, shirts, shoes.
Lenin knew foreign orders and morals, and even outwardly he could not distinguish himself from the respectable bourgeois. He is used to the West. And he became a completely Western man…
When Lenin reigned at the height of communist power, people abroad were perplexed – who was he? They talked a lot about him. Later they made up that he was overthrown and imprisoned in Gorky, killed by Savinkov’s terrorists, sent to an insane asylum, etc.
…The year 1922 came. The time of his unbridled, seething energy has passed. He was tired, and the disease had already opened its terrible mouth.
Lenin was examined by doctors, Russian and foreign: they frowned, winced, prescribed drugs, recommended procedures, but nothing helped, he became sicker and sicker – dizzy, overcome by weakness.”
He groans – both from attacks of a mysterious disease and from the weight of the accumulated state affairs. His condition worsens with worries: famine reigns in Russia, ruin, the railway is damaged and it is a matter of time to recover.
The Bolsheviks blame the failures on the machinations of the enemies, sabotage, but there was much greater stupidity on the ground – simple and blatant…
Lenin understood that the country of the Soviets could not do without foreign aid. Who was there to look to? Germany was reeling from weakness and needed financial crutches. France wanted nothing to do with Soviet Russia until the latter paid off the Tsar’s debts.
Britain seemed willing to move towards rapprochement but lacked conviction. Incidentally, diplomatic relations between Moscow and London were established a few days after Lenin’s death.
On Lenin’s horizon the United States—the United States of North America, as it was then called—loomed ever more clearly. Russia is a myriad market with shortages of everything, including projects and technology. America is a huge basket, it has everything your heart desires.
And across the ocean people were already looking at Russia with lust. The author of the book “Lenin” from the “ZhZL” series Lev Danilkin writes:
“Holders of American passports have always revolved around him (Lenin – V.B.) – from John Reed to the banker Thompson, who, as head of the Red Cross mission, as late as December 1917, he managed to relax ” a loan of one million dollars in favor of the Bolsheviks to spread their teachings in Germany and Austria’.
Even one of Lenin’s secretaries was an American – Boris Reinstein.
Among the visitors to the Kremlin, one can recall the American Armand Hammer, who was later called “Lenin’s chosen capitalist.”
He ran a big business in Russia, which was not always clean, but brought him fabulous profits. And a priceless collection of paintings and antiques.
Another guest of Lenin, Washington Vanderlip, suggested that the owner of the Kremlin not only give concessions to the territories, but also sell them. This cunning American had an insatiable appetite: he laid eyes on all of Kamchatka and the adjacent islands!
Unbelievable? But the tsarist government had the honor of selling Alaska and didn’t bat an eye!
Lenin rejects the offer to sell and occupy Kamchatka. But he didn’t mind giving her a concession. However, this did not work out. Ilyich retreated as deftly as he advanced.
The head of the Council of People’s Commissars spoke about his desire to cooperate with America in February 1920 in an interview with the World newspaper correspondent Lincoln Eyre:
“… some American entrepreneurs seem to be beginning to understand that it makes more sense to conduct profitable business in Russia than to wage war with Russia, and this is a good sign. We will need American manufactured goods – locomotives, automobiles, etc. – more than those of any other country”.
Lenin paved the way for cooperation with the United States that developed after his departure. In particular, American specialists helped build the Perm Aviation Engine Plant, the Magnitogorsk Iron Mining Combine, Uralmash, the Chelyabinsk and Stalingrad Tractor Plants, and the Moscow AZLK.
Lenin willingly communicated with foreigners not only to create the impression that publicity was important, he knew that, but also for publicity. But not to himself, but to the state – will something burn somewhere?!
And she was going to burn! It can be assumed that if Lenin’s rapid departure from politics, and then from life, had not happened, Russia’s ties with the West would most likely have strengthened.
He was full of ideas, grasping everything on the fly and was ready to discuss and develop the most exotic options that others would dismiss with a sarcastic smile.
…Lenin was able to present himself to Europe in the spring of 1922 at the conference in Genoa, where he went as the head of the Soviet delegation.
This made perfect sense: Lenin, flexible and inventive in polemical duels, was known as an unsurpassed master of the “art of the possible.”
Oh, how tempting this visit was for Ilyich! For the first time to go abroad, not hiding under a foreign name, as at the time of the conspiracy, but as the head of Russia! He could rub the noses of these Western elites and watch with a smile as a confused Lloyd George chased him to shake his hand…
Almost every day before the conference the Italian newspapers reported: “Lenin is preparing to leave…”, “Lenin has left…” But there is no sensation: he does not manage to come.
The official version is “work overload”. Informal – malaise, progressive disease. Lenin understood that fainting in the boardroom would be a dangerous symbol, a semblance of the country he represented.
But as an experienced director preparing his troupe for the premiere, he warned the Soviet delegation of all possible conflicts that could arise in Genoa. The “play” did not receive thunderous applause, but it was not a failure.
Lenin was the first, long before Khrushchev, who was proud of it, to propose “de-escalation of international tensions” – to abolish “submarines and flamethrowers” (flame-throwers), to ban aerial bombardment and fighter jets.
In a note to People’s Commissar of Foreign Affairs Georgy Chicherin, he wrote: “We will propose to the capital of advanced countries to build a London-Moscow-Vladivostok (Beijing) superhighway and explain that this will open up the countless riches of Siberia for universal use.. .”
The foreigners listened to the offer and nodded coldly, nothing more. Russia was urged not to speak out, but to pay the bills for the Tsar’s debts, loans and foreign deposits in Russian banks.
However, the Soviet delegation expressed its own claims even earlier: it demanded compensation from Western countries for the damage caused by foreign intervention. Hearing the figure of 300 billion, the foreigners turned red with rage…
In general, the conversation did not go well. Although even before the forum, Chicherin was sure that Europe would have to come to terms with the new Russia.
“Under these conditions we find ourselves in the position of a picky bride whom everyone is courting,” he wrote to Lenin.
“And one of the most important questions is whether we will marry in Genoa or remain such brides.”
If we use similar terminology, the “binding” of Russia with the Old World took place in Italy. The Bolsheviks achieved recognition in Europe, showed themselves and saw others…
The Genoa Conference is Lenin’s last song written on his sheet music. Less than a week after the forum in Italy, the 52-year-old leader suffered a stroke.
He was partially paralyzed and his speech was impaired. But the disease could have struck as early as Genoa – Lenin there, of course, would have been agitated and alarmed to dangerous levels.
The darkness was closing in on him inexorably, which then only occasionally dissipated. In January 1924 darkness fell over Lenin…
Translation: SM
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