V. I. Lenin 
Revolution, Democracy, Socialism 
Selected Writings of V.I. Lenin

Part of Pluto’s 21st birthday series Get Political, which brings essential political writing in a range of fields to a new audience.



This is an entirely new collection of Lenin’s writing. For the first time it brings together crucial shorter works, to show that Lenin held a life-long commitment to freedom and democracy. Le Blanc has written a comprehensive introduction, which gives an accessible overview of Lenin’s life and work, and explains his relevance to political thought today.



Lenin has been much maligned in the mainstream, accused of viewing ‘man as modeling clay’ and of ‘social engineering of the most radical kind.’ However, in contrast to today’s world leaders, who happily turn to violence to achieve their objectives, Lenin believed it impossible to reach his goals ‘by any other path than that of political democracy.’



This collection will be of immense value to students encountering Lenin for the first time, and those looking for a new interpretation of one of the 20th century’s most inspiring figures.

Table of Content

TEN REASONS FOR NOT READING LENIN

by Paul Le Blanc

1. Lenin

2. Lenin’s Critics

3. His Time and Ours

4. Further Reading

LENIN’S SELECTED WRITINGS, 1895-1923

I. Marxist Program and Revolutionary Organization

1. 1895-6: Draft and Explanation of a Program of the Social Democratic Party

2. 1897-9: The Development of Capitalism in Russia

3. 1899: Our Program

4. 1899: Our Immediate Task

5. 1899: Fuse Socialism with the Workers’ Movement

II. Birth of Bolshevism

6. 1900: The Urgent Tasks of Our Movement

7. 1902: What Is To Be Done?

8. 1903: To the Rural Poor

9. 1904: One Step Forward, Two Steps Back: Reply to Rosa Luxemburg

10. 1904: Against Subordination to Liberals

III. 1905: Challenges of the Revolutionary Upsurge

11. 1905: The Beginning of the Revolution in Russia

12. 1905: A Militant Agreement for the Uprising

13. 1905: Two Tactics of Social Democracy in the Democratic Revolution

14. 1905: Our Tasks and the Soviet of Workers Deputies

15. 1905: Socialism and Religion

IV. Creation of the Bolshevik Party

16. 1906: Freedom to Criticise and Unity of Action

17. 1909: Break with Ultra-Left Bolsheviks

18. 1912: Final Break with the Mensheviks

19. 1914: Report to Brussels

V. Imperialist War, National Liberation, Revolutionary Democracy

20. 1913: The Historical Destiny of the Doctrine of Karl Marx

21. 1915: Socialism and War

22. 1915: The Revolutionary Proletariat and the Right of Nations to Self-Determination

23. 1916: Imperialism, The Highest Stage of Capitalism

24. 1917: Statistics and Sociology

VI. 1917 Revolution

25. 1917: Letters on Tactics

26. 1917: The State and Revolution

27. 1917: To the Population: Take Power in Your Own Hands

28. 1918: Dissolution of the Constituent Assembly

VII. World Revolution

29. 1918: Letter to American Workers

30. 1919: The Third International and Its Place in History

31. 1920: Left-Wing Communism, An Infantile Disorder

32. 1921: Speech on Tactics of the Communist International

VIII. Reaching for Socialism, Resisting Bureaucracy

33. 1919: Tasks of the Working Women’s Movement

34. 1919: Comments to Congress on Adult Education

35. 1920: On the Trade Unions

36. 1921: The Party Crisis

37. 1923: Better Fewer, But Better

Index

About the author

Paul Le Blanc is a long-time activist and Professor of History at La Roche College, Pennsylvania. He is the author of many books, including Lenin and the Revolutionary Party, From Marx to Gramsci and The Living Flame: The Revolutionary Passion of Rosa Luxemburg.