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Leon Trotsky

2017-12-20T14:39:50Z

Jesuslivesforever:

[[Image:Trockiy2.jpg|right|thumb|Leon Trotsky]]

'''Leon Trotsky''' ([[Russian language|Russian]]: Лeв Давидович Трóцкий), born '''Lev Davidovich Bronstein''' (Russian: Лeв Давидович Бронштéйн) (1879-1940), pronounced (traht'-skee) was a leader with [[Lenin]] in the [[Bolshevik]] ([[Communist]]) [[October Revolution]] in Russia in 1917. A charismatic orator, systematic organizer and brilliant theorist, Trotsky was primarily an intellectual whose writings greatly influenced leftist movements worldwide. An energetic organizer he planned the successful Petrograd uprising in November 1917, created the Red Army, and played the central role in winning the civil war (1918–20). Trotsky's independence and aloofness made him a poor backstage negotiator and he was easily outmaneuvered by Stalin, who controlled the party apparatus, After Lenin's disability in 1923, Trotsky lost power to [[Stalin]]. Forced into exile, he denounced the Soviet regime as an impure form of Communism; Stalin had him assassinated in [[Mexico]] in 1940.

Trotsky made many blunders and exaggerations, including losing his nerve when Germany invaded Russia in 1918; taking the credit due the generals for the Red victory in the civil war; claiming to be the father of the New Economic Policy of the 1920s; claiming to be on good terms with Lenin in the 1920s; displaying profound naivety in dealing with Stalin in 1924; and his [[wishful thinking]] that Stalinism was on the verge of collapse in the 1930s.

"Death came early to him," explains his leading biographer, "because he fought for a cause that was more destructive than he ever imagined."<ref>Service (2009)</ref>

==Career==
Trotsky, was the son of a prosperous and reportedly non-religious Jewish farmer in the Ukraine. Well educated and rebellious, he became a professional revolutionary as a teenager. He was arrested in 1898 and was later exiled to Siberia, where he joined the Social Democratic party. In 1902 he escaped abroad, met Lenin.

In 1903, while Lenin headed the Bolsheviks, Trotsky joined the rival Mensheviks. Mensheviks did not believe trying to ignite a revolution, expecting that it would happen when the people were ready. By contrast the Bolsheviks who believed that the people needed to be led. From 1904 until 1917 Trotsky had a stormy relationship with Lenin, accusing Lenin of wanting to become a dictator. But the two of them resolved their differences in 1917, and after that point Trotsky was totally loyal to Lenin.

Trotsky was the most powerful orator in the Bolshevik party, and due to his numerous spells in jail and his active role in the failed 1905 revolution he was much more famous than Lenin was to ordinary Russians. He was the actual organizer behind the [[October Revolution]], as Lenin was still in exile and so unable to participate.

==Civil War==
Trotsky also helped build the [[Red Army]] that defeated the White Russian Army in the subsequent Civil War in Russia, despite having no military experience of any kind. He also crushed the [[Anarchist]] movement of [[Nestor Makhno]] and brutally suppressed the [[Kronstadt Rebellion]]. Many massacres were committed under his orders, as even other leftists admit.<ref name="Slate">Clive James, [http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/clives_lives/2007/04/leon_trotsky.html "Leon Trotsky: He was a mass murderer, not the true champion of the working class."], Slate, April 2, 2007</ref>

==Power struggle==
Lenin was always primarily a politician; politics absorbed his waking hours. The conflict between Trotsky and Lenin led to the subsequent struggle between Trotsky and [[Stalin]] in Lenin's last months. Multiple rivalries within the Bolshevik Party emerged because history did not unfold as predicted by theory; the Communist revolution did not spread into a worldwide spontaneous uprising of the working people. Lenin accused Stalin of Russian chauvinism when he proposed the incorporation of different nationalities into a unitary Soviet state. But Lenin was disabled by a stroke in 1923 before he could remove Stalin, and Stalin proved the master politician.

When Lenin died in 1924, a lengthy power struggle began between Trotsky and Stalin. Trotsky took the view that socialism in the Soviet Union must await a revolution in western Europe and even worldwide. Stalin wanted power immediately and offered a rival ideology, ''Socialism in one country''. To fend off accusations of becoming the new 'Napoleon', he gave up his command of the Red Army.

