What difference did the return of Lenin make

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What difference did the return of Lenin make?
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Lesson overview
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Early life of Lenin

• Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov
• Born Simbirsk, 1870
• Son of school inspector
• Brother executed for assassination of Tsar
  Alexander II

Lenin was a raucous, self-centred little boy,
who gave his brothers sisters a hard time
Fiehn, p.22
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What impact did the death of Lenins brother have
on his future outlook?
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• Studied law at university (expelled)
• Marxism pamphlets, groups
• Arrest exile
• Marriage to Nadezhda Krupskaya
• Social Democratic Party
• London, editor of Iskra (The Spark)

Nadezhda Krupskaya, a fellow revolutionary
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How might Lenins experiences in exile have
influenced his political views?
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Return from Exile

• Lenin exiled in Switzerland
• Support from Germany
• Mensheviks hostile

Arkadii Viktorovich Rusin, Lenin at the
Finland-Station (1970) Lenin's Arrival at the
Finland-Station in Petrograd in Spring 1917
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How reliable is the painting of Lenin at Finland
Station?
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Finland Station Speech

• Worldwide socialist revolution
• End to War
• End to co-operation with Provisional Govt.
• Soviet to take power
• Redistribution of land

Statue outside Finland Station, St Petersburg
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April Theses

• Hostility from Mensheviks, the ravings of a
  madman
• Opposition from Bolshevik Central Committee
• Lenins charisma
• Slogans, Bread, Peace, Land, All Power to the
  Soviets
• Appeal to soldiers
• factory workers
• Need for second
• revolution by workers
• (proletarians)

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? Your task

• Try to recreate Lenins speech at Finland
  Station. Include the main points of the April
  theses such as an end to war and land
  redistribution and try to justify why you think
  these ideas are so important.

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Tsar Alexander II