Vladimir Ilyich Lenin – individual works, compilations and biographies
This page will include individual pamphlets of the works of VI Lenin as well as a more information about his life and work. Available elsewhere on the site are the Collected Works – a total of 47 volumes – which is the most extensive resource in the English language of the ideas of the leader of the Bolshevik Party and the first Socialist State.
(This is an on going project and other material will be added as and when it becomes available in a digital format. If you are after a particular pamphlet and it is not here at the moment then it might appear in the future.)
The April Conference, (N.Y., International, 1932), 62 pages. Little Lenin Library, Volume Ten. The Conference actually took place from 7th to the 12th May, 1917 (the backward Tsarist state used the Julian calender which was – in 1917 – 13 days adrift from the Gregorian calender used in most of Europe, hence the ‘April’ Conference of 24th to the 29th Old Calender took place in May).
Lenin on Religion, (London, Martin Lawrence, N.D. 1930s), Little Lenin Library, Volume Seven, 56 pages.
State and Revolution, (London, Martin Lawrence, 1933), Little Lenin Library, Volume Fourteen, 96 pages.
The Paris Commune, (London, Martin Lawrence, 1935), Little Lenin Library, Volume Five, 62 pages.
The Teachings of Karl Marx, (London, Martin Lawrence, 1937), Little Lenin Library, Volume One, 47 pages.
Imperialism, the Highest Stage of Capitalism, (London, Lawrence and Wishart, 1939), 127 pages. Little Lenin Library, Volume Fifteen.(My copy is seriously damaged, particularly in one place, and so it was impossible to scan pages 82 and 83. In their place I have scanned the missing text from pages 709-711 from ‘The Essential Lenin in Two Volumes, Volume 1, London, Lawrence and Wishart, 1947’. It’s not exactly the same but the closest to the 1939 text I have been able to find.)
War and the Workers, (N.Y., International, 1940), 32 pages. Little Lenin Library, Volume Twenty Four. A reprint of a lecture delivered by VI Lenin in Petrograd on May 27th, 1917, about a month after his return from exile. The manuscript was not discovered until twelve years afterwards and was published for the first time in the Moscow Pravda on April 23rd, 1929.
On Britain, (London, Lawrence and Wishart, 1941), 316 pages. Marxist-Leninist Library, Volume Eighteen, with two Prefaces by Harry Pollitt (1934 and 1941).
In commemoration of the 90th anniversary of the birth of VI Lenin the Foreign Languages Press in Peking produced a series of books with quotations from the extensive works of the leader of the October Revolution and First Socialist State on various topics pertinent at the time of the struggle against Soviet Revisionism and the restoration of capitalism in the USSR.
This approach to the works of Lenin, where significant quotations were taken from longer works, was the principal that was followed later with the production of the ‘Little Red Book’ of quotations from the works of Chairman Mao at the beginning of the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution.
The Tasks of the Youth Leagues, (Peking, FLP, 1975), 22 pages. Speech delivered at the Third All-Russian Congress of the Russian Young Communist League, October 2nd, 1920.
Lenin versus Trotsky and his followers, (Moscow, Novosti, 1981), 127 pages. A late Revisionist compilation of quotes from VI Lenin attacking the ‘enemies from within the Party’.
On State Capitalism during the transition to Socialism, Progress Publishers, Moscow, 1983, 269 pages.
On Lenin’s ‘The State and Revolution’, V. Gavrilov, (Moscow, Progress, 1988). A revisionist interpretation of one of Lenin’s most important works. 106 pages.
Lenin, by R Palme Dutt, (London, Hamish Hamilton, 1933), 96 pages. A short biography by a British Communist.
Lenin – A Biography, (London, Hutchinson, ND, early 1940’s), 204 pages. Prepared by the Marx-Engels-Lenin Institute, Moscow. Published by authority of ‘Soviet War News’. Issued by the Press Department of the Soviet Embassy in London. The closest to an official Soviet biography of VI Lenin available.