The struggle for power in the Soviet Union during Lenin's last illness in 1923 was not based merely on a clash of personalities but involved fundamental issues concerning the future political and economic development of the Soviet Union. Trotsky's desire to lessen Party control over the administration while centralizing the economy and giving priority to heavy industry, as well as his doubts about reforms of government proposed by Lenin, made him isolated on the Politburo. Trotsky did not carry out Lenin's wishes toward Stalin and the "Georgians" because he agreed with Stalin's ideas on the nationality question and centralization, but he was outmaneuvered by Stalin's strengthening of the powers of the Secretariat, which contradicted Trotsky's ideas on freeing administration from direct political control.

Trotsky was a quick-witted combatant and ruthless foe; he was an articulate intellectual, but he lacked humanism or normal human qualities such as empathy, respect for the sacred, loyalty to his friends, or indeed, loyalty to anything except his theory of how should happen, but never did. His theory suffered from lack of nuance, and from Trotsky's inability to adjust it to account for the uncertainties and human dimensions of actual history.

==Exile==
Stalin expelled Trotsky from the Bolshevik party in 1927 and exiled him from Russia in 1929. Trotsky's constant goal was to gain control of world Communist leadership and implement more radical programs. To this end, he advocated youth rebellion, [[feminism]], [[Black Power]], guerrilla warfare, free abortions, "free love" and the homosexual agenda (Stalin banned sodomy in 1934). Trotsky formed a loose organization of German followers in 1930 but failed either to defeat or take control of the German Communist Party. Indeed, his supporters nearly everywhere were outmaneuvered and defeated by the Soviet Communists, and lingered in numerous countries as a far-left party with little influence, with the exception of Sri Lanka where the Trotskyite "Lanka Sama Samaja Party" dominated the Marxist left for decades, and Vietnam where the Trotskyites were very popular in the Saigon area in the 30's and 40's until they were massacred by the Stalinites under [[Ho Chi Minh]]. Intellectuals who joined Trotsky's movement were put off by Trotsky's dogmatism and his intolerance of the least deviation from his ideas.

After getting kicked out of Turkey and France, Trotsky settled in Mexico in 1937, where he was welcomed by the atheistic, anti-American government of [[Lazaro Cardenas]]. While in Mexico, Trotsky continued to write angry essays about the Soviet Government, alleging that it had betrayed the revolution. The Soviets responded by organizing several assassination attempts. The first attempt, in 24 May 1940, was a home invasion by 30 Communists armed with guns and bombs, but they somehow failed to kill Trotsky and his wife. Then on August 20, 1940 Spanish communist Ramón Mercader, acting on orders from Stalin, successfully murdered Trotsky in his Mexico City home, using an ice axe while his back was turned.

During his time in Mexico Trotsky was in a sexual relationship with [[Frida Kahlo]],<ref name="Slate" /> even though he was not married to her at the time.

Many sources believe that Leon Trotsky founded Kentucky Fried Chicken, the fast food company, due to his striking resemblance to Colonel Sanders.

==Permanent revolution==
Trotsky's most influential idea was the notion of permanent revolution. Drawing on the experiences of the 1905 Russian Revolution, Trotsky maintained that revolution would spread worldwide after the international proletariat's aid to the Russian workers, who in turn would "export" the revolution abroad. By contrast Stalin rejected Trotsky’s theory and presented his own thesis on socialism in one country (Russia) in 1926. Trotsky asserted that the unification of developed and backward countries in the worldwide operations of capitalism created a combination of separate and uneven stages of development in backward countries like Russia, permitting the Russian proletariat the capability of carrying out a revolution but at the same time requiring the permanent extension of revolution in time and space until the extinction of class distinctions. A similar ideology regarding revolution would be adhered by [[Sturmabteilung]] leader [[Ernst Röhm]].<ref>Shirer, William L. ''Rise and Fall of the Third Reich''. "The Nazification of Germany: 1933-34; 'No Second Revolution'"<br />''"A tremendous victory has been won. But not an absolute victory! The SA and the SS will not tolerate the German revolution going to sleep and being betrayed at the half-way stage by non-combatants. Not for the sake of the SA and SS but for Germany's sake. For the SA is the last armed force of the nation, the last defense against communism. If the German revolution is wrecked by the reactionary opposition, incompetence, or laziness, the German people will fall into despair and will be an easy prey for the bloodstained frenzy coming from the depths of Asia. If these bourgeois simpletons think that the national revolution has already lasted too long, for once we agree with them. It is in fact high time the national revolution stopped and became the National Socialist one. Whether they like it or not, we will continue our struggle - if they understand at last what it is about - with them; if they are unwilling - without them; and if necessary - against them."''[http://spartacus-educational.com/GERroehm.htm]</ref>

