The Lenin Scenario

Book excerpt: Commissioned by Oliver Stone in 2015 to commemorate the Russian Revolution, Tariq Ali's captivating screenplay of the life and times of Vladimir Lenin puts flesh on the bones of the historical record and gets its pulse racing. From the author of The Dilemmas of Lenin, the drama captures the enigma of its central character. Ali shows Lenin in his rush from Switzerland to Petrograd by train to grasp his moment in history and the force of his personality on the tumult he found there. He made a revolution and remade a nation. Interwoven with the politics is an exploration of Lenin's personal life, especially his love for Inessa Armand. In the introduction, Ali argues that, despite the difficulties, a serious cinematic assessment of Lenin is still needed. Unfortunately, two very different attempts to film one failed. This first draft provides the basis for something on a grander scale at some stage in the future. Praise for The Dilemmas of Lenin 'Aims to rescue Lenin from both liberal caricature and Soviet hag- iography by recovering the realism and dynamism of his political thought' David Sessions, Nation 'An incredibly powerful, panoramic, and insightful study of the central revolutionary figure of the twentieth century' Paul LeBlanc, author of Lenin and the Revolutionary Party