What ideas did Lenin follow from Stalin?

Answer 1

Yep, the book that Karl Marx wrote on communism was the whole inspiration for Vladimir Lenin.

Lenin did not follow Marx's ideas very closely. In fact, he adapted his movement to the conditions in Russia so much that the October (Bolshevik) Revolution was not a Marxian revolution at all. It was no more than a political and military coup.

Some examples of Lenin's divergence from Marxian principles are:

1. Marx believed that the revolution would be an economic/social revolution where the workers (the Proletariat) would take the means of production away from their owners (the Bourgeoisie).

Lenin's revolution was a political one where a small group of armed revolutionaries took the government away from the people then in power.

2. Marx believed that the proletariat would consist of the vast majority of people (the factory workers) of many countries.

Lenin's revolutionary party, the Bolsheviks, was a tightly disciplined organization membership in which was not open to any outsider who wished to join. Marx's "proletariat" were not even permitted to be part of the revolution.

3. Marx's socialism was to benefit the proletariat by eliminating capitalism's so-called exploitation of the workers.

Lenin's government forced workers and peasants to work harder than any tsarist government or capitalist had ever forced them.

4. Marx envisioned ending capitalism forever.

Lenin, knowing that his new government was not delivering on its promises, temporarily reintroduced capitalism in agriculture and small businesses under his "New Economic Policy." Many Marxist leaders felt this was abandoning the ideals of the revolution.

5. Marx's envisioned a "Dictatorship of the proletariat" which would be a government elected democraticaly by the workers.

Lenin's dictatorship of the proletariat was not democratically elected. In fact it wasn't even open to anyone but members of the Bolshevik/Communist Party and then only if he approved of them.

6. Marx saw an end to workers being treated as machines on an assembly line. where the owners could accumulate wealth for themselves while extracting as much work as possible from the workers.

Lenin explored ways (such as Taylorism) to make factory workers more efficient in order to accumulate wealth for the new government while extracting as much work as possible from the workers.

There are other examples, because Lenin was the ultimate change artist. Anything that didn't work to keep him and the Communists in power would be changed whether that change conflicted with true Marxian theory or not.

Answer 2

Vladimir Lenin was so much not a Marxist that the term of Marxism-Leninism came to describe the ideology of communist nations, including the Soviet Union, after Lenin met a premature death. Yes, he tried to make Marxism work in the USSR, however, Marx left no real instructions, nor could he have had ) as any country turning to Marxism had its own separate situations that would make it impossible to "follow" Marx's overall intents towards constructing a workers paradise.
Throughout the history of the USSR, there were serious disagreements on how best to apply Marxist ideals into practicalities. Serious disagreements often turned into purges within the Party. When a person such as Leon Trotsky had his own ideas on how Marxism should be practiced, conflicts within the Communist Party caused many former Bolsheviks to be sent to Siberia, exiled or executed. When Joseph Stalin was able to maneuver himself into the role of "dictator" it was his interpretations of Marxism and/or Marxism-Leninism that became Soviet policy. It came to a point whereby one of Stalin's most loyal followers, Nikita Khrushchev, came to regret that at one point he "mass signed" the death warrants of as many as 40,000 Soviet communists.

Answer 3

Concentration camps (Gulag)