Rating: 
Summary: Where Lenin really came from...a twisted youth
Review: After 20 years' fascination with all things Russian and Stalinist, mainly because our liberal highschool teachers tried to tell us that the Soviet system was fair, equitable, just and wonderful, I read this biography with great interest in the details of how a man could decide to so dramatically change his country. Although I'm a staunch anticommunist since age 16 (see above), I find the very attempt to transform a backward nation very interesting. What one rarely does read from either the right or left, or translated Russian books, is a more complete story of Lenin's youth. He was highly intelligent, ambitious, yet from an average provincial Russian town; he was a very poor "worker" in that he rarely had a job at all. He travelled, lived off friends, read and wrote, argued and discussed, drank coffee and fomented revolution, and mostly he did these things abroad. My own three years in bumming around European cities made many of his personal moves keenly interesting. How does one live comfortably on the edge - supporting a wife as well?The disastrous results of his ideology which led to millions of murdered Soviet citizens all find their roots in that youth and young manhood. The Tsarist killing of his older brother put a very deep wound in this man, indeed. Robert Service lectures here in the Bay Area at the Independent Institute, should you wish to see him. He has written several books, all well-researched, and he is well-respected in the academic communities. He is getting on in years but speaks very precisely. His condemnation of Lenin's indifference to others' real suffering, such as WWI's victims throughout Europe, bring out points that one overlooks. For once the Revolution got rolling, he was considered a triumphant new ruler, but he did not start out that way. In my travels, I've met many such ranters! They love those cafes in Europe and remittance checks! Luckily they don't knock down the national economy of the USA!
Rating: 
Summary: Too much psychobabble
Review: Apparently the author is somewhat conflicted about Lenin, despite his claim that he is no fan of Lenin's. While generally doing a decent job opening up Lenin's life for the reader with an interesting array of "humanizing" facts, the author gets into serious trouble with his dime store psychological characterizations (surounded and dependent on strong women..mother, sisters, wife lover) simply adds nothing. It is pure speculation. Actually, Service' description of Lenin is one of an intelligent, actually a creature of middle class vfamily values, a lover of classic literature and music, and driven to rid Russia of its despicable tsarist dictatorship. In other words Service, in spite of his self-described antipathy towards Lenin makes him a very likable and heroic figure. Service thus in an unintended ironical dialectical methodology has portayed Lenin exactly the opposite of his plan. In fact the very ending of the book, where he hopes for no repeat of a "new" Lenin ever coming on the world stage is jarring, as he has presented no argument within the book to butress his beliefs. So in spite of Service intentions this book (despite the specious psychobabble) is pretty good.
Rating:
Summary: Terrific, Comprehensive Overview Of Lenin And His Ideas!
Review: As a graduate student in sociology who studied the works of Karl Marx, I was always struck by the cruel irony that the only countries advancing his communist theories were exactly those places in which he least expected such revolutionary change; czarist Russia and feudal China. Marx had predicted that the western democracies, including England, France, and Germany, were the most likely locale for such proletariat uprisings. The fact that the two backward and predominantly rural countries of China and Russia were the only ones to succumb to the siren call of a worker's paradise owes much to the unique and extraordinary efforts of exceptional individuals in each of the two countries, each of whom through their own extraordinary insight, political savvy and exquisite timing successfully executed bloody overthrows of ancient regimes. This wonderfully written and masterfully told biography of the first of these two men on horseback, Russian Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov (Lenin) does great tribute to both the incredible genius and singularity of the man himself, while at the same time paints a wonderfully descriptive and quite comprehensive picture of the maelstrom of social, economic, and political circumstances surrounding the rise of Lenin's Bolshevik party to power. Lenin's importance in the subsequent developments both within the former Soviet Union and indeed throughout the modern world can hardly be exaggerated. And while we now self-confidently brag that the specter of communism is dead, the fact is that much of what Marx and later Lenin wrote