Lenin’s shift after 1917 gave up the Commune ideal for a world-oriented socialism

Evidence

Lenin had a notion of socialism. It is noticeable that up to 1905 he thought of socialism always in terms of the Commune. And after 1917 he changed—he changed not for Russia but for the world. We have to do the same. We have not done it. For if we had we would recognize in Lenin’s articles and methods in Russia of 1917–23 the greatest possible source of theoretical understanding and insight into the world of today. — Cedric J. Robinson, Black Marxism_ The Making of the Black…, 2451

Categorization

• QUESTION: The claim that Lenin’s post-1917 turn was ‘not for Russia but for the world’ — and that radicals failed to follow — is a provocative thesis worth investigating on its own.