_ Sh,

The life

V.1. Lenin |!

ode Series of articles about
e life and work of Lenin is
Continued from last week.

Though troops were advancing
Tom Britain, France, America,
’pan, Germany and other im-
Perialist countries, not for a mo-
Bent did Lenin doubt the power

the working class and pea-
Santry. He gave all his knowl-
oe” intelligence and inexhaust-
‘ € energy to the struggle. The
ntire people and Party were
United in their determination to
€stroy the enemy.

Nothing favored the imperial-
= Better weapons could not
st the White Guards and for-
in Invaders from defeat at the

ands of the young Red Army.
apne Red Army was a school
et valour for the younger gen-
<a During the Civil War
a Armymen performed incre-
dible feats of heroism in defend-

‘ng their country. Among these

roes were the legendary Cha-
Payey, Shclors and Kotovsky.
When the situation worsened
ihe Bolshevik Party announced
ore Communists and Kom-
: mol members would be called
th Hungry, shabbily dressed,
in. Went into battle. At such
a a notice would be posted
ae doors of regional Komso-
a Committees’ rooms: ‘Com-
oe closed: all gone to the
Tont.” zn
Le broughout the Civil War
Aboun never stopped thinking
ut building a new society in
Ussia. He insisted that the

Country should take the road of

‘ndustrialization and build up its
favy industry. It was essential
th become independent of the

Perialists, make the economy

-Sttong. In those days he kept

Ying that Russia must either
Push ahead at top speed or per-
Sat He believed that, indus-
: Y, it was possible to over-
ve € and even surpass the ad-

Nced capitalist countries.
weenin said that the old back-

ard villages had to be rebuilt
chine New socialist lines. Ma-
= mery had to be supplied and

‘chanized farming replace the
Sting primitive methods. Len-
amed of the time when it

the frong. 1218,

eae ae

ote : =x so

oo a RS a a

would be possible to provide the
the villages with hundreds of
thousands of tractors. And his
dreams have been realized. To-
day the Soviet state and collec-
tive farms have millions of trac-
tors, and tens of millions of
other farm machines.

Despite the devastation in the
country Lenin continued to think
of ways of developing science
and culture. Measures were
taken to wipe out illiteracy.
Schools were opened for adults
and even elderly people learned
to read and write.

Lenin showed great concern
for scientists. Today the whole
world knows about the Soviet
Union’s successes in the explora-
tion of outer space and in un-
ravelling the mysteries of na-
ture. At the time about which
we speak problems of interplane-
tary flights were being consid-
ered by. the Russian. scientist
Konstantin Tsiolkovsky and: his
associate, engineer Tsander. To-
gether they worked on their
ideas for building rocket engines
for space flights. At the end of
1920, Tsander spoke at an in-
ventors’ conference in Moscow.
He described his project for a
space craft. Lenin was interested
and promised to help him.

Lenin wanted to create an effi-
cient state machine. He could
not abide red-tape. The famous
Soviet poet Vladimir Mayakov-
sky once wrote lines in which
he twitted officials who spent
hours in futile conferences.
Lenin enjoyed the rebuke ad-
ministered by the poet.

Administration should be as
smooth as clockwork, he said
and demanded that administra-
tive workers who did not work
properly be punished or even
tried in court.

As far as foreign policy was
concerned, Lenin worked for
peaceful relations and economic
cooperation with other coun-
tries. He favoured business and
trade contacts with capitalist
states. ;

From its inception the Soviet
Union as Lenin advised, has fol-
lowed a policy of peace and
friendship towards other na-

tions.

et

ae Sw

Second Siberian armored train ‘of the 10th Army on its way to

an

ee

Fa
aa

In 1922, there was a peace con-
ference in Genoa, Italy. It is in-
teresting that even then Lenin
instructed the Soviet delegation
to raise the question of a uni-
versal reduction of armaments.

Lenin, believing that Com-
munist Parties and all progres-
sives should unite in the name
of anti-imperialist struggle,
worked for the unity of the
international communist move-
ment, and strongly opposed any
who hindered the unity of
the international proletariat. He
would never be reconciled to
opportunism of any hue. When
Trotsky opposed the signing of
the Brest peace treaty, and used
a lot of revolutionary verbiage

“to justify his position. Lenin

criticized him remorselessly. In
fact he barred Trotsky from the
Brest talks and on his insistence,
the treaty was signed. Had he
not done so the Soviet Govern-
ment would have found itself in
a desperate position.

Lenin held huge responsibility
in the government but always
remained an extremely modest
person. He categorically refused
any rise in his salary and ate in
an ordinary canteen. His study
and apartment in the Kremlin
have been preserved just as they
were when he lived there; visi-
tors are always struck by the
simplicity of the whole interior.

One of Lenin’s outstanding
characteristics was his boundless
consideration for the people —
workers, peasants and intellec-
tuals alike.

