Lenin before the Russian Revolution

This is the history of Lenin before the Russian Revolution of 1917. We'll discuss the rise of the Bolshevik and Menshevik factions within Russian Socialism, as well as how Lenin adapted Karl Marx's theories to the economic, social and politicial situation in Russia.

This video is discussing events or concepts that are academic, educational and historical in nature. This video is for informational purposes and was created so we may better understand the past and learn from the mistakes others have made.

⏲️ Videos on Mondays at 5pm GMT (depending on season, check for British Summer Time).

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📚 BIBLIOGRAPHY / SOURCES 📚

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ABOUT TIK 📝

History isn’t as boring as some people think, and my goal is to get people talking about it. I also want to dispel the myths and distortions that ruin our perception of the past by asking a simple question - “But is this really the case?”. I have a 2:1 Degree in History and a passion for early 20th Century conflicts (mainly WW2). I’m therefore approaching this like I would an academic essay. Lots of sources, quotes, references and so on. Only the truth will do.

[night]

31:00

Marx - Never had a job

Engels - Mooched off his rich dad

Lenin - Only worked for 2 years of his life

Stalin - Dropped out of seminary

Hitler - Failed out of Art School and lived on the street selling his art for pennies

Mussolini - Was a socialist propaganda

Anyone notice a pattern? Maybe putting jobless losers in charge of government isn't the brightest idea.

[franciscosaez]

"Capitalism is the exploitation of man by man. Communism is the other way around" (old soviet joke, or that they say)

[LoganLS]

Sending Lenin to Russia was the worst thing Germany ever did... well except for the other thing.

[Hillbilly]

Whoopie!!!! TiK's on again. Waiting for the Tobruk vid, but any TiK video is better than no TiK video. Cheers from Tennessee

[geofflogan]

A life without TIK is not just a life unexamined, it's a life wasted. Your videos are without doubt the best thing on any Youtube channel ever. Real history from a unique perspective. Thank you so much. My eyes have been opened and I now see the world so much more clearly

[MadBroStudio]

I strongly dislike Lenin and communism at large, but I have to admit, in every photo of him, he has a look of wicked determination. I cannot imagine he was an easy adversary to have.

[balasaashti]

Oh boy here we go. Thanks TIK all your videos man, you do great work.

[Alte.Kameraden]

But Lenin wasn't a real Socialist. 😮
But Stalin wasn't a real Socialist.
But Mao wasn't a real Socialist.
But (Insert Name) wasn't a real Socialist.

[SepticFuddy]

"A state will no longer be needed and thus whither away."

Truly the fairy tale of all time.

[TAM]

“They want to be Peter Pans” I’m dying here 🤣

[DeadendSatellite]

Socialism The Religion of Daddy issues.

[misterlinux]

Tik: "publishes Lenin"
Me(who suggested it in the pool): "for me? 👀👀👀"

[Queretonix]

"Socialism is not about helping others, it is a desire to be taken care of, coming from a fear of independance, rooted in a hatred of the self" TIK, even god couldn't have phrased it better. Absolutely spot on.

[marcelgroen]

Hi TIK, always happy to see you have done a posting on Monday evening. Enjoying your contribution. THNX !!!

[ivanredford]

40:00 Im Russian, and I think instead of majority and minority, mensheviks and bolsheviks mean something different.
"Bolshe" and "menshe", russian words for "more" and "less", can be interpreted as "those who wanted more "bolshe", more radical and those who wanted less "menshe", because mensheviks were part of State Duma post 1905.
Interpretation of bolsheviks as minority and mensheviks as majority never made any sense, because they were completely reversed in that term.
Is it another attempt of bending reality by Lenin, interpretation mistake in English literature, or something else?

[ComplainingIsRecreation]

I think Bertrand Russell's characterization of Lenin as the "reincarnation of Cromwell" was pretty much spot on. Lenin's orthodoxy was absolute and unwavering: he was utterly incapable of supposing that any idea Marx had was not immutable truth, or that any prediction Marx made was not inevitable. I believe he had every faith in Marxism, in much the same way as you or I might have faith that gravity will function the same way today as it did yesterday. It was a religious sort of certainty without any bounding from religious ethics.

For Lenin, Marxism was pure natural science, and he never for a moment entertained any possibility Marxism could be wrong about anything, let alone perhaps seeing it for the limp wishy-washy social science nonsense that it is. You don't see a lot of that these days: even in socialist circles, it would be rare for someone to quote Marx as if that proved a point beyond what Marx himself said, no serious person would quote Marx as if to suggest that it must be true because Marx said it. In some ways, modern socialists with their postmodern approaches to truth are even more annoying, mind you, but for better or worse, they are certainly more ideologically flexible.

It's a little bit hard to wrap your head around from a modern point of view that people ever thought this way, but among old school socialists it really was the way many of them saw it. Prior to the exposure of Stalin's terror and Khrushchev's speech in the west, it was common for communists around the world to conceptualize Marxist theories of capitalism, markets, labour, value, etc, as somehow every bit as predictive, natural, immutable, scientific, repeatable and empirically sound as say Newton's laws or Maxwell's equations. Admittedly, his ideas aren't half as disproven in their minds as they should be given the facts, but the rigid adherence to orthodoxy is nothing like what it was.

In some ways, I have more respect for old Marxists. Their dogmatism, dangerous as it was, was more honest. They had clearer ideas, actual predictions and standards of measurement. They made falsifiable claims. Of course, such predictions (e.g. declining employment) had the notable drawback of indeed being falsified over time - they were simply proven wrong by history - which is why they replaced these claims with the postmodernist nonsense of Foucault & Friends.

This re-defining of truth, obsession with power, and application of class divisions to new invented categories is even worse. Superficially less brutal, it had an absolutely corrosive effect on society; it rots young minds more irreversibly and unlike traditional socialism it even/especially preys upon people who have lived materially comfortable lives. Marxism once required an underclass to mobilize and could be cured by rising living standards, but this new socialism preys on resentment, not economic insecurity, and resentment unlike poverty is unbounded; a mind poisoned with this sort of jealousy demands the objects of its resentment be harmed.

[faeembrugh]

Lenin was full of praise of Mussolini which usually perturbs my Socialist friends when they start talking about 'Fascism'. And the fact Mussolini had a Jewish girlfriend for many years!

[Ossiundstolzdrauf]

16:35 I also am a proud communist Revolutionary and therefore demand the formation of an evil Kapitalist free market

[kilogreene]

Your words have been unintentionally therapeutic for me personally. Something about "hatred and shame of the self leads to fear of independence" really spoke to me. Thanks lol

[tylermorrison]

Am I the only one that watches tik videos twice because it's impossible to consume all the content at once?

Like I can watch the whole video over and over and still keep learning new things I didn't catch before

Thanks again tik