Fine Drawings of Lenin, a collection published by the Communist Party of Germany on the 100th anniversary of the birth of Lenin (1970). 12 pages (missing two drawings).
Lenin – Life and Work, by V. Zevin and G. Golikov, (Moscow, Novosti, 1975), 228 pages. A revisionist biography of VI Lenin.
The Central Lenin Museum, Moscow – a guide. (Moscow, Raduga, 1986), 160 pages. A guide to the now destroyed Museum dedicated to the life and work of VI Lenin.
On the so-called ‘Lenin Testament’. A pamphlet produced by W.B. Bland (then of the Communist League UK) of a presentation given to the Stalin Society (UK) in 1991. The ‘Lenin Testament’ was a document that was used by Trotskyites and other anti-Bolsheviks in an attempt to usurp the leadership of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (Bolshevik) after the death of Comrade Lenin in 1924. In an effort to maintain Party unity the document was presented to 13th Party Congress in May 1924 where it was overwhelmingly rejected as having no importance in the choice of the Party leadership, with not even Trotsky voting for it.
Compilations from the works of VI Lenin with other great Marxists
Strategy and Tactics of the Proletarian Revolution, (N.Y., International, 1936), 95 pages. Consists of a series of brief extracts mostly from the works of Lenin, Stalin and from some reports of the Comintern.
The Dictatorship of the Proletariat, articles and extracts from the works of Marx, Engels, Lenin and Stalin, compiled and arranged by V. Bystryansky and M. Mishin, ‘Readings in Leninism’ series, (NY: International, 1936), 132 pages.
Lenin and Stalin on Youth, (London, Lawrence and Wishart, 1940), Little Lenin Library, Volume Twenty One, 48 pages.
Lenin and Stalin on The State, (London, Lawrence and Wishart, 1942), Little Lenin Library, Volume Twenty Three, 48 pages.
The Great Debate between Revolutionary China and the Revisionist Soviet Union
In just under three years after the death of Joseph Stalin (in March 1953) the Soviet Revisionists, under the leadership of Nikita Khrushchev, had enough confidence in their strength to be able to denounce Stalin (but basically all the revolutionary developments in Soviet society since the October Revolution of 1917) at a closed session of the 20th Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union held in February 1956.
The calculated manner in which this denunciation was planned caused confusion in the International Communist Movement (obviously the aim) and allowed those cowards and social democrats who had been allowed to wheedle themselves into Communist Parties throughout the world to throw their hands up in horror and create even more confusion – with the result that the movement was weakened worldwide.
Khrushchev’s speech was just the start of the attack upon revolutionary Socialism, Marxism-Leninism and the Dictatorship of the Proletariat. The lack lustre defence of those principles by the majority of the Communist and Workers Parties throughout the world (or at least in the majority of their leadership and a not inconsiderable number of the members) only served to encourage the Soviet revisionists to go further in their destruction of socialism and the restoration of capitalism in the first workers and peasants socialist state. One of the victims of that development was Khrushchev himself who was thrown out when he had done what was needed at the time. He quickly reached his sell by date.
Only two parties in the position of holding state power were united on the struggle against the revisionists – the Communist Party of China and the Party of Labour of Albania. Below are pamphlets produced by the Chinese Party which record what was to become known as the ‘International Polemic’ – an ideological battle between revolutionaries and revisionists which pleased capitalism and imperialism but which, ultimately, made revolutionary forces throughout the world stronger in that the issues of what separated revolutionaries from the rest were clearly delineated.
In China this ideological struggle was further developed during the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution of 1966-76 – initiated by Chairman Mao Tse-tung as the only opportunity for the workers and peasants to remain in control of the society they had been building since 1949. This debate was also carried on in the pages of the magazines produced at the time, principally the weekly political and informative magazine Peking Review but also in China Reconstructs and China Pictorial.
The standpoint of the Party of Labour of Albania can be read in the many documents they produced from the 1950s onwards (into the 1980s) as well as the pages of the monthly, theoretical magazine Albania Today and the writings of the Albanian leader, Enver Hoxha.
