V. I. Lenin [antikvár]

Introduction Of all the figures dealt with in this series, it will hardly be denied that by far the biggest shadow is cast by Lenin. At least, this is true if we consider the political and social world, for it might be argued that in some long run a writer like Camus or a philosopher like Wittgenstein would endure even better. But Frantz Fanon or Che Guevara (as they would themselves, of course, have readily conceded) shrink to almost nothing compared with the man who created a centralized revolutionary party machine, with it took and held power over a major country, and founded and inspired a similar set of parties with similar aims throughout the world. Nor is the power of his teaching and of his example spent. With the exception of anarchists (who have from the start condemned his whole record) there are few revolutionaries in the world who are not, or do not believe themselves to be, in some sense "Leninist." The same applies to the rulers, however mutually anti-