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The Dictator Files: Vladimir Lenin

Can you name these facts about the Russian leader Vladimir Lenin?
Quiz by JohnnyYeet
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Last updated: December 21, 2020
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First submittedJune 9, 2020
Times taken20,317
Average score65.0%
Rating4.21
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Question
Answer
City that was named Leningrad from 1924–1991
St. Petersburg
Political party which Lenin led
Communist Party
Faction of that party he came from (hint: starts with B)
Bolshevik
War that Lenin pulled Russia out of
World War I
New country that Lenin became the first leader of in 1922
Soviet Union
Person that succeeded Lenin as leader of that country
Joseph Stalin
Person that Lenin supposedly wanted instead
Leon Trotsky
Country that Lenin was living in before returning to Russia in 1917
Switzerland
Country that sent Lenin back to Russia in a "sealed train" in an effort to destabilize it
Germany
Name a country which declared independence from Russia between 1917–1918
Belarus | Estonia | Finland | Georgia | Latvia | Lithuania | Poland | Ukraine
Group of wealthy peasants who Lenin persecuted (hint: starts with K)
Kulaks
Campaign of political persecution which killed an estimated 100,000–200,000 political enemies
Red Terror
Lenin's real name
Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov
Secret police established in 1918 (starts with C)
Cheka
National system of prison and slave labor camps established in 1918
Gulag
Army which fought against Lenin during the Russian Civil War
White Army
Last tsar of Russia, executed in 1918
Nicholas II
Type of disaster which killed about 5 million people in 1921–1922
Famine
Plaza in Moscow where Lenin's embalmed body can be viewed
Red Square
Woman who shot and wounded Lenin in 1918
Fanny Kaplan
NigelS
+10
Level 95
Dec 3, 2020
Nice quiz. For Q. 19 it would be better to say 'place in Moscow' rather than 'part of Russia'.
JohnnyYeet
+7
Level 57
Dec 3, 2020
Great Idea! I'll reword the question, thank you for the feedback!
JWatson24
+5
Level 71
Dec 19, 2020
Great quiz! Also, if anyone else is interested, I've made my own Dictator Files quiz!
Finnisme
+4
Level 58
Dec 21, 2020
we're not
cpgatbyu
+10
Level 85
Dec 3, 2020
(From M*A*S*H) Klinger: "Sir, I have to confess, I'm a Communist. An atheistic, Marxist, card-carrying..."

Henry: "Bolshevik."

Klinger: "No, honest."

