Marx never set out a detailed analysis of what he expected a communist society would look like - even the Communist Manifesto is more of a critique of capitalism, than a political manifesto.
Lenin also was enough of a pragmatist to detail exactly what shape a communist society would take - he sought to adapt Marx's ideas to the changing situation in Russia.
Lenin made two important revisions of Marxist doctrine:
1) Marx claimed that history was marked by changed in the economic relationships of the classes, i.e. history marched on an "inevitable" path from hunter-gatherer to slavery, to feudalism to capitalism to imperialism to socialism and finally to communism. He stated that each of these stages morphed into the next stage when they were fully mature and through a process he called class struggle. Lenin believed that, although Russia had only just shaken off feudalism, and was barely capitalist (although it was imperialist) this stage could be "telescoped" - shortened - allowing for a socialist revolution.
2) His other major revision was that Marx claimed that the peasantry was always conservative and would support the existing regime; the workers would be the motor of the socialist revolution. Lenin realised that because in Russia the working class was so small then the peasants also had to be part of the socialist revolution.
See:
Lenin, A Biography - Robert Service
Karl Marx - Francis Wheen
The Communist Party of the Soviet Union - Leonard Shapiro
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Marx never set out a detailed analysis of what he expected a communist society would look like - even the Communist Manifesto is more of a critique of capitalism, than a political manifesto.
Lenin also was enough of a pragmatist to detail exactly what shape a communist society would take - he sought to adapt Marx's ideas to the changing situation in Russia.
Lenin made two important revisions of Marxist doctrine:
1) Marx claimed that history was marked by changed in the economic relationships of the classes, i.e. history marched on an "inevitable" path from hunter-gatherer to slavery, to feudalism to capitalism to imperialism to socialism and finally to communism. He stated that each of these stages morphed into the next stage when they were fully mature and through a process he called class struggle. Lenin believed that, although Russia had only just shaken off feudalism, and was barely capitalist (although it was imperialist) this stage could be "telescoped" - shortened - allowing for a socialist revolution.
2) His other major revision was that Marx claimed that the peasantry was always conservative and would support the existing regime; the workers would be the motor of the socialist revolution. Lenin realised that because in Russia the working class was so small then the peasants also had to be part of the socialist revolution.
See:
Lenin, A Biography - Robert Service
Karl Marx - Francis Wheen
The Communist Party of the Soviet Union - Leonard Shapiro