Vladimir Lenin is often portrayed sympathetically as a leader who was willing to tolerate open discussion and debate, leading to speculation that the Soviet Union would have developed a more humane form of socialism had he lived. Yet, in one of his last major acts, Lenin initiated the deportation or internal exile of “non-Communist” physicians, which soon broadened into a general witch-hunt against independent intellectuals and professionals.

Paul R. Gregory is the Cullen Professor of Economics at the University of Houston, research fellow at the Hoover Institution, and a research professor at the German Institute for Economic Research in Berlin.
AsiaEuropeGovernment and PoliticsInternational Economics and DevelopmentPolitical History
Other Independent Review articles by Paul R. Gregory
Spring 2018 One Day We Will Live without Fear: Everyday Lives Under the Soviet Police State
Fall 2017 The Black Swan of the Russian Revolution