Is Marxism-Leninism the source of Stalinism?
. . The Bolshevik revolution would represent the first big attempt to apply these theories to a proletarian revolution. Lenin’s views were the best presentation of the issue by the Bolsheviks. But before reviewing Lenin’s views, let’s note that there are other, non-Marxist theories of overcoming capitalism. The list below of some different views, although cursory, may help indicate the issues at stake. This will help provide a context for judging what the experience of the Bolshevik revolution on one hand, and of the various revisionist regimes of this century on the other, show about the transition to socialism. –No transition period . Some people denounce the idea of a transition period. Instead, they hold that when enough people understand the plan for a future society, they will bring it into existence all at once. They may, for example, demand that money, commodity production, wage-labor, and the state are all abolished immediately. Refusal to recognize a transition may seem very
