1. Lenin – An assessment
90th anniversary of the death of Lenin

2. Lenin suffered a series of strokes from late 1921 until his death in Jan 1924.
He was able to carry on working during 1922, but a major stroke in March 1923 left him without the power of speech.
Find out which book - Oxley

3. Think about the following interpretations of Lenin
Think about the following interpretations of Lenin. What impression do you have of Lenin from them?
On January 21, 1924 Lenin died. Millions of people were overcome with sorrow... On the morning of January 27 his remains were brought to Red Square, where an endless mass of people streamed past the coffin. The working people of the entire world also paid their last tribute. Factory workers in many countries stopped work for five minutes in homage ...For the first time in the history of mankind the death of one man moved hundreds of millions of people throughout the world. Everyone had heard the name of Lenin..
From a Soviet Textbook published in 1976

4. Over 3 days, three and half million people queued for hours to see his body lying in state.

5. Lenin’s freshly-mummified body in the Kremlin, Moscow

6. Lenin’s body today, undergoing one of its annual ‘spring cleans’

7. This extraordinary figure was first and foremost a professional revolutionary ...A man of iron will and inflexible ambition he had no scruple about methods and treated human beings as mere material for his purpose. Short and sturdy, with a bald head, small beard and deep-set eyes, Lenin looked like a small tradesman. When he spoke at meetings his ill-fitting suit, his crooked tie ...turned the crowd in his favor...This is not the place to describe in detail the terrible achievements of Bolshevism-the shameful peace with Germany, the plundering of the educated and propertied classes, the long continued terror with its thousands of innocent victims ...The Communist
experiment brought Russia to economic ruin, famine and barbarism.
From the Times 23 January 1924

8. Lenin: An Assessment + - Weaknesses Strengths
Use with Jonathan Davis review article

9. Record Lenin’s achievements…
High
Point!
1915
1917
1920
1922
1924
Low
point

10. A quote from AJP Taylor made in the 1960’s
Plenary
“Lenin did more than any other political leader to change the face of the 20th Century world. The creation of Soviet Russia and its survival were due to him. He was a very great man and even, despite his faults, a very good man”
A quote from AJP Taylor made in the 1960’s
Do we agree?

11. Did Lenin betray communist principles?
Reproduced with kind permission of Novosti

12. A written, newspaper style obituary
Your Task
You need to produce an Obituary for Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov, either celebrating or attacking his life’s work.
You should use the worksheet to help organise your work and then produce:
A written, newspaper style obituary
A visual display to support the written obituary. (poster / model / collage) This will be displayed on the wall of the classroom
Goodbye, Lenin…

13.  Your task
Create a spider diagram identifying the different ways in which Lenin and the Bolsheviks centralised government during and after the Civil War.