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In Defence of Lenin: Volume 1
John Reed, the author of Ten Days that Shook the World, once said that Lenin was the most loved and the most hated person alive. He was loved by tens of millions who wanted to change society, but hated by the ruling class and their apologists.
As the leader of the Russian Revolution, Lenin was a man who changed the world. A convinced Marxist, he created the Bolshevik Party, the most revolutionary party in history. Lenin translated the ideas of Marxism into reality.
It is now one hundred years since his death. The bourgeois historians continue to slander him and his ideas. The task of this book is to explain his real life and ideas, and to draw out the significance of Lenin. Given the ongoing capitalist crisis, his ideas are gaining an increasingly wide echo. In so many ways, Lenin is more relevant today than ever before.
Over two volumes, this book traces Lenin’s life and explains his ideas, drawing on the colossal heritage of what he actually wrote and did. This book also features an appendix of Krupskaya’s writings on Lenin, a chronology and over 250 images
As the leader of the Russian Revolution, Lenin was a man who changed the world. A convinced Marxist, he created the Bolshevik Party, the most revolutionary party in history. Lenin translated the ideas of Marxism into reality.
It is now one hundred years since his death. The bourgeois historians continue to slander him and his ideas. The task of this book is to explain his real life and ideas, and to draw out the significance of Lenin. Given the ongoing capitalist crisis, his ideas are gaining an increasingly wide echo. In so many ways, Lenin is more relevant today than ever before.
Over two volumes, this book traces Lenin’s life and explains his ideas, drawing on the colossal heritage of what he actually wrote and did. This book also features an appendix of Krupskaya’s writings on Lenin, a chronology and over 250 images
458 pages, Paperback
Published January 21, 2024
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162 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews
February 2, 2024
An excellent, easily readable book on the life of Lenin, how he became Lenin, the battles he fought that forged both him and Bolshevism.
What stands out in the first volume is 1905 and how Lenin had to struggle for a tight underground organisation before 1905, and then for an opening up, a fighting legal organisation in the years of revolution, only to return back once more to the underground.
At each stage, Lenin fought first and foremost with theoretical weapons, that he sharpened and went back to study with each dramatic turn.
You really feel the truth of the statement from Left-wing Communism that it was the unique concentration and alternation of events in Russia that steeled and educated Bolshevism and Lenin in particular.
Looking fw to making a start on vol 2.
What stands out in the first volume is 1905 and how Lenin had to struggle for a tight underground organisation before 1905, and then for an opening up, a fighting legal organisation in the years of revolution, only to return back once more to the underground.
At each stage, Lenin fought first and foremost with theoretical weapons, that he sharpened and went back to study with each dramatic turn.
You really feel the truth of the statement from Left-wing Communism that it was the unique concentration and alternation of events in Russia that steeled and educated Bolshevism and Lenin in particular.
Looking fw to making a start on vol 2.
July 17, 2024
An absolute masterpiece
Read
March 8, 2024Fantastic book. Not just a history of Lenin but also a call to action for all communists.
May 15, 2025
Exceptional book. Essential for all marxists.
July 16, 2024
lenin is actually so epic
April 7, 2024
By far the best biography I have ever red. Woods and Sewell manage to incorporate the life of Lenin, the ideas of Lenin as well as the surrounding (national and international at that time) conditions and events into a compelling book and link everything together. Furthermore, they debunk a lot of nonsense allegations against Lenin by bourgeois so-called historians. You learn a lot by reading it and many lessons can be drawn for the current time as well. Can wait to read the second volume!
May 24, 2024
A fantastic look at Lenin's life and his views, as well as the history of the Russian Revolution. No other books come even close to doing Lenin justice as this one does. Essential reading for all communists, and written in a way that even someone new to politics can enjoy and get something from, while also having lots of meaty stuff for more experienced cadres to contemplate.
September 18, 2024
Best biography of Lenin I've ever read.
September 24, 2024
Full of important lessons and facts for any honest class fighter!
April 13, 2025
Very easily readable, good use of citations from relevant people of the time and an overall excellent picture of the person Lenin was, 10/10
January 19, 2026
Update 1/19/26
My original review stands. This is my second reading & there are many lessons to learn, primary of which is the need to understand the Marxist method & how it’s a guide to action, a tool to analyze situations & conditions as they change to figure out the proper course of action & seeing how some of his contemporaries prove that in the absence of skillful use of this tool that it leads to incorrect perspectives, tactics & ultimately failure. Great read!
Original 3/4/24-10/20/24
Volume 1 was such a great read. It gives you great insight into Lenin’s early life & the experiences that shaped him. Lenin wasn’t born as the man he grew to be, he was made. You learn a great deal about his thinking, his views & the circumstances he faced leading up to the Russian Revolution of 1917. Far from the tyrant that bourgeois society makes him out to be. Lenin & his ideas are relevant still 100 years after his death as his analysis of Capitalism have been vindicated by history & how capitalism as a socioeconomic system has developed & stresses even more the need to have the correct understanding of things to transform society.
My original review stands. This is my second reading & there are many lessons to learn, primary of which is the need to understand the Marxist method & how it’s a guide to action, a tool to analyze situations & conditions as they change to figure out the proper course of action & seeing how some of his contemporaries prove that in the absence of skillful use of this tool that it leads to incorrect perspectives, tactics & ultimately failure. Great read!
Original 3/4/24-10/20/24
Volume 1 was such a great read. It gives you great insight into Lenin’s early life & the experiences that shaped him. Lenin wasn’t born as the man he grew to be, he was made. You learn a great deal about his thinking, his views & the circumstances he faced leading up to the Russian Revolution of 1917. Far from the tyrant that bourgeois society makes him out to be. Lenin & his ideas are relevant still 100 years after his death as his analysis of Capitalism have been vindicated by history & how capitalism as a socioeconomic system has developed & stresses even more the need to have the correct understanding of things to transform society.
Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews