Top Menu

Reconstructing Lenin reviewed in A World to Win

Reconstructing Lenin: An Intellectual Biography

Reconstructing Lenin: An Intellectual Biography
By Tamás Krausz
552 pp, $34 pbk

Reviewed by Corinna Lotz

“… So what shaped Lenin to become the man he did? Krausz firmly places the Russian revolutionary into historical context, from his birth in 1870 up until his premature death in January 1924…. Under harsh circumstances, long spells in prison, illegality and exile, Lenin’s personality, Krausz says, was ‘an interesting alloy of tough and gentle traits … with undoubtedly a predominance of the former’. Lenin the man emerges from this account as mentally and physically courageous, as well as emotionally sensitive. He was not only an obdurate and loyal political comrade, but a caring brother, husband and lover. He never completely recovered from the untimely death due to cholera of the woman he was closest to later in life, Inessa Armand. Whilst dressing conservatively, he defended freedom of lifestyle. He signed the first decree in the world to end the criminalisation of homosexuality….”

Read the entire review online at A World to Win

Comments are closed.