num_pages: 493
description: Volume 21 contains Lenin’s works of the period between August 1914 and December 1915. In these writings, Lenin raised the banner of struggle against the imperialist war and international social-chauvinism, and laid the foundations of the Bolshevik Party’s theory and tactics on questions of war, peace and revolution.A group of these works, viz., “The Tasks of Revolutionary Social-Democracy in the European War”, “The European War and International Socialism”, “The War and Russian Social-Democracy”, “The Defeat of One’s Own Government in the Imperialist War”, “Socialism and War”, deal, in the main, with an appraisal of the war, and provide a definition of the tasks confronting the proletarian party and the world working-class movement.A considerable part of the volume consists of works that expose international social-chauvinism and centrism, and reveal the causes that brought about the collapse of the Second International. Among these works are: “The Collapse of the Second International”, “On the Struggle Against Chauvinism”, “The Position and Tasks of the Socialist International”, and “Revolutionary Marxists at the International Socialist Conference, September 5-8, 1915”.A number of the works in this volume are directed against social-chauvinism in Russia, viz.: “The Russian Brand of Südekum”, “Under a False Flag”, “The State of Affairs in Russian Social-Democracy”, “The Defeat of Russia and the Revolutionary Crisis”, and “On the Two Lines in the Revolution”.In the article “On the Slogan of a United States of Europe”, which was written in August 1915, Lenin formulated his masterly conclusion on the possibility of victory for socialism, initially in several countries, or even in a single country.Also in this volume is the work entitled “Karl Marx”, which gives a concise yet exhaustive characterisation of the Marxist doctrine.Four hitherto unpublished works have been included in this volume. In the articles “To the International Socialist Committee, I.S.C.” and “Letter to Vorwärts and Wiener Arbeiter-Zeitung” Lenin exposes the imperialist nature of World War I and the betrayal of the working class’s interests by the leaders of the Second International. The following works: “The Kind of ‘Unity’ Larin Proclaimed at the Swedish Congress” and “Letter from the Central Committee of the R.S.D.L.P. to the Editors of Nashe Slovo” are directed against liquidationism and social-chauvinism in Russia.
language: English
title: Collected Works, Volume 21: August 1914-December 1915
publisher: Progress Publishers