1ProximaCentauri
+2
Level 55
Dec 3, 2020
Feature#1 for you!
JohnnyYeet
+4
Level 57
Dec 3, 2020
Yup! Hoping for many more to come!
NV1
+2
Level 51
Dec 3, 2020
Congrats on the feature!!!!!!!!
JohnnyYeet
+3
Level 57
Dec 3, 2020
Thank You!
TheLastFish
+5
Level 70
Dec 3, 2020
In Q 16, there are quite a lot correct answers besides the White Army such as Czechoslovakia, UK, France, USA, Japan ... you know ... there are reasons why the Soviets distrusted them since 1919...
tyllarium
+4
Level 68
Oct 25, 2022
Yeah, I know. It's a real shame none of them were successful in preventing millions of deaths later down the line.
Teegthebeeg
+2
Level 55
Dec 4, 2020
Good quiz, thank you. Georgia also declared independence in 1918
JohnnyYeet
+4
Level 57
Dec 4, 2020
Thanks for letting me know.
VirusSlo
+4
Level 69
Dec 4, 2020
Consider accepting "Kremlin" or "Lenin's Mausoleum" for the penultimate question.
JohnnyYeet
+3
Level 57
Dec 4, 2020
Sure, but I have to wait for Quizmaster to approve any changes.
dunkinggandalf2
+2
Level 68
Dec 19, 2020
As the question is currently worded, both those answers would be wrong! Kremlin would be wrong no matter how you word the question, actually.
JohnnyYeet
+2
Level 57
Dec 19, 2020
Well, QM changed it to plaza, but it was "place" until, like, two weeks ago.
dunkinggandalf2
+2
Level 68
Dec 20, 2020
Yeah, I figured it would be something like that.
HiLow
+2
Level 38
Dec 19, 2020
Nice Quiz! Love it!
JWatson24
+1
Level 71
Dec 19, 2020
"Wealthy peasants"? Isn't that a bit of an oxymoron?
Baxtergrad
+17
Level 52
Dec 19, 2020
No...peasants don't have to be poor.
AnAngryYordle
+6
Level 69
Feb 28, 2024
Actually no. Kulaks were basically families that owned large amounts of rural land and were the heads of farms. They were peasants, but they also were usually wealthy landlords at the same time. The persecution was mainly based on the communists wanting to restructure the economy and in the process collectivize agriculture. Of course this would've meant that Kulaks would loose the operation that made them so wealthy and become just another average worker, so they resisted this heavily, which eventually lead to armed conflict between kulaks and communists.
TheRatmeister
+2
Level 85
Dec 19, 2020
The Belarusian People's Republic declared independence in 1918.
JohnnyYeet
+3
Level 57
Dec 19, 2020
Ok
Baxtergrad
+4
Level 52
Dec 20, 2020
You know what? Imma make a time machine, go back in time to 1918 Russia, and declare indepdence. Then will I be on the quiz?
JohnnyYeet
+8
Level 57
Dec 20, 2020
No, because Lenin will do his best to crush your rebellion :)
FaroPor
+2
Level 60
Mar 31, 2021
Plus this quiz wouldn't exist back then.
kalbahamut
+4
Level 82
Feb 23, 2022
JetPunk in 1918, good times, before they sold out to the Capitalists.
JennySewo
+2
Level 16
Dec 19, 2020
Nice Quiz!!! 100% with 1:48 remaining!
KevinF
+2
Level 52
Dec 20, 2020
At the time that the Bolshevik faction split the party was known as the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party. The answer to number 3 implies this should be the answer to number 2. I tried several versions of the RSDLP, and got the answer to number 2 wrong before trying Communist. It was not the Communist party until 1918.
zemaraum
+2
Level 38
Dec 20, 2020
on 2nd try i get all, easy
gzx5
+7
Level 71
Dec 20, 2020
He may not have been as evil as Stalin but he was still quite an evil man. He even had children murdered who opposed his views. Burn in hell, you'll get yours. What comes around goes around. Nobody is an exception to that.
kalbahamut
+4
Level 82
Feb 23, 2022
Was liking this comment for the first half then the 2nd half turned into empty and untrue platitudes. Plenty of men who do evil things escape justice. And having visiting his corpse in Moscow I have it on good authority that it's not presently on fire.
peardestroyer
+2
Level 57
Dec 20, 2020
nice!!
WildStrawberries
+10
Level 51
Dec 21, 2020
Lenin was not a dictator.
JohnnyYeet
+13
Level 57
Dec 21, 2020
Read gzx5's comment 2 comments above yours. Lenin was certainly not as evil as Nicholas II or Joseph Stalin, but was a dictator all the same. He shared political power with no one during his reign. He only had people assisting him and carrying out his orders, like Stalin, Trotsky, and Kalinin. He crushed rival factions and murdered several people. By today's definitions, he was certainly a dictator maybe comparable to Ayatollah Khomeini or Nicolas Maduro.
Quizmaster
+5
Level ∞
Dec 21, 2020
Why do you think Nicholas II was evil?
JohnnyYeet
+11
Level 57
Dec 21, 2020
Well, he pretty much sucked in every way. He was an autocrat almost as much as Lenin was, he lost war after war, allowed Sakhalin to be annexed by Japan, created famines while the peasants starved, did nothing to alleviate the poverty of the serfs, shot protesters dead on Bloody Sunday (1905), etc.

I suppose evil is a bit of an overstatement, but Nicholas was not a good leader whatsoever. Lenin, although as brutal as Nicholas, was a good leader.

That said, this is just my personal opinion.

Quizmaster
+12
Level ∞
Dec 21, 2020
From what I've read about him, he seemed like a person who always genuinely tried to do the right thing but just wasn't able to. I wouldn't classify him as evil. But most of what I know is from a single book.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nicholas_and_Alexandra_(book)

Also just want to note that serfdom had been abolished by his grandfather in 1861.

JohnnyYeet
+5
Level 57
Dec 21, 2020
I said serfdom because, supposedly, Nicholas's policies towards laborers were very much like serfdom.

But, yes, you are right about his grandfather abolishing it. I guess both Lenin and Nicholas stank in their own way.

johnappleseed
+4
Level 49
Dec 21, 2020
also i guess the whole rasputin affair wasnt really the best move politically?
JWatson24
+5
Level 71
Oct 28, 2021
Yeah, I'll admit I probably know less about this than you and Quizmaster probably do, but from what I can tell, Nicholas's fault was less that he was evil and more that he was incompetent. For example, his coronation was a mess. That being said, the Wikipedia article states, "The Tsar wanted to stay in his chambers and pray for the lives lost, but his uncles believed that his absence at the ball would strain relations with France... Thus Nicholas attended the party; as a result the mourning populace saw Nicholas as frivolous and uncaring."

