Recently several of my friends covered the Russian Revolution and ensuing Civil War in their History class. From what I have heard their teacher seems to be deeply anti-communist and they have come out of it declaring the Lenin was an amoral tyrant. I happen to disagree with what they have said, and so set about arguing with them over it. Now I have come here, both for assistance & to find what the general consensus on Lenin is.



From the start we are going to be using the criteria provided by those who have proposed the idea of Lenin as "bad".

Their first issue is the dissolution of the Russian Constituent Assembly. They claim that this shows Lenin was opposed to democracy .

Their second issue is the Red Terror. They claim that this shows Lenin was tyrannical.

Their third issue is the Povolzhye famine, they claim that this was a result of the economic policies Lenin introduced (he was "stealing the farmer's food"...). Supposedly this shows that Lenin had poor economic policy and did not improve the lives of the common person.