Did Britain try to assassinate Lenin?

[nikimcbee]

The Mensheviks may have taken over? I don't remember who their leader was. There was that brief window of time when Russia could have been a democracy, but that leader was assasinated (Karensky) I believe. but I need to look that up.

Amagine how history would have bee different, if Russia was a democratic/ capitalist society back then. With all of those natural resources, and an efficient economic model, they could be the big dog in the world today. There's a great documentary about this same theme, called: "The Russia that we lost."

[TLAM Strike]

Originally Posted by nikimcbee

The Mensheviks may have taken over? I don't remember who their leader was. There was that brief window of time when Russia could have been a democracy, but that leader was assasinated (Karensky) I believe. but I need to look that up.

Julius Martov was the leader of the Mensheviks. he died in exile in Germany in 1923. Alexander Kerensky was the leader of the Russian provisional government, he died in exile in the USA in 1970.

I really doubt the assassination of Lenin would have made any significant difference to WW1. The timeline in the article is too late, by late summer 1918 the German Army was teetering on the edge of rout in the West. With several million troops still in the Ukraine and Western Russia imposing the Brest-Litovsk treaty provisions, it's unlikely that the fledgling Red Army would have abandoned the fight against the Whites that was just getting into stride. Even a total collapse of the Bolsheviks and replacement by the Whites would not have allowed the new regime to act militarily against Germany before the latter asked for an Armistice from the Allies and American's.

As for the Civil war, by late 1918 Lenin was already ill and there was a certain Georgian revolutionary waiting in the wings to take power. You could probably bet that the removal of Lenin would have opened the door to a struggle between People's Commissar for Defence, Trotsky and Commissar for Nationalities Stalin with his military croney's Voroshilov and Budenny (sp?).

Stalin was more ruthless than Lenin when it came to imposing Party dogma and defence of the Revolution but placed his acquisition and maintenence of power above everything else. It's difficult but not impossible to see the Civil War turning out differently had he been in charge from the start.

It is nice to see though that British foriegn policy is finally getting a warts and all assessment since for too long English language histories have tried to paint it as being shiny clean and totally honourable.

[nikimcbee]

Originally Posted by TLAM Strike

Julius Martov was the leader of the Mensheviks. he died in exile in Germany in 1923. Alexander Kerensky was the leader of the Russian provisional government, he died in exile in the USA in 1970.

I need to dig my history book out. The guy I'm thinking of was the economist that was an advisor to Niki the II. The Tsar saw him as a threat, because he was becoming more popular, and I think he was later killed. His name aludes me at the moment.

[nikimcbee]

man google make research easy:

Here's who I'm talking about

Stolypin, Piotr Arkadevich

Stolypin, Piotr Arkadevich (pyô'tur urkä'dyivich stuli'pin) [key], 1862–1911, Russian premier and minister of the interior (1906–11) for Czar Nicholas II. He sought to fight the revolutionary movement with both severe repression and social reform. He instituted a regime of courts-martial to suppress revolutionary terrorism and peasant disorders, and hundreds were executed in 1906 and 1907. To stem peasant unrest Stolypin attempted to create a class of peasant landowners that would be conservative and loyal to the czar. The roots of unrest lay partly in the Edict of Emancipation of 1861 (see Emancipation, Edict of), which had given land to the village communes, instead of individually to the newly freed serfs. The commune usually distributed scattered strips to provide families with generally equal allotments. Stolypin's land reforms of 1906 gave the peasant communes the right to dissolve themselves, entitled each peasant to own and consolidate the strips given him by the commune, and provided financial aid to peasants who wished to buy more land. The land reform was designed to transform the peasants gradually into landowners without hurting the interests of the large landowners. At the same time it enabled peasants to seek industrial employment in the cities if they wished to leave the land. It was opposed by the leftist majority in the first duma, which favored extensive expropriation of the land. The first and second Dumas were dissolved, and Stolypin made sure of a conservative majority in the third Duma by altering (1907) the election laws. Some of Stolypin's measures were opposed by the Socialists and liberals, others by the extreme reactionaries. His agrarian reform came too late to conciliate the peasantry as a body. When the Russian Revolution of 1917 broke out, the number of small holdings had increased but not sufficiently to create a conservative peasant class. His attempt to extend the government's policy of Russification to Finland, where he restricted (1910) the authority of the diet, met with wide opposition. While his secret police continued their repressive activities, the government took no action against the anti-Jewish pogroms organized by extreme reactionary societies. Stolypin was assassinated by a revolutionary terrorist who was also a police agent.

source:
http://www.factmonster.com/ce6/people/A0846802.html

[Gerald]

Originally Posted by nikimcbee

man google make research easy:

Here's who I'm talking about



source:
http://www.factmonster.com/ce6/people/A0846802.html

Good,

[Dan D]

Lenin's return to Russia with help of the German High Command to end the war on the Eastern front to allow Germany to concentrate on defeating the Western allies:

"On 9 April 1917, Vladimir I. Lenin returns to Russia from Switzerland with 30 other revolutionaries. The trip by train has logistical and financial support from Germany. Germany’s leaders hope that, with Lenin’s support, revolutionary events in Russia will be spurred on, and a Russian military defeat can be expedited.

These expectations are not disappointed. A few months later the „October Revolution“ begins in Russia. The country, shaken by civil war, is forced to take up peace negotiations with Berlin, and in March of 1918 the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk is concluded."
http://www.bwbs.de/bwbs_biografie/Le...ssia_B694.html

As always, good planning by the Germans but the execution fails.
This event has changed world history.

A dead Lenin would have been to the interest of Britain, yes.