Marxism Alive – Lenin

The topic of construction of a revolutionary party and the discussion hinging round this pivot abound among socialists. The character of a Leninist party has been attacked from all kinds of angles.

Class struggle involves periods of calm and periods of turbulence, periods of relative peace and periods of insurrection. Those who admit the principle of a division of society by social class and the struggle between them must admit that a civil war is something natural. With this understanding Lenin declared: “The dictatorship of proletariat is […]

During World War 1, while the parties of the Second International were all busy “defending their fatherland”, Lenin and the Bolsheviks were trying to transform the imperialist war into a civil war. This was the position of the Second International but it was there on paper only. But the Bolsheviks took advantage of war and […]

The power of the state is a fundamental issue in every revolution. The fundamental discussion hinging round this issue in the early XX century was between Lenin and Kautsky and reflected two contrary concepts.

Marx studied capitalism thoroughly but he did not live to see its transformation into imperialism. Lenin’s greatest contribution to Marxist theory is the research into and characterization of this particular, higher stage of capitalism. Practically all the great strategies of Leninism derive from this analysis of reality.

Beginning with the introduction below, we will be presenting in the next few weeks a dossier on Lenin’s work, published in the ninth issue of the theoretical magazine of IWL-FI, Marxism Alive, in 2004, when it was completed 80 years of Lenin’s death. The original title of this article was: “80 years after Lenin’s death, […]