Preface
Notes
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This list comprises the canonical works of Marx, Engels, Lenin, and Stalin, systematized by theoretical sections. No secondary literature can replace direct reading of the classics due to inevitable reduction in theoretical precision and loss of dialectical method. One of the few exceptions is D.I. Rosenberg's commentary on Capital, which serves a didactic function in mastering complex material without simplifying it.
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Please note that working with primary sources requires basic preparation. When studying dialectics, it is advisable to possess fundamentals of formal logic. Knowledge of world history is also required – key events, dates, and preconditions of bourgeois revolutions, the French Revolution, the Revolutions of 1848, the Paris Commune, the October Revolution, and imperialist wars.
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In the course of studying Marxism, we recommend viewing Soviet films from the 1930s-1950s: the Maxim trilogy, And Quiet Flows the Don, and others. Most films are available with translation (subtitles or dubbing). We also recommend reading fiction – Reed, Steinbeck, Sholokhov, London.
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The index is organized thematically. Works within each section follow the logic of Marxist thought development.
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We recommend studying Marxism-Leninism independently only up to a certain point. "I study – therefore I struggle" is an illusion of struggle. Marxism is also a guide to action.
Dec. 2025
Classical Marxist Literature
1. Introduction to Marxism
| Author | Works | What is Covered |
|---|---|---|
| Marx, Engels | Manifesto of the Communist Party (1848) | class struggle, proletariat, communist program |
| Engels | Principles of Communism (1847) | scientific socialism, distinction from utopianism |
| Socialism: Utopian and Scientific (1880) | historical materialism, dialectics, scientific socialism | |
| Lenin | Karl Marx (1914) | brief biography, overview of doctrine |
| The Three Sources and Three Component Parts of Marxism (1913) | philosophy, political economy, scientific communism | |
| Stalin | The Foundations of Leninism (1924) | systematization of Leninism, party, strategy |
| Concerning Questions of Leninism (1926) | development of theory, polemic with opposition | |
| History of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (Bolsheviks): Short Course (1938) | party history, main stages of struggle, theory and practice |
2. Marxist Philosophy
Dialectical Materialism
| Author | Works | What is Covered |
|---|---|---|
| Marx | Theses on Feuerbach (1845) | philosophy of praxis, materialism against contemplation |
| Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts of 1844 | alienation of labor, species-being of man | |
| Engels | Anti-Dühring (1878) | dialectics, materialism, critique of idealism, political economy of socialism |
| Dialectics of Nature (1873-1883) | dialectics in natural science, role of labor in anthropogenesis | |
| Ludwig Feuerbach and the End of Classical German Philosophy (1886) | critique of Feuerbach, Hegel's dialectics, materialist inversion | |
| Lenin | Materialism and Empirio-criticism (1909) | theory of reflection, partisanship in philosophy, critique of Machism |
| Philosophical Notebooks (1914-1916) | notes on Hegel, dialectical logic, unity of opposites | |
| Letters to Gorky (1913-1914) | critique of god-building, philosophical materialism | |
| On the Significance of Militant Materialism (1922) | tasks of philosophical work, alliance with natural scientists | |
| Stalin | Dialectical and Historical Materialism (1938) | laws of dialectics, base and superstructure, social being |
Historical Materialism
| Author | Works | What is Covered |
|---|---|---|
| Marx | The German Ideology (1845-1846, with Engels) | materialist conception of history, base and superstructure, ideology |
| A Contribution to the Critique of Political Economy. Preface (1859) | base and superstructure, socio-economic formations | |
| Engels | The Origin of the Family, Private Property and the State (1884) | primitive communism, emergence of classes, state as organ of class domination |
| Socialism: Utopian and Scientific (1880) | succession of socio-economic formations, materialist conception of history | |
| Letters on Historical Materialism | base and superstructure, relative autonomy of superstructure | |
| Lenin | Certain Features of the Historical Development of Marxism (1910) | peculiarities of Marxism's development in different countries |
| Imperialism and the Split in Socialism (1916) | economic roots of opportunism, labor aristocracy | |
| Stalin | Dialectical and Historical Materialism (1938) | laws of social development, base and superstructure, role of productive forces |
