The Dilemmas of Lenin: Terrorism, War, Empire, Love, Revolution

By Tariq Ali

The secret life of the man who reshaped Russia

Vladimir Ilyich Lenin, leader of the October 1917 uprising, is one of the most misunderstood leaders of the twentieth century. In his own time, there were many, even among his enemies, who acknowledged the full magnitude of his intellectual and political achievements. But his legacy has been lost in misinterpretation; he is worshipped but rarely read.

On the centenary of the Russian Revolution, Tariq Ali explores the two major influences on Lenin’s thought—the turbulent history of Tsarist Russia and the birth of the international labour movement—and explains how Lenin confronted dilemmas that still cast a shadow over the present. Is terrorism ever a viable strategy? Is support for imperial wars ever justified? Can politics be made without a party? Was the seizure of power in 1917 morally justified? Should he have parted company from his wife and lived with his lover?

In The Dilemmas of Lenin, Ali provides an insightful portrait of Lenin’s deepest preoccupations and underlines the clarity and vigour of his theoretical and political formulations. He concludes with an affecting account of Lenin’s last two years, when he realized that “we knew nothing” and insisted that the revolution had to be renewed lest it wither and die.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Random House Publishing Group
• Release date: Apr 25, 2017
• ISBN: 9781786631138

Tariq Ali

Writer, journalist and film-maker Tariq Ali was born in Lahore and was educated at Oxford University, where he was president of the Oxford Union (a position subsequently occupied by Benazir Bhutto). He was a prominent leader of opposition to the war in Vietnam. Today he writes regularly for a range of publications including The Guardian, The Nation and The London Review of Books and is on the editorial board of New Left Review.  He has written more than a dozen books including non-fiction such as Can Pakistan Survive? The Clash of Fundamentalisms, Bush in Babylon and Pirates of the Caribbean, and fiction including Shadows of the Pomegranate Tree, The Stone Woman and A Sultan in Palermo, as well scripts for both stage and screen. He lives in London.

Reviews for The Dilemmas of Lenin

[lynnb_64 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I had high hopes for this one, but was disappointed overall. I found the writing a bit dense -- closer to a text book than a book for a general reader. I was hoping that the author would present the actual dilemmas Lenin struggled with, and while they are there, they aren't the main line of the narrative. For example, the author describes Lenin's marriage and how he met and fell in love with another woman, but there is no discussion of what it would mean to leave his wife, emotionally or politically. Also, the author inserts notes about his own life, which aren't always relevant (and even if they are, they aren't what I wanted to learn about). Good contextual background for Lenin's times, but I still don't feel I know much more about him than I did before.

[robertday_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I read this book not long after reading China Miéville's re-telling of the Bolshevik Revolution, 'October'. It was as well that I did, because Ali does not take a formal chronological view of Lenin's life. Rather, he chooses a series of themes, as set out in the subtitle, and then looks at those subjects as reflected in the events of Lenin's life. There is a chronological progression in there, but Ali uses the thematic structure to step out of chronology at various points.He also digresses into other areas; the political background of the nineteenth century in Russia, against which Lenin grew up; the story of the Civil War and the Russo-Polish War, and Tukachevsky's role in it; other Socialist thinkers from countries outside Russia such as the English Chartist Ernest Jones; the role and position of women in early socialism and Bolshevik women's' organisations; the progress of socialist revolution in Europe in the years after 1917 and the political maneuvering that saw its failure; and the fate of many of Lenin's contemporaries.The language is most definitely that of the academic Left, though I did not find it hard going. There are also regular diversions into Tariq Ali's own activism; some of this has relevance, some does not. A lot of it has a faint air of self-congratulation about it. There is also some comparison of historical events with contemporary parallels, and some of these are definitely shoehorned in and specifically attempt to reinforce a leftist standpoint on the contemporary issue in question.However, Ali manages to keep on just the right side of hagiography. He is not afraid to quote Lenin's critics, both contemporary to his time, place and political landscape, and more recent writers such as Churchill, Richard Pipes and Robert Service, though I suspect his quotations from Pipes and Service are quite selective. Ultimately, though, this is undoubtedly a Leftist book, more so than Miéville's; and it should not be a general reader's starting point on learning about Lenin whatever your political stance precisely because it does rely for its interpretation on a lot of knowledge of the arguments amongst, and language of, the broad left, Those who have a command of that language will find this book useful.