[A] significant addition...Without doubt, Service's life-of should
answer all curiosities about Vladimir Ulyanov (Lenin)--about his
personality, attitudes, intellect, ruthlessness, and
significance...As Service notes, but for contingencies that pushed
history his way, Lenin might have remained an anonymous exile; why
it was otherwise is adroitly argued throughout this superb
biography.--Gilbert Taylor "Booklist "
In "Lenin: A Biography", Robert Service argues that Lenin's
importance evolved from three major achievements: He led the
October Revolution, he founded the Soviet Union, and he laid out
the rudiments of Marxism-Leninism...This is a fascinating and
engaging book, not the least because it is the first comprehensive
Lenin biography to appear since crucial Soviet archives have been
opened.--Amos Perlmutter"Washington Times" (10/30/2000)
In his massive, all-encompassing biography, British historian
Robert Service does not lose track of his subject's stature...but
what interests Service more is the person as opposed to the
persona...The reader is left with a personality rooted in paradox:
a coldly calculating individual capable of deep emotion; a man who
possessed little empathy yet became outraged by the slightest
injustice...This lucidly written, sharply observed biography will
no doubt come to be regarded as a definitive portrait of Lenin for
some time.--Rob Stout"Houston Chronicle" (01/21/2001)
In this thorough biography, Robert Service uses the abundant new
archival evidence to describe Lenin's personal idiosyncracies, and
also to underline, once again, his many ideological
contradictions...Service then goes on to show how Lenin betrayed,
in practice, virtually all of his paper principles, which had
themselves changed several times in any case: far from creating a
state in which ordinary workers took decisions about the running of
society, Lenin created a totalitarian dictatorship.--Anne Applebaum
"Sunday Herald "
Lenin was the one essential personality of the communist movement
that shook the world for most of the twentieth century. In this
marvelous synthesis of previously known history and information
newly available since the dissolution of the Soviet Union that
Lenin founded, Robert Service lays out how that came to
be...Service is able to humanize Lenin without suggesting that in
that humanity lies any explanation of or excuse for the excesses of
the revolution he led.--Charles Radin"Boston Globe"
(01/11/2001)
The best place to begin assessing Boshevism's founder is the work
of the British historian Robert Service. The present volume,
"Lenin: A Biography," is the fourth the author has devoted to his
lifelong subject, its three predecessors, published between 1985
and 1995, being a meticulous chronicle of Lenin's political life.
Yet the past decade has produced sufficient archival material to
make possible a biography of Lenin the man, and this is the new
volume's task. It may also serve as a summary of the preceding
trilogy, to which readers can refer back for fuller details at any
point...Even in Russia, historians prefer Service's nuanced and
judicious account to the more sensational work of the late Dmitri
Volkogonov, as well as to the standard Western treatments. Indeed,
Service is consciously writing against the predominant Lenin canon
in both East and West...[He] seeks to reconstruct Lenin's motives
historically, decision by decision, as the settings of his action
changed. Moreover, hi
The demise of the country and the ideology its elite professed (at
least externally) to the very end requires a new evaluation of the
founder of the Soviet state. The opening of the Russian archives
provided an additional incentive for such work. In a new biography,
Robert Service...provides fresh material as well as an original
vision of Lenin. Readers will enjoy his information and
observations, even if they do not share his views...Readers will
find a lot of details about Lenin's Jewish ancestral links, his
supportive family, his love affairs, and the last hours of his
life. At the same time, Service presents him as a calculating yet
compulsive politician obsessed to the point of mania with his
vision of history and the future...One should read Service's
excellent book not so much to ponder the problems of the past but
of the present and future.--Dmitri Shlapentokh"World and I"
(03/01/2001)
The wonder of this particular account is that Service succeeds in
explaining how Lenin came to [his] determined confidence and the
complex and ultimately tragic circumstances that led to the triumph
of his ambitions...The most significant contribution of this book
is the wealth of personal information that makes Lenin a far more
accessible, if not appealing, individual...Such details make Lenin
all the more human and so all the more vivid and
frightening...Service never allows his narrative to slip into
sentimentality or forgets whom he is dealing with.--Joshua
Rubenstein "Wall Street Journal "
Throughout this massive and exhaustive biography of Lenin, British
historian Robert Service does not lose sight of his subject's
stature as the father of the twentieth century's feast of horrors.
