Lenin's Last Struggle

Series

• Ann Arbor Paperbacks for the Study of Russian and Soviet History and Politics

One of the great political strategists of his era, V. I. Lenin continues to attract historical interest, yet his complex personality eludes full understanding. This new edition of Moshe Lewin's classic political biography, including an afterword by the author, suggests new approaches for studying the Marxist visionary and founder of the Soviet state. Lenin's Last Struggle offers invaluable insights into the rise of the Bolshevik party and the Soviet Union, a saga complicated by complex strategic battles among the leaders of Lenin's generation: leaders whose names are universally known, but whose personalities and motivations are even now not sufficiently understood.

Moshe Lewin was a collective farm worker in the USSR and a soldier in the Soviet army. He later became director of studies at the Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes in Paris, a fellow of the Kennan Institute, a senior fellow of Columbia University's Russian Institute, and is now emeritus professor of history at The University of Pennsylvania.

Praise / Awards

• "One of the most important books on Soviet history."
  —Ron Suny, University of Chicago

• "Re-reading Lenin's Last Struggle after many years is a poignant experience. The story of Lenin's efforts in the last year of his active life to overcome the isolation of revolutionary Russia and the near isolation of the Communist Party within the country is told here with tremendous skill and sensitivity."
  —Lewis Siegelbaum, Michigan State University

• "Mr. Lewin has done an excellent job of research and analysis."
  —International Affairs

• "Combining a scholar's candour and judiciousness with something of the old revolutionary's passionate and involved commitment to the ongoing cause of socialism, Dr. Lewin has attempted to redeem for history something of Lenin and Leninism and their human worth."
  —Soviet Studies

• "A valuable and thought-provoking contribution to the history of the party and the regime."
  —The English Historical Review

• "Lewin brilliantly reasons his way through labrinthine Politburo maneuvers of 1921-1922, as political conflicts between practical men and idealists meshed with their preparations for the succession struggle."
  —The American Historical Review