The term cult of personality was an old commonplace in radical discourse, farolder thn Khushchev. Marx uses it, Bakunin used it about Marx. Whatever you want to call what the Soviets and other Stalinists did with Lenin, it was a lot like a cult of personality.
^^^^ CB: Well, I don't want to call it a cult of the personality, because it's not a cult. It's like the veneration for Marx, or Darwin or Einstein. It is a rational respect for profound ideas, not a religious type irrational worship. This respect was held for Lenin before he died, and continued afterward. The Stalinists didn't promote worship of Lenin's personality. That is a false statement. They promoted respect for his thinking , writing and practice in leading the Bolsheviks ,Communist Party and Soviet Union. ^^^^^
Lenin himself was well aware of the dangers, which was why he made it quite clear while he was alive that he did not want to be an object of veneration while dead. Which, unfortunately, he was. I didn't make up the slogan Lenin Lives! When he was living, no such slogan was necessary. Stalin wrapped himself in Lenin's mantel; Trotsky fought for it and lost. And the living person, or institution, need not be the object of veneration worshiped in the cult.
^^^^^ CB: Leninists are not a cult. That's like calling Marxists or Darwinists a cult ;It is the complete opposite of a cult because it is based on respect for scientific and profound thinking and writing, not religious or cultish fervor. It's like Newton saying he stood on the shoulders of giants.
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A living person, like Stalin, who of course had his own cult, or an institution, like a state or party, can use the cult of the dead with very harmful effect. I used to have a whole drawer of pins of Lenin, not one of which was made during his life. I like the modernist monument in Red Square as a piece of architecture, but found the mummy grotesque and pathetic. Lenin, alive, unequivocally said he rejected any ancestor worship,
^^^^ CB:.The Lenin tomb is inspiring and glorious, not at all grotesque or pathetic. Lenin's statements about himself are expressions of appropriate personal modesty. He certainly wouldn't have written 60 volumes of collected works if he didn't want people to continue to follow his ideas after he was dead. The claim that Lenin didn't want people to continue to follow his most general ideas after he was dead is absurd. Lenin certainly followed Marx and Engels ideas after they were dead.
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, any worship of himself at all, alive or dead.
^^^^^^ CB: Of course,he opposed _worship_ of himself or anybody dead or alive. But he did not oppose special recognition of Marx and Engels. Lets see I'm sure google has the picture of him at the unfolding of the statute of Marx and Engels.
"The great world-wide historical service of Marx and Engels lies in this, that they indicated to the proletarians of all countries their role, their tasks, their calling: to be the first to rise in the revolutionary fight against capital and unite around themselves in this struggle all the toilers and the exploited." (Lenin, Speech at the Unveiling of a Monument to Marx & Engels, Nov.7, 1918, CW, Vol.28, p.65)"
Lenin was not opposed to erecting statues of important leaders. He promoted dedicated study of Marxism. Dedicated study of Lenin's works, not worshipful rememberance of his personality, is a big distinction your discussion here ignores.
^^^^^ He viewed the Revolution and Soviet state he knew as his monument. Revolution and Soviet state
^^^^ CB: So, you think there should be a monument to him , just not his mummy ? (giggles)