regarding the continuing evolution of society continues to unfold. In what is commonly referred to as Marx's "Emiseration" theory, the gradual but inexorable drift of the two major political forces, the proletariat and the bourgeoisie, toward increasing polarization and the eventual erosion of the large middle class separating them would lead to increasing concentration of wealth and widespread impoverishment as the owners of industry and corporations became more and more powerful and less and less accountable. Many observing the contemporary creation of a permanent "underclass" in modern democratic societies in the United States, Great Britain, and Germany as well as the slide of many in the middle class toward economic uncertainty and insecurity remember Marx's prognostications nervously. Perhaps, they say, we have celebrated the final victory over communism too soon. In this fashion, Service's wonderful book about Lenin and his ideas provides the reader with a terrific understanding of his biographical roots, his philosophical concerns, and his social, economic, and political agenda. Whether one gives any credence to Marxian thought or to Lenin's revisions to this theory of scientific socialism, one must give credit to the quality of mind that conceived of such a mind-boggling overthrow of the powers that be, with little to work with but a rag-tag bunch of political malcontents and committed party members to work with. The story of how they actually succeeded at overthrowing one of the most callous and brutal regimes in modern history with so little going for them but the indifference of the populace and the blind ignorance of the existing monarchy is truly one for the history books. While that story is brilliantly told in John Reed's spellbinding "Ten Days That Shook The World", this biography shows how Lenin himself came to be the mastermind guiding the Bolsheviks toward victory and then through a bloody civil war to come to rule the country with an iron fist. This is a marvelously entertaining and edifying book, and is one I heartily recommend. Enjoy!
Rating:
Summary: Lenin: A Biography
Review: I really wanted to give this excellent biography five stars (as if my opinion really matters), but I just can't get over the fact that this is a largely political work. Of course, Lenin was a largely political man, but he was a man nonetheless. Service, who is a professor of political science, does an exceptional job with the details of Lenin's political development and his infamous accomplishments, but his handling of the more personal aspects of his life and the much more subtle cultural and historical contexts feels incomplete. It's about time that an important biography of Lenin FINALLY suggests that the execution of his brother Alexander probably led to his utter obsession with bringing down the Romanovs. Lenin, above all, was more consumed with destruction, with replacing Old Russia with something new and "scientific", than with elevating the lives of the oppressed. Service makes this point a centerpiece of his thesis and I think he's dead on. I only wish he'd done a more careful exegesis of Lenin's psychological motivation for his radicalism.
Rating: 
Summary: A mostly political biography
Review: I really wanted to give this excellent biography five stars (as if my opinion really matters), but I just can't get over the fact that this is a largely political work. Of course, Lenin was a largely political man, but he was a man nonetheless. Service, who is a professor of political science, does an exceptional job with the details of Lenin's political development and his infamous accomplishments, but his handling of the more personal aspects of his life and the much more subtle cultural and historical contexts feels incomplete. It's about time that an important biography of Lenin FINALLY suggests that the execution of his brother Alexander probably led to his utter obsession with bringing down the Romanovs. Lenin, above all, was more consumed with destruction, with replacing Old Russia with something new and "scientific", than with elevating the lives of the oppressed. Service makes this point a centerpiece of his thesis and I think he's dead on. I only wish he'd done a more careful exegesis of Lenin's psychological motivation for his radicalism.
Rating:
Summary: A fitting biography
Review: Mr. Service's biography of Lenin is outstanding. The text is amazingly detailed (it describes his behavior patterns as a child, his arguments with fellow Bolsheviks behind closed doors, and his final year in stunning detail). Service also gives insight into Lenin's personal motivation that drove him to the October Revolution in 1917, as well as the future of the USSR as Lenin had envisaged (let's just say Stalinism was not foreseen). Additionally, the book is well written and easy to read; a must for anyone interested in Lenin, the Soviet Union, or the Bolshevik Revolution.
