The Foundations of Leninism

''Foundations of Leninism'' is a 1924 collection by Joseph Stalin of nine lectures he delivered at Sverdlov University that year. It was published by the Soviet newspaper, ''Pravda''.

Background

After the January 1924 death of Vladimir Lenin, a power struggle began among factions of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. Stalin was quick to ally himself with fellow Soviet politicians Grigory Zinoviev and Lev Kamenev.

The book contains the written text of nine lectures Stalin delivered to trainee party activists at Sverdlov Communist University, and was the first work produced by Stalin since the 1917 October Revolution.

Synopsis

Stalin's nine lectures covered the historical roots of Leninism, methods, theory, the dictatorship of the proletariat, the peasant question, the national question, strategy and tactics (two lectures), and style of work. He focused his first lecture on the issue of the historical roots of Leninism as a form of Marxism. According to Stalin, Leninism is a product of imperialism and a guiding ideology of the Bolsheviks. He lists three contradictions which imperialism brings to capitalism:
*The contradiction between labor and capital
*The contradiction between financial groups and imperialist nations
*The contradiction between ruling nations and colonial (dependent) nations and peoples

These factors, associated with imperialism, increase the contradictions already present in capitalist countries. The lecture builds on Lenin's writings about the nature of imperialism, particularly 1917's ''Imperialism, the Highest Stage of Capitalism''.

Stalin opens his second lecture, on methods, with a reference to the period of the Second International in which Karl Kautsky and other orthodox Marxists adopted "opportunistic" ( revisionist) principles to preserve unity in the social-democratic parties. It was due to this opportunism that Kautsky and the parties did not endorse revolutionary socialist tactics and programs, instead favoring Eduard Bernstein's reformism. According to Stalin, the Second International became "antiquated", "chauvinistic", and "narrow-minded" at the onset of World War I by supporting the war and opposing violent proletarian revolution; Leninism, with its success in the October Revolution and the Russian Civil War, became Marxism's main legitimate tendency. He defines the methods of Leninism as:
*Testing the theoretical dogmas of the Second International and the restoration of theory and practice
*Testing the policy of the parties of the Second International
*Reorganization of all party work along new, revolutionary lines, preparing the masses for revolutionary struggle
*Self-criticism, with the party a means of regulating opinion and assessing strategy

The concept of self-criticism was developed and expanded as an essential component of party politics, with Stalin justifying the doctrine by citing Lenin's '' "Left-Wing" Communism: An Infantile Disorder''. Self-criticism, according to Stalin, should be considered an essential component of Leninist (Marxist–Leninist) political ideology.

Reception

Bolshevik Leon Trotsky (who led the leftist opposition to Stalin) referred to the lectures in '' The Permanent Revolution'' as "ideological garbage", "an official manual of narrow-mindedness" and "an anthology of enumerated banalities", characterizing them as part of a propaganda campaign by Zinoviev, Bukharin, and Kamenev. Zinoviev replied to such criticism in '' Leninism: Introduction to the Study of Leninism''.

According to Trotskyist historian Isaac Deutscher, ''The Foundations of Leninism'' was withdrawn from circulation due to conflicts between the text and Stalin's recently-developed concept of socialism in one country. Stalin produced a follow-up text, '' The Problems of Leninism'', which presents a corrected conception of Marxism-Leninism in which socialism can be produced by focusing on the industrial economy of a single state. Erik van Ree, a lecturer at the University of Amsterdam's Institute of Eastern European Studies, notes that ''The Foundations of Leninism'' contributed to Stalin's developing synthesis of Marxism with Russian nationalism in the form of social patriotism.

In contrast to the Trotskyist movement, African American civil rights activist and Soviet politburo member Harry Haywood received the text extremely positively, particularly praising Stalin's theories on the nature of imperialism in relation to Jim Crow and slavery.

Plagiarism allegation

Historian Stephen Kotkin accuses Stalin of plagiarizing ''Foundations of Leninism'' from Soviet journalist Filipp Ksenofontov.

See also

* Stalinism
*Marxism–Leninism
*History of the Soviet Union

References

Further reading

* Deutscher, Isaac. ''Stalin: A political biography''. Oxford University Press. (1949)
*Service, Robert. ''Stalin: A Biography'' (2004)
* Trotsky, Leon. ''Stalin: An Appraisal of the Man and his Influence.'' The Universal Library. (1941)

{{DEFAULTSORT:Foundations Of Leninism
1924 non-fiction books
Books of lectures
Russian books
Books critical of capitalism
Marxist theory
Books about Marxism
Communist books
Books involved in plagiarism controversies
Books about the Soviet Union
Books about Stalinism
Works by Joseph Stalin