Leader of the New World

Dmitry Agranovskiy, Sovetskaya Rossiya, April 20, 2026 —

We live in a time when the Soviet political agitators expression “the brutal grin of capitalism” has become a reality. After the collapse of the USSR and its victory in the Cold War, global capital at least observed some decency and at least some rules of the game, mostly invented and imposed by itself. The expansion of Western imperialism was carried out primarily through economic and propaganda methods, which proved far more effective than military force during the Cold War. This, however, did not prevent the military from also suppressing those who attempted to demonstrate at least a modicum of independence but lacked the strength to defend themselves. The destruction of legitimate authorities in Yugoslavia, Libya, Iraq, and a number of other places was accomplished primarily by military force or a combination of these methods.

Let me remind you that after the invasion of Iraq in 2003, the United States suffered a number of significant defeats and losses. However, they managed to buy off the Iraqi army command and, above all, eliminate the resistance. This did not prevent them from subsequently executing numerous Iraqi military personnel and officials. This became a clear demonstration of the cost of any agreements with the global “hegemon.” And this is nothing new. The well-organized, industrialized, ruthless, and perfidious West had held the entire world under its control for five hundred years and intended to continue doing so.

But then Lenin appeared. In this case, I mean Lenin as a kind of collective symbol of resistance. Of course, Vladimir Ilyich didn’t act alone, but together with the Bolshevik Party, relying on the most advanced idea – Marxism. Before the Great October Socialist Revolution, the Russian Empire, although the largest, was, to put it mildly, far from the most industrially developed country in Europe. However, Lenin and the Bolsheviks clearly demonstrated to the entire world that even with limited resources, but with the right idea, loyalty to that idea, determination, and will – all this is also known as passionarity – one can truly change the course of history not only for one’s own country, but for the entire world.

One can be a supporter of the monarchy, or one can be an opponent, but one cannot deny the obvious fact: an inept, incompetent, hopelessly outdated government that was not even close to meeting the demands of a changed world brought the Russian Empire, as they say, “to the brink of collapse,” allowing no less destructive forces to come to power in February 1917 and destroy the country.

And then the Bolsheviks and Lenin saved Russia. They organized the proletariat into columns, rallied and saved the country, defeated the interventionists, and organized the entire life of the state on a completely new basis. Remember how, by historical standards, just recently we celebrated the centenary of the Great October Socialist Revolution? And then we celebrated the centenaries of a huge number of enterprises and institutions that simply didn’t exist before the Revolution, at least not on such a scale—the GOELRO plan, public institutes and libraries, everywhere, in the most diverse spheres of human life, from science to theater, from aviation to literature—Lenin and the Bolsheviks, and then, of course, Stalin, moved Russia forward many steps, creating a state entirely new in human history, a successful, viable, and attractive alternative that proved capable of the most remarkable achievements in human history.

And this alternative was incredibly attractive in those years—in case anyone has forgotten, let me remind you that even in the United States, American communist rallies were held in stadiums. The idea Lenin brought to the public consciousness had truly global significance. The communist idea, as Vladimir Ilyich said, truly became a driving force because it truly captured the minds and souls of millions upon millions of people around the world. Regardless of one’s attitude toward pre-revolutionary Russia, it never had anything like this kind of influence.

As I’ve written many times, thanks to Lenin and the Bolsheviks, the 20th century became the Russian century, and the Russian language became the global language of freedom, progress, and justice. Lenin gave the people of Russia freedom and the peoples of the world hope. It became clear that the West wasn’t all that strong when confronted with a worthy adversary, and the liberation of the world was only a matter of time. In fact, once it became clear that the young Soviet state had withstood the blows of the intervention (which, for some reason, we still call “civil war”), the fate of the global colonial system was sealed.

Soviet people, especially in the early days of the USSR, literally looked to the stars. They lived for the future. For the first time in human history, Lenin founded a state in which everyone, not just the rich and noble, enjoyed the right to be human. Lenin unleashed such strength within the people that the country leaped forward. Moreover, these strengths were felt within all the peoples of the world, especially those who had been oppressed for centuries and even recognized their oppression but were powerless to change it. And suddenly it became possible! One could say that, as on the USSR Coat of Arms, the sun rose over the entire world.

The state founded by Lenin, assembled by him from the crumbling fragments of Russia, held together by a unique, super-strong alloy, withstood the most severe trials ever endured by any country. It remains renowned for the most outstanding achievements in human history. I think it is also remembered as the state with the most rapid development per unit of time. Yes, it failed to fully realize its potential, but only because it was situated in an unfavorable, hostile—and later, not so much hostile as corrupting—environment.

