Party & Programme > Bolshevism
Fur flies over Lenin
22 Mar 2012
What has the debate over 1912 got to do with current communist practice? James Turley answers the philistines
SUPPLEMENT: Kautsky, Lenin and the 'April theses'
14 Jan 2010
Could Karl Kautsky - the 'pope' turned 'renegade' of orthodox Marxism - have influenced Vladimir Ilych's 'April theses'? Here we print a Karl Kautsky article from April 1917, translated into English for the first time by Ben Lewis. It is introduced by Lars T Lih, a historian based in Canada, who has been at the forefront of re-examining the complex relationship between these two widely misunderstood figures of the 20th century workers' movement
The four wagers of Lenin in 1917
17 Sep 2009
The Bolshevik decision to make revolution was based on four key predictions, or wagers, says Lars T Lih: international revolution, soviet democracy, peasant followership and progress towards socialism. This is an edited version of the third speech he gave to the CPGBs Communist University
Lenin, Kautsky, and 1914
10 Sep 2009
In the second of his talks to the CPGBs Communist University, Lars T Lih takes a closer look at Lenins reaction to the betrayal of German social democracy at the outbreak of World War I
VI Lenin and the influence of Kautsky
03 Sep 2009
In the first of three talks given at the CPGBs Communist University, historian Lars T Lih discussed the relationship between two great Marxists. This is an edited version of his speech dealing with the period 1894-1914
Rediscovering Lenin
18 Dec 2008
Lars T Lih is an acclaimed scholar living in Canada. Ben Lewis spoke to him about his book, Lenin rediscovered: 'What is to be done?' in context (2006) and some of the questions it raises for the left in understanding its own history and tradition
Hegel reloaded?
13 Dec 2007
James Turley reviews: Sebastian Budgen Stathis Kouvelakis, Slavoj Zizek (eds) Lenin reloaded: toward a politics of truth Durham, 2007, pp334, £12.99
Kautsky, Lenin and Trotsky
14 Dec 2006
What were the differences, strengths and similarities? Jack Conrad investigates
Lessons of October
26 Oct 2006
Chris Knight of the Radical Anthropology Group looks at how the Bolsheviks combined illegality and legality
Russia 1917 and the global revolution
26 Oct 2006
What were the conditions that made Russia ripe for revolution? What were the factors that led to its failure? Boris Kagarlitsky , one of Russia's leading Marxists, argues for a dialectical approach in analysing the Soviet Union and resuming the tasks of October
Popular nails in the 'official' coffin
31 Aug 2006
Lawrence Parker reviews Kevin Morgan's Bolshevism and the British left part 1: 'Labour legends and Russian gold', Lawrence and Wishart, 2006, pp320, £18.99
Origins of 'Leninism'
31 Aug 2006
Mike Macnair reviews Lars T Lih's Lenin rediscovered: What is to be done? in context Brill, 2006, pp867, â¬129
Communist strategy and the party form
27 Apr 2006
Mike Macnair examines the Leninist 'party of a new type' and disentangles its advantages and shortcomings from the necessity of splitting from the Second International
War and revolutionary strategy
20 Apr 2006
Mike Macnair puts the record straight on Lenin's call for defeatism and insists on the necessity of the left taking the democratic question of arms seriously
War and revolutionary strategy
13 Apr 2006
Mike Macnair puts the record straight on Lenin's call for defeatism and insists on the necessity of the left taking the democratic question of arms seriously
Control the bureaucrats
11 Nov 2004
What are the lessons of Lenin's 1917 pamphlet State and revolution? Not the need for a 'commune state', argues Mike Macnair, but the need for representatives to be made accountable