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Primary sourceBook1920

Proletariatets diktatur: the truth about Lenin and his rule

Are Waerland · 1920

A 1920 Swedish book by Are Waerland that criticises Lenin's rule in Soviet Russia. It is a hostile view written while the Soviet government was in power.

This hostile 1920 book criticises Lenin's rule, showing how contemporaries outside Russia judged his government.

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Proletariatets diktatur: the truth about Lenin and his rule
Are Waerland, Proletariatets diktatur: sanningen om Lenin och hans välde, Stockholm, 1920. Internet Archive scan (PDF).

About this source

What it is

This is a book by Are Waerland, titled Proletariatets diktatur (The Dictatorship of the Proletariat). Its subtitle is Sanningen om Lenin och hans välde, meaning The Truth About Lenin and His Rule. It was printed in Stockholm in 1920 by Folkförbundets förlag and is described as the tenth thousand edition. The text is in Swedish. It has a table of contents with fifteen chapters, including chapters on the 'Russian Chinese wall', the Soviet system and the fate of the peasants. A poem by K. N. Batjuschkoff appears at the start.

Why it matters

The book shows how Lenin's rule in Russia was seen by a critic in Sweden during the early Soviet years. Its large number of editions shows that it reached many readers. It is a useful example of the hostile view of the Bolsheviks that circulated in Western Europe, and students can compare it with pro-Soviet writing from the same years.

Look closer

  • Which chapter titles show the author's main arguments, and which of them are stated as fact rather than opinion?
  • Who was the intended reader of a Swedish book of 1920, and why might that matter?
  • What evidence does the book give for its claims, and what view of Lenin's supporters does it leave out?

This book is part of the curated material that grounds the AI version of Vladimir Lenin on Humy.ai — when students ask about related events, the AI can quote it and cite it.

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