Leninism is that part of the doctrine of Soviet communism, and to a lesser extent part of the official ideology of Western communist parties, that altered Marxism to fit the perceptions of organized communist movements. It consists mainly of a justification for a strong, authoritarian and essentially undemocratic party as necessary for socialist revolution. Leninism claims that the ordinary industrial proletariat cannot of themselves become revolutionary, cannot perceive their true interests, and must be led by intellectual revolutionaries—the vanguard of the proletariat.
While Lenin himself believed this strongly, his position was relative to the historical conditions of Russia in the early decades of this century, and to the period of massive imperial control of the Third World by Western nations, and was probably never intended to be a permanent doctrine. Nevertheless, communist and extreme left movements today can be usefully characterized by whether they adopt a Leninist version of Marxism (see Marxist-Leninism), or some other. The two most usual alternatives to Leninism are Trotskyism and Maoism.
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