Section 5: An Introduction to Marxism

The Bolshevik party led by Lenin (see next section) was a communist party and Lenin's ideas were based on communism. Lenin constantly argued that the methods he employed were based on communist teachings so it is vital to understand communism if you are going to try to get inside Lenin's mind to see why he did the things that he did. The ideas of communism were those of Karl Marx, a German writer, and his ideas can be found mainly in two major works:

1. Das Kapital (1885)

2. The Communist Manifesto (1848)

Karl Marx. Picture from The Illustrated London News.

The main ideas behind Marxism - 1. Historical determinism

Marx believed he had discovered a science of historical development, a set of rules by which society would develop. He believed that circumstances shape history as much as people's individual actions so to a large extent future change is predetermined and can therefore be predicted.

The ideas are based on those of the German philosopher Hegel who believed in a theory he called Dialectical Materialism. Briefly the idea was that society changes in three stages that are called the thesis, the antithesis and the synthesis.

• The thesis is a situation that exists (e.g. in The Middle Ages the kings had all the power).
• This is followed by the antithesis which is the opposite of the thesis (e.g. parliament has all the power as in Britain after the Civil War when Britain was ruled as a republic under Oliver Cromwell).
• This will be followed by the synthesis which takes some elements from both the previous situations (as in Britain after 1688 when the monarchy returned but on parliament's terms with its power being defined by parliament).

Two quotes from Marx will give you a flavour of his ideas. Discuss with others what you think they mean.

1. 'The history of all hitherto existing societies is the history of class struggle.' The opening words of the Communist Manifesto.

2. 'Force is the midwife of a society pregnant with change'. Das Capital

The main ideas behind Marxism - 2. Change in history

Revolution and revolutionary change are the driving forces behind all significant changes in history. The most significant forces that bring about change from one period to another are changes in economic conditions.