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Essential Works of Lenin: "What Is to Be Done?" and Other Writings

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This is a great intro to Lenin, in his own words, so you don't have to care about anyone else's bias and you see for yourself what the man is all about. Further reading that would complement this would be 'Lenin's Struggle For A Revolutionary International'.

This is the book to start with if you with to understand the great man who was Vladimir Ilych Lenin. This book contains 3 of Lenin's greatest works, those being What Is To Be Done?, Imperialism : The Highest Stage of Capitalism, and The State and Revolution. It also includes The Development of Capitalism in Russia, which explains what the title states. My only dissappointment with this book is that it did not contain Left-wing Communism : An Infantile Disorder. Read this book and get to know the real Vladimir Ilych Lenin.

I made an earlier jokingly one-liner that does not justice to the book- or to Lenin. What I think should looked for in this book is exactly the following: that Lenin was the first marxist ever not to consider the development of class consciousness a kind of spontaneous outgrowth of the concrete existence of a working class. Therefore the necessity for politics - specially party politics - to take precedence in marxist analysis over pure economic analysis. This jump in esentials was made by Lenin very early in life, as his _Development of Capitalism in Russia_, written in his late twenties, is still a prime piece of economicistic marxism; _What is to be done?_ is already a prime owrk of a new, politics-first, approach. One may think whatever one wants of the solutions found by Lenin - abaove all the party of professional revolutionists, disciplined and centralized, but one may not deny him the fact that it was him who first made a new kind of marxist approach to issues that is still very much with us.

This is a fine introduction to the thinking of one of the few people in the world who really influenced the tide of history. Along with Leon Trotsky and the Bolshevik Party, Lenin helped establish the first state that was ruled by and for the working class. What went wrong with the revolution is best dealt with by reading Trotsky.

The Essential Works of Lenin does provide a remarkably concise introduction to Lenin's thought. It will not be easy for the novice reader, so a perusal of The Communist Manifesto, or other introductory writings will be important to get a firm grasp on Lenin's Marxist views. The final 90 page chapter "The State and Revolution" may be the most accessible and intelligible of Lenin's views; much of the earlier portions of this 364 page book deal with Lenin's critique of other socialists who have deviated from true Marxism (this is the most difficult part to read, because it assumes a knowledge of his historical context). The book then, is a good one, but introductory exposure to Marxist thought will help. It does provide a valuable, concise biography of Lenin in the introduction.
That aside, let us turn to a critique of Lenin's thought. Lenin was a very intelligent critic of capitalism, with many penetrating insights into the function and abuses of a capitalist economy. It is not that Marxism was based on a complete illusion, but that it was based on a partially-true, compelling illusion that perhaps makes it so seductive, and so dangerous. I dissent, for example, in thinking that only the "dictatorship of the proletariat" can supplant the dictatorship of the bourgeoisie, and that somehow a freer, fuller democracy will result from a worker-managed society in which the state will subsequently "wither away." History demonstrated that instead of withering away, the Communists party only solidified its tyranny over the masses, and substituted one dictatorship for another. That Lenin or Marx possessed a real historical "science" of political-economy I think has been disproved. While claiming not to be a utopian, it is difficult to see how some of Lenin's claims are anything but - in terms of the transformation of human beings by the abolition of class antagonisms. People remain people, inherently biased, often selfish, not concurring, and striving to realize two very difficult things: a society with the greatest possible freedom and equality for all.
Do not be mistaken, however. Just because Lenin (as Marx) made serious errors in their theory, does not excuse the student of ethics, politics, or religion from treating these writings of Lenin with the serious academic study they deserve. Lenin may have been wrong about much, but right about a great deal too. Understanding his thought will be important for any student of history and politics.
That said, this book does very little to comment on religion. Famous for their antipathy towards religion, choose another book if you are interested in their ideas about religion. This book does do very well on Lenin's political-economic theory. Lenin also draws quite considerably on Engels, considering him and Marx to be the only true interpreters (beside himself) of the doctrine.
A final note - the book also does not mention Adam Smith - it is just assumed that capitalist theory is wrong, and Lenin spends much of its time battling the "false" or "opportunist" Marxists (Bernstein, Kautsky, the anarchists). See Marx or perhaps another volume on Lenin for a more direct confrontation of Smith and classical economists.

This book really captures the essence of Lenin's thoughts and philosophy. His most famous piece : "What Is To Be Done?" captures the turmoil that was swirling around socialism during that time and esp in Russia. His theory on the development of the class conscious and importance of professional revolutionaries were amazing and showed the vision that this genius held. It's really sad that someone such as Stalin had to destroy something as pure and just as the work of Lenin, Marx, and true socialism!!

