Czars Out; Tyrants In  

by Ian Frazier

   When you have a few leaders to choose from, you get sick of them, eventually. And when you have just one leader of ultimate importance - in Russia, the czar - the irritation becomes acute. 

   So, let's think about ordinary folks. That was the message of Lenin's (ill-fitting) pants, of the Bolsheviks' leather chauffeur coats and workers' caps, and of all socialist Realist paintings.

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   As Stalin supposedly said, "One person's death is a tragedy, but the death of a million people is a statistic." Czar Nicholas II was sainted not for being a martyr, but for being an individual, suffering person you can relate to.

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   The worldwide Socialist revolution that the Bolsheviks predicted proved a disappointment. No other country immediately followed Russia's lead. During Stalin's time, the goal changed to "Building Socialism in One Country." 

   Other countries eventually did go through their own revolutions, and of those, China's made by far the largest addition to the number of people under Communist rule. This remains the most significant long-term result of Lenin's dream of proletarian uprising. 

Smithsonian

Tomorrow: Lenin's methods live on...here?