Rating:
Summary: A very good book misses being great
Review: No doubt we owe a debt of gratitude to Robert Service. He has given us a badly needed new biography of this very important figure, one that incorporates some materials held secret in Russia for over 80 years. What is more, the work is quite complete for a shortened biography (he has a 3 volume version), with a few odd exceptions. Service performs on the whole admirably. His work is without major errors, and he gives us Lenin from start to finish. In workmanlike fashion, he moves chronologically through this active life, addressing the familiar issues with common sense. The style is pedestrian, but, no pun intended, serviceable. If you want to get to know Lenin in one volume, this is the one to choose.
Yet, for all of that, there are a number of areas, a few of them quite significant, where this book is ultimately unsatisfying. I found it odd, for example, that there is not a word in the book about the peculiar Bauman affair in 1904. Bauman (for whom the most famous technical institute in Moscow is named) was a disgusting character who seduced and impregnated a married fellow Bolshevik, and then boasted about it, ridiculing her in public. When her appeals to him for help fell on deaf ears, she appealed to the Party, and ultimately committed suicide. Lenin's decision to laugh this off, as the essentially harmless prank of one of his own, reveals quite early Lenin's basically amoral nature. Similarly, the dispute with the Mensheviks over "Exes", ie armed robberies to `expropriate the expropriators', as Lenin infelicitously put it, is hardly addressed, even though this issue was not insignificant. It turned on the question of the Party's reputation (and, consequently, its potential for recruitment and its appeal to society) - was it to be a high-minded, even idealistic political organ, or was it to be besmirched by these activities, and thus identified with gangsters and their base criminality? Lenin recognized the Menshevik point, in principle, but actually did nothing to discourage Stalin's and others' gangsterism (indeed, quite the opposite) - again, an episode revealing Lenin's absence of moral standard. Service also ignores the last act of the suppression of the Constituent Assembly on Jan. 6 (OS), when the Bolsheviks gunned down the small demonstration of support, killing 20. (To be fair, this episode is hardly remembered today by anyone, including the most famous names in the writing of Russian history. Instead, they almost uniformly disparage Russian society, particularly the intelligentsia, for cowardice and irresolution in the apparent absence of any support for the Assembly. True, the demonstration was not massive, but those who marched knew, surely, what was likely awaiting them. These victims bear the conscience of Russia's commitment to its first democratic institution, and it is just shameful to ignore or forget them.) Or, the infamous expulsion of the flower of Russian intellectual life, the nearly 300 academics, world-renown scholars, and cultural figures in 1922 who, in a moment of uncharacteristic generosity, were not murdered on the spot, but actually permitted to take two pieces of clothing into permanent exile.
Inclusion of these relatively minor matters might have undermined the work's brevity and accessibility. Perhaps, but what is one to make of more major omissions? In particular, it can be shown that Lenin not only was not disturbed by the development of the Civil War, but actually welcomed and encouraged it. In fact, it is not too much to say that he, far more than any other single individual, caused it. In a series of decrees and directives, he made it impossible for the former "ruling classes", including the only nascent bourgeoisie, to live. Their turn to active resistance was most often undertaken very reluctantly (the sorry defense of the Constituent Assembly is but one example), an act of desperation and a simple matter of life and death, something to which they were goaded and prodded. Lenin was even surprised that it took so long. There is no evidence that Service is aware of the proof of this in Stephan Courtois' "Black Book of Communism" and Nicolas Werth's book-length article there on Russia.
Further, while Service cites some chilling documentation on Lenin's sanguinary attack on the church, he does not detail the well-known incident at Shuya, the most revealing of them all. It was this that served as the trigger for his shockingly violent rhetoric, long concealed, calling for the destruction of the church and the murder of its ecclesiastics. Again, see Werth.