==American influence==
American Trotskyists were political activists in the 1930s who follows the teachings of Trotsky and opposed Stalin's version. All of them broke with Trotsky, and many became conservatives, such as Max Eastman, [[James Burnham]] and [[Seymour Martin Lipset]].

[[Paleoconservatives]], who dislike [[Neoconservatism]] intensely, have argued that it emerged from Trotskyist theories, especially the notion of permanent revolution. There are four fundamental flaws in the paleoconservatives' attack: most of the neoconservatives were never Trotskyists; none of them ever subscribed to the right-wing Socialism of Max Shachtman; the assertion that neoconservatives subscribe to "inverted Trotskyism" is misleading; and neoconservatives advocate democratic globalism, not permanent revolution.<ref>William F. King, "Neoconservatives and 'Trotskyism'" ''American Communist History'' 2004 3(2): 247-266 online at [[EBSCO]]</ref>

==Historiography==
Western commentators on Trotsky generally fall into four categories, aside from orthodox Trotskyists, who have generally been concerned with preserving his ideas rather than developing them. First, the pro-Soviets oppose him and his ideas, especially on the issue of socialism in one country. The second group, described as sympathetic critics, has examined Trotsky's stands and while generally in agreement, has commonly found his views mistaken on three points in particular: his conversion to Leninism, his failure to move against Stalin in 1923, and his characterization of Stalinism as a workers' state. A third group of commentators has viewed Trotsky skeptically, an unlikely alternative to Stalin. The realist group, in contrast, faults Trotsky for failure to realize the true nature of events after 1917. After glasnost in the 1980s Trotsky was rehabilitated in Russia as an important leader and some of his writings have been published.<ref>Michael Cox, "Trotsky and his Interpreters; Or, Will the Real Leon Trotsky Please Stand Up?" ''Russian Review'' 1992 51(1): 84-102.</ref>

==Religion==
One of Trotsky's famous quotes (which also sums up the [[Atheism]] in the Communist Movement) was : "Religions are illogical primitive ignorance. There is nothing as ridiculous and tragic as a religious government."

== See also ==
*[[Trotskyism]]
*[[Great purge]]
*[[Diego Rivera]]
*[[Elizabeth Zarubina]]
*[[Floyd Miller]]
*[[Gregory Rabinovich]]
*[[Sylvia Callen]]
*[[Jack Soble]]

==Further reading==
* Alexander, Robert J. ''International Trotskyism, 1929-1985: A Documented Analysis of the Movement'' (1991), 1128pp [http://www.questia.com/read/27804413?title=International%20Trotskyism%2c%201929-1985%3a%20A%20Documented%20Analysis%20of%20the%20Movement online edition]
* Brotherstone, Terry, et al. eds. ''The Trotsky Reappraisal'' (1992) [http://www.questia.com/read/59387717?title=The%20Trotsky%20Reappraisal online edition], 19 short essays by scholars
* Daniels, Robert V. ''Trotsky, Stalin and Socialism.'' (1991). 208 pp.
* Deutscher, Isaac. ''Trotsky'' (3v, 1954–63), by a far-left admirer of Trotsky
* Garza, Hedda. ''Leon Trotsky'' (1986) short survey
* Kolakowski, Leszek. ''Main Current of Marxism'' (1978), 3:183-219, on Trotsky in 1930s
* Molyneux, John. ''Leon Trotsky's Theory of Revolution.'' (1981). 238 pp.
* Pomper, Philip. ''Lenin, Trotsky, and Stalin: The Intelligentsia and Power.'' (1990). 446 pp.
* Renton, Dave. ''Trotsky'' (2004) [http://www.amazon.com/Trotsky-Life-Times-Dave-Renton/dp/1904341624/ref=sr_1_34?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1245111487&sr=1-34 excerpt and text search]
* Service, Robert. ''Trotsky: A Biography'' (2009), 600pp; by a leading historian; the best biography
* Thatcher, Ian D. ''Trotsky'' (2002) [http://www.amazon.com/Trotsky-Routledge-Historical-Biographies-Thatcher/dp/0415232503/ref=sr_1_14?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1245111296&sr=1-14 excerpt and text search]; also [http://www.questia.com/read/108142763?title=Trotsky full text online]
* Volkogonov, Dmitri. ''Trotsky: The Eternal Revolutionary.'' (1996). 560 pp. [http://www.amazon.com/Trotsky-Eternal-Revolutionary-Dmitri-Volkogonov/dp/1416576649/ref=sr_1_8?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1245111189&sr=1-8 excerpt and text search], very hostile

