Josh Ireland

There's no military background.

Again, it's like putting a podcaster in charge of... Well, hang on.

This guy's available.

An incredibly good speaker, a talented person, charismatic, but I don't... Very good at maths, though.

that's fine but you know wouldn't know how to load a rifle I'm pretty sure but takes to it with aplomb you know he wears he kind of he embraces the look which is you know you wear cool long leather suits you have this huge armoured train which kind of

careers around the country and you you descend upon particular areas and you you give out you know revolvers to people who fought well you shoot the people who've you know taken a single step backwards and it's a kind of combination of this a bravado and um and sheer force of will which helps the bolsheviks eventually and it takes years you know from it i think it's not until the mid the early 20s that this war is finally won that

finally they feel as if they have a handle on this huge...

country because the problem they had is that marxist theory says that um there are sort of various stages um and of of a of a state's development and it's only when um the working class could have achieved what they sort of describe as you know political consciousness that a revolution would take place but russia is this enormous country that's almost entirely populated by peasant farmers you know they're not the working classes that that

There is no proletariat, really, upon whose loyalty they can rely.

So they kind of have to impose their will on this massive country.

Yeah, exactly.

Yeah, there's always a certain distance between the two.

Trotsky will later...

try and present a picture of how close and intimate they were.

But, you know, they had spent most of the previous decade exchanging vicious letters and, you know, throwing insults at each other.

And they're both strong-willed, egotistical, ambitious people.

figures who have, you know, very strong ideas about how the world should be organised.

Yeah, Lenin is, I mean, amidst a sort of cast of incredibly ruthless people, Lenin is very good at understanding what a situation needs and who is best.

equipped to deal with that situation.

But Lenin is also ailing.