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Marxism–Leninism

Marxism–Leninism is a communist ideology that became the largest faction of the communist movement in the world in the years following the October Revolution. It was the predominant ideology of most communist governments throughout the 20th century.[1] It was developed in Russia by Joseph Stalin and drew on elements of Bolshevism, orthodox Marxism, and Leninism.[2][3][4] It was the state ideology of the Soviet Union,[5] Soviet satellite states in the Eastern Bloc, and various countries in the Non-Aligned Movement and Third World during the Cold War,[6] as well as the Communist International after Bolshevization.[7]

This article is about the political philosophy and state ideology. For countries governed by Marxist–Leninist parties, see Communist state. For the means of governing and related policies implemented by Joseph Stalin, see Stalinism. For Lenin's ideology in the form that existed in Lenin's own lifetime, see Leninism.

Today, Marxism–Leninism is the ideology of the ruling parties of China, Cuba, Laos and Vietnam (all one-party socialist republics),[8] as well as many other communist parties. The state ideology of North Korea is derived from Marxism–Leninism[9] (although its evolution is disputed). Marxist–Leninist states are commonly referred to as "communist states" by Western academics.[10][11]


Marxist–Leninists reject anarchism, left communism, democratic socialism, reformist socialism, and social democracy. They oppose fascism and liberal democracy, and are anti-imperialists.


Marxism–Leninism was developed from Bolshevism by Joseph Stalin in the 1920s based on his understanding and synthesis of orthodox Marxism and Leninism.[2][3][4] Marxism–Leninism holds that a two-stage communist revolution is needed to replace capitalism. A vanguard party, organized through democratic centralism, would seize power on behalf of the proletariat and establish a one-party socialist state, called the dictatorship of the proletariat. The state would control the means of production, suppress opposition, counter-revolution, and the bourgeoisie, and promote Soviet collectivism, to pave the way for an eventual communist society that would be classless and stateless.[12]


After the death of Vladimir Lenin in 1924, Marxism–Leninism became a distinct movement in the Soviet Union when Stalin and his supporters gained control of the party. It rejected the common notion among Western Marxists of world revolution as a prerequisite for building socialism, in favour of the concept of socialism in one country. According to its supporters, the gradual transition from capitalism to socialism was signified by the introduction of the first five-year plan and the 1936 Soviet Constitution.[13] By the late 1920s, Stalin established ideological orthodoxy in the Russian Communist Party (Bolsheviks), the Soviet Union, and the Communist International to establish universal Marxist–Leninist praxis.[14][15] The formulation of the Soviet version of dialectical and historical materialism in the 1930s by Stalin and his associates, such as in Stalin's text Dialectical and Historical Materialism, became the official Soviet interpretation of Marxism,[16] and was taken as example by Marxist–Leninists in other countries; according to the Great Russian Encyclopedia, this text became the foundation of the philosophy of Marxism–Leninism.[17] In 1938, Stalin's official textbook History of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (Bolsheviks) popularised Marxism–Leninism.[18]


The internationalism of Marxism–Leninism was expressed in supporting revolutions in other countries, initially through the Communist International and then through the concept of socialist-leaning countries after de-Stalinisation. The establishment of other communist states after World War II resulted in Sovietisation, and these states tended to follow the Soviet Marxist–Leninist model of five-year plans and rapid industrialisation, political centralisation, and repression. During the Cold War, Marxism–Leninist countries like the Soviet Union and its allies were one of the major forces in international relations.[19] With the death of Stalin and the ensuing de-Stalinisation, Marxism–Leninism underwent several revisions and adaptations such as Guevarism, Ho Chi Minh Thought, Hoxhaism, Maoism, socialism with Chinese characteristics, and Titoism. More recently Nepalese communist parties have adopted People's Multiparty Democracy. This also caused several splits between Marxist–Leninist states, resulting in the Tito–Stalin split, the Sino-Soviet split, and the Sino-Albanian split. The socio-economic nature of Marxist–Leninist states, especially that of the Soviet Union during the Stalin era, has been much debated, varyingly being labelled a form of bureaucratic collectivism, state capitalism, state socialism, or a totally unique mode of production.[20] The Eastern Bloc, including Marxist–Leninist states in Central and Eastern Europe as well as the Third World socialist regimes, have been variously described as "bureaucratic-authoritarian systems",[21] and China's socio-economic structure has been referred to as "nationalistic state capitalism".[22]


Criticism of Marxism–Leninism largely overlaps with criticism of communist party rule and mainly focuses on the actions and policies of Marxist–Leninist leaders, most notably Stalin and Mao Zedong. Marxist–Leninist states have been marked by a high degree of centralised control by the state and Communist party, political repression, state atheism, collectivisation and use of labour camps, as well as free universal education and healthcare, low unemployment and lower prices for certain goods. Historians such as Silvio Pons and Robert Service stated that the repression and totalitarianism came from Marxist–Leninist ideology.[23][24][25][26] Historians such as Michael Geyer and Sheila Fitzpatrick have offered other explanations and criticise the focus on the upper levels of society and use of concepts such as totalitarianism which have obscured the reality of the system.[27] While the emergence of the Soviet Union as the world's first nominally communist state led to communism's widespread association with Marxism–Leninism and the Soviet model,[19][28][29] several academics say that Marxism–Leninism in practice was a form of state capitalism.[30][31]

Overview[edit]

Communist states[edit]

In the establishment of the Soviet Union in the former Russian Empire, Bolshevism was the ideological basis. As the only legal vanguard party, it decided almost all policies, which the communist party represented as correct.[32] Because Leninism was the revolutionary means to achieving socialism in the praxis of government, the relationship between ideology and decision-making inclined to pragmatism and most policy decisions were taken in light of the continual and permanent development of Marxism–Leninism, with ideological adaptation to material conditions.[33] The Bolshevik Party lost in the 1917 Russian Constituent Assembly election, obtaining 23.3% of the vote, to the Socialist Revolutionary Party, which obtained 37.6%.[34] On 6 January 1918, the Draft Decree on the Dissolution of the Constituent Assembly was issued by the Central Executive Committee of the Congress of Soviets, a committee dominated by Vladimir Lenin, who had previously supported multi-party free elections. After the Bolshevik defeat, Lenin started referring to the assembly as a "deceptive form of bourgeois-democratic parliamentarism".[35] This was criticised as being the development of vanguardism as a form of hierarchical party–elite that controlled society.[36][37]


Within five years of the death of Lenin, Joseph Stalin completed his rise to power and was the leader of the Soviet Union who theorised and applied the socialist theories of Lenin and Karl Marx as political expediencies used to realise his plans for the Soviet Union and for world socialism.[38] Concerning Questions of Leninism (1926) represented Marxism–Leninism as a separate communist ideology and featured a global hierarchy of communist parties and revolutionary vanguard parties in each country of the world.[39][15] With that, Stalin's application of Marxism–Leninism to the situation of the Soviet Union became Stalinism, the official state ideology until his death in 1953.[40] In Marxist political discourse, Stalinism, denoting and connoting the theory and praxis of Stalin, has two usages, namely praise of Stalin by Marxist–Leninists who believe Stalin successfully developed Lenin's legacy, and criticism of Stalin by Marxist–Leninists and other Marxists who repudiate Stalin's political purges, social-class repressions and bureaucratic terrorism.[14]

Ideology[edit]

Political system[edit]

Marxism–Leninism involves the creation of a one-party state led by a communist party, as a means to develop socialism and then communism.[165] The communist party is the supreme political institution of the state.[166] Marxism–Leninism asserts that the people's interests are fully represented through the communist party and other state institutions.[167] In the words of historians Silvio Pons and Robert Service, elections are "generally not competitive, with voters having no choice or only a strictly limited choice".[167] Generally, when alternative candidates have been allowed to stand for election, they have not been allowed to promote very different political views.[167] In Marxist–Leninist states, elections are generally held for all positions at all levels of government.[167] In most states, this has taken the form of directly electing representatives, although in some states such as People's Republic of China, the Republic of Cuba and the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia this also included indirect elections, such as deputies being elected by deputies as the next lower level of government.[167]

Anti-Stalinist Left

History of Cuba

History of the People's Republic of China

History of the Soviet Union

List of socialist states

People's democracy (Marxism–Leninism)

Demolition of monuments to Vladimir Lenin in Ukraine

Stalinism

Neo-Stalinism

Buzuev, Vladimir; Gorodnov, Vladimir (1987). Moscow: Progress Publishers. Retrieved 31 December 2020 – via Wayback Machine.

What Is Marxism–Leninism?

. Encyclopedia of Marxism. Marxists Internet Archive. Retrieved 31 December 2020.

"Marxism–Leninism"

(1963). Fundamentals of Marxism–Leninism (2nd revised ed.). Translated and edited from Russian by Dutt, Clemens. Moscow: Foreign Languages Publishing House.

Kuusinen, Otto Will

Sheptulin, Alexander. Moscow: Progress Publishers.

Marxist-Leninist Philosophy

(1924). The Foundations of Leninism. Works. 6. Moscow: Foreign Languages Publishing House. Retrieved 31 December 2020 – via Marxists Internet Archive.

Stalin, Joseph

(1990). Fundamentals of Philosophy. Translated by Syrovatkin, Sergei. Moscow: Progress Publishers. Retrieved 31 December 2020 – via Wayback Machine.

Spirkin, Alexander