Political Thought

The Temper of Communism. While Mao without doubt has written a new chapter in the development of communism, it is Lenin who remains its characteristic exponent. In spite of the semi-scholastic quality of Lenin’s though this constant practice of seeming to spin concrete answers out of a dialectical manipulation of abstractions its effective characteristic was … Read more

Communism in China. In Lenin’s eyes the Bolshevik Revolution of 1917 in Russia was only the first stage of the world revolution that was to overthrow Capitalism everywhere. In 1920 a Comintern representative was dispatched to China to instigate and promote Communist activity there. But while in some measure stimulated from the outside, Chinese communism … Read more

Socialism in One Country. With the concepts of the party and of imperialist capitalism the theory of communism as a logical structure was complete, yet it lacked what proved to be its main driving force as a political system. This was the concept of socialism in one country added by Stalin and his sole venture … Read more

Democratic Centralism. No quality of Lenin’s political thought was more constant than his preference for centralized organization, or, put negatively, his distrust of any kind of federalism, coalition, or even alliance, if the last threatened his freedom of action. This was the outstanding characteristic of his party as he planned it in 1902, and though … Read more

The Vanguard of the Proletariat. The party may have hoped that its easy success on November 7 would gain the overwhelming support of the masses, but if so that hope was soon dispelled by its poor showing in the elections for the Constituent Assembly. Accordingly, though the party had supported the calling of that body, … Read more

The Problem of Success in Bolshevik Revolution. The surprisingly easy success of the Bolshevik revolution on November 7, 1917, confronted Lenin and the party with a wholly new problem a group of revolutionists, often an illegal and conspiratorial group, had to be turned into a government of positive or constructive ideas for this change it … Read more

Revolution in Prospect. With his approach to the revolution completed, Lenin wrote a pamphlet which reveals his expectations when he took the final step. His State and Revolution was left unfinished because the revolution interrupted it. Even the subject suggested the changed direction of his thought, for Lenin had not given much attention to forms … Read more

Approach to March Revolution. The March Revolution in Russia found Lenin prepared to take the steps which he could rationalize either as completing the middle-class revolution or beginning a socialist revolution. It was no longer important to draw a sharp line, for revolutionary democratic dictatorship of the proletariat and the peasantry had brought him by … Read more

Imperialist Capitalism. The outbreak of World War I in 1914, and more especially the support of the war by the socialist parties of Western Europe, turned Lenin’s thought in a new direction. Up to 1914, though he had been a close student of all Marxian literature, his thought had centered on the problems of a … Read more

The Bourgeois and the Proletarian Revolutions. No principle of Marxian strategy was better settled than the rule that it is impossible to make a revolution by force or conspiracy before the time is ripe, that is, before the contradictions in a society have produced a revolutionary situation. It was this which was thought to distinguish … Read more