Leninism is the political theory for the organisation of a revolutionary vanguard party and the achievement of a dictatorship of the proletariat as political prelude to the establishment of socialism. Developed by and named for the Russian revolutionary Vladimir Lenin, Leninism comprises socialist political and economic theories, developed from Marxism and Lenin's interpretations of Marxist theories, for practical application to the socio-political conditions of the Russian Empire of the early 20th century.

In its doctrinal part, Leninism corresponds to Bolshevism, which was initiated in 1903 by V.I. Lenin himself, and these two concepts were not opposable until 1922, that is, while Lenin actively acted as the leader of the Bolshevik party, his works continued to develop. by definition, both Bolshevism and Leninism.

The concept of "Leninism" was actively used after V.I. Lenin left the court because of illness (1922). Since then, the leaders of the RCP (B) often use it in their public speeches at various levels, right up to congresses and congresses.

Leninism is Marxism of the epoch of imperialism and proletarian revolution.

implies that: 1) the theoretical roots of Leninism lie in Marxism; 2) that it originated in an era when sharply accelerated development of capitalism was accompanied by tremendous social upheavals, up to the revolutionary overthrow of the previous system; 3) that in this case Leninism is not a repetition of Marxism, but its development, taking into account the changes that occurred after the death of Karl Marx and F. Engels

The fact that a successful socialist revolution did not take place in the most developed industrial power, as the classics of Marxism believed, but in a peasant country, belongs to the practical, doctrinal part of Marxism and Leninism, without exhausting all aspects of the relationship between the two teachings. The theoretical basis of Leninism and Marxism is the materialist dialectic, which means their identity in essence.

Working in the course of Marxism, V.I. Lenin not only used the theses previously formulated by Marx, but also supplemented the teachings of Marxism with his philosophical works: “Materialism and empirio-criticism”, “On the meaning of militant materialism”. In particular, Lenin developed a materialistic understanding of Hegel’s philosophy and criticized the philosophy of empirio-criticism (Machism), neo-Kantianism and pragmatism. He also distinguished dialectical materialism from a number of teachings that developed outside of Marxism: in particular, from sensationalism, naive realism, relativism, and also from vulgar materialism.

B. I. Gorev in the article “Russian roots of Leninism” notes that “Lenin not only with his whole being learned Marx's deeply revolutionary theory. He not only re-used all the vast experience of the European class struggle. At the same time, he absorbed all the traditions and moods of the heroic era of the Russian revolutionary movement ... ”,“ Leninism, ”wrote Gorev,“ is revolutionary Marxism, from European became global, for the domination of capital has also become global. Leninism, finally, is Marxism of the epoch of decaying imperialism, social storms and upheavals ”[9]: 35.

I. I. Skvortsov-Stepanov, stressing that Leninism was formed on the basis of Marxism and is its further creative development, wrote: “Lenin, who lived in the later imperialist era of world economic development, which directly rested on the socialist revolution, came close to it, He gave a deep and all-round development to Marx's thoughts and a brilliant example of their practical understanding ... Marxism, which until the end developed the theory of class struggle in its decisive, final stages and gave practical application of this theory, it is Leninism "

Today, Leninism is at the same time a teaching, both a logically interrelated system of categories and a set of conclusions reflecting objectively existing relations and connections between phenomena of objective reality and doctrine, that is, a purposeful statement of practical steps to implement a policy based on the corresponding theory .

Imperialism is the highest and last stage of capitalism.

Revolutions occur first in the “weak links”, that is, in undeveloped countries.

For the victory of the revolution, there must be an alliance of the workers and peasants, with the leadership of the former.

The dictatorship of the proletariat is carried out under the leadership of the revolutionary avant-garde party.