30 August

'As it happens, the attempt to kill Lenin has made him much more popular than he was.'

August 30, 2009 · 1 min read

‘One hears a great many people who are far from having any sympathy with the Bolsheviks, saying that it would be an absolute disaster if Lenin had succumbed to his wounds, as it was first thought he would. And they are quite right, for in the midst of all this chaos and confusion he is the backbone of the new body politic, the main support on which everything rests.’ Leonid Krasin

After speaking to factory workers in Moscow on this day in 1918, Vladimir Lenin was shot twice by Fanya Kaplan, a member of the Social Revolutionary party. With Lenin seriously wounded, the attack sparked a series of reprisals known as the ‘Red Terror’ with thousands tortured, flogged, buried alive, shot, drowned or hacked to death in retaliation.

Share this article  
  share on facebook     share on twitter  

Reversing the flow

To undo prison culture, we need to reverse exclusionary, utilitarian, capitalist culture. This includes dismantling the school to prison pipeline, argues Ewa Jasiewicz

One million hours of solitude

Simon Hedges shares his tips on surviving lockdown and government ineptitude

Review – Steal as Much as You Can by Nathalie Olah

Anna Clayton reviews Natalie Olah's book, which explores how upper middle-class pop culture has affected British politics

No solutions, no justice: Covid-19 and BAME communities

Apsana Begum MP asks why no action has been taken to protect BAME communities from Covid-19, despite the Government report revealing disproportionate impact

The nationalist unconscious

To fully grasp the rise of the new authoritarians, we must engage with psychoanalysis as well as economics, writes Richard Seymour

Lockdown live: ‘Race Today’

Join Red Pepper editor K Biswas and guests Paul Gilroy, Lola Olufemi, Ciaran Thapar and Joy White to discuss marginality, inequality, creativity and belonging in Britain

Enjoying this article? Grateful for the lack of ads?
Donate any amount to Red Pepper and support radical media with an independent editorial line, strict ethical advertising policy, and no-paywall promise.