Marxism-Leninism

The combined name for Marxism and Leninism. Marx and Engels studied the economic and political development of capitalism in Europe, summed up the experience of European workers’ movements, absorbed and transformed the achievements of human ideology and culture, especially the latest achievements of philosophy, social sciences and natural sciences in the 18th and first half of the 19th centuries, and established a theoretical system including Marxist philosophy, political economics and scientific socialism. They explained the general law of the evolution of human society with historical materialism and revealed the special law of capitalist mode of production with surplus value theory. With the discovery of historical materialism and surplus value theory, socialism developed from fantasy to science. Marx and Engels demonstrated the historical inevitability of socialism and communism replacing capitalism, pointing out that the proletariat is a great class to realize this historical mission, while the proletarian party is the core to lead this cause. They expounded the theories of proletarian revolution and dictatorship of the proletariat, and put forward basic principles for future social development and construction on the basis of the scientific analysis of capitalist reality.

At the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century, capitalism entered the stage of monopoly (imperialism). Lenin applied the basic principles of Marxism to the practice of Russian revolution and construction under the new historical conditions, pushing Marxism to the stage of Leninism. Lenin thoroughly studied the new trend of capitalist development, founded the theory of imperialism, revealed the new stage of capitalist development, and proposed the new assertion that socialism can be victorious first in one country. Lenin personally led the October Revolution and seized the victory, opening a new era in human history. Lenin founded the theory of a new proletarian political party and defended and developed the Marxist theory of the dictatorship of the proletariat. After the victory of the October Revolution, Lenin made in-depth study in practice of the proposition of how to build socialism in Russia, a backward country both economically and culturally. He studied major strategic issues such as how to strengthen the construction of the Soviet regime and the ruling party, and put forward a series of insightful opinions, enriching the theoretical treasure of scientific socialism. The Marxist scientific theoretical system is characterized by the unity of theory and practice and needs to be enriched and developed in practice. Since Leninism promoted the development and innovation of Marxism under the new historical conditions, after Leninism came into being, people generally called Marxism as “Marxism-Leninism”.