More on the Historical Experience of the Proletarian Dictatorship, a summary of a discussion at an enlarged meeting of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China focusing on the question of Stalin, which appeared in Renmin Ribao [People’s Daily] on December 29, 1956. (London: CPGB, 1957), 32 pages.
Collections of Early Documents
In Refutation of Modern Revisionism, 7 major editorials and articles from May-June 1958. (Peking: FLP, 1958), 102 pages. Consists of the following documents:
Resolution on the Moscow Meetings of Representatives of Communist and Workers’ Parties, adopted May 23, 1958 by the 2nd Session of the 8th National Congress of the CCP.
Modern Revisionism Must Be Repudiated, Renmin Ribao [People’s Daily] editorial of May 5, 1958.
Modern Revisionism Must Be Fought To The End, Renmin Ribao [People’s Daily] editorial of June 4, 1958.
Yugoslav Revisionism — Product of Imperialist Policy, by Chen Po-ta, Hongqi [Red Flag], June 1, 1958 issue.
Yugoslav Revisionism Is Just What U.S. Imperialism Needs, by Kang Sheng, Renmin Ribao, June 14, 1958. In Refutation of Modern Revisionism’s Reactionary Theory of the State, by Wang Chia-hsiang, Hongqi, June 16, 1958 issue.
The More They Try to Hide, the More They are Exposed — On Tito’s Speech of June 15, by Renmin Ribao Commentator, June 26, 1958.
Whence the Differences? a large book containing most of the early English language articles and pamphlets in the condemnation of revisionism that were published in China. [This new title is on the photographic reprint of the volume done by New Era publishers in Bath, England around 1970. The original edition published in China is entitled Workers of All Countries, Unite, Oppose Our Common Enemy! (Peking: FLP, 1963)], 402 pages. Consists of the following documents:
A Proposal Concerning the General Line of the International Communist Movement: The Letter of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China in Reply to the Letter of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union of March 30, 1963, June 14, 1963, (Peking: FLP, 1963), 124 pages. Includes as appendices 3 letters from the the CC of the CPSU (Feb. 21, 1963; March 9, 1963; and March 30, 1963). This is one of the most important and most famous documents in the entire history of the world Communist movement.
Individual articles in this collection, most of which are Comments on the Open Letter of the Central Committee of the CPSU, and are jointly written by the editorial departments of Renmin Ribao and Hongqi, are also available here in individual pamphlet form:
A Great Victory for Leninism – In Commemoration of the 95th Anniversary of the Birth of Lenin, Hongqi [Red Flag] editorial, #4, 1965. (Peking: FLP, 1965), 19 pages.
Carry the Struggle Against Khrushchov Revisionism Through to the End – On the Occasion of the Second Anniversary of the Publication of ‘A Proposal Concerning the General Line of the International Communist Movement’, by the editorial departments of Renmin Ribao (People’s Daily) and Hongqi [Red Flag], June 14, 1965, 24 pages. [Our apologies; we were unable to remove part of the underlining in this pamphlet.]
Smash the Big U.S.-Soviet Conspiracy! by Observer of Renmin Ribao, Feb. 20, 1967, about collusion and joint attempts by the U.S. and the Soviet Union to end the revolutionary war in south Vietnam. (Peking: FLP, 1967), 22 pages.
Advance Along the Road Opened Up by the October Socialist Revolution: In Commemoration of the 50th Anniversary of the Great October Socialist Revolution, by the editorial departments of Renmin Ribao, Hongqi and Jiefangjun Bao [Liberation Army Daily], Nov. 6, 1967, 40 pages. Includes also Comrade Lin Piao’s Speech at the Peking Rally Commemorating the 50th Anniversary of the October Revolution, Nov. 6, 1967.
Ugly Performance of Self-Exposure, by Chung Jen, originally published in Chinese in Renmin Ribao, August 14, 1969. (Peking: FLP, 1969), 24 pages.
