On January 21, the centenary of the death of Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov, better known by the nickname Lenin, the revolutionary who changed the course of the history of the 20th century, was celebrated. He happened in his dacha, the Gorki estate, which is located ten kilometers from Moscow. There, a supposed cerebrovascular infarction, the third he had suffered in a few years, ended the life of the father of the October Revolution, the latter event completely erasing the secular tsarist feudalism that had ruled Russia for more than 1,000 years.
During his lifetime, Lenin changed the historical course of Russia, conditioning, up to the symbolic fall of the Berlin Wall, not only the future of many Third World countries. Also that of their neighbors in Eastern and Western Europe who, fearing the threat of the Soviet Empire, chose on a social level to develop policies that substantially improved the lives of the less favored classes.
His early death at the age of 53, in the midst of the creation of the communist dream, perhaps also had a decisive influence on the context of the 20th century, since he was succeeded by Stalin. A bloodthirsty autocrat who, although he managed to resist, and finally defeat, the army of the Nazi Third Reich, imposed totalitarian policies that cost the lives of millions of people, vanishing early on the socialist utopia.
A book centenary
As it could not be otherwise, given the fascination and the numerous questions that the character raises, the centenary of Lenin’s transfer has been commemorated by numerous publishers in our country with the reissue of both the texts of the Marxist revolutionary leader and with new autobiographies. and analysis of his life and his deeds. Some of them illustrated and others revised.
In total, nine new items have arrived at elDiario.es that deal with the figure of Lenin from the most diverse angles, and that republish some of the texts that the Marxist leader published during his lifetime. To them we add a tenth book, recovered for the occasion and published, in the current edition, in May 2023: Ten days that shook the world. The reason is that it is perhaps one of the first war journalistic chronicles written, saving those of William Howard Russell in 1854 in the Crimean War for The Times.
‘Problems of everyday life’ (Libros Corrientes, 2024)
This work by Leon Trotsky provides a first-hand view of one of the conditions under which the Russian revolution took place. Published in 1923, with Lenin near his death, this pamphlet by his companion Trotsky shows the harsh conditions faced by the population in the midst of the civil war.
As explained by its editors, Saioa Sáez Domínguez and Carlos García Simón, they have chosen “this small work by Trotsky for its effectiveness in destroying the widely disseminated image (even largely on the left…) of the former Russian communists as insensitive. bureaucrats obsessed with productivity.
They emphasize that in the text “Trotsky points out errors, shares doubts and brings to the fore contradictions that affect the working class, women and men, in their daily lives.” And they highlight that “in this book we not only read Trotsky, but the problems, tribulations and contradictions of the working class can be found in the voice of its representatives through a series of questions and answers included at the end of the text and that form the basis on which the author builds his work.”
‘Lenin, the man who changed the world’ (Capitan Swing / Nórdica Libros, 2024)
It is a work illustrated by Agustín Comotto that tells the life journey of the creator of the first State resulting from an intellectual design. According to Blanca Cambronero, responsible for this joint edition, “it is an account of the life and figure of Lenin that intends to show the historical and political weight that he had in the future of the last century and the influence that his legacy has had on world level.”
Regarding Comotto’s illustrations, Cambronero highlights “that they follow the aesthetics of socialist and communist iconography from the beginning of the century without losing the personal and characteristic style of the author.” And regarding the reasons for recovering the figure and thought of Lenin, he alleges “certain similarities between the beginning of the 20th and 21st centuries in terms of political, economic and social instability and the rise of far-right authoritarian currents, which reflect discontent. of a precarious social majority with an uncertain future.”
‘Lenin. Study of the coherence of his thought (Verso Libros, 2024)
A classic work of Marxism written by the Hungarian historian and philosopher Georg Lukacs, who was retaliated against and expelled from the communist party after the Hungarian revolution of 1956. According to the editor Simón Vàzquez, “the Lenin by Lukács is in our opinion a key work because it is a short condensed work, where each word weighs, and because a coherent and objective thought is not systematized, but rather a living thought can be seen in it.”
Simón warns that “it is an eminently political book that has become a modern classic that helps us understand and face our reality.” In this sense, he believes that “unfortunately or fortunately, the objectives and approaches [que llevaron a Lenin a la acción revolucionaria] “They remain more present than ever: defeat a system of capital accumulation and build a world without exploitation between people.”
