Uploaded January 2020 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
This video is an explanation of Leninism. Please note that Marxism-Leninism is just another word for the same thing so there will be no separate video on that. In my video I explain what Leninism is, how it came about and how it worked. I discuss the unique situation of Russia before the first world war along with the ways in which the October revolution took place. I also explain the concept of a vanguard party
Twitter: twitter.com/Viki1999Yt
Transcript:
Welcome back to Ideology explained in this episode I am going to tell you about Leninism.
To understand Leninism we have to understand the situation of Russia in 1917. Uhhhh, since this is meant to be a short video I’ll skip most things. In short the ruling classes of Europe where fighting and by that I mean they sent their workers to die in the trenches while getting rich of the war economy. That war is known as World war one. You might have heard of that one already.
Before the war Russia was basically still a feudalist state. There where the Serfs who where basically slaves and there where the Kulaks who owned all of the land and the serfs and then because of industrialization the wealthy capitalists owned serfs who where forced to work in mines and factories. The ruler was the Tsar.
It has to be noted that capitalism was far from strongly developed in Russia. There where big mines and factories popping up but the vast majority of the people where a) Uneducated AF, most couldn’t even read and b) Living on the land not cities.
Now you may feel like this shows that the working class of Russia wasn’t even close to being ready for a revolution and you’d be right. The serfs weren’t really convinced by the ideas of Marx yet and they made up most of the population.
And this is when the world war started. The Tzar invested most of the industrial capacity into the army and since most soldiers where just conscripted farmers the food production fell. The people became angry and they were calling for the removal of the Tsar.
The calls were coming from very different directions. Some wanted a constitutional monarchy, like in the UK. Others wanted a full republic like in France and others again demanded a democratic dictatorship of the proletariat. They weren’t really the majority or even close to be honest. Again most Russians didn’t care about Marx or socialism. But they did care about getting fed and the war and the Tsar where standing in the way of that.
So, there was a revolution! But that one didn’t change anything sot here was another revolution! It was led by a man named Lenin and his Bolshevik Party! They stormed the government buildings and proclaimed the Soviet union. Then they fought a civil war against the troops that where loyal to the Tsar and then they had achieved true socialism!
Well actually not. Do you remember how according to Marx the people were supposed to overthrow the state? That’s not what happened here is it? The state was overthrown by Lenin and the Bolsheviks. Not by the people. Remember how the population was not yet ready for a revolution? Lenin knew that but he also saw that the time as perfect for taking power.
The people where hungry and ready for a revolution and if Lenin hadn’t seized this opportunity then another one might now have come up for decades. So Lenin came up with the concept of the Vanguard party. It’s a party or army that takes power from the state and them takes over the functions of the state to educate the working class and modernize the country in order to allow the people to take it over later.
Lenin’s USSR was never intended as a socialist country but more as a protective motherland that would protect and educate the people until they could take over and spread the revolution. Before Lenin died, he was convinced that the real revolution would happen in Germany and spread from there. His goal was to educate the Russian workers so they would be ready to support the real revolution later.
Of course, then Lenin died, and his successor had other plans and he was going to reinforce his position and centralize his power but Stalinism, socialism in one country and the command economy are topics for other videos.
So that’s Leninism. It was born out of circumstance in Russia During world war one. The danger with Leninism is that it centralizes power which would allow SOMEONE to create a cult of personality and purge everyone that could be a threat to them. Of course, anarchists are very opposed to Leninism because of the whole vanguard party thing but many modern socialist parties use Leninism because it’s somewhat easy to implement if you already have a party with popular support and aren’t opposed to a big centralized government.
Thanks for watching C Ya
This video is an explanation of Leninism. Please note that Marxism-Leninism is just another word for the same thing so there will be no separate video on that. In my video I explain what Leninism is, how it came about and how it worked. I discuss the unique situation of Russia before the first world war along with the ways in which the October revolution took place. I also explain the concept of a vanguard party
Twitter: twitter.com/Viki1999Yt
Transcript:
Welcome back to Ideology explained in this episode I am going to tell you about Leninism.
To understand Leninism we have to understand the situation of Russia in 1917. Uhhhh, since this is meant to be a short video I’ll skip most things. In short the ruling classes of Europe where fighting and by that I mean they sent their workers to die in the trenches while getting rich of the war economy. That war is known as World war one. You might have heard of that one already.
Before the war Russia was basically still a feudalist state. There where the Serfs who where basically slaves and there where the Kulaks who owned all of the land and the serfs and then because of industrialization the wealthy capitalists owned serfs who where forced to work in mines and factories. The ruler was the Tsar.
It has to be noted that capitalism was far from strongly developed in Russia. There where big mines and factories popping up but the vast majority of the people where a) Uneducated AF, most couldn’t even read and b) Living on the land not cities.
Now you may feel like this shows that the working class of Russia wasn’t even close to being ready for a revolution and you’d be right. The serfs weren’t really convinced by the ideas of Marx yet and they made up most of the population.
And this is when the world war started. The Tzar invested most of the industrial capacity into the army and since most soldiers where just conscripted farmers the food production fell. The people became angry and they were calling for the removal of the Tsar.
The calls were coming from very different directions. Some wanted a constitutional monarchy, like in the UK. Others wanted a full republic like in France and others again demanded a democratic dictatorship of the proletariat. They weren’t really the majority or even close to be honest. Again most Russians didn’t care about Marx or socialism. But they did care about getting fed and the war and the Tsar where standing in the way of that.
So, there was a revolution! But that one didn’t change anything sot here was another revolution! It was led by a man named Lenin and his Bolshevik Party! They stormed the government buildings and proclaimed the Soviet union. Then they fought a civil war against the troops that where loyal to the Tsar and then they had achieved true socialism!
Well actually not. Do you remember how according to Marx the people were supposed to overthrow the state? That’s not what happened here is it? The state was overthrown by Lenin and the Bolsheviks. Not by the people. Remember how the population was not yet ready for a revolution? Lenin knew that but he also saw that the time as perfect for taking power.
The people where hungry and ready for a revolution and if Lenin hadn’t seized this opportunity then another one might now have come up for decades. So Lenin came up with the concept of the Vanguard party. It’s a party or army that takes power from the state and them takes over the functions of the state to educate the working class and modernize the country in order to allow the people to take it over later.
Lenin’s USSR was never intended as a socialist country but more as a protective motherland that would protect and educate the people until they could take over and spread the revolution. Before Lenin died, he was convinced that the real revolution would happen in Germany and spread from there. His goal was to educate the Russian workers so they would be ready to support the real revolution later.
Of course, then Lenin died, and his successor had other plans and he was going to reinforce his position and centralize his power but Stalinism, socialism in one country and the command economy are topics for other videos.
So that’s Leninism. It was born out of circumstance in Russia During world war one. The danger with Leninism is that it centralizes power which would allow SOMEONE to create a cult of personality and purge everyone that could be a threat to them. Of course, anarchists are very opposed to Leninism because of the whole vanguard party thing but many modern socialist parties use Leninism because it’s somewhat easy to implement if you already have a party with popular support and aren’t opposed to a big centralized government.
Thanks for watching C Ya