An Outspoken Revelation, Hsinhua News Agency, April 16, 1970 dispatch. (Peking: FLP, 1970), 22 pages.
Leninism or Social-Imperialism? – In Commemoration of the Centenary of the Birth of the Great Lenin, by the editorial departments of Renmin Ribao, Hongqi and Jiefangjun Bao, April 22, 1970, 78 pages.
Cheap Propaganda, 5 commentaries by Hsinhua Correspondent about hypocritical calls by the Soviet Union for disarmament, August-December 1973, 40 pages. (Peking: FLP, 1974)
Ugly Features of Soviet Social-Imperialism, a collection of articles from 1973-1975 exposing the Soviet Union as an imperialist power and international exploiter. (Peking: FLP, 1976), 96 pages. Includes:
The Superpower Label for Soviet Revisionism Cannot be Removed, by Fan Hsiao
The Brezhnev Clique is Following in Hitler’s Footsteps, commentary by Hsinhua Correspondent
A Black Line Running Through Two Dynasties — on the new tsars justifying old tsars’ aggression and expansion, commentary by Hsinhua Correspondent
Soviet Union — Superpower and Super-Exploiter, commentary by Hsinhua Correspondent
C.M.E.A. — Soviet Revisionism’s Instrument for Neo-Colonialism, commentary by Hsinhua Correspondent
Sinister Programme of Neo-Colonialism — Soviet revisionists’ vicious motives in peddling theory of ‘international division of labour’ in Third World, by Chai Chang
Honey on Lips, Murder in Heart — Social-imperialist nature of Soviet revisionists’ ‘military aid’ to Egypt exposed, by Fan Hsiu-chu and Chung Tung
Where is the ‘Dawn of Peace and Co-operation’?, by Mei Ou
Warsaw Treaty Organization — Soviet Social-Imperialism’s Tool for Aggression, by Ming Sung
Essence of Soviet Revisionists’ ‘All-Europe Economic Co-operation’, by Cheng Wei-min
Outright Deceit, Ulterior Motives — On Soviet revisionists peddling ‘Asian collective security system’ in Southeast Asia, commentary by Hsinhua Correspondent
Repulse Wolf at Front Gate, Guard Against Tiger at Back Door, by Jen Ku-ping
Documents from Parties and Individuals in Other Countries Critising Soviet Revisionism (Published in China)
Raise Higher the Revolutionary Banner of Marxism-Leninism, 3 articles by the Korean People’s Worker’s Party from 1962 and 1963 opposing revisionism, 44 pages. [Note: Our apologies for the condition of the pamphlet we scanned, which was literally falling apart. We scanned it in color to increase the contrast of the black print with the yellowed pages.] (Peking: FLP, 1963)
Reply to Khrushchov – Resolution of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Brazil, including the abridged text of the resolution of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Brazil of July 27, 1963, and also the article The Great Theory of Marxism-Leninism is Bound to Triumph on Our Continent, by José Duarte, originally from the Brazilian journal A Classe Operária, Aug. 16-31, 1963. (Peking: FLP, 1964), 32 pages.
‘Theory’ and Practice of the Modern Revisionists, by Jacques Grippa, Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Belgium, a speech delivered at the Higher Party School fo the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China on June 10, 1964. (Peking: FLP, 1965), 60 pages. [Note: Although Grippa initially supported China during the Sino-Soviet Split, he then began to oppose China during the GPCR, and in 1968 actually gave a speech in support of Liu Shaoqi!]
Border Disputes and Military Confrontations and Incidents Between China and the U.S.S.R.
Down With the New Tsars! a collection of statements and articles condemning the incursion of military forces of the revisionist Soviet Union onto China’s Chenpao Island in the Wusuli River in Heilungkiang Province. (Peking: FLP, 1969), 78 pages.
Down With the New Tsars! – Soviet Revisionists’ Anti-China Atrocities on the Heilung and Wusuli Rivers, photo-filled pamphlet, (Peking: FLP, 1969), 76 pages.
