What are the lessons for today from Lenin's revolutionary life?

22 April 2020 was the 150th anniversary of the birth of Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanvov, better known as Lenin, the revolutionary workers’ leader and Marxist political theorist. In 1917, Lenin’s Bolshevik Party led the working class of Russia to overthrow the landlords and capitalists and establish the world’s first democratic workers’ state.

Lenin was rooted firmly in Marxism. He understood that only the working class could lead a successful revolution. He fought for a well-organised party and a workers’ press as the essential tools for achieving that. And, in contrast to the butcher Stalin, he stood for international revolution, and maintained that “democracy is indispensable to socialism.”

No wonder his name is feared and slandered by capitalist politicians and their official histories. In particular, they have much to fear at a time when their entire rotten system is wracked by pandemic, economic crisis and social turmoil. To quote Lenin again: “Sometimes history needs a push.”

So what were Lenin’s real ideas? What were his main contributions to the struggle for socialism? And what can workers and young people fighting capitalist misery learn from them today?

This episode of Socialism looks at Lenin at 150: his revolutionary life and legacy.

Further reading

Lenin at 150 - A revolutionary life, and the relevance of his ideas to today's working-class struggles: https://www.socialistparty.org.uk/articles/30677/22-04-2020/lenin-at-150-a-revolutionary-life-and-the-relevance-of-his-ideas-for-today

Lenin's revolutionary legacy: https://www.socialistparty.org.uk/articles/18007/21-01-2014/lenins-revolutionary-legacy

Lenin's April Theses, 1917: https://www.socialistparty.org.uk/articles/14702/14-06-2012/lenins-april-theses-1917

The State and Revolution (Lenin): https://www.socialistparty.org.uk/books_pamphlets/The_State_and_Revolution

“Left-Wing” Communism - An Infantile Disorder (Lenin): https://www.marxists.org/archive/lenin/works/1920/lwc/

History of the Russian Revolution (Trotsky): http://leftbooks.co.uk/epages/950002679.sf/en_GB/?ObjectID=6511119

Lessons of October (Trotsky): http://www.socialistbooks.co.uk/product/lessons-of-october/

From Lenin to Stalin (Serge): http://leftbooks.co.uk/epages/950002679.sf/en_GB/?ObjectID=2017050

Lenin and the Revolutionary Party (Le Blanc): http://leftbooks.co.uk/epages/950002679.sf/en_GB/?ObjectID=32008259

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