Leninism

Leninism is a revolutionary socialist theory developed by Vladimir Lenin that calls for a disciplined vanguard party to lead working-class revolution and establish proletarian political power.

Marxism: A socialist theory of history and society centered on class struggle and the critique of capitalism. Leninism adapts Marxist analysis to conditions of revolution and political organization.
What Is to Be Done?: Lenin’s 1902 pamphlet arguing for a centralized revolutionary organization of professional revolutionaries. It presents his early case for a vanguard party.
Russian Social Democratic Labour Party: A Marxist political party founded in 1898 to organize socialist activity in the Russian Empire. Lenin’s political work and party theories developed within this movement.
Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic: The Soviet republic established in 1918 that became the largest constituent republic of the Soviet Union. It was the first state governed by Lenin’s Bolshevik party.
Vanguard party: A tightly organized political party that claims to lead workers toward revolutionary consciousness and action. Lenin assigns this party the task of organizing revolution and directing political power.
Imperialism, the Highest Stage of Capitalism: Lenin’s 1916 analysis of monopoly capitalism, finance capital, and imperialist rivalry. It explains how Lenin connects global capitalism to revolutionary possibilities.
Bolsheviks: The faction of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party led by Lenin that became a distinct party in 1912. They formed the political organization most closely associated with Leninism.
Communist International: An international organization founded in 1919 to promote communist revolution and coordinate affiliated parties. It helped spread Leninist party organization beyond Russia.
Democratic centralism: A party principle combining internal discussion with binding decisions and unified action. It became a central organizational principle for Leninist parties.
Revolutionary situation: A political crisis in which governing authority weakens and mass opposition becomes capable of challenging it. Leninist strategy seeks to turn such crises into a transfer of power.

Linked from 26 pages