Western Civilization II / Unit 15 WC2 1405 short lesson, about 20 seconds
Bakunin Plus Marx: Lenin's Vanguard Party
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The idea
Russian radicalism was apocalyptic, Bakunin its type: destroy the order and altruism follows. Marx said revolution needed advanced industry; Russia was peasant. Lenin's answer was the vanguard party: dedicated revolutionaries who lead, because workers alone reach only trade union consciousness, and Russia could skip capitalism.
In practice
A militant, organized party with contacts in the army by nineteen seventeen.
Where people slip
Lenin is read at 1431.
Your place on the trail
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