It is in matters of interpretation that the reader is left most dissatisfied. While there is plenty of evidence scattered throughout the book to damn Lenin as completely amoral, the reader comes away from the book without a clear statement or unequivocal understanding of this crucial insight. In fact, I would argue that there is something pathological at work in a man who is absolutely incapable of any introspection, a pathology that remains unidentified and uninvestigated by Service. To cite the most critical example, there is no evidence that Lenin ever questioned, much less regretted, making the Revolution, despite the fact that it had violated all of his own theoretical principles. Yet, early on, certainly by 1920, it was possible to see that the Mensheviks were right in opposing it. It was catastrophic: Mass murder and massive starvation were its direct result. For Lenin, though, ideology takes second place to reality. This unstable balance between theory and necessity is crucial to understanding Lenin. And, the pathology which permits it, without internal debate or vacillation, had devastating implications for his subjects, but it is not explored.
Lenin's view of Russia as nothing but a backwater, only good for igniting the real revolution in the west, and of Russians as incompetent bunglers is never given the emphasis it deserves, nor the ultimate irony of his remaining in state on Red Square. Were it so, Service would perhaps see this, and the current condition of Russia, as possibly the ultimate revenge of history.
Rating:
Summary: A very good book misses being great
Review: No doubt we owe a debt of gratitude to Robert Service. He has given us a badly needed new biography of this very important figure, one that incorporates some materials held secret in Russia for over 80 years. What is more, the work is quite complete for a shortened biography (he has a 3 volume version), with a few odd exceptions. Service performs on the whole admirably. His work is without major errors, and he gives us Lenin from start to finish. In workmanlike fashion, he moves chronologically through this active life, addressing the familiar issues with common sense. The style is pedestrian, but, no pun intended, serviceable. If you want to get to know Lenin in one volume, this is the one to choose.
Yet, for all of that, there are a number of areas, a few of them quite significant, where this book is ultimately unsatisfying. I found it odd, for example, that there is not a word in the book about the peculiar Bauman affair in 1904. Bauman (for whom the most famous technical institute in Moscow is named) was a disgusting character who seduced and impregnated a married fellow Bolshevik, and then boasted about it, ridiculing her in public. When her appeals to him for help fell on deaf ears, she appealed to the Party, and ultimately committed suicide. Lenin's decision to laugh this off, as the essentially harmless prank of one of his own, reveals quite early Lenin's basically amoral nature. Similarly, the dispute with the Mensheviks over "Exes", ie armed robberies to 'expropriate the expropriators', as Lenin infelicitously put it, is hardly addressed, even though this issue was not insignificant. It turned on the question of the Party's reputation (and, consequently, its potential for recruitment and its appeal to society) - was it to be a high-minded, even idealistic political organ, or was it to be besmirched by these activities, and thus identified with gangsters and their base criminality? Lenin recognized the Menshevik point, in principle, but actually did nothing to discourage Stalin's and others' gangsterism (indeed, quite the opposite) - again, an episode revealing Lenin's absence of moral standard. Service also ignores the last act of the suppression of the Constituent Assembly on Jan. 6 (OS), when the Bolsheviks gunned down the small demonstration of support, killing 20. (To be fair, this episode is hardly remembered today by anyone, including the most famous names in the writing of Russian history. Instead, they almost uniformly disparage Russian society, particularly the intelligentsia, for cowardice and irresolution in the apparent absence of any support for the Assembly. True, the demonstration was not massive, but those who marched knew, surely, what was likely awaiting them. These victims bear the conscience of Russia's commitment to its first democratic institution, and it is just shameful to ignore or forget them.) Or, the infamous expulsion of the flower of Russian intellectual life, the nearly 300 academics, world-renown scholars, and cultural figures in 1922 who, in a moment of uncharacteristic generosity, were not murdered on the spot, but actually permitted to take two pieces of clothing into permanent exile.