===Primary sources===
* Trotsky, Leon. ''The Basic Writings of Trotsky'' ed. by Irving Howe, (1963), [http://www.questia.com/read/58369460?title=The%20Basic%20Writings%20of%20Trotsky online edition]
* Trotsky, Leon. ''The Age of Permanent Revolution: A Trotsky Anthology'' ed. by Isaac Deutscher (1970)
* [http://www.questia.com/library/leon-trotsky.jsp online books and chapters on Trotsky and by him]

==References==
{{reflist|1}}

==External links==
* [https://librivox.org/author/4200 Works by Leon Trotsky - text and free audio] - [[LibriVox]]

{{DEFAULTSORT:Trotsky, Leon}}

[[Category:Russian History]]
[[Category:Soviet Union]]
[[Category:Communists]]
[[Category:Marxism]]
[[Category:Trotskyite]]
[[Category:Mass Murderers]]
[[Category:Homosexual Agenda]]

Vladimir Lenin

2017-12-20T14:36:52Z

Jesuslivesforever:

[[Image:Khvhkgfiy.jpg|right|thumb|Vladimir Lenin]]
'''Vladimir Lenin''' (born Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov <ref>"Vladimir Ilyich Lenin" (Russian: Владимир Ильич Улянов, Ленин) was the pseudonym he used after 1900 to disguise his identity.</ref>) (1870-1924) was the leader of Russian Communism and an important theoretician of Marxism. Coming to power in 1917 he became dictator of the [[Soviet Union]]. All over the Soviet Union and even to some extent some Western countries, there were statues and paintings honoring his memory; some were removed when Communism collapsed in 1991. Lenin coined the terms "racism," "sexism," and "homophobia" to fight against the American conservatives and conservatives in Russia, which he persecuted. The terms were used to turn the general populus against conservatives and their ideals, which led to the Soviet Union's collapse.

==Early life==
Lenin was born on April 22, 1870 (later to be celebrated as [[Earth Day]]) to a middle class Russian family; his parents were school teachers. In 1889, he became a [[Marxist]] after his older brother was hanged for the murder of Tsar Aleksandr II. Lenin obtained a law degree shortly afterwards, and by 1895 was a [[subversion (political)|subversive]] who was arrested and sent to a prison in [[Siberia]] as punishment. He was in exile 1900-1917. He collaborated with Georgy Plekhanov and others to set up the clandestine newspaper ''Iskra'' (The Spark), designed to "ignite" radical consciousness. In the pages of ''Iskra'', Lenin denounced any alliance with liberals or other elements of the bourgeoisie because they would keep power in the hands of the middle class. He emphasized social democracy—equality of condition, rather than political democracy, as the basis for individual freedom. His major theoretical publication was the pamphlet "What Is to Be Done?" (1902). In 1903 he organized and controlled the '''"Bolshevik"''' wing of the Russian Social Democratic Labor party, fighting the opposition "Mensheviks." Lenin, like his populist predecessors in the Russian radical movement, stressed the need for a small elite vanguard to lead the revolution

Despite disapproval of the Mensheviks, Lenin's followers continued to raise money through a mixture of bank robberies, kidnapping, extortion, terrorism, and murder. Unlike the leaders of other Marxist organizations, Lenin did not spent the money on his own lifestyle and carefully strengthened his movement.