| Marxism and Problems of Linguistics (1950) | base and superstructure, language as social phenomenon |
3. Capitalism and Its Crisis
Political Economy of Capitalism
| Author | Works | What is Covered |
|---|---|---|
| Marx | Wage Labour and Capital (1847) | commodity, value, wages, capital |
| Value, Price and Profit (1865) | labor theory of value, surplus value, wages | |
| A Contribution to the Critique of Political Economy (1859) | commodity, money, value | |
| Capital, Volume I (1867) | commodity fetishism, surplus value, accumulation, primitive accumulation | |
| Capital, Volume II (1885, ed. Engels) | circulation of capital, reproduction schemas | |
| Capital, Volume III (1894, ed. Engels) | rate of profit, tendency of rate of profit to fall, ground rent, finance capital | |
| Theories of Surplus Value (1861-1863) | history of political economy, critique of bourgeois theories | |
| Engels | Reviews of Marx’s Capital (1867-1868) | popularization of Capital's main ideas |
Additionally:
Rosenberg D.I. Commentaries on Marx's Capital
Imperialism
| Author | Works | What is Covered |
|---|---|---|
| Lenin | Imperialism, the Highest Stage of Capitalism (1916) | monopoly capital, finance capital, export of capital, parasitism, decay |
| The Development of Capitalism in Russia (1899) | analysis of capitalism in agrarian country, class structure |
Historical Analysis of Revolutions
| Author | Works | What is Covered |
|---|---|---|
| Marx | The Class Struggles in France, 1848 to 1850 (1850) | application of historical materialism to revolutionary events, class forces |
| The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte (1852) | Bonapartism, class contradictions, ideology | |
| The Civil War in France (1871) | Paris Commune, first dictatorship of the proletariat, lessons of the Commune | |
| Engels | The Peasant War in Germany (1850) | class struggle in early bourgeois revolutions, role of peasantry |
| The Actual Causes of the Passivity of the French Proletariat (1851) | analysis of French proletariat's defeat | |
| Preface to The Civil War in France (1891) | formula of dictatorship of the proletariat, lessons of the Commune | |
| Lenin | A Great Beginning (1919) | definition of classes, class consciousness, socialist emulation |
4. Proletarian Power
Theory of the State
| Author | Works | What is Covered |
|---|---|---|
| Lenin | The State (lecture 1919) | essence of the state, bourgeois state, proletarian state |
| The State and Revolution (1917) | Marxist theory of the state, dictatorship of the proletariat, withering away of the state, critique of opportunism | |
| On "Democracy" and Dictatorship (1918) | bourgeois and proletarian democracy | |
| The Proletarian Revolution and the Renegade Kautsky (1918) | critique of social democracy, dictatorship of the proletariat | |
| The Tasks of the Proletariat in Our Revolution (1917) | dual power, transition to socialist revolution | |
| The Immediate Tasks of the Soviet Government (1918) | transitional period, economic management, state capitalism | |
| Better Fewer, But Better (1923) | state apparatus, bureaucracy, cultural backwardness | |
| Stalin | The Foundations of Leninism (1924) | theory of dictatorship of the proletariat, the state |
| Concerning Questions of Leninism (1926) | strengthening of the state under socialism | |
| Report to the 18th Congress of the C.P.S.U.(B.) (1939) | functions of socialist state |
Party, Strategy and Tactics
| Author | Works | What is Covered |
|---|---|---|
| Lenin | What Is To Be Done? (1902) | party of new type, democratic centralism, revolutionary consciousness, spontaneity and consciousness |
| Where to Begin (1901) | tasks of the party, all-Russian newspaper | |
| Letter to a Comrade on Our Organizational Tasks (1902) | democratic centralism, organizational principles of the party | |
| Profession of Faith (1904) | organizational questions, critique of Menshevism | |
| One Step Forward, Two Steps Back (1904) | democratic centralism, organizational principles, struggle against Menshevism | |
| Two Tactics of Social-Democracy in the Democratic Revolution (1905) | strategy in bourgeois-democratic revolution, hegemony of the proletariat | |
| The April Theses (1917) | program of revolution, "All Power to the Soviets" | |
| "Left-Wing" Communism: An Infantile Disorder (1920) | revolutionary tactics, compromises, united front, parliamentarism | |
| Once Again on the Trade Unions (1921) | role of trade unions under dictatorship of the proletariat, struggle against syndicalism | |
| Stalin | The Foundations of Leninism (1924) | strategy and tactics, party, national question |
| Concerning Questions of Leninism (1926) | building socialism in one country |
5. Socialism
| Author | Works | What is Covered |
|---|---|---|
| Marx, Engels | Manifesto of the Communist Party (1848) | communist society, transitional period |
