What is to Be Done? an Introduction to Lenin
A ruthless pragmatist, sharp-tongued polemicist, gifted theoretician, consummate revolutionary, and among the most brilliant political minds in modern history, Lenin was the first revolutionary Marxist to lead a successful revolution and the uncontested leader of the communist movement. Yet, his very fame and subsequent mythologization in both the communist and anti-communist Cold War imaginary have obscured the intricacies of his thought, the singularity of his political trajectory, and the extent to which both were shaped by the complex political context in which he evolved. Originally a social democrat, Lenin’s frustrations with reformism instilled in him the belief that achieving socialism required nothing less than a remaking of society from top to bottom, as led by a highly centralized, tightly disciplined vanguard party. But almost immediately after ascending to power, Lenin and the Bolsheviks were forced into a series of compromises–from the introduction of the New Economic Policy to the repression of the Kronstadt uprising–that called into question the very nature of the communist project. How, then, can we understand Lenin’s complex legacy? How can we reconcile his radical emancipatory vision with the troubled history of actually existing communisms in Russia and beyond? What were Lenin’s main contributions to Marxism? How did the specificities of the Russian situation influence him? And what is left of Lenin today?
In this course, we will retrace Lenin’s revolutionary journey from his student days in the 1890s to his death in 1924. We will read from his most famous works including The Development of Capitalism in Russia, What is to be Done?, Imperialism: the Highest Stage of Capitalism, Materialism and Empirio-Criticism, and State and Revolution, as well as shorter articles, letters, and pamphlets. We will place these writings in their historical context, paying particular attention to Lenin’s role and influence in the Russian Revolutions of 1905 and 1917, his activity as part of the Second and Third Internationals, and his time at the head of the young Soviet Union. We will supplement these readings by those of his contemporaries including Karl Marx, Friedrich Engels, Rosa Luxemburg, Leon Trotsky, Gerogi Plekhanov, Joseph Stalin, Karl Radek, Alexandra Kollontai, as well as later commentators such as Georg Lukács and Louis Althusser.
Course Schedule
Thursday, 6:30-9:30pm ETJuly 10 — July 31, 2025
4 weeks
$335.00
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