With German help he returned to Russia after the [[Tsar]] abdicated in March 1917 and a short-lived liberal democracy allowed for free elections. At the time, most Bolsheviks were more interested in using the ballot box to gain political power. Lenin rejected elections,and declared, "History will not forgive us if we do not take power now."

==Revolution==
In 1917 Lenin opposed Russia's continued participation in World War I and advocated proceeding directly to a socialist revolution, bypassing bourgeois rule. He rejected cooperation with the Provisional Government and drove some old Bolsheviks out of the party, while coopting many younger, more radical members. [[Joseph Stalin]], [[Grigori Zinoviev]], and others rallied to Lenin's side during the elections to the party's Central Committee during the 7th Party Conference in April 1917 and became the new leadership. The Bolsheviks were allowed free expression of disagreements until a decision by the Central Committee was reached, and then no opposition or disagreement was permitted. Lenin now ruled the Bolsheviks from his base in Petrograd (St. Petersburg).

In October 1917, Lenin masterminded a [[coup d'état]] which overthrew the [[Provisional Government]] which had replaced the [[Russian Empire]]. In what historian [[Simon Sebag Montefiore]] has described as a comedy of errors, the Winter Palace was shelled and the Provisional Cabinet was placed under arrest by a mixture of Red Guards and radical sailors from the Kronstadt Naval Base.
==Dictator==
Lenin ruled the [[Soviet Union]] under Marxism–Leninism, until 1922, when he had a debilitating stroke and retired.

{{Cquote|A wide campaign of "education" was undertaken to show the people why "workers' rule" meant, in practice, [[Nomenklatura|managers]]' rule. Where necessary, the education by the word was supplemented with education by [[firing squad]] or [[concentration camp]] or forced labour battalion.<ref>James Burnham, ''The Managerial Revolution'', (1940).</ref> }}

In 1918 Lenin ordered to kill all prostitutes.<ref>http://marxists.org/archive/lenin/works/1918/aug/09gff.htm</ref>

==Mass murderer==
{{Main|Atheism and Mass Murder}}

Like Stalin and Mao, and despite his more positive reputation among Leftists, Lenin also wished to exterminate the peasant class, even orchestrating famines to do so, in order to force his will on Socialism. This also proves that Communism, despite the PR, never cared at all for the poor.<ref name="Russia's Original Cold-Blooded Communist Revolutionary">http://canadafreepress.com/article/vladimir-lenin-russias-original-cold-blooded-communist-revolutionary</ref>

==Death==
Lenin, a workaholic who avoided vacations and downtime, died in 1924 following a series of progressively more serious strokes. [[Joseph Stalin]] was his even more brutal successor.
==Interpretations==
===Lenin on revolution===
Before 1917, Lenin thought that revolution was more likely to break out in Russia than in any other country on the continent, and he expected the outbreak of other revolutions in Europe, or at least in Central Europe, after the Russian Revolution. During the Civil War he considered a short period of War Communism as an extension of the revolutionary situation from which a direct path might open toward socialism. However, after the failure of War Communism he returned to his earlier viewpoint, that is, to the necessity of a transition period. This was reflected in the New Economic Policy (NEP) - which meant a transition including both private enterprise and a market economy. Stalin deemed the transition favored by Lenin to be too dangerous, because it carried with it the threat of a defeat and an eventual restoration of capitalism. In addition, Lenin advocated perpetual civil war to eliminate all "class enemies", with this being in effect with brief pauses until 1953. He also wrote that “Revolutions are the locomotive of history…Revolutions are the holiday of the oppressed and exploited.”<ref name="Russia's Original Cold-Blooded Communist Revolutionary" />

===Dictatorship of the proletariat===
see also [[Dictatorship of the proletariat]]
Lenin saw the Marxist concept of the "Dictatorship of the proletariat" in terms of a dictatorship exercised not by a democratically chosen majority but by a [[Revolutionary Vanguard|vanguard minority revolutionary party]], ruthlessly controlled by a few leaders like himself. He eventually accepted the need for a state bureaucracy, and his more extreme opposition to the bourgeoisie led him to favor their exclusion and disenfranchisement to the benefit of the urban working class.

