Abstract
Imperialism, understood as a specific phase of capitalist development, was already widely discussed by Marxists in the Second International (1889–1914). Lenin, focused on revolutionizing Russia, was absent from these debates. He wrote Imperialism, the Highest Stage of Capitalism in 1916 in response to the implosion of the International after the outbreak of the First World War. Intended as a popular pamphlet, Imperialism is nevertheless based on intensive study primarily of the work of non-Marxist scholars and publicists. Lenin’s main target is Karl Kautsky’s theory of ultra-imperialism, which predicts the emergence of a transnational and pacific capitalism (a theme of contemporary debates about globalization). In insisting that geopolitical rivalries are not a mere policy option but are an inherent feature of capitalism in its most advanced form, Lenin makes one of his main innovations, the idea of uneven development, and identifies colonial revolt as a driving force of international socialist revolution.
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Notes
- 1.
- 2.
- 3.
See, on Kautsky and the First World War, Steenson (1991: 177–201).
- 4.
Löwy (1993), Kouvelakis (2007), and Krausz (2015). Neil Harding also argues that 1914 marked a major shift in Lenin’s theoretical analysis, although he puts less emphasis on the contribution made to this by his reading of Hegel and argues that the shift was already underway before the outbreak of war: Harding (2010).
- 5.
See Lih (2011a), which compiles all Lenin’s comments on Kautsky between 1914 and 1924. The thesis of Lenin’s Kautskyism is strongly contested in Corr and Jenkins (2014). As they point out, Massimo Salvadori long ago argued that, pace Lenin, from the 1890s onwards, Kautsky consistently espoused parliamentary democracy as the inescapable framework of social progress: Salvadori (1979).
- 6.
See my discussion of the hazards of Marx ’s own appropriation of Hegel in Callinicos (2014a).
- 7.
For more discussion of the concept of epoch in Marxism, see Callinicos (2005).
- 8.
Elsewhere, I have suggested that Lenin in fact intended to call the pamphlet Imperialism, the Latest Stage of Capitalism: Callinicos (2009: 44). But it seems pretty clear from the Notebooks that Lenin proposed such a title only as a second best to get around the Russian censorship: see the plan in CW 39: 230–239.
- 9.
- 10.
The “law of uneven development” was later used by Stalin and his followers to justify the idea of “Socialism in One Country,” an argument rebutted in Trotsky (1970).
- 11.
- 12.
See, on the nature of US hegemony , Panitch and Gindin (2012). Tooze (2014), argues that even the First World War and its aftermath promoted an abortive movement towards liberal imperialism in a study that is unusual in mainstream historical scholarship for its willingness to engage intellectually with Lenin and Trotsky.
- 13.
For a more extensive discussion of the difficulties economic crises posed for the classical theorists of imperialism, see Callinicos (2009: 53–61).
- 14.
See the comprehensive discussion in Post (2010).
- 15.
For a contemporary Marxist interpretation of the Easter rising and its consequences, see Allen (2016, chs. 1–4).
- 16.
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Callinicos, A. (2018). Lenin and Imperialism. In: Rockmore, T., Levine, N. (eds) The Palgrave Handbook of Leninist Political Philosophy. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-51650-3_15
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