Remembering Lenin

The Spanish-American Philosopher George Santayana was credited with coining the phrase in 1910 that "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it." So it is vital to remember the anniversaries of important political figures, even, perhaps especially, when their legacies are as devastating as Vladimir Lenin.

The Encyclopaedia Britannica says of him that Lenin “must for good or ill be regarded as the century’s most significant political leader.”

21st January marked the centenary of Lenin’s death which, unlike most of his victims, was from heart disease. Having led the Bolshevik coup in 1919 he created the secret police, caused catastrophic famine, established more than 100 concentration camps, and his rule led directly to the slaughter of around 20 million Russians.

But what do British people make of his legacy in 2024?

To mark the moment, the Museum of Communist Terror commissioned Whitestone Insight to conduct a poll looking at how favourably people now view Lenin, Marxism, Socialism and the 2017 Russian Revolution.

The poll makes for sobering reading especially in light of Santayana's observation. One in four (24%) 18-24s have a favourable impression of communism compared with four percent of over-65s. Similarly, 18-24 year olds are five times as likely as over-55s to have a favourable view of Lenin himself (15% to 3%), while 42% of 18-24s have a favourable view of socialism compared to 25% of over-65s.

The numbers are even more striking if we exclude those who have not heard of or have no opinion of Lenin: among that group 43% of 18-24s approve of him.

Given the acres of information that is freely available about Lenin’s impact on what the Washington Post described as ‘the bloodiest century in history’, it is curious that the more education people have, the more favourable the view they have of Lenin and communism. That said, one in five people had not heard of Lenin.

As James Bartholomew of the Museum wrote of the anniversary, “It is not exactly a secret that Lenin started off 70 years of communist rule in Russia which included two major famines, the Red Terror, the Great Terror and continuing poverty.”

The poll is a healthy reminder of how quickly tyrants are forgotten. We forget them at our peril.