==Leninism as a religion==
Lenin's utopian design of a revolutionary community of virtuosi was a typical political religion of an intelligentsia longing for an inner-worldly salvation, a socialist paradise without exploitation and alienation, to be implanted in the backward Russian society at the outskirts of the industrialized and modernized Western Europe. The Russian Revolution of October 1917 accomplished the institutionalization of a political religion combining a political and sacral monopoly of power and belief. Consequently, the Leninist policy of social extermination of political opponents, ideological rivals, and stigmatized social classes became a sacral obligation to be fulfilled by the new ideological orthodoxy. The beginning iconography of a Leninist sacral tradition praised Lenin as a messianic and numinous leader. This process of iconographic work in progress culminated after Lenin's death in the sacral Lenin cult. The Lenin mausoleum served as the monumental centerpiece of sacral rites and practices to be enacted by the Stalinist orthodoxy. Joseph Stalin's invention of a sacral tradition of Marxism–Leninism qualified him as the only true disciple of Lenin. Therefore, Stalin claimed the monopoly of the infallible interpretation of the holy scriptures, summarized in his own dogmatic performances. In this sense, Stalin's Leninism became itself the religion of the Soviet state.<ref>Klaus-Georg Riegel, "Marxism-Leninism as a Political Religion," ''Totalitarian Movements and Political Religions'' 2005 6(1): 97-126 in [[EBSCO]]</ref>

==Image and memory==
After his death in 1924 Stalin portrayed Lenin as an infallible humanitarian; his writings were viewed as gospel. Museums were devoted to his life and work, cities were named for him, and huge statues and monuments honored his memory. Beginning in 1985, however, the Lenin cult began to crumble. Party chairman [[Mikhail Gorbachev]] was a faithful disciple of Lenin, but he now faced the reality that the economically bankrupt Communist state was rapidly decaying. As the Communist nation unraveled, so did the Lenin personality cult. Leningrad residents voted to restore the St. Petersburg name; the once-crowded museums attracted few visitors; and Lenin's philosophy and actions were found less than perfect. In 1991 as Communism fell, the statues and paintings went into cold storage. By 1995 plans were being made to bury Lenin's corpse, which was finally acknowledged to be putrefying just as the remains of any other mortal, as the cult itself fell into "the dustbin of history."<ref>Trevor J. Smith, "The Collapse of the Lenin Personality Cult in Soviet Russia, 1985-1995," ''Historian'' 1998 60(2): 325-343, in [[EBSCO]]</ref>

==Legacy==
His transformation of Russia into the Soviet Union ultimately led to Communism being exported throughout most of the world, and leading to well over tens of millions of death. In addition, there is evidence to suggest the anti-cop violence during the 2010s often encouraged by then-"President" Barack Obama were derived from similar rhetoric by Lenin.<ref>http://dianawest.net/Home/tabid/36/EntryId/3365/Lenin-Crush-Smash-the-Police.aspx</ref>

== Quotes from Lenin ==
* “The way to crush the [[middle class]] is to grind them between the millstones of [[taxation]] and [[inflation]].”

* "The best revolutionary is youth devoid of [[moral]]s."

* "A lie told often enough becomes the truth."

* "The goal of [[socialism]] is [[communism]]."

* "There are no morals in [[politics]] there is only expedience. A scoundrel may be of use to us just because he is a scoundrel."

* "Give us the child for 8 years and it will be a [[Bolshevik]] forever." (see [[Public school values]] and [[Professor values]])

* ""It matters not if 90% of the Russian people perish so long as 10% bring about a world revolution."<ref>http://content.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,717663,00.html</ref>

== See also ==
* [[Karl Marx]]
* [[Joseph Stalin]]
* [[Dictatorship]]
** [[Dictator]]
** [[List of dictators]]
** [[Friendly dictator]]
** [[Adolf Hitler]], Joseph Stalin, [[Chairman Mao]], [[Kim Jong-Il]], [[Pol Pot]]
** [[Dictatorship of the proletariat]]
** [[List of Communist States]]
** [[List of Socialist States]]
** [[Death toll of communism]]
** [[Coup d'état]]
* [[Cult of personality]]
* [[Single-party state]]
* [[Mobocracy]], [[Social Effects of the Theory of Evolution]], [[Anti-Semitism]], [[Communist Racism]], [[Genocide]], [[Holocaust]]
* [[Nazi Party|National Socialist German Workers' Party]] (Nazi Party)
* [[National Socialism]] - the Nazis were elitist [[Police state]] [[liberals]] not [[conservative]]s
* [[Big government]] [[Welfare state]] leads to [[Nanny state]], leads to [[Police state]]: [[Globalist]]-[[Statist]]-[[Socialist]]-[[Communist]]
* [[Liberal totalitarianism]]

