Lenin, (Ulyanov), Vladimir Ilyich

(1870–1924)

   Leader of the October Revolution and Soviet ruler. Lenin was the leader of the Bolshevik Party when it took power in the revolution of autumn 1917, and the effective ruler of Russia from then until his death. He condemned and opposed anti-Semitism throughout his life, even when by doing so his political difficulties were increased. An attempt by a Jewish woman member of a rival revolutionary party to assassinate him in 1918 did not change his attitude. But Lenin believed that the Jews would, and should, eventually disappear as a separate group. Early in his career as a revolutionary leader he found himself in opposition to the Bund, the Jewish workers’ party, which usually sided with the Mensheviks against the Bolsheviks. Lenin opposed the Bund’s very existence, denying that there was a need for an autonomous Jewish organization in the socialist movement. But after he had taken power, and was faced with the fact that there were millions of Jews with their own language and culture living in Russia, he agreed to the establishment of a special Jewish section in the Communist party - the Yevsektsiya - and to the recognition of Yiddish as a national language. Hebrew, Zionism and the religious expression of Judaism, on the other hand, were rigidly suppressed under his regime.