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Lenin‘s October 1917 Revolution: limited accomplishments, yet a turning point in 20th century history

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Lenin‘s October 1917 Revolution: limited accomplishments, yet a turning point in 20th century history

Abstract
In 1917, Lenin led factory workers in St. Petersburg, Russia, in taking over the government, expecting to spark the rapidly spreading revolution to abolish capitalism predicted by Marx and Engels. Unexpected relationships among the nations impeded that spread,. Once having become the leader of the vast territories that had formed the Russian Empire and having created a constitution nearly approaching democracy, Lenin was further surprised when the large majority of the populace failed to be inspired by the ideals of Communism, leading Lenin to regretfully become totalitarian in order to protect the revolution. At his death, …show more content…

Marx held that the establishment of rule by industrial workers needed to occur not only in one nation. Workers needed to control just about all industrialized countries in order to end competition among workers. For this, a firmly established rule by the workers in one nation would quickly spread among the industrialized countries, as workers emulated the initial triumph.

Lenin, in his writings, had made two important elaborations of. Marx s ideas, and radically differed from Marx on one key point. Firstly, he elaborated on the role that a workers’ party, that is, a Communist party, would play when it had attained governmental power. It was to rule on behalf of the workers and to educate, lead, and guide the workers, which Marx had not imagined. Secondly, where Marx had foreseen the late 19th century and early 20th century development in democratic nations, passing laws to lessen workers’ suffering, Lenin, in 1915-1916, recognized these societies as exploiters in relation to impoverished societies. Here, workers in the exploiting nations benefited at the expense of those in the exploited countries. Finally, Lenin believed that socialist revolutions would occur throughout Europe soon and that a workers’ revolution in

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