==References==
{{reflist|2}}

==Further reading==
===Biography===
* Clark, Ronald W. ''Lenin'' (1988). 570 pp.
* Service, Robert. ''Lenin: A Biography'' (2002), 561pp; standard scholarly biography; a short version of his 3 vol detailed biography
* Volkogonov, Dmitri. ''Lenin: Life and Legacy'' (1994). 600 pp.
===Specialized scholarly studies===
* Anderson, Kevin. ''Lenin, Hegel, and Western Marxism: A Critical Study'' (1995) 311 pp.
* Copleston, Frederick Charles. ''Philosophy in Russia: From Herzen to Lenin and Berdyaev'' (1986). 445pp. by a conservative
* Debo, Richard K. ''Survival and Consolidation: The Foreign Policy of Soviet Russia, 1918-1921'' (1992).
* Marples, David R. ''Lenin's Revolution: Russia, 1917-1921'' (2000) 156pp. short survey
* Pipes, Richard. ''A Concise History of the Russian Revolution'' (1996) [http://www.amazon.com/Concise-History-Russian-Revolution/dp/0679745440/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1232393501&sr=8-1 excerpt and text search], by a leading conservative
* Pipes, Richard. ''Communism: A History'' (2003), by a leading conservative
* Pipes, Richard. ''Russia under the Bolshevik Regime.'' (1994). 608 pp.
* Pomper, Philip. ''Lenin, Trotsky, and Stalin: The Intelligentsia and Power.'' (1990). 446 pp.
* Schapiro, Leonard and Reddaway, Peter, eds. ''Lenin: The Man, the Theorist, the Leader - a Reappraisal'' (1987). 317 pp.
* White, James D. ''Lenin: The Practice and Theory of Revolution'' (2001) 262pp.

===Primary sources===
* Desai, Meghnad, ed. ''Lenin's Economic Writings.'' (1989). 363 pp.
* Pipes, Richard, ed. ''The Unknown Lenin: From the Secret Archive.'' (1996). 185 pp.

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lenin, Vladimir}}
[[Category:Russian History]]
[[Category:Soviet Union]]
[[Category:Dictators]]
[[Category:Communism]]
[[Category:Socialism]]
[[Category:Mass Murderers]]
[[Category:Communists]]
[[Category:Soviet Leaders]]
[[Category:Communist Revolutionaries]]
[[Category:Atheists]]
[[Category:Globalists]]

Kwanzaa

2017-12-20T14:32:58Z

Jesuslivesforever:

[[Image:Kinara.jpg|thumb|right|300px|Woman lighting a Kinara, the candlestick used for Kwanzaa]]
'''Kwanzaa''' is an [[African-American]] [[holiday]] consisiting of one week of celebrating, in honor of African-American heritage. The most well known-symbol of Kwanzaa is the Kinara, a candle holder with seven candles, which bears a similar, though not necessarily intentional, appearance to the [[Jewish]] [[menorah]] used during [[Hanukkah]]. Kwanzaa was created in 1966 by radical Black activist [[Ron Karenga]], a felon convicted of assault and false imprisonment after he tortured two women.

Its purpose is both to honor African-American heritage and to provide a holiday especially for African-Americans, so that they don't have to accept existing traditions. Dr. Karenga explains in his following quote: "...it was chosen to give a Black alternative to the existing holiday and give Blacks an opportunity to celebrate themselves and history, rather than simply imitate the practice of the dominant society." <ref>http://www.believersweb.org/view.cfm?ID=917</ref>

==Seven Principles of Kwanzaa==

Each day of the week-long celebration is dedicated to one of Dr. Karenga's "Seven Principles of Kwanzaa":

