Lenin’s document legitimated communist accommodation to capitalism while preserving revolutionary illusion

Evidence

Despite its logical inconsistencies, historical omissions, and distortions, and its contradictions of Marxist theory, his document became one of the most significant works of the first decade of the Third International. Much of this was to be attributed to Lenin’s authority in the movement as the world’s most powerful Communist; but as important was the work’s legitimation of accommodation to world capitalism and imperialism. It provided a pragmatic modus vivendi for Communist parties elsewhere to survive while maintaining the illusion of being revolutionary rather than reformist. — Cedric J. Robinson, Black Marxism_ The Making of the Black…, 1032

Categorization

• XREF: Establishes the intellectual framework that would later deemphasize Black nationalist currents in favor of ‘the illusion of being revolutionary rather than reformist’ — crucial to understanding the tradition’s later decline within Communist parties. — connects to: Lenin treated state capitalism as a neutral stepping-stone to socialism — Dirk Braunstein, Adorno’s Critique of Political Economy, 517