p Being a creative science, Marxist philosophy does not stand still-it is Continually developing and improving. Every new major step in the development of science and social practice makes an inevitable impact on philosophy, causing a change (enrichment, specification, or addition) in its particular principles or tenets. Vladimir Ilyich Lenin (1870-1924) made an incalculable contribution to the development of dialectical and historical materialism after the death of Marx and Engels.

p Lenin thoroughly developed the Marxist theory of matter and consciousness as the reflection of objective reality. He substantiated the decisive role of practice in cognising reality and revealed, on that basis, the actively creative character of consciousness, stressing that “man’s consciousness not only reflects the objective world, but creates it".  [85•1  Moreover, he defined the major 86 stages of cognition and its dialectical development towards the truth.

p Elaborating on dialectics as a teaching of development, Lenin revealed the essence of the dialectical understanding of development as a repetition of the past stages, but on a higher basis, as a leap-like revolutionary changing of reality caused by inner contradictions, by the clash between different and opposite forces and tendencies.  [86•1 

p Lenin analysed on a scientific and materialist basis Hegel’s dialectic and its development by Marx in Capital and formulated the principle of the identity of dialectics, logic, and the theory of knowledge. He studied the general aspects and connections of reality and universal dialectical laws in the light of this principle and showed, first, that philosophical categories were not only the forms in which the general aspects and connections of reality were reflected but also stages or nodal points in the development of social consciousness and practice, and, second, that the laws of dialectics were not only the universal laws of reality, but also the laws of thinking-the methodological principles guiding people in their practical and cognitive activities. In other words, following Marx and Engels, Lenin developed dialectical materialism not only as a world outlook, but also as a theory of knowledge, a method of thinking and of the practical transformation of reality. “Lenin’s further elaboration of materialistic dialectics, his study of the dialectical 87 materialist theory of knowledge . .. are of everlasting importance. Lenin was the first thinker of our century who saw in the achievements of natural science of his time the beginning of a tremendous scientific revolution, who was able to disclose and generalise philosophically the revolutionary meaning of the fundamental discoveries made by the great explorers of nature. He gave a brilliant philosophical interpretation of new scientific data in the period of the drastic ’ breaking of principles’ in the leading fields of natural science. His idea of the inexhaustibility of matter has become the general principle of natural science.”  [87•1 

p Lenin laid special emphasis on the development of the theory of historical materialism. He gave a comprehensive analysis of the laws governing the interconnection between social being and social consciousness, material and ideological relations, objective and subjective factors, the spontaneous and the conscious. Lenin underlined the decisive importance of the objective circumstances under which people live, and showed the immense role played by revolutionary theory, the revolutionary party guided by this theory, by the revolutionary class, and by historical personalities in transforming the life of society, in replacing historically obsolete social forms by new ones corresponding to the current level of development of the productive forces.

p Lenin demonstrated the importance of revolutionary ideas in orientating the spontaneous movement of the masses to one objective-the revolutionary transformation of the existing social and political system. Lenin emphasised that the development of a socialist ideology and its dissemination among the working people, the proletariat, was a task of paramount importance for a proletarian party.

p His studies of the imperialist stage of capitalism enabled Lenin to conclude that it was the last stage, that it represented the eve of the socialist revolution, that it was a stage from which society can pass only to socialism. Lenin discovered the law of the uneven economic and political development of capitalist countries under imperialism. This gave him grounds to conclude that the socialist revolution could triumph first in several, or even in one country.

p Moreover, Lenin developed the Marxist teaching on the character and motive forces of the bourgeois-democratic revolution and its connection with the socialist revolution, enriching this teaching with important conclusions. He proved that the proletariat, not the bourgeoisie, should lead the bourgeois-democratic revolution at a time when capitalism in the advanced countries had entered its imperialist stage. He also established that the peasantry was an ally of the proletariat and that a victorious bourgeois-democratic revolution should establish the dictatorship of the revolutionary people, of the workers and peasants, not the dictatorship of the bourgeoisie. The 89 establishment of the dictatorship of the workers and peasants does not complete such a revolution. Gradually, it develops into a socialist revolution, in the course of which the proletariat in alliance with the poorest peasants and all the exploited classes transforms the life of society along socialist lines. Developing the theory of socialist revolution, Lenin advanced the idea that the class struggle of the proletariat against the bourgeoisie and for socialism should be tied up with the national-liberation struggle of the oppressed peoples.

p It was also Lenin who proved that some countries and peoplesjnighFembarK on a non- capitalist path of development and advance to socialism by-passing the capitalist stage of development. He believed that victory of the socialist revolution intheadvanced countries and their allout aSSJshanp^ h-| bad-iWiifrl mfirmr was a piajor condition for such a transition.

p The theory of the dictatorship of the proletariat occupies a prominent place in Lenin’s theoretical legacy. JDrawing on the experience of the three Russian revolutions, he developed the idea of the proletarian dictatorship, set forth by Marx and Engels, and demonstrated the necessity of establishing the dictatorship of the proletariat in the period of transition from capitalism to socialism; he revealed its essence and specific features as constituting a fundamentally new democracy, laid down the tasks confronting it, described its mechanism and mapped out its ways of development. Lenin’s discovery of Soviets as a form of 90 proletarian dictatorship that emerged in Russia as a result of the creative activities of the revolutionary masses, and his substantiation of their role in ensuring the victory of the Great October Socialist Revolution, were of great significance.

p After the triumph of the October Revolution, Lenin concentrated his attention on developing the theory of building socialism in Russia and on evaluating the prospects for a world-wide revolution. Lenin proved scientifically that socialism could be built under conditions of capitalist encirclement. He showed that Russia had everything necessary for building socialism and indicated concrete ways for transforming the various aspects of the life of society along socialist lines.

p Lenin regarded the conversion of capitalist enterprises into socialist property belonging to the whole people as a way of remaking large-scale capitalist into socialist production. As regards the socialist transformation of small-commodity production, Lenin recommended that the various forms of co-operation be used to turn small-scale private ownership of the means of production into co-operative public ownership.

p Lenin advanced the idea that socialism and communism can only be built under the guidance ja^a Marxist-Leninist party, which enjoys the support and confidence of ffie working people in all its undertakings and which maps out practical ways for developing society along socialist and communist lines, basing itself on the knowledge of the laws governing the functioning and development of society. This ideas has been borne 91 out by the experience of building socialism in the Soviet Union and other countries.

Guided by Lenin’s theoretical legacy and developing it by generalising the advances of modern science and social experience, the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, the communist and workers’ parties of other socialist countries, and Communists all over the world resolutely oppose today’s bourgeois ideology, and right and “left” revisionism, which distort Lenin’s revolutionary teaching.