Vladmir Lenin and the idea of Leninism

Viladmir Lenin

Successor to Karl Marx, communist revolutionary, and the head of the Bolshevik Party, Vladimir Lenin was the champion and founder of the first communist state in the world. Influenced greatly by Marxism, Vladmir Lenin overthrew the Czar's government and introduced socialism. In addition, communism and imperialism are what he is known for around the world.

Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov, better known as Lenin, was born on April 22, 1870, in Moscow, Russia. His parents, Ilya and Maria Alexandrovna Ulyanov, were well-to-do and educated. Vladmir Lenin took an interest in radical political literature, including the writings of socialist Karl Marx. Because of his Marxist activities, Vladmir Lenin was arrested and then exiled to Siberia. Nadezhda Krupskaya, his fiancée and future wife, met him there. Lenin married her on July 22, 1898.

Vladmir Lenin started a newspaper, namely Iskara (Spark), that really proved beneficial and greatly influenced the masses. Vladmir Lenin was known for his tricks of revolution, and Iskara helped him a lot to cause the Russian Revolution in 1917. Vladmir Lenin gathered the workers and people against the ruling class (the capitalists) and recruited them in his guerilla army. Later, he became the part of the Bolshevik revolution. The Bolsheviks proved destructive to the Czar government and Russian economy during World War 2. After the war was over, the Bolsheviks seized power from the government, making Lenin the leader of the world’s first communist state. 

In Lenin's opinion, the capitalist system is incapable of removing the growing inequality between the capitalists and the working class. It failed to protect democratic rights. The group of ruling class exploits the underdeveloped people. Capitalist society was a reactionary social system.

The Vanguard Party:

The concept of the "vanguard" party by Vladmir Lenin is simply the idea that working-class and other activists must come together into a single organization. It aimed at centralising and coordinating their efforts against capitalism. It was supposed to provide the proletariat with consciousness about their class in order to destroy capitalism in Russia.

Thus, Leninism can be explained as the political theory that works towards the organisation of a vanguard party that is revolutionary and achieves to attain revolutionary consciousness among the proletariat in order to obtain communism. The Russian Revolution of October 1917 was the victory of Lenin's concept of a revolutionary vanguard party.

Imperialism of Vladimir Lenin:
Vladmir Lenin wanted to give a detailed explanation for the failure of Marxism. Contrary to Marx's prediction, there was no sign of the downfall of capitalism through revolution in an advanced capitalist society. Besides the capitalist and working classes, a middle class was emerging. Contrary to Marx, the condition of the working class in the capitalist society was improving. There was no sign of class consciousness among the working class.

Vladmir Lenin presented his theory of imperialism in his book "Imperialism: The Highest Stage of Capitalism." Imperialism is another stage of capitalism. Capitalism exploits the underdeveloped parts of the world. 

According to Vladmir Lenin, Karl Marx was not aware of the advanced form of capitalism that is called imperialism. And that was the very reason, Marx's concepts were failing miserably. 
Imperialism represents the economic aspect of colonialism. According to imperialism, the strong country first controls the political system of the weak or underdeveloped country, either directly or indirectly. Then it exploits its resources.

In short, the capitalist class, or the ruling class, of developed countries in fact runs imperialism. It benefits only the capitalist class at the expense of the bourgeois. The profit earned from imperialism was invested in the domestic proletariat. As a result, the condition of the working class was getting better. In short, like Karl Marx, the emancipation of the working class depends on itself.

On January 21, 1924, at age 53, Vladimir Lenin died in Moscow. Lenin's dead body remained controversial. His body was moved many times from Moscow’s Red Square to the city of Tyumen during World War II. His body was at last on display in Lenin's tomb in Red Square.