What interests Service more, however, is an exploration of the
person behind the political persona...Service has diligently
incorporated his archival findings into this work, which has
enabled him to take issue with the many biographies that tend to
portray Lenin as either a sociopath or savior...This lucidly
written, insightful biography will no doubt come to be regarded as
a definitive interpretation of Lenin.--Rob Stout"Central Europe
Review" (01/14/2001)
Leon Trotsky may have been purer in his convictions, Joseph Stalin
steelier in his cruelty. But Lenin was the one essential
personality of the Communist movement that shook the world for most
of the twentieth century. In this marvelous synthesis of previously
known history and information newly available since the dissolution
of the Soviet Union that Lenin founded, Robert Service lays out how
that came to be...Service is able to humanize Lenin without
suggesting that in that humanity lies any explanation of or excuse
for the excesses of the revolution he led. -- Charles A. Radin
"Boston Globe" (01/21/2001)
With the help of previously unpublished documents recently released
from central party archives, [Service] has managed to skillfully
depict the surreal life of an obsessive, brilliant and stubborn
individual who usually found himself the champion of the minority
opinion within a minority of just a small number of
revolutionaries--who, for most of their lives, did not have a
revolution in sight.
and frightening...Service never allows his narrative to slip into
sentimentality or forgets whom he is dealing with.
emerged...An important study that goes far in tracing the roots of
the dire legacy Communism bequeathed to the third of mankind
unfortunate enough to have suffered its rule.
notes, but for contingencies that pushed history his way, Lenin
might have remained an anonymous exile; why it was otherwise is
adroitly argued throughout this superb biography.
out the rudiments of Marxism-Leninism...This is a fascinating and
engaging book, not the least because it is the first comprehensive
Lenin biography to appear since crucial Soviet archives have been
opened.
portray Lenin as either a sociopath or savior...This lucidly
written, insightful biography will no doubt come to be regarded as
a definitive interpretation of Lenin.
society, Lenin created a totalitarian dictatorship.
to reconstruct Lenin's motives historically, decision by decision,
as the settings of his action changed. Moreover, his analysis has
been refined by the vicissitudes of time.
usually found himself the champion of the minority opinion within a
minority of just a small number of revolutionaries--who, for most
of their lives, did not have a revolution in sight.
will no doubt come to be regarded as a definitive portrait of Lenin
for some time.
Lenin without suggesting that in that humanity lies any explanation
of or excuse for the excesses of the revolution he led.
ÝA¨ significant addition...Without doubt, Service's life-of should
answer all curiosities about Vladimir Ulyanov (Lenin)--about his
personality, attitudes, intellect, ruthlessness, and
significance...As Service notes, but for contingencies that pushed
history his way, Lenin might have remained an anonymous exile; why
it was otherwise is adroitly argued throughout this superb
biography. -- Gilbert Taylor "Booklist"
A comprehensive and intimate biography of the Russian
revolutionary.
In "Lenin: A Biography," Robert Service argues that Lenin's
importance evolved from three major achievements: He led the
October Revolution, he founded the Soviet Union, and he laid out
the rudiments of Marxism-Leninism...This is a fascinating and
engaging book, not the least because it is the first comprehensive
Lenin biography to appear since crucial Soviet archives have been
opened. -- Amos Perlmutter "Washington Times" (10/30/2000)
The most authoritative and well-rounded biography of Lenin yet
written--and the one that is, in its quiet way, the most
horrifying. Oxford historian Service ("A History of Twentieth
Century Russia") makes good use of Party and Presidential archives
that were previously closed to historians. The portrait that
emerges therefore has many elements that were either altogether
unknown or have only recently emerged...An important study that
goes far in tracing the roots of the dire legacy Communism
bequeathed to the third of mankind unfortunate enough to have
suffered its rule.
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