I'm older than millennials - born in '78 - but my history classes all kind of ended around WWII, and the last 200 years of that was very focused on the US. Other countries were only mentioned to the extent of attempting to quickly explain why we got into WWII: Germany trying to take over the world and kill all Jews, Japan attacked Pearl Harbor. Lenin and Stalin were hardly mentioned. I sought out an elective post-WWII history class in college, and that was my first exposure to Korea or Vietnam or Watergate. Personally I think "history" classes should focus more on recent history.

(And for what it's worth, my phone tried to correct Stalin to all sorts of things. Autocorrect must have been written by a Millenial).

Anonymous wrote:If you asked me who Lenin WAS, I'd ask you Vladimir or John? But if you asked me who Lenin IS, I'd assume you were talking about some current figure and not be able to answer.

-- not a millennial

Perhaps if the person asking spelled "Lenin", you would not think John. I'm guessing you did not graduate in the top 99% at Trump University.

I met a year old kids whose name was "Stelin" - his parents are very right wing Southerners. At first I thought they said his name was Stalin and a bristled a bit - then when they clarified that his name was Stelin I apologized profusely and laughing told them I thought they said Stalin. They looked at me blankly and asked why Stalin was a funny name. They had no clue who Joseph Stalin was.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Leninism and Socialism are two different animals

-signed BA and Masters degrees in Politics/Policy with minor/focus on sociology and social issues

They both result in mass graves though.

You left that part out.

The Civil War and slavery resulted in mass graves as well, PP. You left that part out. Not to mention the mass graves (if they even bothered) of Native Americans duing the very birth of our nation.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm one of those Xennials. My experience throughout school, at all levels below college, was that history class started in the autumn with an overview of Mesopotamia, moved swiftly to the advent of the post-Plague merchant class, lingered on the period between Enlightenment and US Civil War, and then rushed at breakneck speed to make it to modern day before the end of the school year (and this was pre 9/11 so we ignored the Middle East). I think our text books spent 3 or 4 pages on Communism altogether, Lenin included.

Same here. Every year, they started at the very beginning, and we never made it much past the Civil War.

Ditto. But I also think I totally missed the cold war, Berlin Wall, USSR because it was 'too recent'. I was in 7th grade on sept 11 and I wonder if they actually teach that in school now? I don't think this is good- I just think this is maybe an issue that has more to do with school pacing and that schools avoid buying newer textbooks so you end up with incomplete history.

Side note- I read an amazing book called The Bronze Horseman that was a love story, but also was set in Russia during WWII. I learned a lot from that book that I had NO concept of before.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Leninism and Socialism are two different animals

-signed BA and Masters degrees in Politics/Policy with minor/focus on sociology and social issues

They both result in mass graves though.

You left that part out.

Socialism is an economic theory. It works pretty well in many European countries. No mass graves as a result of socialism in those places.

It is when authoritarian governments get a hold of it that results in problems.

Anonymous wrote:Leninism and Socialism are two different animals

-signed BA and Masters degrees in Politics/Policy with minor/focus on sociology and social issues

They both result in mass graves though.

You left that part out.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Leninism and Socialism are two different animals

-signed BA and Masters degrees in Politics/Policy with minor/focus on sociology and social issues

Interesting that with all that education you do not know that Leninism and Socialism are political theories and not animals. Did you take a wrong turn at the vet school?

Yes, yes-I was using a figure of speech. Sheesh

Anonymous wrote:I'm one of those Xennials. My experience throughout school, at all levels below college, was that history class started in the autumn with an overview of Mesopotamia, moved swiftly to the advent of the post-Plague merchant class, lingered on the period between Enlightenment and US Civil War, and then rushed at breakneck speed to make it to modern day before the end of the school year (and this was pre 9/11 so we ignored the Middle East). I think our text books spent 3 or 4 pages on Communism altogether, Lenin included.

Same here. Every year, they started at the very beginning, and we never made it much past the Civil War.

I'm one of those Xennials. My experience throughout school, at all levels below college, was that history class started in the autumn with an overview of Mesopotamia, moved swiftly to the advent of the post-Plague merchant class, lingered on the period between Enlightenment and US Civil War, and then rushed at breakneck speed to make it to modern day before the end of the school year (and this was pre 9/11 so we ignored the Middle East). I think our text books spent 3 or 4 pages on Communism altogether, Lenin included.

I wouldn't expect too many people are all that versed in the ways of Lenin. They should ask this question of anyone in middle America. I would wager a lot of money that it isn't unique to millennials.

Anonymous wrote:I just thought this was pathetically sad and embarrassing and speaks volumes about our country. I read that 33 percent of millenials do not know who Lenin is. I mean he is a rather important figure in history and really changed the course of world events.

The same article mentioned that many millenials also think that Bush was responsible for more deaths than Stalin,

These people should be ashamed. They should have learned this stuff in high school. Do we have a nation of idiots?

Ummmm.... yup!

Anonymous wrote:Americans not knowing much about what happens (or has happened) outside the US has been a fairly well known phenomena for decades, so I don't think we can blame millennials for that.

America focuses on the most recent global uprisings. For Millennials, all they learned was 9/11 and the War on Terror. Lenin and early 20th century Russian history are irrelevant comparatively.

Americans not knowing much about what happens (or has happened) outside the US has been a fairly well known phenomena for decades, so I don't think we can blame millennials for that.

Anonymous wrote:I bet that's a higher percentage than conservative voters. Just saying.

Let me explain this to you slowly: conservative voters can be millennials who do or do not know who Vladimir Lenin is.