So I don't think Nicholas had bad intentions--he just had no clue what he was doing and allowed himself to be pushed around by bad people. Lenin I would say is the opposite--a bad person who was shrewd enough to make good political decisions. (Though as you said, Stalin was way worse.)

kalbahamut
+6
Level 82
Feb 23, 2022
not that anyone needs to hear my 2 cents, but my view of the last tsars is also one more of incompetence than evil. Not that they were especially great people, or good leaders, or that their obscene wealth or retaining a monarchy in any country especially one as poor as Russia could ever be justified, but they were better than Lenin, Stalin, and company. Less popular, arguably. Though that's hard to gage as if you made known your dislike of the latter you were more likely to be shot than polled for your opinion.
RisinqKinq
+4
Level 36
Dec 21, 2020
Inaccurate: He was a member of the RSDP. There was no "Communsit Party"
JohnnyYeet
+3
Level 57
Dec 21, 2020
I'll make it a type-in.
gonzit
+2
Level 69
Jan 24, 2021
1918 was a busy year for Lenin and the Soviet Union
TheRatmeister
+4
Level 85
Feb 13, 2021
More countries that declared independence during the revolution:

Georgia

Armenia

Azerbaijan

Moldova

Depending on how the question is interpreted, possibly also:

Khiva

Bukhara

Crimea

Don Republic

Kuban Republic

Karelia

North Ingria

Tungus Republic

Transcaucasia (Georgia+Armenia+Azerbaijan)

Caucasian Empire (Chechnya)

Caucasian Republic

Turkestan

JohnnyYeet
+2
Level 57
Feb 14, 2021
I'm honestly thinking of just removing the question. So many countries declared independence that it is basically a free question.
nios
+6
Level 53
Mar 10, 2021
Maybe change it to 'modern day country'?
NV1
+2
Level 51
Mar 19, 2021
Like the comment with West Orange in it, quick! https://www.jetpunk.com/users/dutchvincent/blog/all-about-5-bulgaria
aloepottt
+1
Level 48
Jun 10, 2021
congratulations on the feature,
JohnnyYeet
+1
Level 57
Jun 10, 2021
Thanks!
WeDoALittleTroll
+1
Level 46
May 28, 2022
I'd argue you should add Nikolai Bukharin to question 6, given that was what saw written in his testament
AnAngryYordle
+4
Level 69
Feb 28, 2024
Generally a good quiz, but I have one suggestion:

I don't think you should call Lenin a dictator, because the soviet leadership structure, although very powerful, was built very differently from the images of absolute monarchy, military dictatorship, fascism or bonapartism that people typically have in mind when thinking of dictatorships and it was more of a "politics is open to participate for all, but the people elected into the higher councils have lots of power" situation.

I also have some 5 cents to share about Lenin supposedly wanting Trotsky as his successor because this is precisely just that: supposedly. There's no actually good evidence on that and while I'm fairly sure Lenin would've been very disappointed to see which direction his country took under Stalin because many of the rights for women, LGBT and ethnic minorities introduced under Lenin were reversed, I'm very sure Trotskys vision for the USSR deviated from Lenin's one quite a bit as well.

Quizmaster
+4
Level ∞
Feb 28, 2024
Since you checked the box... No, politics was not "open to participate for all" during the Lenin regime.
SLAAAAAAAAYER
+2
Level 44
Feb 28, 2024
Lenin is definitely not in the same class as the other dictators in this quiz series. Its like having a quiz series on the greatest athletes of all time and including your favorite athlete even though that athlete never did anything of note.
Quizmaster
+4
Level ∞
Feb 28, 2024
True. Lenin didn't live long enough to get Stalin/Hitler/Mao level stats. 200,000 political enemies executed? Child's play.

But you're making a false assumption about why this quiz series exists. It's not a list of the worst dictators. It's a list of the dictators who make the best quizzes.

SLAAAAAAAAYER
+2
Level 44
Feb 29, 2024
I hope you realized you just proved my point, nothing in my statement was praising Lenin. I was simply stating he's not on the level of the other Tyrants in this series, which you agree with.

I also love how there is a series on dictators and you don't include Julius Caesar, who was the first official dictator in history and plenty famous and interesting. Or very little Western leaders who across history built empires based off of colonial exploitation, slavery, and murder.

I don't believe I am making false assumptions, I am simply stating that there are better candidates to feature on a dictator series of quizzes than Lenin.

nerdalert
+1
Level 85
Feb 29, 2024
He gave rights to minorities whose leaders agreed with him. Others were gassed, executed, or sent to the camps. I think that outweighs the rights he granted women or the rights you think he granted the LGBT community.

Making him out to be some progressive icon is not good for progressivism.

KingBardlin
+1
Level 65
Feb 29, 2024
Lenin's body (though I think it's actually a mannequin) is placed in the mausoleum. I'm surprised Mausoleum doesn't count as an answer
SLAAAAAAAAYER
+2
Level 44
Mar 1, 2024
The excuses being made here for Nicholas II, are honestly pathetic. Sure he was a weak ruler manipulated by Russian aristocracy but he was still ruler for over 20 years, and by historical standards if your dynasty ends because you are ineffective for well over 20 years you are garbage. Under his reign he affirmed a strong commitment to autocracy, created the Duma as a fake legislature and gave it no power, presided over famines that forced the peasants in the countryside to commit to cannibalism to survive, got absolutely destroyed in the Russo Japanese war and then showed when WWI rolled around he learned nothing and even attempted to lead from the front with disastrous results. He also was never a champion of the people, and violent reprisals against citizens were common under his watch. If you cant figure out a better way to govern your state after being in power for 20+ years, your poor advisors are not the problem you are.
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