*Umoja (Unity) To strive for and to maintain unity in the family, community, nation and race.
*Kujichagulia (Self-Determination) To define ourselves, name ourselves, create for ourselves and speak for ourselves.
*Ujima (Collective Work and Responsibility) To build and maintain our community together and make our brothers' and sisters' problems our problems and to solve them together.
*Ujamaa (Cooperative Economics) To build and maintain our own stores, shops and other businesses and to profit from them together.
*Nia (Purpose) To make our collective vocation the building and developing of our community in order to restore our people to their traditional greatness.
*Kuumba (Creativity) To do always as much as we can, in the way we can, in order to leave our community more beautiful and beneficial than we inherited it.
*Imani (Faith) To believe with all our heart in our people, our parents, our teachers, our leaders and the righteousness and victory of our struggle.<ref>http://www.holidays.net/kwanzaa/principles.htm</ref>

==Criticism==

Some criticize Kwanzaa as being a [[secular]] celebration, a major purpose of which is to detract from the [[religious]] meaning of [[Christmas]] and [[Hanukkah]]. One article questions why Dr. Karenga popularized Kwanzaa in winter if it is a harvest festival, the proper celebration time of which is Fall. Some people use the proximity of Kwanzaa to Christmas as an excuse to replace the greeting of "Merry Christmas" with the "inclusive", non-religious "Happy Holidays".<ref>
http://www.helium.com/items/353256-why-people-criticize-kwanzaa
</ref>

==References==
<references/>

[[Category:Observances]][[Category:Holidays]]

Kwanzaa

2017-12-20T14:32:17Z

Jesuslivesforever:

[[Image:Kinara.jpg|thumb|right|300px|Woman lighting a Kinara, the candlestick used for Kwanzaa]]
'''Kwanzaa''' is an [[African-American]] [[holiday]] consisiting of one week of celebrating, in honor of African-American heritage. The most well known-symbol of Kwanzaa is the Kinara, a candle holder with seven candles, which bears a similar, though not necessarily intentional, appearance to the [[Jewish]] [[menorah]] used during [[Hanukkah]]. Kwanzaa was created in 1966 by radical Black activist [[Ron Karenga]], a felon convicted of assault and false imprisonment after he tortured two women.

Its purpose is both to honor African-American heritage and to provide a holiday especially for African-Americans, so that they don't have to accept existing traditions. Dr. Karenga explains in his following quote: "...it was chosen to give a Black alternative to the existing holiday and give Blacks an opportunity to celebrate themselves and history, rather than simply imitate the practice of the dominant society." <ref>http://www.believersweb.org/view.cfm?ID=917</ref>

==Seven Principles of Kwanzaa==

Each day of the week-long celebration is dedicated to one of Dr. Karenga's "Seven Principles of Kwanzaa":

*Umoja (Unity) To strive for and to maintain unity in the family, community, nation and race.
*Kujichagulia (Self-Determination) To define ourselves, name ourselves, create for ourselves and speak for ourselves.
*Ujima (Collective Work and Responsibility) To build and maintain our community together and make our brothers' and sisters' problems our problems and to solve them together.
*Ujamaa (Cooperative Economics) To build and maintain our own stores, shops and other businesses and to profit from them together.
*Nia (Purpose) To make our collective vocation the building and developing of our community in order to restore our people to their traditional greatness.
*Kuumba (Creativity) To do always as much as we can, in the way we can, in order to leave our community more beautiful and beneficial than we inherited it.
*Imani (Faith) To believe with all our heart in our people, our parents, our teachers, our leaders and the righteousness and victory of our struggle.<ref>http://www.holidays.net/kwanzaa/principles.htm</ref>

==Criticism==

Some criticize Kwanzaa as being a [[secular]] celebration, a major purpose of which is to detract from the [[religious]] meaning of [[Christmas]] and [[Hanukkah]]. One article questions why Dr. Karenga popularized Kwanzaa in winter if it is a harvest festival, the proper celebration time of which is Fall. Some people use the proximity of Kwanzaa to Christmas as an excuse to replace the greeting of "Merry Christmas" with the "inclusive", non-religious "Happy Holidays".<ref> The secular celebration of this holiday is largely a part of the War on Christmas.
http://www.helium.com/items/353256-why-people-criticize-kwanzaa
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==References==
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[[Category:Observances]][[Category:Holidays]]