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Lenin was obviously influenced by Karl Marx's writing, The Communist Manifesto. To have revolutionized Russia, Lenin took these theories and shaped them to fit his needs at the time of the Russian Revolution. His close comrade, Leon Trotsky, agreed on some of the revisions yet disagreed on the others. The doctrine of the Bolsheviks was the mold of Marx filled with the steel of Lenin. The theories of Marx predicted a revolution that was supposed to happen in an industrialized and capitalistic nation. At the time of Lenin, Russia was neither of those two.
Marx's dream was a dictatorship of the proletariat; Lenin turned it into the dictatorship over the proletariat. Unlike Marx Lenin believed the struggle of the proletariat against the oppressing capitalists would not bring forward a class consciousness needed to a social revolution. Lenin knew that the workers of Russia, the simple muzhiks, needed to be pushed over edge and into revolution. From here comes the first revision of Lenin, an elite party is required to guide the proletariat.
These elites must be professional revolutionists who can combat the antagonists. By suggesting the rule of the elite Lenin also dropped the idea of Marx's democratic rule. By incorporating the elite leaders into the revolution Lenin believed that the Russian people could accelerate their path to communism. When the Russian economy struggled Lenin created the NEP (New Economic Policy). By putting this into action in Russia they took a step back from communism to capitalism. Marx would be rolling over in his grave at the sound of such action, since he believed that passage to communism was a one-way road.
Yet, Lenin, being a practical man, believed a few steps back would lead to a giant leap forward. These are the key revisions of Marx made by Lenin. Leonid Trotsky was Lenin's right hand man and played a key part in the revolution. When the Russian Socialists first split into the two groups, Bolsheviks and Mensheviks, he joined with the later. He disagreed with Lenin on who should lead the revolution. Unlike Lenin, Trotsky didnt believe that an elite group was needed and that the leadership should be left to the proletariat.
He later split with the Mensheviks because he did not agree that the middle class should lead the initial stages of the revolution. Trotsky beliefs put him in a camp of his own and he did not join the Bolsheviks until 1917. Trotsky agreed with Lenin that the proletariat of Russia could bypass the capitalistic phase and go straight into communism from imperialism. During the early 1920 s the two men had a disagreement over the roles of trade unions but this was a small disruption in their relationship. By agreeing with many of Lenin's alterations to Marx's Communist Manifesto Trotsky becomes a key member of the Bolsheviks. Lenin and his companions faced a difficult challenge when attempting to socialize Russia.
They were unable to completely utilize the works of Marx since his were aimed at the industrialized nations such as Britain and Germany. To suit his purpose Lenin bent Marx's theories. These modifications were used to deal with Russias backwards people and government and to jump over the capitalist phase. Trotsky, while disagreeing on some of Lenin's theories, agrees with the most and became a loyal companion to the Bolsheviks. Leninist-Marxism became the blueprint for the USSR.
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Research essay sample on Communist Manifesto Lenin Believed Revolution