| Engels | Principles of Communism (1847) | character of communist society |
| The Elberfeld Speeches (1845) | communist society | |
| Marx | Critique of the Gotha Programme (1875) | two phases of communism, distribution under socialism and communism |
| Lenin | The Great Initiative (1919) | socialist construction, communist subbotniks |
| The State and Revolution (1917) | transition from capitalism to communism, withering away of the state | |
| On the Slogan for a United States of Europe (1915) | possibility of victory of socialism in one country | |
| The Tax in Kind (1921) | transition to NEP, alliance of town and country, state capitalism | |
| On Cooperation (1923) | cooperative plan, path to socialism | |
| Stalin | On the Social-Democratic Deviation in Our Party (1926) | socialism in one country |
| Concerning Questions of Leninism (1926) | building socialism in the USSR | |
| Economic Problems of Socialism in the USSR (1952) | political economy of socialism, transition to communism |
6. Struggle Against Hostile Currents
Critique of Opportunism and Revisionism
| Author | Works | What is Covered |
|---|---|---|
| Marx | Critique of the Gotha Programme (1875) | critique of Lassalleanism, opportunist formulations |
| Lenin | Marxism and Revisionism (1908) | critique of Bernsteinism, revisionism in philosophy and economics |
| Marxism and Reformism (1913) | reformism as bourgeois current in labor movement | |
| "Left-Wing" Communism: An Infantile Disorder (1920) | critique of left doctrinairism | |
| Imperialism and the Split in Socialism (1916) | social-chauvinism, opportunism | |
| The Collapse of the Second International (1915) | bankruptcy of the Second International, social-chauvinism | |
| Stalin | Concerning the Social-Democratic Deviation in Our Party (1926) | right deviation, Trotskyism |
| The Foundations of Leninism (1924) | critique of Menshevism and opportunism | |
| Concerning Questions of Leninism (1926) | struggle against Trotskyism and right deviation | |
| Trotskyism or Leninism (1924) | essence of Trotskyism, permanent revolution |
Critique of Anarchism
| Author | Works | What is Covered |
|---|---|---|
| Engels | On Authority (1872) | critique of anarchism, necessity of authority in transition |
| Lenin | Anarchism and Socialism (1901) | critique of anarchism, question of the state |
| The State and Revolution (1917) | Marxism and anarchism on the state | |
| Stalin | Anarchism or Socialism? (1906-1907) | critique of anarchism, materialism against idealism |
7. Specific Questions
The National Question
| Author | Works | What is Covered |
|---|---|---|
| Lenin | On the Question of National Policy (1914) | national program of Marxists |
| Critical Remarks on the National Question (1913) | critique of nationalism, proletarian internationalism | |
| The Right of Nations to Self-Determination (1914) | right to secession, struggle against national oppression | |
| On the National Pride of the Great Russians (1914) | internationalism, struggle against great-power chauvinism | |
| The Discussion on Self-Determination Summed Up (1916) | polemic with Rosa Luxemburg, self-determination and imperialism | |
| The Question of Nationalities or Autonomisation (1922) | critique of Great Russian chauvinism, national policy of the USSR | |
| Stalin | Marxism and the National Question (1913) | definition of nation, national question and social democracy |
| The Foundations of Leninism (1924) | national and colonial question | |
| The National Question and Leninism (1929) | development of national question under socialism |
The Woman Question
| Author | Works | What is Covered |
|---|---|---|
| Engels | The Origin of the Family, Private Property and the State (1884) | historical forms of family, oppression of women under capitalism |
| Lenin | On the Tasks of the Women's Workers' Movement in the Soviet Republic (1919) | involvement of women in socialist construction |
War and Militarism
| Author | Works | What is Covered |
|---|---|---|
| Lenin | Socialism and War (1915) | attitude toward imperialist war, social-chauvinism |
| The Defeat of One's Own Government in the Imperialist War (1915) | revolutionary defeatism | |
| A Painful but Necessary Lesson (1918) | Brest peace, tactics of retreat | |
| What Next? (1915) | tasks in relation to opportunism and social-chauvinism |
Religion
| Author | Works | What is Covered |
|---|---|---|
| Marx | Critique of Hegel's Philosophy of Right. Introduction (1843–1844) | critique of religion as opium of the people |
| Lenin | Socialism and Religion (1905) | class roots of religion, party attitude |
| The Attitude of the Workers' Party to Religion (1909) | tactics on religious question, freedom of conscience | |
| Classes and Parties in Their Attitude to Religion and the Church (1909) | class function of religion, attitude toward clericalism |