Question by C’est La Vie: What did Vladimir Lenin do that was of Marxist beliefs?
I know all about Marxism, but i am trying to find a connection between Lennin and the Marxism ideals.
Answers and Views:
Answer by Comicbook Reader
Lenin was a Marxist. He took Marxism and adapted it to the Russian situation, that is why there is an area of study called Marxist-Leninism. Look at his role in leading the Revolution and you have your connection.
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Spellbound says
Lenin made two important revisions of Marxist doctrine: Marx claimed that history was marked by changed in the economic relationships of the classes, i.e. history marched on an "inevitable" path from hunter-gatherer to slavery, to feudalism to capitalism to imperialism to socialism and finally to communism. He stated that each of these stages morphed into the next stage when they were fully mature and through a process he called class struggle. Lenin believed that, although Russia had only just shaken off feudalism, and was barely capitalist (although it was imperialist) this stage could be "telescoped" – shortened – allowing for a socialist revolution.
His other major revision was that Marx claimed that the peasantry was always conservative and would support the existing regime; the workers would be the motor of the socialist revolution. Lenin realised that because in Russia the working class was so small then the peasants also had to be part of the socialist revolution.
Most of the rest of Lenin's thought was orthodox Marxism – the proletariat owning the means of production, Internationalism etc.
See:
Lenin, A Biography – Robert Service
Karl Marx – Francis Wheen
The Communist Party of the Soviet Union – Leonard Shapiro