ABSTRACT
V. I. Lenin, a progenitor of Marxism-Leninism, formed his militant teaching out of Karl Marx’s nineteenth-century theory of revolution. Marx predicted the coming of a revolution of proletarians guided by “communists” who would not only understand the world but would know how to change it. The revolutionary impulse of Marxism, which was fading in Europe, was thus rearmed by Lenin. From an energizing force Marxism-Leninism has petrified into a dogma that props up power structures that have lost their reason for being. The signs of trouble are most evident in the heartland of Marxism’s greatest triumphs on the Eurasian landmass—the Soviet Union and the People’s Republic of China (PRC). The crisis facing the ruling doctrine of the Soviet Union and the PRC goes much deeper than economics. The history of Marxism-Leninism has been tied to the careers of dominating leader-personalities. Lenin sought to make the party impervious to heterodox debate and the pluralism inherent in a genuine democratic process.
