Marxism–Leninism

Marxism-leninism is the philosophy and economic and political science based on the theory and practice developed mainly by Marx, Engels and Lenin. Based on the marxist conception of history and critique of political economy, Marxism-Leninism made significant contributions to the critique of the imperialist development of capitalism and developed its own theoretical categories related to the revolutionary praxis and political party organization, such as vanguard party and democratic centralism.

After the success of the Russian revolution in 1917 and the establishment of the Soviet Union, many communist parties around the world adopted Marxism-Leninism as their political line, and was the guiding theoretical framework behind the Korean, Vietnamese, and the Chinese revolutions.

Origin of the term

Lenin never used the term leninism, nor did he include his ideas in the term "Marxism-Leninism". However, his ideas developed out of classical marxist thought, which was seen by the Bolsheviks as Lenin's advancement of marxism, and by others as the opposite. After Lenin's death in 1924, his ideas and contributions to marxism were codified as "Marxism-Leninism" by Stalin and the term soon became the name given to this theoretical framework by communist parties around the world.