ABSTRACT
Lenin began to develop his understanding of revolution in 1905-1906 when all revolutionary parties were busy formulating their revolutionary strategies. In August and September 1917, preparing for the plunge into the October revolution, Lenin again raised the banner of civil war. It was with that credo of civil war and revolutionary dictatorship that Lenin took his Bolsheviks into the October revolution and into a 'homogeneous', that is, a one-party Bolshevik government. Lenin took an active part in the drafting of the Soviet constitution. The 1917 February revolution which, as Lenin put it in May, gave the Russian people an unprecedented freedom not enjoyed at present by any other nation', was almost bloodless and quite charitable. Such civil war violence as occurred was mainly confined to Kronstadt and Helsingfors where irate sailors squared accounts with their officers. All later attempts to emulate the Leninist model in Germany, Bavaria and Hungary proved disastrous failures.
