January 21 was the 90th anniversary of the death of Vladimir Lenin.
Lenin was his revolutionary name. His birth name was Vladimir Il’ich Ulyanov. Lenin was perhaps the greatest revolutionary who has ever lived. We still have a great deal to learn from him. Certainly he is one of the giants, along with Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, pioneers of communist thought. They exposed the basic contradictions between capitalism and the working class.
Other great revolutionaries have come from the working class; Stalin was one. Lenin came from the petty bourgeoisie. They showed that, in the last analysis, what counts for every individual is his or her ideology, and what he or she decides to dedicate their lives to.
Like Marx and Engels, his great teachers and models, Lenin dedicated his life to the exploited and oppressed of the world, the working class first of all, but also the peasantry and those super-exploited by colonialism and racism.
We should study Lenin’s works — critically, of course. But respectfully too, since we have much to learn. Hard to do: be both critical and respectful. It’s something we have to learn to do better.
Lenin represented a whole movement, and an entire historical epoch. He did nothing “by himself.” At the same time, he pushed the working-class struggle for communism ahead by his tireless efforts.
We, and class-conscious workers, intellectuals, students, and others everywhere, owe him an immense debt. The best way to acknowledge that debt is by working for communist revolution the best we can.