Deicide

I had read somewhere that the Russians have been attempting to dominate Lithuania and essentially turn it into one of their puppets. Wasn't there just a vote about that recently, regarding making Russian an official language of the country? I'd imagine that many Lithuanians can probably speak some amount of russian as a result of this hegemony of Russia.

That's great, if you really are serious about translating some works, the Marxists archive would probably be interested in that. Translation work can be difficult, since the ideas behind certain words or phrases don't always translate over well. Even more so since you'd be translating a translation(unless you plan on translating directly from the original German Marxist texts). I am a student of the German language, and it can be tricky at times since strange neologisms can pop up quite frequently.

Yeah man, you REALLY need to hit DNZ up with a message. He's written on this subject extensively. I basically agree with DNZ on this particular issue. Notice how Lenin chose the word "Renegade" which is very specific. It implies that he(Kautsky) was at one point correct and on the right path, but later chose to go off that path to anti-communism. Lenin chose the word renegade because the theories of Marx, Engels, and then Kautsky provided the primary basis for his thought. As I'm sure you've noticed, Leninists don't really talk about this at all. The idea that a confirmed anti-communist forms part of the foundation of their ideology makes them uncomfortable. It shouldn't really, because Kautsky's works from before the war were fine. It's not like they were somehow tainted with the seed of anti communism.

As for Kautsky, he is one of the most important Marxist theorists, it was basically he that created the Marxist movement, organizing the theories of Marx and Engels into a coherent doctrine. However, most people haven't even heard of him today, despite the fact that Lenin based his own views heavily on Kautsky's. The reason is that he abandoned communism during World War 1 and then became an anti-communist(but it's important to note that he had been a marxist for like 40, he was like in his 70's during World War 1). As a result of this, people ignore those works of his that are good and were written while he still considered himself as a Marxist. Die Neue Zeit can give you a shit load of information on it, it's pretty interesting and worth reading. Most Leninists obsess over Lenin as if he was some divine god, but the reality is that he took most of his ideas from Kautsky, and then built upon that.

that's how I thought you meant it, but I wasn't sure if you knew about the original meaning. Many people do have religious like fanaticism, which is just one of the reasons I don't consider myself a Marxist. I don't want a static set of world views that become outdated and that I have to adjust my own values to, rather than the other way around. Marx is famous for stating that he was not a Marxist. Some people take it to mean what I just said, but some people think he was using it an insult against French socialists who styled themselves as Marxists.

You should probably also know that "Orthodox Marxism" is actually an ideology in and of itself. It generally refers the the theories and praxis of the Second International. The Second International ended with the start of the First World War. The primary proponent of Orthodox Marxism is Karl Kautsky, no doubt one of the most important marxist theorists(easily in the top 5) but you may not have heard of him. It's a complex story.. Anyway, what might be called some form of Orthodox Marxism is having a comeback. There are a few members of the forum like Rafiq that consider themselves to be orthodox marxists. If you are curious about it, just find Die Neue Zeit and ask him about the "Kautsky Revival"

The Frankfurt school isn't something that's discussed very often here, despite the massive amount of theoretical works the have produced. They're of a breed that no longer exists, what you might call analytical Marxists. In other words, they weren't part of the communist movement at all, were against the idea of revolution generally, and employed Marxism only in an abstract intellectual sense. So really the charge that they were bourgeois thinkers is indeed correct to some degree. The nice thing about having no ideology is that you can read whatever the fuck you want, and be able to consider it more or less without bias; so fuck yeah, I intend on reading the works of the Frankfurt School.

Oh, I've also never heard of those two philosophers(I'm assuming that's what they are). I enjoy reading philosophy, even if a lot of it tends to be bullshit, it's good for strengthening the mind.

Left Communism is a pretty big and diverse tendency. One of the good things about it is that it includes a large number of theorists, but doesn't really look at any of them as infallible gods. This makes it more nuanced and difficult to understand, but more accurate and worthwhile. I'll compile a list of books you can get on Marxists.org and send them to you in a PM.

Is that Wittgenstein in your avatar?

I can't say I've ever read him, but I plan on doing so in the future. You should check out some of the theorists in the Left Communist tradition, I think you'll find a lot to like. You might also be interested in checking out the Operaismo and Autonomism group, which suggests some texts on that subject.