Saying Lenin created a communist state is, in itself, oxymoronic, as communism in its purest form is defined by statelessness. The question is, however, whether he did succeed in creating a proletariat state, and the extent of his role in this creation.
There is no argument that his version of communism differed from existing forms – so much so that it has since been accepted as referred to as Leninism – like communism, its purest form stresses economic revolution, while Lenin focused on a political revolution that would bring about economic revolution.
Furthermore, the theory of communism characterizes a nation’s journey towards achieving communism as a gradual and automatic process that saw an organic end to capitalism, whereas Lenin believed that capitalism had to be destroyed in order for communism to flourish.
However, Lenin’s model for what has since grown to be referred to as Leninism had many characteristics of communism – the centralization of the state, the introduction of a command economy, and public ownership of the means of production.
Since Marx’s popularised form of communism expected it to develop in extremely developed Western countries, it called for a dictatorship of the proletariat. Lenin made this a significant part of his policy, but since the Russian proletariat was small and peasants accounted for around 80% of the population, he amended this dictatorship of the proletariat to one that included that of poor peasants too.
The nature of his seizure of the Russian state and the consequent establishment of communist rule is a significant determinant of the extent to which the state Lenin created was a communist one. Though Lenin proclaimed Soviet power, he did not exercise power through the Soviet and make it the main body of the government, though people expected him to.
Instead, he formed an entirely new body – the Council of the People’s Commissars or the “Sovnarkom” – exclusively made up of Bolsheviks. In keeping with the true definition of communism, he did not wish to share power with the Mensheviks, Socialist Revolutionaries ad other socialist groups in the Soviet as power-sharing would entail delegation which was, inherently, the decentralization of the state.
Despite his conducting of affairs being, to a large extent, in keeping with communist principles, Lenin’s forceful seizure of power and establishment of a communist state undermines the argument that his state was a communist one.
His secret organization of factory workers, peasants, soldiers, and sailors into Red Guards – a volunteer paramilitary force – that captured Provisional Government buildings in an – albeit bloodless – coup d’état went against the communist principle of an economy’s automatic and inevitable transition from capitalism to socialism to communism.
Furthermore, the enormous pressure on the Bolsheviks to create a democratic government representing all socialist parties drove Lenin, unwillingly, to send representatives to talks with other parties about a power-sharing government.
Did Lenin create a communist state?
Yes NO
Seizure of Power for Communists NEP: private trade, private business
Establish of Communist rule Terror –
Class War Lower living standards
War Communism: command economy Bolshevik Dictatorship: no socialist democracy
Collectivisation War Communism: State Control
Nationalisation No self-determination
Party Democracy — No Tsar No equality: bourgeois experts, NEPmen
Improved ling standards under NEP Wage differentials
Land decree Kronstadt Rebellion & Workers’ Opposition
Dictatorship of Proletariat Bureaucracy: Party hierarchy, secretariat
Worker Control Centralisation
Marxist-Leninism Premature Revolution
Social Change: women, religion