There is a well-known paint-
ing by V. Serov, called Peasant
Messengers Visiting Lenin. It
shows Lenin and three peasants
who have come to see him from
a far-away village. Round a
small table are white slip-cover-
ed armchairs. The peasants’
bundles are on the floor beside
the armchairs. One of the pea-
sants, in a sheepskin coat and
rough boots, sits on the very
edge of the armchair, another
stands and a third sits a little
away from Lenin. The oldest of
the three is saying something

and Lenin is listening to him

very intently.

‘This is a true picture. Though
Lenin was always extremely
busy he managed to visit work-
ers, write letters to peasants in
far-away villages and _ oblige
anyone who turned to him for
help (get a pair of glasses, send
books to a village library, etc.)

It is quite a job to build a
house. But how much bigger a

- task it is to build a new state

in a vast country surrounded by
enemies. * < ' ms

e

Overwork affected Lenin's
health. By the spring of 1922
the doctors were insisting that
he have rest and treatment. He
went to Gorki, a small place
some 30 kilometres from Mos-
cow.

There he suffered his first at-
attack. It left him paralyzed in
in the right arm and leg and his
speech affected. After about
three weeks his condition im-
proved. By the end of summer
he was able to return to Moscow
and resume work.

In a speech at the end of
October 1922 at a session of
the All-Russia Central Executive
Committee Lenin said that

_through heroism and selflessness,

the workers and the Bolshevik
Party had been able to rehabili-
tate the country fast.

On November 13, speaking on
“The Five Years of the Russian
Revolution and the Outlook for
World Revolution” at a Com-
munist International Congress he
insisted that with skillful and
correct work the prospects for
world revolution were not just
good but splendid.

Lenin’s health deteriorated
and he again went to Gorki at
his doctors’ suggestion.

On December 12 Lenin return-
ed to Moscow but that was the
last time he was to work in the
Kremlin. The next morning he
felt very ill and went back to
Gorki. On the night of Decem-
ber 15 he had a second attack.

On doctors’ orders he was for-
bidden to read papers or see
friends. Towards the end of De-
cember he felt a little better and
asked to resume work.

At first he was allowed to
dictate for some 5-10 minutes
daily and in a few days he could
work for half an hour or so but
no more.

Treasuring every minute of
his worktime, Lenin dictated his
outstanding articles: Letter to
the Congress, Granting Legisla-
tive Functions to the State Plan-
ning Commission, The Question
of Nationalities or ‘Autonomi-
sation’, Pages from a Diary, On
Co-operation, Our Revolution
(Apropos of N. Sukhanov’s
Notes), How We Should Reor-
ganize the Workers’ and Pea-
sants’ Inspection, Better Fewer,
but Better and others.

The doctors attending Lenin
did all they could to restore his
health. Addressing’ the second
All-Russia Congress of Soviets
on January 19, 1924, M. I. Ka-
linin reported that leading spe-
cialists thought Lenin would be
able to resume his state and
political activities. ~

But on January 21 his condi-
tion drastically changed for the
worse and at 6:50 p.m. he died
of cerebral hemorrhage.

The Central Committee pub-
lished a message to all the work-
ing people. It said:

“Never since Marx has the
history of the great liberation
movement of the proletariat pro-
duced such a titanic figure as
our departed leader, teacher
and friend. All that is truly great
and heroic in the proletariat—
a fearless mind, a will of iron,
unbending, persistent and able
to surmount all obstacles, a
burning, undying hatred of sla-
very and oppréssion, a revolu-
tionary passion that moves
mountains, boundless faith in
the creative energies of the
masses, vast organizational gen-
ius—all this found splendid em-
bodiment in Lenin, whose name
has become the symbol of the
new world from East to West,
from North to South...

“But his physical death is not
the death of his cause. Lenin
lives on in the heart of every
member of our Party. Every
member of our Party is a part
of Lenin. The whole of our Com-
munist family is the collective
embodiment of Lenin . . . The
death of our teacher, a heavy
blow, will unite our ranks even
more closely. We are marching
against capitalism in a_ solid
militant chain and no force on
earth will be able to prevent our
ultimate victory.

“This victory will be the fin-
est monument to Comrade Len-
in, to the man who as their best
friend the masses called their
‘Ilyich’.

“Long live our Party and may
it ever be victorious!

“Long live the working class!”

That winter was unusually
cold but great multitudes of
people went to pay their last
tribute to Lenin.

At 4 o’clock on January 27
the coffin with Lenin’s body was
installed in the Mausoleum.

On that day workers all over
the world stopped work for five
minutes, trains came to a stand
still and silence descended on
plants and factories.

The proletariat of the world
were parting with Lenin.

The Soviet people were experi-
encing grim times. But Lenin’s
death did not break their will.
They remained staunch and
courageous. Politically mature

workers handed in applications
for admission to the Leninist
Party. Two hundred and forty
thousand people joined the Com-
'~ munist Party that time. °°”

PACIFIC TRIBUNE—FEBRUARY 27; 1970—Page 9