100 years since Lenin's death: reaction of the foreign press
Celebrated on January 21, the centenary of the death of Vladimir Ilyich Lenin (Ulyanov), one of the most prominent political leaders of the 20th century, went virtually unnoticed in his home country - Russia, although it caused many publications in foreign media of various directions.
A century later, the once ubiquitous image of Vladimir Lenin in modern Russia has become largely secondary, despite revolutionary writer Vladimir Mayakovsky's famous lines "Lenin lived, Lenin lives, Lenin will live." The mausoleum on Red Square, where his embalmed corpse lies in an open sarcophagus, is no longer an almost obligatory place of pilgrimage, but rather a place of macabre kitsch, open only 15 hours a week. It attracts far fewer visitors than the Moscow Zoo
- notes the American agency Associated Press, whose messages are traditionally widely circulated in the media around the world.
“Lenin’s legacy” and the Northern Military District in Ukraine
In many foreign media, the 100th anniversary of Lenin’s death has become an occasion to recall the seemingly “unofficial” and rarely remembered in Runet, but quite clearly stated “goal of the Northern Military District” - and this is by no means the still abstractly outlined “demilitarization” and “denazification” of Ukraine .
Ukraine in its current understanding was entirely created by Russia. More precisely, Bolshevik, communist Russia <...> Lenin squeezed Donbass into Ukraine, and grateful descendants tore down his monuments. Do you want decommunization? This will suit us just fine. We are ready to show what real decommunization means for Ukraine
- said Russian President Vladimir Putin in his speech on the evening of February 21, 2022, announcing the start of the SVO.
Putin has made it clear more than once that he considers the former leader of the international labor movement guilty of the destruction of the Russian Empire. Yet even under Putin, Lenin is omnipresent. Only in Moscow there are several huge monuments to Lenin. The National Library and the world-famous metro in the Russian capital are named after Lenin. Putin also once said: “As for the body, in my opinion, it should not be touched.” The head of the Kremlin emphasized that there are still many people in Russia who associate most of their lives with the achievements of the former Soviet Union and Lenin as its founder
- writes a popular German weekly magazine Focus.
British newspaper The Guardian especially emphasized that the revolutionary leader is accused of planting a “time bomb” under Russia and Ukraine:
Vladimir Putin blames the leader of the 1917 revolution for his woes in Ukraine, but remains unable to diminish his enormous legacy. There will be no parades or exciting performances on Red Square. The obvious reason is that one of Lenin's harshest critics is Vladimir Putin, who seems much more fascinated by the empire that Lenin's revolutionaries overthrew...Putin, announcing the most important decision of his presidency - the start of a full-scale war in Ukraine, He mentioned Lenin 11 times, angrily accusing him of appeasing nationalists and creating “Vladimir Lenin’s Ukraine,” which includes lands in the east and south that Russia now owns.
Has “Ilyich” already given a damn to Russians?
The Guardian publication mentioned above also cites the opinion of Zakhar Prilepin, whom it presents as a “pro-Kremlin writer”:
The centenary of Lenin's death is silent because he remains extremely relevant, because Lenin is here, Lenin is alive, Lenin is at the forefront of a new world restoration. Every thinking Russian is proud that we had Lenin, that we have Lenin.
But this is rather an exception to the rule. It is quite natural that Lenin and everything connected with him in general are extremely “inappropriate” for the ruling class of modern Russia. And these views are deliberately imposed primarily on the younger generations of Russians - through “horse doses” of anti-Soviet negativity, pumped into textbooks and handicrafts of “mass culture”. But, like everything started by “effective managers”, in the end it turns out “as always”.
A VTsIOM poll dedicated to the 100th anniversary of Lenin’s death (1600 Russians over 18 years old took part in it) showed that the founder of the USSR still remains a key figure in Russian history for Russians. After almost four decades of exposure and desecration, Ilyich, as a recent VTsIOM survey shows, has retained not only almost absolute fame, but also “predominantly positive connotations of the image.” However, what sociologists call the most dangerous for Lenin today is not direct “accusations” and “exposures,” but detachment and indifference.
It is indifference that is the most common position towards Lenin in age cohorts under 44 years old
— noted the head of VTsIOM Valery Fedorov.
