Why is this book important exactly?
3 stars
I’ve seen this book being presented as a « fundamental » of theory and I’ll be honest: I don’t think that’s right. In fact there is a quote behind this edition that speaks of how Lenin « lays a broad plan for an organization of revolutionaries». That is in fact incorrect. No plans are laid here. Lenin only speaks of 1. Making a newspaper which is a bit irrelevant in our age of high speed data sharing and social media platforms and 2. He speaks of the importance of training professional revolutionaries. But, all of this is subtext to the real core of this book: answering to criticism raised by Russian opportunists and economists. Two groups that don’t really exists anymore. This discussion is interesting enough as similar groups exist in our day and age, but again I find it hard to see the relevance. What I’m trying to say …
I’ve seen this book being presented as a « fundamental » of theory and I’ll be honest: I don’t think that’s right. In fact there is a quote behind this edition that speaks of how Lenin « lays a broad plan for an organization of revolutionaries». That is in fact incorrect. No plans are laid here. Lenin only speaks of 1. Making a newspaper which is a bit irrelevant in our age of high speed data sharing and social media platforms and 2. He speaks of the importance of training professional revolutionaries. But, all of this is subtext to the real core of this book: answering to criticism raised by Russian opportunists and economists. Two groups that don’t really exists anymore. This discussion is interesting enough as similar groups exist in our day and age, but again I find it hard to see the relevance. What I’m trying to say is that this book shouldn’t be called « what is to be done » but rather « what shouldn’t be done ». Where to begin seems to be much more about an actual plan, although I haven’t read it yet. I’m a bit all over the place on this so TLDR: I found it uninteresting and irrelevant to us.