Lenin was a dedicated revolutionary, the leader of the Bolshevik Party and a Marxist, who gained power and influence by sieging the control of Russia from the Provisional Government of Kerensky in 1917, thus creating the Soviet Union, the first so called communist state.

Lenin was not a mainstream Marxist, and thus his political ideas and contributions have formed a sub-branch ideology, called Leninism (or Marxism-Leninism). The works contained in this book express the main ideas that differentiate Lenin from the mainstream Marxism of his time, mainly, that a revolution can be achieved by a small group of "professional revolutionaries" instead of the proletariat class, and that the capitalist phase of human society theorized as necessary by Karl Marx to reach Communism, can be surpassed. The book also contains Lenin's criticism on the Socialist political parties of the time.
Every communist state that has emerged in the 20th century draws some significant influence from Lenin (rather that Marx), and subsequently, ideologies such as Trotskyism, Stalinism and Maoism, were heavenly influenced by Leninism (often claiming to be its continuation). One therefore can see that Lenin's influence to the modern world has been enormous, as Lenin's ideas have become the basis of modern communism. No matter where you stand on Lenin and Communism, read this book, and have a better understanding of an idea that has affected modern history, possibly more than any other in the last century.

If there is a single book to read by Lenin, read this one. His greatest works are included, giving a clear understanding of Leninism to the reader, and although the book can be dense, hard, and even boring at times, it is in my opinion, best to read these ideas from Lenin himself rather than from an author that may misrepresent him.
The Dover Edition, is again, simply excellent.

This is probably the best book on the personal writings and political blueprints of Vladimir Ilyich Lenin.The main problem that Leninism ran into, was that an oligarchy of the communists can became as insenitive and remote from the laboring masses, as a czarist monarchy had been before. Lenin felt the peasants did not have the savvy intellectual prowess to keep the socialist-labour movement going forward.And also that the peasants would be prone towards nostalgia for the czar and his church beliefs.Regicide did little to stop the peasants human need for a spiritual superman figure and Joesf Stalin fit the bill.Many remaining WW2 Soviet veterans carry a picture of 'Uncle Joe' with them.The world war and later the cold war,gave stalwart leaders a reason to justify a 'closed-market system'. Yet this lead to another problem with Leninism.The idea of laboring for the sake of labor,regardless of real economic-market/social value.In America,Richard Nixon tried 'fixed-prices and price-caps' on some large domestic products,which only lead to a worsening of the economy with even higher inflation rates. Ronald Reagan also had the strange idea of 'Supply-side economics',which was correctly lampooned by George Bush Sr. as 'VooDoo Economics'.The faulty idea that a large supply produced would induce a large demand for the product.For example, if the government produced a hefty supply of 'reusable solar-powered flashlights(with modest capacitance)',would there then be a hefty demand for them in the dark fall-winter months and also in the light spring-summer months?If disposable batteries became scarce,because of strict local/state/federal environmental laws imposed,then demand for 'solar-powered flashlights'would increase to meet market-demand. The need and value of the product is driven by market-demand.-Lenin ,who was an admirer and distorter of the scientific ideas of Charles Darwin,did not understand that people are fickle humans .Whose tastes and values are subject to ready change.Regardless,of what laws and penalities the bureaucrats impose upon them.-Interesting book concerning socialist economic theory.

The Essential Works of Lenin published by Dover Publications is an excellent book. To begin, the book begins within an introduction and does explain that Lenin's "The Development of Capitalism in Russia" is abridged, but Lenin's "The Development of Capitalism in Russia" does contain the key texts of Lenin's philosophy. Lenin's "What is to be done" omits Chapter 5, which Chapter 5 is dealing with the planning of an all-Russian newspaper, but the editor omitted the chapter because it wasn't important. Lenin's "State and Revolution" and "Imperialism, the Highest Stage of Capitalism" are unabridged, which the "State and Revolution" and "Imperialism, the Highest Stage of Capitalism" are the two major writings of Lenin found in the book. Overall, this book gives a good introduction to Vladimir Lenin's philosophy and the book is an excellent starting point for those not familiar with Vladimir Lenin.

I would like to refer readers of this estimable essay to the platforms of Arlette Laguiller in 1997 and 2005 as she ran for the Presidency in France on the Workers Struggle ticket-
Workers Struggle or "Lutte Ouvriere" in France, continues the ideas of Trotsky into the present and presents admirable solutions to today's problems.
We do not need counter revolutionaries like the Norway nut or tea partiers here in the States- e g right wingers.
The way forward is clear as day- it is up to us to educate.