Type of bind: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 335.430947
EAN num: 9780140181265
ISBN number: 0140181261
Label: Penguin Classics
Manufacturer: Penguin Classics
Page Count: 272
Printing Date: January 18, 1990
Publishing house: Penguin Classics
Sale Popularity Level: 1597491
Studio: Penguin Classics
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Rated by buyers 
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Every militant who wants to fight for socialism, or put the fight for socialism back on the front burner, needs to read this book. Every radical who believes that society can be changed by just a few adjustments needs to read this book in order to understand the limits of such a position. Thus, it is necessary for any politically literate person of this new generation to go through the arguments of this classic of Marxist literature in order to understand the strategic perspective for socialism in the 21st century. Older militants can also benefit from a re-reading of this work. Except for the obvious change of names and organizations from those whom Lenin argued with on my re-reading of this document I was astonished by the appropriateness of the arguments presented.
Militants of my generation, the Generation of `68, came late to an appreciation of the importance of this book and spent a lot of wasted time and energy on other strategies. Those so-called New Left theories that ran the gamut from mild social reform through vicarious guerilla warfare to revolutionary terror had, however, one common axis- denial of the centrality of the working class as the motor force for revolution, especially in the advanced capitalist countries. Once the most thoughtful of us came understand the bankruptcy of our previous strategies Lenin's little book became compulsory reading. Lenin's What Is To Be Done? thus takes it place as one of the basic documents of the revolutionary Marxist movement along with Marx and Engel's Communist Manifesto.
Although the book was written to address the disputes among socialists at the beginning of the 20th century the arguments presented have relevance today. And what are those arguments. There are three main points which are interrelated; the need for a fight against a reformist and for a revolutionary perspective to fight to the end for establishment of a socialist order; the need for a revolutionary organization of professional revolutionaries to lead the vanguard of the working class to socialism; and, the necessity for an independent-minded vanguard both in its relationship to the some times backward political consciousness of the working class as a whole and to other social classes. Although the political opponents that Lenin was polemizing against, and this document is a polemic, are long gone and his literary style would not be to today's taste these were and continue to be the defining issues of revolutionary strategy today.
After the experience of one hundred years of reformist socialist practice under capitalism it is hard to believe that the fight against such a limitation of the socialist program was a central argument that animated not only the Russian revolutionary movement but the international social democracy as well. The fight against revision of the Marxist program of class struggle and the need to fundamentally change the structure of society that began in that period seeped into the Russian movement as well. It was therefore necessary to polemize against this trend. Lenin, and others, rose to the occasion. Their argument, in short, was- Do you fight to the finish against the old social order or not? In Lenin's case we know the answer. Readers can decide for themselves whether he was right.
The controversy over kind of organization necessary to lead the masses to socialism has been present since at least the 1800's. The forms have varied over time from self-contained revolutionary conspiracies to revolutionary terrorist cells to mass reformist parties confined to the parliamentary struggle. Lenin brought a new concept to the organization question among Marxists not only for Russia but also after the seizure of power in 1917 in the Communist International for international strategy. Simply put, if you do not want to make a revolution you do not need a vanguard party of professional revolutionaries. Moreover, these revolutionaries act as tribunes of the people fighting against all kinds of arbitrary action. If you do want to make a revolution, you need to address the organization question. The challenge is not to get caught up in the form. One thing is certain you cannot fight to the end against capitalism with a party that has two wings- reformist and revolutionary. Come the struggle for power and you have former comrades on different sides of the barricade. Study this question with care.
At that time Lenin wrote (1902) the question of what classes will lead the revolution and what forces will it rely on was a central question, especially in the Russian socialist movement. In the West at the time it was obvious that the working class was the central agency and that it would rely on the urban and rural petty bourgeoisies. In Russia, however, which had not experienced some form of bourgeois revolution, the central dispute did not get resolved until October 1917 when the Bolsheviks relying on the peasantry, ... Read More
Rated by buyers 
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The theortical political book of V.I. Lenin.
The place where Lenin put forth his concepts on, the role of the revolutionary, the difference between the Bolshevics (before this name applied) and the Political Economists. The need for the over-throw of the royal family and the current (at the time) political system of Russia. Also the theories of the revolutionary newspaper, information, and what revolutionaries should do for the movement.
A very thick little book. The concepts of who may become a revolutionary and what parts of the populace should be tapped are all included in this piece.
The major flaw is the fact that one must work very hard to figure out what Lenin is trying to say. There is so much diversion and unclear thinking that one is not surprised to find out that Lenin never dearmed of seeing the revolution within his own life time. He must have thought that nobody would be able to get through his book before he would die of very old age.
Interesting for the sake of political history and revolutionary theory alone. Nobody in their right mind would read this book unless they were being required to do so. On the other hand, they might just be happy that they had been forced to read this book, because there really is a lot there (if you are willing to dig far enough).
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