Inclusion of these relatively minor matters might have undermined the work's brevity and accessibility. Perhaps, but what is one to make of more major omissions? In particular, it can be shown that Lenin not only was not disturbed by the development of the Civil War, but actually welcomed and encouraged it. In fact, it is not too much to say that he, far more than any other single individual, caused it. In a series of decrees and directives, he made it impossible for the former "ruling classes", including the only nascent bourgeoisie, to live. Their turn to active resistance was most often undertaken very reluctantly (the sorry defense of the Constituent Assembly is but one example), an act of desperation and a simple matter of life and death, something to which they were goaded and prodded. Lenin was even surprised that it took so long. There is no evidence that Service is aware of the proof of this in Stephan Courtois' "Black Book of Communism" and Nicolas Werth's book-length article there on Russia.
Further, while Service cites some chilling documentation on Lenin's sanguinary attack on the church, he does not detail the well-known incident at Shuya, the most revealing of them all. It was this that served as the trigger for his shockingly violent rhetoric, long concealed, calling for the destruction of the church and the murder of its ecclesiastics. Again, see Werth.
It is in matters of interpretation that the reader is left most dissatisfied. While there is plenty of evidence scattered throughout the book to damn Lenin as completely amoral, the reader comes away from the book without a clear statement or unequivocal understanding of this crucial insight. In fact, I would argue that there is something pathological at work in a man who is absolutely incapable of any introspection, a pathology that remains unidentified and uninvestigated by Service. To cite the most critical example, there is no evidence that Lenin ever questioned, much less regretted, making the Revolution, despite the fact that it had violated all of his own theoretical principles. Yet, early on, certainly by 1920, it was possible to see that the Mensheviks were right in opposing it. It was catastrophic: Mass murder and massive starvation were its direct result. For Lenin, though, ideology takes second place to reality. This unstable balance between theory and necessity is crucial to understanding Lenin. And, the pathology which permits it, without internal debate or vacillation, had devastating implications for his subjects, but it is not explored.
Lenin's view of Russia as nothing but a backwater, only good for igniting the real revolution in the west, and of Russians as incompetent bunglers is never given the emphasis it deserves, nor the ultimate irony of his remaining in state on Red Square. Were it so, Service would perhaps see this, and the current condition of Russia, as possibly the ultimate revenge of history.
Rating:
Summary: An Excellent Portayal
Review: Robert Service paints the most in-depth portrait of the life of Lenin that I have ever read. He takes readers no only through the trials and tribulations of Lenin's everyday life, but also into an analyzed look into his beliefs and interpretations of Marxism that were the foundations of his life. Service keeps the reader enthralled in his book with an intelligent and imaginative writing style that did not let me put his book down. Being a student in Russian studies, I was thoroughly impressed by Service's account of one of the most influential character's in history. Readers should know that this book not only covers Lenin's life, but also the history of the Russian Revolution in 1917, and the theory of Marxism and Communism. Those who are not familiar with these subjects may find the book difficult to read since it assumes a lot of knowledge from the reader. However, those who know Russia will find the book extremely insightful.
Rating:
Summary: Lenin: A Biography
Review: Service (history, St. Anthony's College, Oxford) endeavors to rehabilitate Lenin, whose fame in his own homeland since the collapse of the USSR has been badly bruised. Not only are there studies that portray Lenin as the architect of 20th-century violence, he is considered a failed state builder whose actions ultimately led to the 1991 debacle. On a conceptual level, the author will need to compete with the works of Martin Malia, Alexander Solzhenitsin, and Dmitri Volkoganov. Although Service contends that in Soviet hagiography Lenin's biographies were taboo, the author in some parts skirts the danger of falling into an overglorified Sovietlike portrait of the first Bolshevik. This is a full political biography that covers Lenin's life from birth in Simbirsk to the end at Gorki. Regardless of the pro-Leninist tilt, this is a good read, offering a great deal about a life that since the beginning of the USSR has been abused by partisans of both sides. Surprisingly there is no reference to Stefan Possony's biography (Lenin: The Compulsive Revolutionary, CH, Jul'64.) Well-footnoted and illustrated and containing a reasonably good bibliography and sufficient index, this book is recommended for all public and college libraries.
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