A. Leontiev on the Leninist theory of Imperialism

“Imperialism, the Eve of the Socialist Revolution of the Proletariat” is Chapter 9 of Political Economy: A Beginner’s Course, a classic Marxist-Leninist textbook by Soviet economist A. Leontiev from the late 1930s. This textbook provides one of the best introductions to Marxist political economy, and this chapter in particular provides an outstanding introduction to the Leninist theory of imperialism. (click here for a PDF of the entire textbook or buy a copy!)

Study Guide: Political Economy of Capitalism and Imperialism

This a section of M-L Study Guide. The other sections are found here: https://marxistleninist.wordpress.com/study-guide/

“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

Basic and Essential readings

• Wage-Labor and Capital by Karl Marx
• Imperialism, the Highest Stage of Capitalism by V. I. Lenin

Supplementary readings

• 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
• 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, the Eve of the Socialist Revolution of the Proletariat (Chapter 9 of Leontiev’s Political Economy)
• 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 Freedom Road Socialist Organization
• On the Capitalist Crisis videos of a talk by Harpal Brar