Lenin Lives!: The Lenin Cult in Soviet Russia

The Lenin cult has its roots in Russian history and society, and in the political needs and tactics of the Soviet leadership both in Lenin's time and after. This well-conceived and well-written scholarly book is part biography (how Lenin himself helped create the myth), and part political and socio-psychological history (how Lenin's deification was used by those contending for power after his death, and how Stalin harnessed it to his own cult). The substantial part of the story ends in the 1930s, but, as the brief epilogue recounts, Lenin is "always with us."