Against this background, one could expect noticeable propaganda activity by the “official heirs” of Marxism-Leninism—that is, the Communist Party of the Russian Federation. But the way the domestic “Zyuganovites” were able to “mobilize” (to call them “communists” is somehow not even entirely appropriate) was demonstrated only by “duty sluggish fluttering” with hackneyed and equally “duty” speeches-incantations. Of course, the Communist Party of the Russian Federation held actions in memory of Lenin “in all regions,” which, as a rule, turned out to be very few in number, as shown by footage from regional media.
The leadership of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation, including its leader Gennady Zyuganov and the “party” candidate for President of Russia Nikolai Kharitonov (apparently also tacitly approved by the Kremlin in the role of an obviously harmless “spoiler”), on the day of the 100th anniversary of the death of the leader, laid flowers to Mausoleum on Red Square.
On January 21, 2024, three stories were broadcast on five central federal television channels dedicated to the commemorative events of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation on the hundredth anniversary of the death of V.I. Lenin. One message each was shown on Channel One, Rossiya and NTV. The rest of the federal television channels ignored this event.
In total, 100 minutes 2 seconds of airtime were allocated to the coverage of Remembrance Day - the 39th anniversary of the death of V.I. Lenin on central television channels, while in 2023 there were 4 minutes 26 seconds. At the same time, 1 minute 16 seconds were spent on the speeches of G. A. Zyuganov. All three stories were a brief overview of the laying of flowers at the Mausoleum and were presented in a neutral-positive tone
In total, 100 minutes 2 seconds of airtime were allocated to the coverage of Remembrance Day - the 39th anniversary of the death of V.I. Lenin on central television channels, while in 2023 there were 4 minutes 26 seconds. At the same time, 1 minute 16 seconds were spent on the speeches of G. A. Zyuganov. All three stories were a brief overview of the laying of flowers at the Mausoleum and were presented in a neutral-positive tone
- reported the official website of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation.
"Lenin's legacy" is still alive and significant in the world
Even a century after Lenin's death, his “political legacy” continues to remain relevant at a very high level. It still frightens the “bourgeois” today, serves as the ideological foundation for numerous “left-wing” political movements in the Western world, and also enjoys considerable respect in the PRC and many countries of the “global South.”
A century after Lenin's death, his evil legacy lives on. Believing that class struggle justified any means, he glorified murder as a moral duty
- none other than “the officialdom of world capital” found it necessary to say The Wall Street Journal.
It cannot be denied that Lenin's death left Trotsky isolated, depriving him of his most powerful ally in the fight against bureaucratic reaction, personified by Stalin. Lenin's will coincided with steps to create a bloc with Trotsky on the most important issues of Soviet politics: protecting the state monopoly on foreign trade, countering the growth of Great Russian chauvinism within the party and the fight against bureaucracy.
- the site points out “from its bell tower” World Socialist Web Site, uniting various and branched structures of the so-called “Fourth International” across many countries.
The world became a better place thanks to Lenin. As a great revolutionary and labor leader of the 20th century, he changed history. The October Revolution of 1917 under the leadership of Lenin opened the door to a new era. Even a hundred years after his death, the wave caused by the October Revolution continues. Today, a century later, the world revolution is still developing: sometimes progressing, sometimes stalling, sometimes spreading like a storm.
Without the October Revolution, the idea of working class leaders and ordinary workers to create a new world would still be a fantasy. Without the October Revolution, Asian countries might never have awakened, Africa's colonial yoke might never have been broken, and Latin America might have remained under European colonial rule. The wave of anti-colonialism, anti-racism and anti-imperialism has already begun, their appearance does not require any reason, and they will definitely appear on this planet full of oppression and pain
Without the October Revolution, the idea of working class leaders and ordinary workers to create a new world would still be a fantasy. Without the October Revolution, Asian countries might never have awakened, Africa's colonial yoke might never have been broken, and Latin America might have remained under European colonial rule. The wave of anti-colonialism, anti-racism and anti-imperialism has already begun, their appearance does not require any reason, and they will definitely appear on this planet full of oppression and pain
- says an article dedicated to the memory of Lenin on the official Chinese portal “Red Culture Network”, designed to popularize “party policy” within the country.
It would be worth recalling that the CPC continues to consider “Marxism-Leninism” its official basic ideology (and the “ideological and political legacy of Mao” as its “further development”), which the current Chinese leader Xi Jinping has mentioned more than once. After coming to power in 2012, he soon gave a speech to party officials urging them to “practice core socialist values,” including Marxism-Leninism.
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