Overview

'Brings out the practical activism, principled politics, and revolutionary patience crucial to organizing the oppressed on a rapidly over-heating planet' - Jodi Dean 'Crackling with intellectual life' - Lars T. Lih Vladimir Lenin lies in a tomb in Moscow's Red Square. History has not been kind to this Russian leader, his teachings reviled by modern mainstream politics. But in today's capitalist society, riven by class inequality and imperialist wars, perhaps it is worth returning to this communist icon's demand for 'Peace, Land and Bread', and his radical understanding of democracy. Lenin was wrestling with the question of 'what is to be done?' when facing the catastrophes of his own time. Against the odds, the Bolshevik party succeeded in rejecting both the corrupt and decaying Romanov dynasty, as well as the capitalist economic system which had started to take root in Russia. To understand how this happened, and what we can learn from him today, Paul Le Blanc takes us through Lenin's dynamic revolutionary thought, how he worked as part of a larger collective and how he centred the labor movement in Russia and beyond, uncovering a powerful form of democracy that could transform our activism today.

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'Well-researched and dutifully contextualized, Le Blanc paints a striking portrait of Lenin as an unwavering champion of democracy.' -- Cliff Connolly, 'Cosmonaut' 'Fantastic, very interesting and important for our times.' -- Tamás Krausz, author of 'Reconstructing Lenin: An Intellectual Biography' 'Brilliant … a tireless catalogue on the past and future of Lenin, Leninism, and revolution, offering indispensable insights into what is to be done amid the cascading catastrophes of today and tomorrow.' -- Ankica Čakardić, author of 'Like a Clap of Thunder: Three Essays on Rosa Luxemburg'

'Well-researched and dutifully contextualized, Le Blanc paints a striking portrait of Lenin as an unwavering champion of democracy.' -- Cliff Connolly, 'Cosmonaut' 'Fantastic, very interesting and important for our times.' -- Tamás Krausz, author of 'Reconstructing Lenin: An Intellectual Biography' 'Brilliant … a tireless catalogue on the past and future of Lenin, Leninism, and revolution, offering indispensable insights into what is to be done amid the cascading catastrophes of today and tomorrow.' -- Ankica Čakardić, author of 'Like a Clap of Thunder: Three Essays on Rosa Luxemburg' 'Historian and activist Paul Le Blanc considers what the author of 'What is to be Done' has to say to today's radicals. What emerges are valuable contributions to the struggle against the ongoing catastrophes of war, poverty and climate chaos.' -- Alex de Jong, co-director of International Institute for Research and Education, Amsterdam

Author Information

Paul Le Blanc is an activist and acclaimed American historian teaching at La Roche University, Pennsylvania. A conscientious objector to the Vietnam War, his politics were at odds with the establishment from a young age. He has written extensively on the history of the labor and socialist movements of the United States and Europe, including books on Lenin, Trotsky, Luxemburg and the importance of the revolutionary collective.

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