The first article in this issue is a special editorial by Rob Sewell, explaining the importance of Lenin and his ideas, and defending his memory against both the slanders of bourgeois ‘historians’ and the grotesque distortions of the Stalinists.

Hamid Alizadeh has written a fascinating article on Lenin’s study of Hegel in 1914, which clearly demonstrates the importance of theory for Lenin and our movement, but also provides a clear and engaging explanation of the fundamentals of the dialectical method.

Lenin was fond of Ivan Goncharov’s novel, Oblomov, and referred to it many times in the course of his life.

Ben Gliniecki’s article offers a window into the lethargy and backwardness of Tsarist Russia, depicted in the book, and Lenin’s tireless struggle to banish it from the Bolshevik Party.

We are republishing an article by Alan Woods on Lenin’s struggle against the rise of the Soviet bureaucracy before he was incapacitated in 1923.

Originally written in 1970, the article explains why the Soviet Union suffered bureaucratic degeneration, and draws out the real approach of Lenin in relation to the life-and-death questions faced by the young workers’ state.

Following on from the previous article, this piece by Niklas Albin Svensson explains Trotsky’s struggle to rejuvenate the Bolshevik Party from Lenin’s stroke in March 1923 up to the foundation of the Left Opposition in 1924.

The issue ends with an article from Lenin himself, which perfectly captures the essence of the man and his genius.

Written in early 1905, after the onset of revolution in Russia, Lenin’s article brilliantly grasps the meaning of the situation, and issues a call to arms for the Russian Social Democracy shed all routinism and strive to provide an organised expression for the revolutionary movement of the workers.