‘My life with Lenin’ (El Viejo Mole, 2023)
This is a work recovered by this publisher, since it was published 50 years ago but with the passage of time it has disappeared from bookstores, which gives more value to its reissue. It brims with vitality and is written by the revolutionary responsible for the development of education in the Soviet Union and pioneer of the Russian library network, who was also Lenin’s companion: Nadezhda Krupskaya.
According to Miguel Riera Montesinos, responsible for the editions of El Viejo Topo, My life with Lenin “offers an intimate vision of the character, his journey through different exiles, his anguish and his struggle.” Riera warns that “the book stops just when the revolution begins.”
‘Get to know Lenin and his work’ (El Viejo Topo, 2023)
Another recovered historical work, in this case written by the now deceased philosopher Francisco Fernández Buey, one of the founders of Spanish eco-communism, as well as the Partit Socialista Unificat de Catalunya (PSUC). According to Miguel Riera, “it was an attempt by the much missed Francisco Fernández Buey to make known the essentials of Lenin’s thought in an accessible way for the young people of the time.”
Regarding both news items published by El Viejo Topo, Riera believes it is necessary to recover the figure of Lenin because “he is perhaps the most important revolutionary of all time, at the level of Robespierre.” But he laments that he “is completely forgotten, both from the biographical point of view and from the knowledge of his thought.” “Only the most negative aspects of his figure are remembered today, real or invented,” she adds.
‘Lenin. A biography’ (Attic Tempus, 2023)
Work by journalist Victor Sebestyen who has been a finalist for the Elizabeth Longford award for best historical biography. According to Fernando Álvarez, editor of the book: “It is an exhaustive tour not only of the political Lenin, but also of the human Lenin, a facet that most books about the revolutionary leader tend to forget.”
For Álvarez, Lenin “is a very controversial and disputed figure, since the most Marxist left has claimed his figure as the father of the Russian revolution, and has generally contrasted him with Stalin, who, according to this view, would have ousted him. “earth the first achievements of said revolution.” In this sense, Álvarez assures that “Victor Sebestyen’s work is an excellent starting point to place Lenin in his historical context” and thus be able to understand his successes and errors.
‘April thesis’ (Akal, 2024)
“At Akal, VI Lenin has always been present in our catalogue: from the Complete works that we published during the seventies, passing through the titles of our Basic Pocket Collection of recent years, until our recent edition of the April Thesis”explains Alejandro Rodríguez, the company’s editor.
The work highlights that “it is accessible to any reader and it contains the intervention that sparked the Russian Revolution, which is why it is essential to know the spirit that guided Lenin’s actions.” Rodríguez believes that he is “one of the political geniuses of the 20th century without whom Marxism cannot be understood, since he established the foundations of the communist project, and he did so starting from the bottom.”
‘Lenin’ (Espasa, 2024)
Written by the Franco-Russian historian Hélène Carrère d’Encausse, one of the world’s leading experts on the Russian Empire and the Soviet Union, this title is undoubtedly a critical counterpoint for those who want to approach the leader of the Russian Revolution from another perspective. October. Carrère d’Encausse’s book begins in a way that could not be more revealing than its content will be: “January 21, 1924. Lenin has died. An immense country, the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, is plunged into dismay and horror. How to live without Lenin? A century later the world remembers him, but to what extent? His work, the USSR, no longer exists, and the Communist Party, his other creation, although it survives, is bloodless, lacking authority. Really, what remains of his figure?
‘Lenin. A life for the revolution’ (Catarata, 2024)
José María Faraldo is a professor of Contemporary History and History of Tourism at the Complutense University. He can be considered, according to the website of said university, one of the Spanish historians who has most deeply studied the archives and the recent past of Central and Eastern Europe. On the other hand, for Editorial Catarata, Lenin. A life for the revolution “reconstructs with brevity and integrity the life of one of the main historical figures who marked the 20th century and who, at the same time, continues to influence our present.”
Bowlto extra: ‘Ten days that shook the world’ (Akal, 2023)
For its 50th anniversary, the Akal publishing house published this classic piece of chronicle journalism, prepared by the American journalist John Reed, who experienced the October Revolution first-hand, even participating in it to the point that, after his death in 1920 , was buried on the Kremlin wall, where his body still lies next to other Bolshevik leaders.
