`  You ignore this:  :Otherwise, however, Mr. Pipes's editorial views are fully justified by the evidence. As one would expect, most of the newly released documents from the Soviet archives uncover Lenin's darker side. Three aspects of this in particular stand out.   :One is Lenin's cruelty, his callous attitude to the helpless victims of his revolution and his calls for terror against its enemies. In one shocking letter of 1922, Lenin urged the Politburo to put down an uprising by the clergy in the textile town of Shuia: The greater the number of representatives of the reactionary clergy and reactionary bourgeoisie we succeed in executing . . . the better. One Russian historian has recently estimated that 8,000 priests and laymen were executed as a result of this letter.   :Another aspect is Lenin's contempt for his closest comrades (although not for Stalin, according to Mr. Pipes). Lev Kamenev was a poor fellow, weak, frightened, intimidated. As for Trotsky, he was in love with the organization, but as for politics, he hasn't got a clue.``  `