Experienced trade unionist John McInally introduces Wellred Books’ latest publication: a fascinating biography examining Lenin’s life and ideas by Rob Sewell and Alan Woods. With support for communism on the rise today, we say: Lenin lives!

It is hard to find a more slandered figure in human history than Vladimir Ilyich Lenin. Dictatorial, murderous, cynical, immoral. You name it, Lenin has been accused of it. This is done by just about every political current, from the conservative right wing to the liberals, the reformists, and the anarchists. Unfortunately, decades of Stalinist dictatorship in the U.S.S.R. contributed to this caricature.

Written in 1916, in the middle of the First World War, Lenin’s Imperialism, the Highest Stage of Capitalism is an essential work for understanding the phenomena of war and imperialism today.

With capitalism in its deepest-ever crisis, it is more important than ever for communists to defend the immortal achievements of one of the greatest revolutionaries the world has ever seen. For this reason, 2024’s first episode of Spectre of Communism looks at the real life and ideas of Lenin.

On 21 January, 150 people gathered in central London to commemorate the centenary of Lenin’s death and to launch In Defence of Lenin, an extensive political biography and defence of the life and work of Lenin, which is available now from Wellred Books. More than this, the event represented the international launch of a year-long #LeninLives campaign to uncover and bring to light the real Lenin, and real Leninism.

Watch the livestream here. Sunday 21 January marks 100 years since the death of history’s greatest revolutionary. Join Alan Woods and Rob Sewell, authors of the upcoming biography In Defence of Lenin, at the launch of a global campaign to commemorate Lenin’s life and works. The meeting will take place at Hanover Primary School Sports Hall, N1 8BD in London at 15:00 GMT and will also be streamed live on our YouTube channel. You can buy tickets to the in-person event

The date of 21 January 2024 marks the centenary of the death of Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov, better known to the world as Lenin. He was without doubt one of the greatest revolutionaries who ever lived. By his actions in leading the Bolshevik Party, this extraordinary man literally changed the course of history.

Issue 44 of In Defence of Marxism magazine, the quarterly theoretical journal of the International Marxist Tendency, is available to buy now! To commemorate the centenary of the death of one of history’s greatest communists, this issue focuses on the life and work of Lenin.

For those who want to understand the person of Lenin it is imperative to read him for themselves. However, with 45 volumes of Collected Works (in English), this is a significant challenge and really the work of a lifetime. Therefore, Wellred Books’ upcoming biography of Lenin, In Defence of Lenin, is as close to an accessible work you are going to get which presents his ideas and their relevance for today in a relatively concise and concentrated form.

2024 will mark 100 years since the death of Lenin, one of history’s outstanding revolutionaries, who led the Bolshevik Party that took power for the Russian working class and peasantry in 1917. Next year, the International Marxist Tendency will celebrate Lenin’s life, legacy and works with a series of events and publications, foremost amongst them a brand new biography, In Defence of Lenin, now available to pre-order from Wellred Books!

The 14th Montreal Marxist Winter School – organised by Fightback/La Riposte, the Canadian section of the International Marxist Tendency – will take place on 17-18 February 2024. To mark 100 years since the death of the great Russian revolutionary, the event will be dedicated to the life and ideas of Lenin.