It is one hundred years since the death of Lenin, one of the leading figures of the 1917 revolution. This cosmopolitan no longer fits the world of thought of the rulers of today's Russia.
Hundred a year ago, on January 21, 1924, the person who gave the face to the Russian Revolution died Vladimir Ilyich Lenin. Numerous statues have been erected in his honor and a mausoleum has been built in Moscow's Red Square. Even slightly older Finns remember the term Marxism-Leninism.
But what about Lenin and his political legacy in today's Russia, and will the centenary of his death be observed somehow?
President Vladimir Putin has held Lenin as the main culprit for the collapse of the Soviet Union in many of his speeches in recent years. In addition, Putin has been of the opinion that the Ukrainian state is artificial and the cause of Lenin's erroneous policies, says the director of the Alexander Institute of the University of Helsinki Markku Kangaspuro.
“If the president and his administration remember him, it will presumably be very reserved,” says Kangaspuro.
University lecturer in political science Heino Nyyssönen The University of Turku believes that the centenary of Lenin's death is not taken into account in any way in Russia.
“Lev Trotsky once said that the losers of history end up in the dustbin of history. I would say that Lenin has fallen into the dustbin of history.”
Artist Grigori Opryško's mosaic work depicting Lenin decorates a metro station in Moscow.
Putin's and according to Kangaspuro, the line of the entire Russian political leadership has included the fact that it doesn't matter what color the politician or the emperor was, as long as he has successfully maintained and defended the greatness of Russia and the largest possible empire.
“It belongs in the official, respected canon of history. And of course, Lenin's regime had its own merits in that it stopped the disintegration of the empire. The Baltic countries, Finland and Poland became independent, but Central Asia, Georgia and Kazakhstan remained part of the Soviet Union,” says Kangaspuro.
According to Nyyssönen, the admiration of Great Russianness and the Russian Empire is important for the current rulers of Russia. According to him, the talk that Putin would like to restore the Soviet Union is instead a cheap metaphor.
“Rather, it's about restoring the glory of the old empire.”
According to Nyyssönen, Lenin does not fit into this picture, because he was breaking up the old tsarist Russia.
“He was not breaking up the Russian empire, which extends to Finland and Central Asia, but the backward tsarist structure. The tsarist structure and Orthodox faith, on the other hand, interest Putin. Lenin is too cosmopolitan for this idea.”
Joseph Stalin again supported the idea of socialism in one country. He was a nationalis
t, even though he was not Russian but Georgian, Nyyssönen adds.
“Stalin fits this pie better.”
Stalin's popularity is also increased by the victory in the Second World War. According to Nyyssönen, Stalin is now more popular than Lenin because of these things to be proud of.
“Lenin comes across as too international, who can even be seen as a spy for the Germans. He hasn't been called upon much for a long time,” Nyyssönen says.
According to Kangaspuro, it is symptomatic that in all times of crisis, Stalin's role as a respected and significant head of state has risen in Russia, when questions have been asked about his role in relation to the Russian state.
“But when he is evaluated from the citizens' point of view, he has been defined regularly and clearly as a criminal and a dictator and a person who would never want to be in power,” says Kangaspuro.
“That this kind of schizophrenic contradiction is also there.”
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