Lenin V.I.
Lenin V.I.
(1870-1924) (pseudonym of Vladimir Ilich Ulyanov) Russian statesman and Marxist theoretician. He is best known as the leader of the Bolshevik Party during the Russian Revolution of 1917 and, subsequently, until his death, the leading politician in the USSR and the Communist Party of the USSR. Lenin also contributed a large body of work to the theory and practice of MARXISM. A number of these works have had a significant impact within the social sciences, most notably: The Development of Capitalism in Russia (1899), which contributed to the analysis of changes and divisions amongst the peasantry (see PEASANTS) and to 20th-century theories of economic and political change; Imperialism: the Highest Stage of Capitalism (1916), which argued that the emergence of MONOPOLY CAPITAL was associated with the export of capital from the advanced capitalist world to the colonies and marked a new stage of capitalism from that analysed by MARX, and set in motion a debate in the social sciences which continues today (see IMPERIALISM); and State and Revolution (1917) which attempted to develop Marx's theory of the role of the state within capitalism and its role in future socialist and communist societies. Within Marxist political thought, Lenin's greatest influences have been, first, his theory of the revolutionary party, which he argued should comprise a ‘vanguard leadership’ based on ‘democratic centralism’ (see VANGUARD PARTY,. COMMUNISM), and vested with the task of leading the working class to revolutionary socialist ideas, and, secondly, his polemic against reformist, evolutionary paths to SOCIALISM and his argument that spontaneous action by the working class against the BOURGEOISIE will only raise economic demands and not lead to the revolutionary overthrow of the RULING CLASS. These ideas are contained in What is to be Done? (1902), ideas modified somewhat by Lenin's later political writings and political practice. There has been intense debate as to whether STALINISM resulted from, or was in complete contradiction to Lenin's thought and practice. See also REVOLUTION, STALIN.Collins Dictionary of Sociology, 3rd ed. © HarperCollins Publishers 2000