Lenin’s Lessons

Few Marxists left behind the kind of legacy associated with Lenin. Not only did Lenin build a vital theoretical arsenal, but he led his party through the revolutions of 1917 and towards the building of the Soviet Union. His landmark elaborations of Marxism include the development of the concept of the worker-peasant alliance, the sharp understanding of inter-imperialist conflict and militarism, the particularly important advancement of the idea of the right of nations to self-determination, and the important characterisation of the simultaneous need to fight for national sovereignty and for a socialist project. At the centre of these important theoretical breakthroughs is Lenin’s formidable assessment of socialist consciousness and the importance of a vanguard party. The ideas of praxis are to be found most centrally in Lenin’s Where to Begin (1901), What Is to Be Done? (1902) and Twelve Years (1907). This article introduces Lenin’s work, with a special focus on Lenin’s idea of the party and his advice to those who want to build a socialist society.