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On Utopian and Scientific Socialism
Former owner's name, otherwise near fine.
254 pages, Hardcover
First published June 1, 1978
129 people want to read
About the author
Vladimir Ilich Lenin
2,771 books1,893 followersVladimir Ilyich Ulyanov, better known as Vladimir Lenin, was a Russian revolutionary, leader of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party (Bolsheviks), statesman and political theorist. After the October Revolution he served as the first and founding head of government of Soviet Russia from 1917 until his death in 1924 and of the Soviet Union from 1922 until his death in 1924.
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
January 19, 2026
As a selection of Lenin’s writings on the development of scientific socialist thought, the majority of writings in this volume are taken from longer works like What the Friends of the People Are… and “Left-Wing” Communism…. Owing to the wide range of problems utopian and scientific socialism are attached to, the editors tried to strike a balance between works dedicated to questions of the philosophical origins of Marxism, political economy, tactics, the transition to communism, etc., although the works are presented in order of publication rather than being separated on a topical basis.
In the first few works presented in this volume, Lenin discloses the origins of Marxism and how it demarcated itself from preceding utopian socialism and the trends of “reactionary socialism” mentioned in The Manifesto of the Communist Party, as well as the struggle for the development of a scientific socialist trend in Russia against the peasant-centric and individualist narodniks and anarchists who were widespread in Russia at the close of the nineteenth century. These works, too, show how scientific socialism, Marxism, came to develop in Russia and become a powerful force, offering important insight into how Marxism is to demarcate itself against various petty-bourgeois trends when the overall theoretical development of the advanced workers is quite low.
Additionally, much attention is drawn to the question of tactics and how the party is to assess a given situation and chart a course accordingly. The specifics of the worker-peasant alliance which made all the difference in the revolutions in Russia and several People’s Democracies, work in parliaments, reactionary trade unions, and other reactionary mass organisations, are all dealt with and several works contained here demonstrate how to gage the effectiveness of tactics and when certain tactics are appropriate. Additionally, a significant blow to sectarianism is offered as, particularly the excerpts from “Left-Wing” Communism…, Lenin shows how such narrow thinking is entirely antithetical to the Marxist understanding of the masses and Marx’s famous idea that “theory also becomes a material force as soon as it has gripped the masses” and that sectarian phrasemongering and circle mentalities will only divorce Marxism from the working class, turning Marxism into a hollow shell.
Also of great value are Lenin’s contributions on the proletarian dictatorship, developing upon Marx and Engels’ theses with the added experience of the 1905 and 1917 revolutions and the advent of the Soviet Republic. In his writings on the proletarian dictatorship, Lenin expresses the fundamental essence of Soviet power and how it builds upon the Commune, becoming the strongest form of proletarian dictatorship owing to the closeness with the masses offered by the soviets on the ground as compared the parliamentary or semi-parliamentary forms found in the Commune or People’s Democracy, while still maintaining that other forms of proletarian dictatorship will become possible and may arise in different ways with his famous assertion that: “All nations will arrive at socialism—this is inevitable, but all will do so in not exactly the same way, each will contribute something of its own to some form of democracy, to some variety of the dictatorship of the proletariat, to the varying rate of socialist transformations in the different aspects of social life” (p. 91).
Although definitely no replacement for reading the works of Marx, Engels, Lenin, and Stalin on the concerned questions in full, this work definitely offers a brilliant overview and helps to highlight some of the most outstanding contributions of Lenin to Marxist theory on various questions.
In the first few works presented in this volume, Lenin discloses the origins of Marxism and how it demarcated itself from preceding utopian socialism and the trends of “reactionary socialism” mentioned in The Manifesto of the Communist Party, as well as the struggle for the development of a scientific socialist trend in Russia against the peasant-centric and individualist narodniks and anarchists who were widespread in Russia at the close of the nineteenth century. These works, too, show how scientific socialism, Marxism, came to develop in Russia and become a powerful force, offering important insight into how Marxism is to demarcate itself against various petty-bourgeois trends when the overall theoretical development of the advanced workers is quite low.
Additionally, much attention is drawn to the question of tactics and how the party is to assess a given situation and chart a course accordingly. The specifics of the worker-peasant alliance which made all the difference in the revolutions in Russia and several People’s Democracies, work in parliaments, reactionary trade unions, and other reactionary mass organisations, are all dealt with and several works contained here demonstrate how to gage the effectiveness of tactics and when certain tactics are appropriate. Additionally, a significant blow to sectarianism is offered as, particularly the excerpts from “Left-Wing” Communism…, Lenin shows how such narrow thinking is entirely antithetical to the Marxist understanding of the masses and Marx’s famous idea that “theory also becomes a material force as soon as it has gripped the masses” and that sectarian phrasemongering and circle mentalities will only divorce Marxism from the working class, turning Marxism into a hollow shell.
Also of great value are Lenin’s contributions on the proletarian dictatorship, developing upon Marx and Engels’ theses with the added experience of the 1905 and 1917 revolutions and the advent of the Soviet Republic. In his writings on the proletarian dictatorship, Lenin expresses the fundamental essence of Soviet power and how it builds upon the Commune, becoming the strongest form of proletarian dictatorship owing to the closeness with the masses offered by the soviets on the ground as compared the parliamentary or semi-parliamentary forms found in the Commune or People’s Democracy, while still maintaining that other forms of proletarian dictatorship will become possible and may arise in different ways with his famous assertion that: “All nations will arrive at socialism—this is inevitable, but all will do so in not exactly the same way, each will contribute something of its own to some form of democracy, to some variety of the dictatorship of the proletariat, to the varying rate of socialist transformations in the different aspects of social life” (p. 91).
Although definitely no replacement for reading the works of Marx, Engels, Lenin, and Stalin on the concerned questions in full, this work definitely offers a brilliant overview and helps to highlight some of the most outstanding contributions of Lenin to Marxist theory on various questions.
August 13, 2024
I really liked this book. It thought me a great deal about how the Russian revolution was both planned and executed in a dialectic materialist way. Working materialistic in experience that were unprecedented is very brilliant but i expected nothing less from Lenin
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews