“There is no royal road to science, and only those who do not dread the fatiguing climb of its steep paths have a chance of gaining its luminous summits.” (Marx, Capital, Vol.I, Preface to the French Edition, 1872)
Marxism-Leninism is the science of revolution, encompassing developments in philosophy, political economy, and scientific socialism. It is the theory and tactics of the proletarian revolution in general, the theory and tactics of the dictatorship of the proletariat in particular. As Stalin has said, Marxism-Leninism is not a dogma but a guide to action. What this means is basically that Marxism-Leninism is the synthesis and summation of the historic experiences of the revolutionary struggles of working and oppressed people against capitalism and imperialism for more than 160 years, and it is first and foremost a weapon to be used by working and oppressed people in their struggles for emancipation, liberation, and the building of a new world.
I’m putting this list of readings together as sort of a study guide for people in the United States who are intersted in learning about Marxism-Leninism and socialism. The primary theoreticians of Marxism-Leninism are Marx, Engels, Lenin, Stalin, and Mao. While I have focused on their texts I have included the writings of many other Marxist-Leninists and some videos as well. I also draw extensively from Stalin’s History of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (Bolsheviks) – Short Course which Mao Zedong highlighted as an essential textbook for study. I have chosen the texts that I have mainly in the interest of finding texts can be grasped quickly and in a practical way. I have attempted to divide the readings into distinct topics, with the idea that this study guide will mostly be used by individuals for study on their own in tackling particular, concrete problems, as well as to aid in learning Marxism through criticism and self-criticism.
The best single-volume study of the subject is the 891 page first edition of the Soviet-published textbook, Fundamentals of Marxism-Leninism, edited by Otto Kuusinen, which unfortunately cannot be read online (search for a used copy here). For broader historical study on the Soviet Revolution, I suggest reading the above mentioned History of the CPSU(B) Short Course, The Collapse of the Soviet Union: Causes and Lessons by the International Communist Seminar, and Ludo Martens’ Another View of Stalin. On the Chinese revolution I suggest Ho Kan-Chih’s A History of the Modern Chinese Revolution (Peking: FLP 1959) which is not availible online (search for a used copy here).
I also suggest the Glossary of Revolutionary Marxism.
For the absolute essentials, I would suggest going to my “Ten Essential Classics of Marxism-Leninism” page.
= Beginning and Essential Texts
Overview of Marxism-Leninism, the Science of Revolution
“The history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class struggles.” – Marx & Engels, The Manifesto of the Communist Party
Manifesto of the Communist Party by Marx & Engels
Principles of Communism by Frederick Engels
Socialism: Utopian and Scientific by Frederick Engels
Karl Marx: A Brief Biographical Sketch With an Exposition of Marxism by V.I. Lenin
The Foundations of Leninism by J.V. Stalin
Programme of the Communist International (1929)
How to Be a Good Communist by Liu Shaoqi
Unity Statement of Freedom Road Socialist Organization
Philosophical Viewpoint and Method: Dialectical and Historical Materialism
“The Marxist philosophy of dialectical materialism has two outstanding characteristics. One is its class nature: it openly avows that dialectical materialism is in the service of the proletariat. The other is its practicality: it emphasizes the dependence of theory on practice, emphasizes that theory is based on practice and in turn serves practice.” – Mao Zedong, “On Practice”
Anti-Dühring (Part I: Philosophy) by Frederick Engels
Materialism and Empirio-Criticism by V.I. Lenin
On the Question of Dialectics by V.I. Lenin
Dialectical and Historical Materialism by J. V. Stalin
Dialectical Materialism by Mao Zedong
On Practice by Mao Zedong (my notes)
On Contradiction by Mao Zedong (my notes)
Talk on Questions of Philosophy by Mao Zedong
Contradiction and Overdetermination by Louis Althusser
On the Materialist Dialectic by Louis Althusser
Political Economy of Capitalism and Imperialism
“The essential conditions for the existence and for the sway of the bourgeois class is the formation and augmentation of capital; the condition for capital is wage-labour. Wage-labour rests exclusively on competition between the labourers. The advance of industry, whose involuntary promoter is the bourgeoisie, replaces the isolation of the labourers, due to competition, by the revolutionary combination, due to association. The development of Modern Industry, therefore, cuts from under its feet the very foundation on which the bourgeoisie produces and appropriates products. What the bourgeoisie therefore produces, above all, are its own grave-diggers. Its fall and the victory of the proletariat are equally inevitable.” – Marx & Engels, Manifesto of the Communist Party
Wage-Labor and Capital by Karl Marx
Value, Price and Profit by Karl Marx
Capital by Karl Marx
Anti-Dühring (Part II: Political Economy) by Frederick Engels
Marx’s Economic Doctrine by V. I. Lenin
Imperialism, the Highest Stage of Capitalism by V. I. Lenin
Outbreak and Causes of the Imperialist War from the History of the CPSU – Short Course
Theory and Tactics of the Bolshevik Party on the Question of War, Peace and Revolution from the History of the CPSU – Short Course
Political Economy: A Beginner’s Course by A. Leontiev (PDFs of chapters 1, 2, and 3)
Imperialism 101 by Michael Parenti
Imperialist Globalization and the United States by Steff Yorek and Mick Kelly for the National Executive Committee of FRSO
Capitalism in Crisis: 160 years after the Communist Manifesto by FRSO
On the Capitalist Crisis videos of a talk by Harpal Brar
Methods of Leadership: Mass Line & United Front
“In all the practical work of our Party, all correct leadership is necessarily ‘from the masses, to the masses’.” – Mao Zedong, “Some Questions Concerning Methods of Leadership”
Lenin and Stalin as Mass Leaders by W. Z. Foster
The Bolshevik Newspaper Pravda from the History of the CPSU – Short Course
The Fascist Offensive and the Tasks of the Communist International in the Struggle of the Working Class against Fascism by Georgi Dimitrov
The Question of Independence and Initiative Within the United Front by Mao Zedong
Be Concerned With the Well-Being of the Masses, Pay Attention to Methods of Work by Mao Zedong
Some Questions Concerning Methods of Leadership by Mao Zedong
Speech at the Chinese Communist Party’s National Conference on Propaganda Work by Mao Zedong
A Talk to the Editorial Staff of the Shansi-Suiyuan Daily by Mao Zedong
How to be a Good Leader by Zhou Enlai
The Mass Line by the Communist Party of Peru (Shining Path)
Mass Work by the Communist Party of the Philippines
The Party and the Masses by the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine
Class in the U.S. and Our Strategy for Revolution by FRSO
Some Points on the Mass Line by FRSO
A Mass Line Study for Socialist Organizing by FRSO
SDS: Study and Struggle, Unite and Fight! by Kati Ketz, Tracy Molm, and Kosta Harlan for the FRSO Student Commission
Lessons from the RNC: Mass Mobilization and Militant Actions Advance the Struggle by FRSO
Revolutionary Organization: Party Building & Democratic Centralism
“Once the political line is laid down, organizational work decides everything.” – Zhou Enlai, “How to be a Good Leader”
Where to Begin? by V. I. Lenin
One Step Forward, Two Steps Back by V.I. Lenin
On Terms of Admission into the Communist International by V. I. Lenin
Lenin’s Plan for the Building of a Marxist Party from the History of the CPSU – Short Course
Organizational Principles of the Marxist Party from the History of the CPSU – Short Course
The Party by J. V. Stalin
The Party Before and After Taking Power by J.V. Stalin
Stalin’s Speeches on the American Communist Party (PDF)
The Prospects of the Communist Party of Germany and the Question of Bolshevisation by J. V. Stalin
Cadres by Mao Zedong
Methods of Work of Party Committees by Mao Zedong
Talk At An Enlarged Working Conference Convened By The Central Committee Of The Communist Party Of China by Mao Zedong
A Discussion of Party Democratic Centralism Peking Review
On the Party by Liu Shaoqi
CPUSA: Manual on Organisation by J. Peters
The Cadres: Backbone of the Revolution by Ernesto Che Guevara
Two, Three, Many Parties of a New Type by Proletarian Unity League
The State and Revolution
“The state is a weapon of class struggle, a machine by which one class represses another. Every state is the dictatorship of a definite class. So long as the state exists, it cannot possibly stand above class or belong to the whole people.” – Mao Zedong, “The Proletarian Revolution and Krushchev’s Revisionism”
Origin of the Family, Private Property, and the State by Frederick Engels
The State and Revolution by V. I. Lenin
The State by V. I. Lenin
“Democracy” and Dictatorship by V. I. Lenin
Bourgeois and Proletarian Democracy by V. I. Lenin
The Vulgar Bourgeois Representation of Dictatorship and Marx’s View of It by V.I. Lenin
Marxism and Reformism by V. I. Lenin
Should We Participate in Bourgeois Parliaments? by V. I. Lenin
Tactical Foundations of the Marxist Party from the History of the CPSU – Short Course
Strategy and Tactics by J. V. Stalin
The Proletarian Revolution and Krushchev’s Revisionism by Mao Zedong
Ideology and Ideological State Apparatuses by Louis Althusser
Bourgeois Democracy and Fascism by Harpal Brar
Socialist Political Economy & Proletarian Dictatorship
“Socialism is the declaration of the permanence of the revolution, the class dictatorship of the proletariat as the necessary transit point to the abolition of class distinctions generally, to the abolition of all the relations of production on which they rest, to the abolition of all the social relations that correspond to these relations of production, to the revolutionizing of all the ideas that result from these social relations.” – Karl Marx, Class Struggles in France
Critique of the Gotha Programme by Karl Marx
Economics And Politics In The Era Of The Dictatorship Of The Proletariat by V. I. Lenin
The Economic Basis of the Withering Away of the State by V. I. Lenin
Lenin’s Plan for the Initial Steps in Socialist Construction from the History of the CPSU – Short Course
The Bolshevik Party in the Struggle for the Socialist Industrialization of the Country from the History of the CPSU – Short Course
The Bolshevik Party in the Struggle for the Collectivization of Agriculture from the History of the CPSU – Short Course
The Dictatorship of the Proletariat by J. V. Stalin
Economic Problems of Socialism in the USSR by J. V. Stalin
Critique of Stalin’s ‘Economic Problems of Socialism in the USSR’ by Mao Zedong
Reading Notes on the Soviet Text ‘Political Economy’ by Mao Zedong
On the Correct Handling of Contradictions Among the People by Mao Zedong
The Laws of Class Struggle in the Socialist Period by Chi Ping
Socialism Is the Class Dictatorship of the Proletariat by Po Ching
Socialist Industry: The System of Ownership—A visit to the Talien Hungchi Shipyard by Chou Chin and Hsiang Jung
Continue the Revolution Under the Dictatorship of the Proletariat to the End by Hua Guofeng
Frederick Engels and scientific socialism in contemporary China by Peter Franssen
Reasons to Support China videos of a program by the CPGB-ML
Anti-Revisionism & Ideological Struggle
“It cannot be disputed that these arguments of the revisionists amounted to a fairly well-balanced system of views, namely, the old and well-known liberal-bourgeois views.” – V. I. Lenin, “Marxism and Revisionism”
Marxism and Revisionism by V.I. Lenin
How Kautsky Turned Marx Into A Common Liberal by V. I. Lenin
Struggle of the Bolsheviks Against the Liquidators and Otzovists from the History of the CPSU – Short Course
Struggle of the Bolsheviks Against Trotskyism and the Anti-Party August Bloc from the History of the CPSU – Short Course
Trotskyism or Leninism? by J.V. Stalin
The Fight Against Right and “Ultra-Left” Deviations by J.V. Stalin
Bukharin’s Group and the Right Deviation in Our Party by J.V. Stalin
Marxism versus Liberalism by J.V. Stalin
On the Question of Revisionism by W.Z. Foster
Combat Liberalism by Mao Zedong
On Correcting Mistaken Ideas in the Party by Mao Zedong
On the Question of Stalin by the Chinese CP
Peaceful Coexistence — Two Diametrically Opposed Policies by the Chinese CP
On Khrushchov’s Phoney Communism and Its Historical Lessons for the World by Mao Zedong
Reject the Revisionist Theses of the XX Congress of the CPSU by Enver Hoxha
The Khruschevites by Enver Hoxha
Eurocommunism is Anti-Communism by Enver Hoxha
Trotskyism: Counter-Revolution in Disguise by M. J. Olgin
On Trotskyism: Problems of Theory and History by Kostas Mavrakis
Marxism-Leninism-Mao Zedong Thought as Guide to the Philippine Revolution by Armando Liwanag
Stand for Socialism Against Modern Revisionism by Armando Liwanag
On Certain Aspects of the Struggle Against Revisionism by Ludo Martens
Balance of the Collapse of the Soviet Union by Ludo Martens
Stalin and the Question of ‘Market Socialism’ in the Soviet Union after the Second World War by Vijay Singh
1999 Declaration of the International Communist Seminar
On Krushchevite Revisionism and the Collapse of the Soviet Union videos of a talk by Harpal Brar
Continuing the Revolution is Not a Dinner Party by Mick Kelly of FRSO
Proletarian Internationalism and the National-Colonial Question
“In the last analysis, the national question in the contemporary world is one of class struggle and anti-imperialist struggle. Today the workers, peasants, revolutionary intellectuals, anti-imperialist and patriotic bourgeois elements and other patriotic and anti-imperialist enlightened people of all races — white, black, yellow or brown — have formed a broad united front against the imperialists, headed by the United States, and their lackeys. This united front is expanding and growing stronger. The question here is not whether to side with the white people or the coloured people, but whether to side with the oppressed peoples and nations or with the handful of imperialists and reactionaries.” – Communist Party of China, “Apologists for Neo-Colonialism”
The Right of Nations to Self-Determination by V. I. Lenin
What is Internationalism? by V. I. Lenin
Socialism and War by V.I. Lenin
Draft Theses on National and Colonial Questions by V. I. Lenin
Marxism and the National Question by J. V. Stalin
The National Question and Leninism by J.V. Stalin
The National Question by J. V. Stalin
The Chinese Revolution and the Chinese Communist Party by Mao Zedong
Internationalism and Nationalism by Liu Shaoqi
Apologists Of Neo-Colonialism by the Chinese CP
Long Live the Victory of People’s War! by Lin Biao
Create Two, Three, Many Vietnams by Ernesto Che Guevara
The Pitfalls of National Consciousness by Frantz Fanon
The Weapon of the Theory by Amilcar Cabral
The Mechanisms of Neo-Colonialism by Kwame Nkrumah
Every where we have to establish committees of people’s power by Laurent Kabila
Breznjev and the National Democratic Revolution by Ludo Martens
Lenin and Stalin on the Relationship of Democratic and Socialist Revolutions in Colonial and Semicolonial Countries by Jose Maria Sison
The Movement Against War in Iraq: A New Period and Our Tasks by FRSO
Revolution in Colombia: ISO Stands on the Wrong Side by FRSO
National Question in the United States
“‘While we Communists fight for every possible democratic demand of the Negro people, and welcome all advances made, we have pointed out that the Negro question is at bottom the question of an oppressed nation in the South and a national minority in the North. Therefore, the Negro question can only be solved on the basis of a revolutionary change in the Deep South. This difference is fundamental.” – Harry Haywood, “For a Revolutionary Position on the Negro Question”
The 1928 and 1930 Comintern Resolutions on the African American National Question
Negro Liberation (PDF) by Harry Haywood
The Negro Nation (Chapter VII of Negro Liberation) by Harry Haywood
The Struggle for the Leninist Position on the Negro Question in the United States by Harry Haywood
Two Articles on the African American National Question by Mao Zedong
Documents from School on Afro-American National Question by the Revolutionary Political Organization (Marxist-Leninist) and the Amilcar Cabral/Paul Robeson Collective
Build the Black Liberation Movement by the Revolutionary Workers Headquarters
On the Afro American National Question by the Revolutionary Communist League (M-L-M)
The Struggle for Chicano Liberation by the League of Revolutionary Struggle (M-L)
Nationalism, Self-Determination and Socialist Revolution by Amiri Baraka
Introduction to Afro-American Studies a People’s College primer (especially Chapter 16, Marxism and Black Liberation)
Malcolm X Study Guide by Abdul Alkalimat
Statement on National Oppression, National Liberation and Socialist Revolution by FRSO
The Third International and the Struggle for a Correct Line on the African American National Question by FRSO
Fred Hampton – A Fighter for Black Liberation, Revolution and Socialism by FRSO
The Immigrant Rights Movement and the Struggle for Full Equality by FRSO
Labor Movement & Class Struggle Unionism
“The Party must more than ever and in a new way, not only in the old, educate and guide the trade unions, at the same time bearing in mind that they are and will long remain an indispensable ’school of communism’ and a preparatory school that trains proletarians to exercise their dictatorship, an indispensable organisation of the workers for the gradual transfer of the management of the whole economic life of the country to the working class (and not to the separate trades), and later to all the working people.” – V. I. Lenin “Left-Wing” Communism, an Infantile Disorder
Tactics of the Class Struggle of the Proletariat by V. I. Lenin
Should Revolutionaries Work in Reactionary Trade Unions? by V. I. Lenin
On Strikes by V.I. Lenin
Lenin’s Fight Against “Economism.” from the History of the CPSU – Short Course
Strike Strategy by W. Z. Foster
The Fusion Of The Socialist Movement With The Working Class Movement by the Revolutionary Workers Headquarters
Report on the Labor Movement in the U.S. by Joe Iosbaker, Chair of the FRSO Labor Commission
Build a Fighting Workers Movement by the Labor Commission of the Freedom Road Socialist Organization (review)
Proletarian Feminism & LGBT-Q Liberation
“In order to build a great socialist society it is of the utmost importance to arouse the broad masses of women to join in productive activity. Men and women must receive equal pay for equal work in production. Genuine equality between the sexes can only be realized in the process of the socialist transformation of society as a whole.” – Mao Zedong, “Introductory Note to ‘Women Have Gone to the Labor Front’”
Origin of the Family, Private Property, and the State by Frederick Engels
Woman and Socialism by August Bebel
Soviet Power and the Status of Women by V.I. Lenin
Letter to Inessa Armand (January 17, 1915) by V.I. Lenin
Letter to Inessa Armand (January 24, 1915) by V.I. Lenin
Lenin on the Women’s Question by Clara Zetkin
Women’s Suffrage and Class Struggle by Rosa Luxemburg
History of the movement of Women workers in Russia by Alexandra Kollontai
The Myth of Women’s Inferiority by Evelyn Reed
On 5th Anniversary of First Women Workers’ and Peasants’ Congress by J.V. Stalin
On Miss Chao’s Suicide by Mao Zedong
Women’s Liberation in China by Soong Ching Ling
Women’s Liberation Is a Component Part of the Proletarian Revolution by Hsu Kwang
Liberation of Women by Lu Yu-lan
An End to the Neglect of the Problems of the Negro Women (PDF) by Claudia Jones
The Women’s Liberation and Gay Liberation Movements by Huey P. Newton
Position Paper on Women in the Movement by Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC)
Interview with Mariela Castro on the Future of Sex and Socialism in Cuba
The Question of Women’s Leadership in People’s War in Nepal by Parvati
Do’s and Dont’s for the Dudely Organizer a comic-pamphlet by Robin
Art, Literature & Culture
“In the world today all culture, all literature and art belong to definite classes and are geared to definite political lines. There is in fact no such thing as art for art’s sake, art that stands above classes, art that is detached from or independent of politics. Proletarian literature and art are part of the whole proletarian revolutionary cause; they are, as Lenin said, cogs and wheels in the whole revolutionary machine.” – Mao Zedong, Talks at the Yenan Forum on Literature and Art
On Proletarian Culture by V.I. Lenin
On Art and Culture by J.V. Stalin
Soviet Literature by Maxim Gorky
Literature of a Revolutionary Period by Lu Xun
The United Front in Cultural Work by Mao Zedong
Talks at the Yenan Forum on Literature and Art by Mao Zedong
For Your Reference: About ‘Talks at the Yenan Forum on Literature and Art’ from Peking Review
Literary and Art Workers Must Go Among the Masses by Hsin Wen-tung
Has Absolute Music No Class Character? by Chao Hua
Revolution in Literature and Art: Spring Comes to China’s Stage from Peking Review
Notes on a Materialist Theatre by Louis Althusser
National Culture and the Fight for Freedom by Frantz Fanon
National Liberation and Culture by Amilcar Cabral
Socialism and Man in Cuba by Ernesto Che Guevara
The CIA and the Cultural Cold War Revisited by James Petras
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