The February Revolution overthrows the Romanov monarchy

Socialists from neutral and belligerent countries met to oppose the war. Lenin’s more radical position was a minority within the conference, showing that anti-war internationalism contained...

Lenin drafted Imperialism, the Highest Stage of Capitalism, analyzing monopoly, finance capital, and colonial rivalry. The work connected European class politics to imperial extraction, though its...

In essays on the national question, Lenin defended the right of nations to secede while arguing for working-class internationalism. This framework challenged Great Russian chauvinism in principle;...

In his 1916 essays, Lenin argued that socialists in oppressor nations had a duty to defend the right of oppressed nations to secede. This principled distinction challenged empire but remained tied...

In letters written before returning to Russia, Lenin argued that soviets and the Provisional Government represented competing centers of authority. His analysis helped frame Bolshevik debate, but...

Lenin returned via Germany, Sweden, and Finland amid wartime conditions and political controversy. His arrival energized Bolshevik debate, but the party initially resisted parts of his new line,...

The theses called for no support to the Provisional Government, transfer of power to soviets, land redistribution, and an end to the war. They reframed Bolshevik policy around immediate popular...

Workers and soldiers demonstrated amid war, shortages, and political crisis. The Bolshevik leadership tried to shape but did not initiate all the actions; after the protests were suppressed, Lenin...

Lenin revisited Marx and Engels on the state, arguing that a workers’ revolution must dismantle the existing bureaucratic-military apparatus. The theory’s promise of popular self-government later...

Lenin proposed public control of banks, monopolies, and supply as measures to address economic breakdown. The text placed economic planning at the center of the revolutionary programme; its...