On the Causality of Great Personalities and Great Events Exemplified by Lenin and the October Revolution

Abstract

Was the October Revolution inevitable? If yes, what was its real character? If not, could it have been avoided or taken a different course? What was the role played in it by Lenin? Using the dialectical method of analysis, an attempt is made to provide answers to these questions. The following points are stressed: (1) Given the general and particular conditions of Russian life created by the First World War and the February Revolution, the break with the old democratic mixed capitalist form and the establishment of the new totalitarian state capitalist form of the social development were inevitable. (2) The fact that this process was headed by Lenin was accidental and, hence, avoidable. (3) But Lenin individualised the general and particular features of the October Revolution in terms of the names of the events associated with the revolution, of the time of its occurrence, of its participants and of their positions during and after the revolution.

Citation

Raiklin, E. (1991), "On the Causality of Great Personalities and Great Events Exemplified by Lenin and the October Revolution", International Journal of Social Economics, Vol. 18 No. 5/6/7, pp. 98-132. https://doi.org/10.1108/03068299110005042