What Is to Be Done?
Author | Vladimir Lenin (as N. Lenin) |
---|---|
Original title | Что дѣлать? Наболѣвшіе вопросы нашего движенія |
Language | Russian |
Published | 1902 |
What Is to Be Done? Burning Questions of Our Movement
The text's central focus is the ideological formation of the
Main points
Lenin first confronts the so-called
Lenin hypothesizes that workers will not spontaneously develop class consciousness due to economic conflicts with their employers or through spontaneous actions like strikes or demonstrations.[3]: 30 Instead, revolutionaries need to form a political party to publicize Marxist ideas and persuade workers to join.[3]: 30 Lenin argues that understanding politics requires understanding all of society, not just workers and their economic struggles with their employers.
Class political consciousness can be brought to the workers only from without; that is, only from outside the economic struggle, from outside the sphere of relations between workers and employers. The sphere from which alone it is possible to obtain this knowledge is the sphere of relationships (of all classes and strata) to the state and the government, the sphere of the interrelations between all classes.[6]
Reflecting on the wave of strikes in late 19th century Russia, Lenin writes that "the history of all countries shows that the working class, exclusively by its own efforts, is able to develop only trade-union consciousness"; that is, combining into
Notes
- ^ Pre-reformed Russian: Что дѣлать? Наболѣвшіе вопросы нашего движенія; Russian: Что делать? Наболевшие вопросы нашего движения, romanized: Chto delat? Nabolevshie voprosy nashego dvizheniya
References
- ^ Le Blanc, Paul. 2008. Revolution, Democracy, Socialism: Selected Writings of Lenin. London: Pluto Press. pp. 9, 128.
- ^ Lenin, Vladimir (1901). "What Is To Be Done?". Lenin's Selected Works. Marxists Internet Archive. Retrieved 11 February 2018.
- ^ ISBN 9798987931608.
- ISBN 978-0-02-919795-0.
- ^ North, David (6 September 2005). "The Origins of Bolshevism and What Is To Be Done?". World Socialist Web Site. International Committee of the Fourth International. Archived from the original on 6 June 2013. Retrieved 3 June 2013.
- ^ Lenin, Vladimir (1901). "What Is to Be Done?". Lenin Internet Archive at Marxists Internet Archive.
- ^ Le Blanc, Paul (2008). Revolution, Democracy, Socialism: Selected Writings of Lenin. London: Pluto Pres. pp. 31, 137–138.
Primary source
- Russian Wikisource has original text related to this article: Что делать?
- Works related to What is to Be Done? at Wikisource
- J. Fineberg and G. Hanna. Lenin Internet Archive. Marxists Internet Archive. Retrieved 5 July 2020. Available as eText.
Further reading
- T. Lih, Lars. 2006. Lenin Rediscovered: What Is to Be Done? in Context (Historical Materialism series). Leiden: Brill. Reviewed by:
- Blackledge, Paul. 3 July 2006. "What was Done". International Socialism 111. Retrieved 5 July 2020.
- Craig, Joe. 10 November 2006. "Review – 'Lenin Rediscovered: What Is to Be Done? in Context'". Socialist Democracy. Retrieved 5 July 2020.
- Sewell, Rob. 14 June 2018. "The Revolutionary Lessons of Lenin's What Is to Be Done?". In Defense of Marxism. International Marxist Tendency. Retrieved 13 May 2019.
- "What They Did to What Is to Be Done?", Hal Draper's essay contextualizing WITBD
External links
- What Shall We Do? public domain audiobook at LibriVox