Lenin

The Man, the Dictator, and the Master of Terror

By: Victor Sebestyen

Narrated by: Jonathan Aris

A fascinating biography of the man who helped launch the Russian Revolution, which uses the personal - including Lenin's key relationships with the women in his life - to shed light on the political<./b>

Since the birth of Soviet Russia, Vladimir Lenin has been viewed as a controversial figure, both revered and reviled for his rigid political ideals. Still, he continues to fascinate as a man who made history and who created the first Communist state, a model that would later be imitated by nearly half the countries in the world.

Drawing on new research, including the diaries, memoirs, and personal letters of both Lenin and his friends, Victor Sebestyen's unique biography - the first in English in nearly two decades - is not only a political examination of one of the most important historical figures of the 20th century but a portrait of Lenin the man. Unexpectedly, Lenin was someone who loved nature, hunting, and fishing and could identify hundreds of species of plants, a despotic ruler whose closest ties and friendships were with women. The long-suppressed story of the complex love triangle Lenin had with his wife, Nadezhda Krupskaya, and his mistress and comrade, Inessa Armand, reveals a different character from the coldly one-dimensional figure of the legend.

Sebestyen also reveals Lenin as a ruthless and single-minded despot and a "product of his time and place: a violent, tyrannical and corrupt Russia". He seized power in a coup, promised a revolution, a socialist utopia for the people, offered simple solutions to complex issues, and constantly lied; in fact what he created was more "a mirror image of the Romanov autocracy". He authorized the deaths of thousands of people and created a system based on the idea that political terror against opponents was justified for the greater ideal. One of his old comrades who had once admired him said he "desired the good...but created evil". And that would include his invention of Stalin, who would take Lenin's system of the gulag and the secret police to new heights.

Bringing Lenin to life for the first time as a complex human being, Sebestyen casts a new light on the Russian Revolution, one of the great turning points of modern history.

©2017 Victor Sebestyen (P)2017 Random House Audio

Critic reviews

"[An] excellent, original, and compelling portrait of Lenin as man and leader." (Simon Sebag Montefiore, author of The Romanovs)

"A vivid and rounded picture of Lenin the man. Serious and deeply reserved, the great revolutionary had few friends but loved at least two women deeply, and at the same time. Lenin's life has been told before, but Sebestyen brings to the task a gift for narrative and for describing his rich cast of characters." [Margaret MacMillan, The Oldie (UK)]

Humanizes the Villain

I think this is what Audiobooks are meant for; that is for listening to autobiographies of historical figures. I know for me, I couldn’t picture myself going to a bookstore to pick up a book on Lenin. But an audiobook like this, that was so captivating through and through, made me feel like I was watching one of those well made, top production, Netflix documentaries. This was just all audio. I highly recommend this book if you were ever curious to learn of what started the communist revolution, or learning about how dictators can get to power (fyi it’s not so hard), or what life in Russia was like 100 years ago, or seeing the effect one human being can have on history, and many many more insights. I’m already looking up the next “great” figure I can read up on.

Excellent history and presentation

Well-documented work, brilliantly written and equally brilliantly presented. I understand the origins of 20th century conflicts much better now.

Great primer and introduction to the Soviet History

Victor Sebestyen paints a broad and fairly objective portrait of the man Lenin. He neither deifies him or slanders Lenin, put provides an accurate account of the man Lenin with his particular quirks, failings and strengths. The author squarely places Lenin within his time and life of a Russian revolutionary in the last declining years of the obsolete, absolute monarchy of the Romanov Dynasty and how he directly and inadvertently established a « communist » dictatorship of the « proletariat », which was a façade for the absolute monarchy it replaced.

I wanted the book to continue...

As much as we could vainly wish Vladimir Ilitch had never become Lenin -- history can't but happen, whoever its actors are -- the end of the story had me wanting to hear more of it. 20 hours of listening... and I wanted 20 more. The story told by Viktor Sebestyen captures how the introvert child of a petit-bourgeois family in rural Russia finds himself at the crossroads of History with a sense of personal destiny. In the maelstrom of catastrophic political events that marked the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century, what were the chances a would-be revolutionary zealot, financially supported by his mother, could become in the space of 25 years the head of the Bolchevik party and the founding father of the Soviet Union? Sebestyan weaves masterfully Lenin's personal life, his political convictions and struggles, his character, and the larger tapestry of the end-times of Tsarist Russia. His book leads its readers through Lenin's life and gives a fascinating account of his views through letters, diaries, Party documents, media articles (Pravda, Izvestia), as well as accounts and anecdotes told by those who fought with him or against him. It is a well-researched read, full of interesting details, always mindful of History with a capital H. It won't make you like Lenin (fortunately), but it reveals the man in his complexity and will give your mind something to chew on for a long time.

Captivating and informative

Starting, I knew very little about Lenin, but by the end I somehow felt a guru on everything about the famous soviet.
The title led the painting of Lenin as dictator, but I am not convince the author tried to see his character from a neutral view point before the write-up. I think his sources and perception of Lenin going did not offer Lenin's past to draw it's own image and reasons.

Lenin

not much is known about Lenin. This seems to be a very objective book . well narrated

A true master

This book portrayed Lenin's live in such details that it made one feel like they were there.

Expected more

I wanted to know more. This was very short and not much details were provided about the time Lenin was in power. Yet, I learned many things I had no idea about.

The Wrong Faction Won

Sebestyen’s emphasis is on narrative, telling a story rather than giving multitudinous obscure facts. He has new details from Soviet archives but they don’t derail the biography. Good for him. I now understand the difference between Menshevik and Bolshevik factions: the former wanted popularist socialism after the Tsar fell that would be nationally participatory, the latter wanted strict central control by a committee that would force true communism. The masses are NOT revolutionaries, said Lenin; the most revolutionary thing they ever do is form labor unions. A cadre of iron-willed professional revolutionaries must take power to direct everything and keep the transformation from socialism to communism on track. True to his theories, Lenin instituted tight and frightful central control after 1917, ordering thousands of foot-draggers executed. Bolshevik committees chose what was best for the masses and pushed their choices through at whatever the cost in suffering. Ends justifies means. Sebestyen portraits Lenin as a generally decent and often kind man when interacting person-to-person: brilliant since childhood, very loyal to friends who stayed loyal to him, living simply, having the common touch speaking to workers, polite, personally tidy, playing with children, prone to tantrums and grudges, a fanatic socialist, near nervous breakdowns several times from revolutionary zeal. This man who was all that ordered the deaths of hundreds of thousands he perceived as in the way of the workers’ state, although he never witnessed the killings personally. The sight would have unhinged him. Nevertheless, necessary executions, Lenin preached, are how revolutions are sustained to bring change. The true revolutionary realizes this and steels himself to what he has to do—or, in Lenin’s case, what he told others to do. Sebestyen writes that, regretfully, this horrible tenant marked Soviet Communism for decades—all traceable to Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov’s original thinking on seizing and maintaining control to serve the overall good. I enjoyed this book. If this era of history interests you I recommend buying it. It’s 20 hours long so figure 2 weeks to get through it.

A dispassionate account of a cruel misguided man

Lenin cared about nothing but power and no one whom he did not know personally. It is a very grim story without remorse or redemption.