Besides the obvious ones, what are works every Marxist-Leninist should read?

  1. Questionable
    Questionable
    Obviously we should read Capital, What Is To Be Done, Foundations of Leninism, etc.

    However, what are some lesser-known works that should be studied?
  2. Workers-Control-Over-Prod
    Workers-Control-Over-Prod
    I'd recommend reading "Critique of the Goethe Programme" (Marx) and "The Road to Power" by Karl Kautsky.
  3. Roach
    Roach
    Mao, Hoxha and modern brezhnevites like Ludo Martens, Alvaro Cunhal, KKE documents, etc should be read because it always comes that time in life where you have to choose between one of them. Also there are a bunch of history books too, Getty, Furr, Domenico Lusordo, finnally theory should not be read without practice
  4. Roach
    Roach
    People like gramsci but soc-dems have abused his theories a lot.
  5. Questionable
    Questionable
    Mao, Hoxha and modern brezhnevites like Ludo Martens, Alvaro Cunhal, KKE documents, etc should be read because it always comes that time in life where you have to choose between one of them. Also there are a bunch of history books too, Getty, Furr, Domenico Lusordo, finnally theory should not be read without practice
    Ludo Martens is a Brezhnevite? Odd, I know he defends Stalin aggressively. I thought Brezhnevites believed that Stalin revised Lenin and that the USSR was getting back on track until Gorbachev ruined everything?
  6. Ismail
    Ismail
    Ludo Martens is a Brezhnevite? Odd, I know he defends Stalin aggressively. I thought Brezhnevites believed that Stalin revised Lenin and that the USSR was getting back on track until Gorbachev ruined everything?
    Ludo Martens was basically a "pan-leftist" type. If you upheld Lenin and (to whatever extent) Stalin, then you were good in his eyes, so he upheld the USSR, China, DPRK, Cuba, etc. He held that the USSR under Khrushchev and onwards pursued a course to the right of Stalin, but was still socialist. Harpal Brar has the same view.

    The term "Brezhnevite" only really came into being after 1989 and refers to those who basically see everyone as "socialist" except Trotsky and Bukharin. They tend to criticize Khrushchev and to a lesser extent Brezhnev using arguments similar to Martens and Brar, while still defending the USSR as socialist until Perestroika. Brezhnevites view the Maoist and pro-Albanian critiques of the Soviet revisionists as "ultra-leftist" or "sectarian."

    Gus Hall would be an example of a Brezhnevite. While the USSR existed he praised it to the skies (as expected from a leader of the CPUSA), but was not fond of Gorbachev and praised the DPRK later in life. He was also criticized as a "dogmatist" and seen as a "hardliner" by more liberal currents within the CPUSA, who generally welcomed Glasnost and Perestroika as "strengthening socialism." When the August Coup came Hall didn't want the CPUSA to condemn it, whereas the liberal factions did.
  7. Workers-Control-Over-Prod
    Workers-Control-Over-Prod
    I thought the August Coup was a farce to go along and dissolve the SU?
  8. Ismail
    Ismail
    I thought the August Coup was a farce to go along and dissolve the SU?
    It was a farce as far as "socialism" went, but from the vantage point of someone upholding the USSR it was quite a big issue whether or not to support Gorbachev or support people being labeled as "hardliners" against him.

    One RevLefter who used to be a CPUSA member recalls the day the coup happened, CPUSA members were huddled around radios hearing the latest reports and debating what position the party should take.
  9. Zealot
    Zealot
    Hope I don't get any flack for this since this recommendation is neither popular nor Marxist-Leninist but I found The Prince by Niccolo Machiavelli to be particularly illuminating. Despite being touted as a dictator's guide sent by Satan himself, Machiavelli was simply attempting to understand how power is held, won, lost, etc. and he typically uses examples to demonstrate his analysis. While I was reading it I made sure to think of contemporary events and examples, which allowed me to put his thoughts into perspective. It would in fact be interesting if someone were to release an edition that included case studies and analyses from our own time period. I like it mostly for its brutal honesty because rather than describing some type of idealised society (i.e., The Republic by Plato) he describes things as they are.
  10. Roach
    Roach
    True, clausewitz is really good too, but big as hell.
  11. Paul Pott
    The State and Revolution isn't cited enough in lists like this imo.
  12. Akshay!
    Fredrich Engels' Socialism: Utopian and Scientific
  13. Questionable
    Questionable
    The State and Revolution isn't cited enough in lists like this imo.
    Is it not? I figured it was standard. That book is what made me not only a Leninist but a Marxist in general, I had read stuff by Marx but wasn't completely convinced until I read Lenin.
  14. Brutus
    Brutus
    Fredrich Engels' Socialism: Utopian and Scientific
    You see, the problem with this is that Marx didn't take his red pen to it, so to speak. Compare this to Anti-Duhring and you'll see the difference (the latter being superior).