President Vladimir Putin denounces Bolsheviks and their leader Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov, better known as Lenin.
The Russian president has criticized Lenin for placing a “time bomb” under the state, as well as weakening the country just before the end of the first world war, and for murdering the imperial family and destroying the monarchy.
Belfast Telegraph reports:
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The harsh criticism of Lenin, who is still revered by communists and many others in Russia, is unusual for Mr Putin, who in the past carefully weighed his comments about the nation’s history to avoid alienating some voters.
Mr Putin’s assessment of Lenin’s role in Russian history during a meeting with pro-Kremlin activists in the southern city of Stavropol was markedly more negative than in the past.
He denounced Lenin and his government for brutally murdering Russia’s last tsar along with all his family and servants, killing thousands of priests and placing a “time bomb” under the Russian state by drawing administrative borders along ethnic lines.
As an example of Lenin’s destructive legacy, Mr Putin pointed at Donbass, the industrial region in eastern Ukraine where a pro-Russia separatist rebellion flared up weeks after Russia’s March 2014 annexation of Ukraine’s Crimean peninsula.
More than 9,000 people have been killed in the conflict and clashes have continued despite a February 2015 peace deal.
He said Lenin and his government drew borders between parts of the USSR, placing Donbass under the Ukrainian jurisdiction to “increase the percentage of proletariat” in a move Mr Putin called “delirious”.
The criticism of Lenin could be part of his attempt to justify Moscow’s policy in the Ukrainian crisis, but it also may reflect the Kremlin’s concern about possible separatist sentiments in some Russian provinces.
Mr Putin was particularly critical of Lenin’s concept of a federative state with its entities having the right to secede, saying it heavily contributed to the 1991 break-up of the Soviet Union. “It was a time bomb under our state,” he said, adding that Lenin was wrong in a dispute with Josef Stalin who advocated a unitary state model.
In the past, Mr Putin has denounced Stalin for massive purges that killed millions, but noted his role in defeating the Nazis.
Mr Putin also blasted the Bolsheviks for making Russia suffer defeat by Germany and cede large chunks of territory just months before it lost the First World War. “We lost to the losing party, a unique case in history,” Mr Putin said.
He said he sincerely believed in communist ideology when he served in the KGB, adding that while promises of a fair and just society in the communist ideology “resembled the Bible quite a lot” the reality was different.
