Marxism–Leninism
Marxism-Leninism was the official ideology of the USSR. It developed after Lenin's death when competing factions within the Soviet leadership attempted to establish their legitimacy as Lenin's political successors. Soviet leaders such as Leon Trotsky, Grigory Zinoviev, and Joseph Stalin wrote works developing the concept of a specifically Leninist ideology. Joseph Stalin coined the term to describe an ideology which considers Lenin's political thought to be a necessary development of Marxism, and made the term popular through The History of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (Bolsheviks) (1938).
Background
Marxist-Leninist Ideology
Democratic centralism
A Marxist-Leninist party is organized according to democratic centralism. This means that first the party democratically decides something, and then all members are required to follow that decision and not work against it. If members still disagree with the decision, they are expected to request to discuss the issue again, not to form a faction or another party.
Socialism in one country
Political economy, crises and revolution
The lower phase of communism, aka socialism
Other Forms
Maoism
Hoxhaism
The term "Hoxhaism" is commonly used to describe the communists parties which sided with the ideological line of Albanian communist leader Enver Hoxha and the Party of Labour of Albania. "Hoxhaists" have historically been defined by their resistance towards Maoism, the post-Stalin Soviet Union, and market socialism, viewing the countries which followed these lines as being social-imperialist and otherwise revisionist. The term "Hoxhaism" is rarely employed by the organizations which are associated with this trend, with Hoxhaists viewing Hoxha's theoretical contributions to Marxism as strictly an augmentation of anti-revisionism rather than a distinct ideology. Hoxhaists typically identify themselves with Marxism–Leninism or Stalinism.[1]
Ho Chi Minh Thought
Criticisms
Marxist critics argue that Marxism-Leninism works from the assumption that the Soviet Union was a socialist society and use this as reference point to navigate both political theory and practice. The consequence of this being that Marxism-Leninism is reconciled with bourgeois concepts such as the nation-state and nationalism. The most common criticism of Marxism-Leninism from Trotskyists is that rather than seeking to spread the socialist revolution throughout the world through direct revolutionary action, hence pursuing "Proletarian Internationalism," Stalin instead only assisted existing socialist revolutions, believing that the Soviet Union was the only country in the world capable of achieving socialism due to the success of its own revolution, and actually enacted a foreign policy of "peaceful coexistence" with the Western capitalist powers. [citation needed] Stalin named this theory Socialism in one country.
Trotsky
Bordiga
Paul Mattick
References
http://en.internationalism.org/ir/96/leninists
https://isreview.org/issue/93/zinovievism-and-degeneration-world-communism
https://archive.org/details/25ZinovievLeninizm
https://www.marxists.org/history/etol/newspape/ni/vol10/no03/trotsky.htm
https://libcom.org/library/revolutionary-alternative-left-wing-politics
The History of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (Bolsheviks) (1938)
- ↑ "Revolutionary Spirit: The Marxist-Leninist Guide to Leftist Factions". Revolutionary Spirit. 2010-02-27. Retrieved 2023-01-08.