Leninism: It’s Not What You Think

Leninism is universally understood as involving an emphasis on centralism and discipline inside the workers’ party, a centralism and discipline necessary as a counter to the centralized power of the capitalist state. This article argues: 1) that Lenin’s famous centralism was a necessity imposed on all socialists of his generation because of conditions of tsarist autocracy; 2) that when given the chance during moments of revolutionary upheaval, this centralism was pushed to the background, and a heavy emphasis was placed upon democracy and debate; 3) that late in life, Lenin realized that the ‘Leninism’ being aggressively promoted by the Communist International was too heavily weighted towards Russian conditions, and was a barrier to the development of the left outside of Russia; and 4) that this immanent critique of actually-existing Leninism was cut short and buried by the rise of Stalinism, for which an emphasis on centralism was a useful counterpart in party organization to the authoritarianism being constructed in the Stalinist state. On pense généralement que le léninisme insiste sur le centralisme et la discipline dans le parti ouvrier, centralisme et discipline nécessaires pour contrer le pouvoir centralisé de l’état capitaliste.