Can someone please answer these questions on Vladmir Lenin for me?

Question

1. How did he come to power?

2. How did he treat the people he ruled? (eg. how much freedom did they have, how did Lenin treat his opposition)

3. Did he make his country stronger or weaker?

Answer 1

1) He was sent to Russia by the German secret service, in order to de-stabilise the Tsar's government and help defeat Russia. In this task he was very successful

he came to power by sabotaging the democratic government elected to replace the Tsar's rule and orchestrating a very limited (just one city) revolt. However - especially after he murdered the Tsar and his children- his opponents failed to co-operate and were destroyed one by one

2) he was completery ruthless. Very much like Stalin in reality, but thanks to propaganda always portrayed as "benevolent". All opposition (real or imagined) to Lenin was murdered. Their families as well.

3) The Tsar was a weak ruler, and allowed a lot of anarchy to flourish. Lenin ruled with an iron hand so the country- as a whole - ended up stronger. But not in his lifetime (in 1920 Russia loses a war with Poland- which was less than 1% of the size of Russia) and only after some 70 milion people were murdered by their own "benevolent" rulers.

Answer 2

1) Lenin came to power in a coup  led by his Party, the Bolsheviks: the October Revolution.  This was consolidated by the shutting of the democratically elected Constituent Assembly in November 1917.

http://www.essortment.com/all/biographyv...

2i) After a period of oppression - the Red Terror lasting a few weeks where many atrocities occurred people were generally treated better, especially if you were a worker.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_Terror

2ii) The Civil War which started after the Bolshevik take over led to the policy of War Communism, which was basically stealing the peasant's grain for food for the cities.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_communi...

2iii) However this didn't last forever, and the New Economic Policy which came in in 1921 gave economic freedom to small businesses and the peasants.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Economi...

3) In some ways he made the country weaker - agriculture wouldn't recover from War Communism for many years.  But he improved industrial production and laid the foundations for the rapid industrialisation that followed under Stalin.