Lenin's Contribution to Marxism up to 1905 and the Consequences

German Philosopher Karl Marx created the ideology of Marxism in his novel called Communist Manifesto published in1848. In this novel, he expressed the importance of the proletariat, or the working class and how they will take the power out of the capitalist hands. However, Vladimir Lenin and the Bolshevik Party took over power in Russia and made what Marx envisioned as communism into

Likewise, “many of the old workers had been thrown out of employment,”3 and these numbers only grew into the year of 1848. In a way Marx talks about this problem in the Communist Manifesto. In this document, Marx introduced his idea to incorporate socialism into the government before communism. This is mainly because socialism “would prepare the way by nationalizing the ‘means of production’ and putting them under the control of those he viewed as the sole producers of wealth: the workers.”4 This would take the control out of the hands of the wealthy and it would be given to those people that had been the poorest in the previous years. His goal was to get the common people to have a changed view of work once they started to be in charge of the producing of goods. This way, there would be no rich and no poor, only economic equality would result.

The German political philosopher and revolutionary, Karl Marx is best known for his radical concepts of society. His socialist views are best seen in his work Communist Manifesto. As one of the most influential thinkers of all times, he was able to convey revolutionary ideas in a manner that all could understand. Due to its comprehendible nature and usefulness to the people of his time this document was widely popular among commoners of the Nineteenth Century. In fact some historians refer to the Manifesto as the first systematic statement about modern socialism the world has ever seen. Powerful language and fueled by desires for better standards of

The main aspects of Lenin's ideology were outlined in a number of written works, the most important of these were: "What Is To Be Done" (1902) and The State and Revolution (1917). In "What Is To Be Done?" Lenin presented the idea that although the Russian peasantry was a potential revolutionary force, it was not capable of developing a revolutionary consciousness of its own. Marx had regarded revolutionary class consciousness to be the natural and spontaneous product of the life experience of the working class . Lenin, by contrast, concluded that "class political consciousness can be brought only from the outside". Without the assistance of the revolutionary intelligentsia, he argued, the working class could only develop a "trade-union consciousness" .

The Communist Manifesto, written by Karl Marx and assisted by Friedrich Engels was published in London in 1848. Marx and Engels were both German philosophers that founded the Marxist theory, which are the political, economic, and social principles and policies advocated by Marx. Marx’s book criticizes capitalism and the economic conditions that were taking place in Britain from 1837 to 1838. Marx creates a clear distinction between the “two great classes”, the bourgeoisie and the proletariat in his book the Communist Manifesto.

After being expelled from France for exhibiting communist traits, Marx was drafted in 1847 by the newly founded Communist League in London, England, alongside Engels to write “The Communist Manifesto,” published the following year (History.com Staff 2009). In the manifesto, all of history was seen as a series of struggles between classes. They predicted that the upcoming proletarian revolution would sweep aside the capitalist system for good, making the workingmen the new ruling class of the world (History.com Staff 2009)..

As Lenin was forced to live in Switzerland, He had time on his hands to think about and grow his belief on the communist theory. After reading the Marx, Lenin’s mind was all over the place thinking about the Communist ideology, Lenin’s thoughts about the ideology was that the workers and peasants of Russia would never be ready to start a revolution. In one of Lenin’s writtens he described the Russian workers as “reactionary” (which means the opposite of revolutionary).

    Karl Marx felt that his government’s capitalistic rule was unfair to the working class. When a group of communist supporters that called themselves “The Communist League,” asked him to write a guide to improve life, Marx looked back on history and created “The Communist Manifesto.” This writing is a piece of literature which heavily influenced Russian history. The article suggested workers revolt and later the

In this section, Marx presents three subsets of Socialist and Communist literature. The first subset is Reactionary Socialism. Reactionary

Russian Revolutionary movement not only tested Marx’s ideas but also led to important advancements of Marxism. Orthodox Marxism saw history as governed by economic laws, excluding factors such as human conciseness and activity that shape society. Lenin and his co-thinkers laid the basis for the alternative that placed worker’s self-activity at the centre of politics. Lenin perceived Marxism not as a dogma, but as a guide to action. While Marx believed in inevitability of socialism on international scale, Lenin came to the idea that socialism can succeed in a single country and can co-exist with other social systems until working masses in other states are ready for their own revolutions. Marxism that was further developed by Lenin and his co-thinkers,

One of these things is that people were influenced by revolutionaries such as Vladimir Lenin. In his writing he states “ The concentration of the workers in the colossal enterprises, the intense character of government persecution, and finally the impulsiveness of a young and fresh proletariat, brought it about that the political strike, so rare in western Europe, became in Russia the fundamental method of struggle. ”(Lenin). The first part of this quote describes some of the things that the proletariat is suffering. Things like these may have enraged the reader more in order them to accept and sway them towards what ever Lenin was talking about as a solution.

The socialist ideology was adopted by a whole country in the 20th century, by Russia that shortly after would unify with other countries to form USSR.

Karl Marx wrote the Communist Manifesto in order to give a voice to the struggling classes in Europe. In the document he expressed the frustrations of the lower class. As Marx began his document with "the history of all hitherto societies has been the history of class struggles" he gave power to the lower classes and sparked a destruction of their opressors.1 He argued that during the nineteenth century Europe was divided into two main classes: the wealthy upper class, the bourgeoisie, and the lower working class, the proletariat. After years of suffering oppression the proletariats decided to use their autonomy and make a choice to gain power. During the

Marx advocated for the views of the proletariat to be heard. New ideas from the Proletariat began to surface as a result of their new class consciousness and their increased understanding of their present social conditions. (Korsch, 1923) Karl Marx did not create the proletariat movement or revolution as many may accused him of. (Korsch, 1923) However, he did provide the Proletariat with a new theoretical scientific expression sufficient enough to allow them to generate their own class consciousness bringing them to a higher level of understanding. (Korsch, 1923)

The Communist Manifesto covers a variety of topics, the first and most prominent is likely class struggles. Marx explains in immense detail the unfair relationships between the bourgeoisie and the proletarians and communists. He talks about how these class separations and struggles should be abolished. Equality of opportunity is another big thing that is discussed throughout the book, as well as dealing majorly with class struggle. Marx brings point after point, argument after argument about the necessary equality among people, with a view stating that everybody should work among other things leading to equality among all groups. As the former two reasons may provide reasoning for this, Marx was strong about a revolution. Marx was not okay with the way that society was, and wanted a change he felt was necessary. Going even further than simple equality, Marx also touched on a proletarian dictatorship. More than just bringing the bourgeoisie