Other than "A Marxist-Leninist is one who upholds the theories of Marx, Engels and Lenin alongside various other Revolutionaries. As a result they show direct opposition to the path of Trotskyist, Ultra-Leftist and Revisionist trends of Socialism." Can someone tell me more about Marxism-Leninism? What makes it different from regular communism etc? What does "ultra-leftist" mean and how is that different from communism? What is revisionist/revisionism? The information about this group tells that the USSR was socialist in 30 years?(maybe I remebmer wrong), but how could the USSR be socialist when all the workers did not control the means of production? Marx clearly said socialism is when workers themself control and own the means of production. So saying the USSR was socialist, is in fact anti-marxist to say??? Theese are some of the topics that confuses me like hell and I hope some of you can write a ton for me to read. Thanks in advance!
You should read The State and Revolution. Aside from Marx, it's the piece of communist literature which has influenced me the most.
Marxism-Leninism means the doctrines of Marx, Engels, and Lenin (and Stalin and Enver Hoxha.) Its differences from "regular communism" (when Marx and Engels were alive) express themselves in the same way as the differences between how evolution was understood in Darwin's time and how it is understood today: some of Darwin's views became dated while others were not fully sketched out, but subsequent "evolutionists" (so to speak) expanded on his work. Ultra-leftism means engaging in acts which either alienate the proletariat from the communist movement and harm the movement itself (e.g. terrorism, sectarianism, etc.) Revisionism is the distortion of Marxism and/or Leninism which deprives it of its revolutionary and scientific content and instead puts it in the service of the bourgeoisie. For instance, reformism is a basic form of revisionism.
Lenin gave a practical application to Marxism. That's why Lenin's work was mainly about the state and the party. Regarding ultra-leftism, I think that what separates them from M-L the most is reality. While Marxist-Leninist like to face reality like it is the majority (if not all) of the ultra-leftists ignore reality and that's why they never ruled a country and never will as long as they refuse to put their feet on the ground. Lenin wrote about this in his book "Left-Wing" Communism: An Infantile Disorder". They prefer to take the easy road and say that USSR had nothing to do with socialism while the M-L defend its socialist legacy for the good and for the bad. Another important difference is the stagist theory. While Marx and Lenin defended that communism (and thus the disappearance of the state) would be achieved through stages the ultra-leftists (mainly the anarchists) defend a immediate abolition of the state which is non-viable.
