This year marked the centenary of Lenin’s death. In order to reclaim the real legacy of one of history’s greatest revolutionaries, we dedicated a series of articles to some of Lenin’s most important texts throughout 2024.

The aim of the Lenin in a Year series was to shine a light on the immense contributions that Lenin made to Marxist theory and practice throughout his life, by highlighting both his most famous, but also some of his lesser-known writings. These works contain invaluable lessons for communists today in the struggle for the liberation of humanity from the shackles of capitalism and imperialism, which all serious revolutionaries should be encouraged to study.

The contributions to the Lenin in a Year series have proven immensely popular with readers of marxist.com, with every article giving useful and engaging insights into Lenin’s works. We publish below the full collection of articles from the series – in chronological order – and encourage readers to make the most of this resource in the future, in order to make a serious study of Lenin’s life and work.

1894

What the “Friends of the People” Are and How They Fight the Social-Democrats

1899

The Development of Capitalism in Russia

1901

Where to Begin?: How the foundations of Bolshevism were laid

What Is To Be Done?: How Lenin built a battle organisation

1904

One Step Forward, Two Steps Back: A house divided – how Bolshevism and Menshevism first took form

1905

Two Tactics of Social-Democracy: The ‘Two Tactics’ of the 1905 Revolution – a line is drawn between Bolshevism and Menshevism

1908

Materialism and Empirio-criticism: In Defence of Materialism

1909

The Faction of Supporters of Otzovism and God-Building: Marxism under attack after the 1905 revolution – Lenin fights back

1913

The Three Sources and Three Component Parts of Marxism

1914

The Right of Nations to Self-Determination: How Lenin fought for workers’ unity in the ‘prison house of nations’

1916

Imperialism, the Highest Stage of Capitalism: understanding reality in order to transform it

1917

April Theses: rearming the Bolsheviks for power

The Tasks of the Proletariat in Our Revolution

The State and Revolution: rekindling communism

The Impending Catastrophe and How to Combat It: Lenin’s transitional programme – “Perish or forge full steam ahead”

1918

The Immediate Tasks of the Soviet Government

"Left-Wing" Childishness and the Petty-Bourgeois Mentality: The Bolsheviks in power – Lenin’s revolutionary realism against ultra-left despair

The Proletarian Revolution and the Renegade Kautsky: “A most learned armchair fool”

1919

Economics And Politics In The Era Of The Dictatorship Of The Proletariat: Lenin in power – how the class struggle continued after the workers took power

The Third International and Its Place in History

1920

“Left-Wing” Communism: an Infantile Disorder: Bolshevik tactics versus revolutionary impatience

1922

On the Significance of Militant Materialism

Lenin's Testament: Lenin’s struggle against bureaucracy