People sometimes wonder why Lenin appeared in Russia, even though, from the perspective of Marxism’s original inception, he should have emerged in a more industrially developed country. The entire history of Russia, a country where serfdom—effectively slavery—was abolished only in the second half of the 19th century, where the so-called elite even spoke (or at least attempted to speak) another language, French—made Lenin’s emergence historically inevitable. Like the entire history of the world, which, generally speaking, if we discard all the gray areas, until the October Revolution was a history of wars and oppression.

It is not surprising that the most powerful catalyst for the Great October Socialist Revolution was the First World War, which the proletarians, driven into the trenches, in the vast majority perceived as a senseless imperialist massacre for interests alien to them.

I think this is best expressed in Mikhail Bulgakov’s novel “The Flight,” where the millionaire Korzukhin explains to associate professor Golubkov what a dollar is: ” The dollar! The great, almighty spirit! It’s everywhere! Look there!”

There, far away, on the roof, a golden beam burns, and next to it, high in the air, a hunched black cat – a chimera! He’s there too! The chimera is guarding him…

Close your eyes and imagine—darkness, with waves moving through it like mountains. Mist and water—an ocean! It’s terrifying, it will devour! But in the ocean, with the hiss of furnaces, exploding millions of tons of water, comes a monster! It comes, groaning, bearing fires on its back! It digs water, it’s heavy, but in the hellish furnaces, where the naked stokers are, it carries its golden child, its divine heart—a dollar! And suddenly the world is troubled!

And now they are coming! They are coming! There are thousands of them, then millions! Their heads are sealed in steel helmets. They are coming! Then they are running! Then they are throwing themselves, howling, at the barbed wire! Why did they throw themselves? Because somewhere they insulted the divine dollar! But now the world is quiet, and everywhere, in all the cities, the trumpets are sounding jubilantly! It is avenged! They are shouting in honor of the dollar!

I can very vividly imagine all those unfortunate people, workers and peasants, fathers and sons, who were then forced to throw themselves on barbed wire, under poisonous gases, because somewhere the dollar sensed a threat to its interests.

And so we see how, in a world without Lenin, without the Bolsheviks, without the state they created, imperialism crosses one line after another. It can openly, before the entire world, kidnap the legitimately elected president of a country whose only crime is that his country has oil and the desire to protect its interests. It can threaten to attack Cuba, an island that has been a symbol of freedom for over 60 years. It can threaten to destroy an entire civilization, over five thousand years old, and kill its children and leaders. What imperialism is doing in the world today is disgusting and completely unjustifiable.

I remember January of this year, 2026 – after the bloody capture of Nicolás Maduro, it seemed as if many countries were confused and frightened, each cowering in its own corner, hoping that this iron steamroller would roll past them. And there was no Lenin, no Bolsheviks, no Soviet Union to protect the world.

Fortunately, now, in April, just in time for Lenin’s birthday, which is highly symbolic, everything has changed dramatically. It’s not that the forces of good have triumphed. No, that’s still a long way off, and the threat hasn’t gone away. But imperialism has learned a valuable lesson from Iran, which, despite its ideological dissimilarity to that of the USSR, showed the world that a country united by an idea, determination, and will, with a sufficient, albeit modest, industry, and the right application of force, can fight a very, very serious adversary. In fact, Lenin and the Bolsheviks demonstrated roughly the same thing, only on a much larger scale, far more powerfully, effectively, and attractively, at the beginning of the 20th century.

I’ve always said and continue to say that Lenin built a state that was fundamentally good, humane, and compassionate. Unlike Western philosophy, for which man is a constant and futile to correct, we believed and continue to believe that a person, placed in the right conditions, nurtured by humanistic and progressive pedagogy, changes themselves and changes the entire world, the entire universe, for the better. Kindness and compassion, as well as the pursuit of justice, are the foundation of the communist idea. It’s becoming increasingly clear every day that unless the world makes significant strides toward humanism, kindness, and justice, we will face very unpleasant events, perhaps even incompatible with life on Earth.

But Lenin also said that “every revolution is worth anything only if it can defend itself.” As historical experience has shown, this is absolutely true, but it applies not only to revolutions. Any country that wants, as we were told in the 1990s, to “just live normally,” or that asks who knows who for who knows why for “twenty years of peace,” as one, in my opinion, extremely unpleasant historical figure told us, will simply be devoured by its neighbors. And this is precisely why, among other things, Lenin’s lessons are relevant today for all countries. For some, as a guide to survival. For others, the aggressors, as a lesson.

Lenin is great, Lenin is unique, but at the same time, he is understood by everyone, anywhere in the world. Lenin is a Russian man and at the same time an absolutely universal figure, a symbol of the new world, a symbol of Russian messianism and globality, opposed to the globalism of transnational corporations. Lenin is a liberator, Lenin is a protector. Lenin is the leader of a new world!