Word: leninization
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There is at least one biography of Lenin in each of these categories. Robert Payne created a mammoth animal, The Life and Death of Lenin, which is seductively readable, though not always reliable history. David Shub's Lenin is a plant whose roots are a bit shallow, since it was written without the benefit of recently discovered documentary material. Louis Fisher's book is definitely right, but it's just a middle-sized stone. Now Adam Ulam has written a boulder...
...Bolsheviks is not as big as its title would have you believe. Ulam implicitly assumes that the history of the Bolshevik Party cannot be separated from the history of Lenin. The book is essentially an account of Lenin's life, padded with more general history and laced with occasional hints of animation. The decision to identify the Party with Lenin was in many ways an unfortunate one, because the two were not synonymous. A discussion of dissent within the Party would have made the book more exciting, and probably more balanced...
...Bolsheviks is solid biography which frequently benefits from its pretensions to history of a broader scope. Ulam's discussions of Lenin's youth and the Party in exile are exhaustive, and his treatment of the 1917 revolutions is both thorough and fair-minded. In discussing the February revolution, for example, after giving two pages of "the bare facts," Ulam asks, "What did really happen?" He then summarizes the liberal, non-Bolshevik Socialist, monarchist, Trotskyite, and Leninist positions before adding his own interpretation. Equally impressive are his analyses of Lenin as the ruler of a state. Here he gives a very...
...forbidden at all times to youngsters under 14, motorbikes to all under 16. Also no-go in most of the snowbound capital are sleds and skis, because they "disturb public order." Presumably young Muscovites will now have plenty of time to curl up with, say, a good biography of Lenin...
...Mikoyan's retirement was, refreshingly, just that. Party Boss Leonid Brezhnev confirmed it. "Comrade Mikoyan traveled a long road in our party," he said. "The Soviet people are full of respect for the glorious working career of this outstanding Communist." With that, Mikoyan was awarded the Order of Lenin and stepped from the Soviet stage. The real news of the week lay not in his retirement, but in the changes in Russian hierarchy that followed...