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Statue Of Communist Revolutionary Vladimir Lenin Unveiled In Germany

   DailyWire.com
Picture taken on June 22, 2020 shows a statue of Soviet leader Vladimir Lenin recently erected in Gelsenkirchen, western Germany. - The divisive new monument was unveiled on June 20, 2020, in the middle of a global row over the controversial background of historical figures immortalised as statues. More than 30 years after the post-World War II communist experiment on German soil ended, the tiny Marxist-Leninist Party of Germany (MLPD) installed Lenin's likeness in the western city of Gelsenkirchen.
INA FASSBENDER/AFP via Getty Images

A far-left political group unveiled a new statue of Russian communist revolutionary Vladimir Lenin in Western Germany over the weekend which comes as numerous statues worldwide have been toppled in recent weeks.

“The installation of Germany’s first large public statue of Lenin outside the former communist East Germany was fiercely opposed by many Germans,” Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty reported. “The 1.3-ton, cast-iron statue was made in the former Czechoslovakia in 1957 and bought by the MLPD in an online auction for 16,000 euros ($18,000).”

Gelsenkirchen’s city council opposed the move by the far-left Marxist-Leninist Party Of Germany (MLPD) but was defeated in court because the statue was being erected on private property. The irony there is that Lenin, a communist, did not believe in the private ownership of property as his regime abolished private land ownership on his first day in office.

Lenin, head of the Bolshevik Party, rose to power during the Russian Revolution of 1917 and later went on to found the USSR, the world’s first communist nation. History provides some background:

[In April 1917] Lenin began plotting an overthrow of the Provisional Government. To Lenin, the provisional government was a “dictatorship of the bourgeoisie.” He advocated instead for direct rule by the workers and peasants in a “dictatorship of the proletariat.”

By fall of 1917, Russians had become even more war weary. Peasants, workers and soldiers demanded immediate change in what became known as the October Revolution.

Lenin, aware of the leadership vacuum plaguing Russia, decided to seize power. He secretly organized factory workers, peasants, soldiers and sailors into Red Guards — a volunteer paramilitary force. On November 7 and 8, 1917, Red Guards captured Provisional Government buildings in a bloodless coup d’état.

The Bolsheviks seized power of the government and proclaimed Soviet rule, making Lenin leader of the world’s first communist state. The new Soviet government ended Russian involvement in World War I with the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk.

The Bolshevik Revolution sparked a three-year civil war inside Russia between the Red Army and the White Army, which was supported by capitalists and supporters of democracy. Lenin instituted “War Communism,” which was a series of policies that essentially nationalized all industries throughout Russia. History notes:

These measures proved disastrous. Under the new state-owned economy, both industrial and agricultural output plummeted. An estimated five million Russians died of famine in 1921 and living standards across Russia plunged into abject poverty.

Mass unrest threatened the Soviet government. As a result, Lenin instituted his New Economic Policy, a temporary retreat from the complete nationalization of War Communism. The New Economic Policy created a more market-oriented economic system, “a free market and capitalism, both subject to state control.”

In 1918, Lenin was shot in an assassination attempt by a member of a rival party and his secret police force, the Cheka, responded by what became known as the “Red Terror,” a period of time in which mass executions were carried out against those who were not loyal to the communists. History reported that some estimates suggest that up to 100,000 people were killed as a result of the campaign.

A Wall Street Journal op-ed from 2017 noted that the events that were set in place by the Russian Revolution of 1917 ended up leading to a century where communism was responsible for the deaths of approximately 100 million people.

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