Your Opinion on Vladimir Lenin?

[AlternateSteve90]

Was he a Horrible Person or a Freedom Fighter, or somewhere in between? Personally, I'd go with the third option: admittedly, some people in his government did commit some terrible crimes, I won't deny that, but I don't think he was a true HP, either. He did get Russia out of the terrible malaise that was Tsarist misrule & corruption, and for a little while things were looking up for the world's largest country....but then came Stalin, and the rest is history; perhaps if Trotsky or another less extreme personality had taken over.....well, I suppose we may never know for sure now. (But perhaps if the Tsars after Alexander II had been more willing to bring their country up to date with the rest of the West, there wouldn't have been the need for a revolution in the first place).

So, my verdict: Sadly not really a bonafide FF, due to the various unfortunate things that did occur, but not quite a total HP, either. I place him somewhere in the middle, roughly around where I'd put Napoleon, perhaps, though leaning notably more HP than Signeur Bonaparte.

[RogueBeaver]

Mega-HP, to put it very mildly.

[ElectionsGuy]

Absolutely Horrible.

[Atlas Has Shrugged]

Was he a Horrible Person or a Freedom Fighter, or somewhere in between? Personally, I'd go with the third option: admittedly, some people in his government did commit some terrible crimes, I won't deny that, but I don't think he was a true HP, either. He did get Russia out of the terrible malaise that was Tsarist misrule & corruption, and for a little while things were looking up for the world's largest country....but then came Stalin, and the rest is history; perhaps if Trotsky or another less extreme personality had taken over.....well, I suppose we may never know for sure now. (But perhaps if the Tsars after Alexander II had been more willing to bring their country up to date with the rest of the West, there wouldn't have been the need for a revolution in the first place).

So, my verdict: Sadly not really a bonafide FF, due to the various unfortunate things that did occur, but not quite a total HP, either. I place him somewhere in the middle, roughly around where I'd put Napoleon, perhaps, though leaning notably more HP than Signeur Bonaparte.

Lenin stands for all that is wrong in the world, and cannot be defended. His "accomplishments" do not wipe the blood off his hands.

[AlternateSteve90]

His "accomplishments" do not wipe the blood off his hands.

I won't argue against that. Hell, if the social democrat Mensheviks or one of the republican factions(I believe they were the "Greens") had succeeded in place of the Leninists, I think all of the tragedies that were to follow, would very likely have been avoided(though I believe the Tsarists had every bit as much possible potential to be as destructive & just plain ed up as Stalin was, and maybe worse.)

[H. Ross Peron]

Mega-HP, to put it very mildly.

[Goldwater]

Mega-HP, to put it very mildly.

[TNF]

Freedom Fighter.

[Pessimistic Antineutrino]

Absolutely Horrible.

[Redalgo]

Horrible person, authoritarian to the core, possibly doomed the Russian experiment with socialism, and set an awful ideological precedent for other revolutionary movements. Partial credit is due for effort, but it does not even begin to make up for his betrayal of so many comrades.

[ElectionsGuy]

Freedom Fighter.

I don't really understand how you can link the name Vladimir Lenin and the word freedom together.

[Pheurton Skeurto]

Freedom Fighter.

I don't really understand how you can link the name Vladimir Lenin and the word freedom together.

The same way you link together the words "Libertarian" and "logical"

As for me, Lenin was an HP on balance. Well-intentioned and had the right idea for sure, but he began to proliferate the misrepresentation of Communism that we know today.

[Peter the Lefty]

Absolute HP.  Can't see how anyone could vote otherwise.

[dead0man]

Absolute HP.  Can't see how anyone could vote otherwise.

Indeed....and we may never know because the only person to say "FF" didn't really explain himself.

[windjammer]

HP

[Oswald Acted Alone, You Kook]

HP (normal)

Although he wasn't as bad as his successors in leaders of communism.

[Leftbehind]

FF.

Absolute HP.  Can't see how anyone could vote otherwise.

Indeed....and we may never know because the only person to say "FF" didn't really explain himself.

Was one of the most successful revolutionaries against a crushingly exploitative system that still remains today. Far from perfect but he inspired and spurred the socialist movement in a way few, if any, have since.

[Snowstalker Mk. II]

Lean FF for emancipating the Russian people and beginning the skyrocketing of living standards in Russia, as well as inspiring arguably morally superior revolutionaries worldwide. He was certainly too authoritarian for my liking, but the magnitude of the October Revolution and the ensuing victory in the Russian Civil War against literally the rest of the world outweighs that IMO.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

and beginning the skyrocketing of living standards in Russia

lolno

[Snowstalker Mk. II]

and beginning the skyrocketing of living standards in Russia

lolno

Of course the USSR never fully caught up with the Western capitalist states, but to say that living standards didn't vastly improve when Russia went red is untrue. Of course, most of the heavy industrialization was under Stalin (who for the record is not a FF).

[Peter the Lefty]

FF.

Absolute HP.  Can't see how anyone could vote otherwise.

Indeed....and we may never know because the only person to say "FF" didn't really explain himself.

Was one of the most successful revolutionaries against a crushingly exploitative system that still remains today. Far from perfect but he inspired and spurred the socialist movement in a way few, if any, have since.

And replacing it with another crushingly exploitive system is all right? 

[Oswald Acted Alone, You Kook]

We can all agree that he was better than any other communist dictator, right? I'd easily vote him over Stalin, Pol Pot, the Kim family, "Chairman Mao", or Fidel Castro.

[TDAS04]

HP.  No question about it. 

[traininthedistance]

We can all agree that he was better than any other communist dictator, right? I'd easily vote him over Stalin, Pol Pot, the Kim family, "Chairman Mao", or Fidel Castro.

I'd vote Fidel over Lenin, and you also forgot Tito and Ho Chi Minh, the latter of whom I suspect actually deserves to be called FF, rather than merely "less HP".

Anyway, obvious HP, duh- if you vote FF you're letting ideology get in the way of basic humanity, and shame on you.  Redalgo said all that needs to be said about him in that other thread.

[H. Ross Peron]

We can all agree that he was better than any other communist dictator, right? I'd easily vote him over Stalin, Pol Pot, the Kim family, "Chairman Mao", or Fidel Castro.

Along with the Castro brothers and Ho Chi Minh, Deng Xiaoping is also preferable to Lenin.