What is Marxism-Leninism?

[ymtd21]

:confused: what did it stand for and what was its ideals?

[Ismail]

This should be moved to Learning.

In any case, check out this thread: http://www.revleft.com/vb/revleft-com-consolidated-t131001/index.html (it has a section entitled: " Marxism-Leninism and ideologies derived from it Orthodox Leninism, Maoism, Trotskyism, Juche..")

Then there's always Wikipedia.

In short: it's Marxism and Leninism, interpreted and originally developed during the period of Stalin's leadership of the USSR from 1924-1953. Marxist-Leninists reject Trotskyism.

Otherwise lots of parties and movements call themselves "Marxist-Leninist" with very different views.

[Astinilats]

The world's only hope.

[Uppercut]

The world's only hope.

This

[Kléber]

Marxism is a form of revolutionary, scientific socialism (as opposed to utopian and reformist socialism) centered on two basic principles: the political independence of the working class and the international unity of the working class. See these:

Socialism: Utopian and Scientific (http://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1880/soc-utop/index.htm)

Three Sources and Three Component Parts of Marxism (http://www.marxists.org/archive/lenin/works/1913/mar/x01.htm)

Leninism refers to the ideology of the Russian Bolshevik party, which under the leadership of Lenin and Trotsky established a workers' state based on local councils (soviets) in the glorious October 1917 proletarian revolution. Lenin tweaked Marxism a bit with Lenin's vanguard theory of party organization (http://www.marxists.org/archive/lenin/works/1901/witbd/) and analysis of imperialism (http://www.marxists.org/archive/lenin/works/1916/imp-hsc/).

"Marxism-Leninism" did not start until Lenin died, and is actually a code word for Stalinism, the official dogma of the Soviet bureaucratic regime developed from 1924 and outlined in the changing editions of Problems of Leninism. The basic points of Stalinism are that socialism was established in Russia in 1936, and the international revolution should be subordinated to the geopolitical interests of the "socialist" state, whose army will accomplish the world revolution in place of the international working class; accordingly, the Communist International ceased meeting from 1935 and was dissolved in 1943.

Parties with "Marxism-Leninism" as their state religion once controlled half the world, then turned on each other (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Sino-Soviet_split_1980.svg), each claiming to have the correct "Marxist-Leninist" line. Some "M-L's" like Tito and Khrushchev denounced Stalin, other "M-L's" believe that any government which criticizes Stalin is "state-capitalist"

Today, Stalinists still hide behind the failed religion "Marxism-Leninism." The rival of Stalinism in the 30's was "Bolshevik-Leninism," aka Trotskyism.

[Uppercut]

If you want to learn about the government structure and organization of the USSR before Khruschev, you can read the 1936 Soviet Constitution here: http://www.departments.bucknell.edu/russian/const/1936toc.html

Also, Grover Furr has a great article on the internal happenings of the Communist Party here: http://clogic.eserver.org/2005/furr.html

You could do a search for some of J. Arch Getty's research as well. Hope this helps.