In fact, growing opposition to these exactions was the principal development that convinced Lenin to change course in the direction of what soon became known as the new Economic Policy. V. I. Lenin, the organizer of the Russian Communist movement, viewed the Russian Empire as one political and economic whole, and almost completely ignored its national differences. As a student of Marxism, Lenin neglected the national problem and centered his attention on theorizing the capitalist development of Russia. Both as a Russian idealist and as a Marxist Utopian, Lenin failed to comprehend the inner nature of national problems and demands, viewing and solving them in accordance with the interests of the center rather than with those of the …show more content…
In their continuing discussions about the national question, Soviet leaders, administrators, and experts distinguished between “advanced” nationalities (for example, Russians, Ukrainians, Georgians) whose nationalistic impulses endangered less-developed neighbors, and “backward” nationalities and ethnographic groups(e.g. Belorussians, Uzbeks) who needed Soviet assistance to reach a higher level of national-cultural