Some advice from Vladimir Illyich Lenin
Every now and again I get asked if I will deliver a talk to a group of students. As a former teacher, who “loves the sound of his own voice”, how can I refuse?
Actually, quite easily … It all depends on the circumstances: what I am asked to talk about?, if it is to be in English or Russian? … and so on.
Sometimes it is an English class, and they just want a native English speaker to deliver a talk and answer questions … basically they want practice with their English. Now, I have a funny accent, and I joke that even Englishman sometimes find it difficult to understand me … it’s not Oxford English but, all the same, they are quite glad for someone to come and spend an hour talking with them. The level of English language skills can vary quite a lot and so it is important to speak slowly and use relatively simple vocabulary. Fortunately, most of the time they seem to want some background about Britain and the differences between the two countries. In a way that is quite simple, and I have a standard short talk, (and power point presentation) which I can give before we go into questions.
One of the first things I have to point out is that I haven’t lived in Britain for over fourteen years … and the last time that I went back, in 2005, I noticed a lot of changes and felt a little out of place.
The questions usually involve “How did you end up in Kyrgyzstan?”, “What are the biggest differences you notice?”, and “If you had the chance to go back … knowing what you know now … would you still do it again?”.
Other occasions involve groups studying Economics or Business Management, and the topics can be quite varied, ranging from Management Styles, to Business Ethics, Marketing and Personnel Management. The biggest problem here is knowing what they have already covered in their lectures, and keeping things brief, to allow time for questions. A straight question and answer session would be simpler.
Because I am a foreigner and I work in tourism, I am often asked to talk to students studying Tourism – especially for courses preparing people to work as guides. I usually get asked to do a session on “working with foreigners”, covering such topics as their hopes and expectations, the importance of a welcoming smile and knowing names, as well as various aspects of their work as a walking encyclopedia, an ambassador for their country, (and their company), and the fact that they will need to know basic first aid and psychology. All of this in the space of an hour or ninety minutes!
Every tourist is different, their reasons for visiting Kyrgyzstan and no two groups are identical. What they think they might encounter here in Kyrgyzstan is just as varied. Some think they are coming to “the back of beyond” – or as the Australians put it, “in the wops”, whilst others expect all the little luxuries and comforts of home – in reality the situation is somewhere in between. Some tourists welcome humour but others find it an annoyance. A person working in tourism has to be prepared for almost any eventuality and has to be remarkably adaptable.
There is only one way they can really cope … they have to prepare themselves … to expect the unexpected and be ready for anything.
I normally close with an exhortation and a quotation.
The exhortation: Don’t think that when you have finished the course that you are ready to be a guide … you are always going to be learning. As the English proverb puts it: “Live and Learn”. Sometimes you will learn new facts, and at others you will be gaining new skills and learning how to handle new and different experiences.
The quotation: this usually raises eyebrows around the room as I launch into it: “Remember the advice of Vladimir Illyich: … ”
As their eyebrows shoot skyward, the faces portray puzzled and amazed looks … Vladimir Illyich? … there is no need to ask who he was, everyone knows: Vladimir Illyich Lenin – the Bolshevik founding father of the Soviet Union. But what is this Englishman, this Westerner, this businessman, this bourgeoisie, this “capitalist lackey” doing, quoting the doyen of the communists, the scourge of the capitalists?
Now I am not a Marxist, never have been and never will be … and I’m just as likely to litter my talk with quotes from Winston Churchill or Ronald Reagan, … but “the devil sometimes speaks the truth” – even if Banquo in Shakespeare’s Macbeth finds the notion incredulous.
Lenin was a revolutionary – he was expelled from University for being one and had to complete his studies, for a Law degree, as an external student. He went on to lead the Bolsheviks in the Great Socialist Revolution of October 1917 which seized power in the weakened Russian state. He was ruthless and dealt harshly with those who apposed him, and was well known for it as is evidenced b y the controversial “Hanging Order” – a document apparently written in Lenin’s own hand instructing local communists in Penza to suppress a kulak uprising by publicly executing “no fewer than one hundred known landlords, rich men, bloodsuckers”, publish their names and confiscate their possessions Indeed, if it hadn’t been overshadowed by that of his successor, Josef Stalin, whose harshness and cruelty in sending millions of Soviet citizens to their execution, to the Gulags or into internal exile in what is known as the “time of the repressions”, then Lenin’s legacy and reputation might be even worse than it is today. He was far from being universally loved and respected in his own day, and there were two assassination attempts in 1918. Ironically, it was a result of the second attempt that led to his increased popularity in the country and the personality cult that eventually resulted in his embalming and the mausoleum in Red Square with the ever present (in Soviet times) queues of mourners waiting to pay their respects to the “great man”.
However, he was also a pragmatist. His writings contain not only dogma but also a number of notable sayings such as “It is impossible to predict the time and progress of revolution. It is governed by its own more or less mysterious laws.“ There is also an element of cynicism in his writing: “One man with a gun can control 100 without one“, “Sometimes – history needs a push”, “A lie told often enough becomes the truth. ” or “There are no morals in politics; there is only expedience. A scoundrel may be of use to us just because he is a scoundrel“. If the last one sounds like an echo of Machiavelli, the he sounds almost like a Jesuit when he says: “Give us the child for 8 years and it will be a Bolshevik forever” and “Give me four years to teach the children and the seed I have sown will never be uprooted.”
So which his “golden nuggets” do I use?
“Remember the advice of Vladimir Illyich: ‘Study, Study and once again Study“.
It usually brings the house down.
Bishkek