The Actual Lenin

Reclaiming the Figure from the South
1. Auflage 2026
ISBN: 978-1-041-35524-3
Verlag: Taylor & Francis Ltd

Buch, Englisch, 226 Seiten, Format (B × H): 152 mm x 229 mm

Reihe: Marx and Marxisms

The Actual Lenin is a fresh and accessible reinterpretation of Lenin by placing his ideas alongside the political realities of the Global South. Ranabir Samaddar, a leading intellectual of the Global South, demonstrates how Lenin broke with conventional ways of thinking about social transformation, and why that break still helps us understand today’s struggles with inequality, conflict, and collective power. Instead of treating Lenin as a fixed ideological figure, Samaddar presents him as a thinker responding to real moments of upheaval, constantly adjusting theory and practice to the demands of his time.

Drawing on clear readings of What Is to Be Done?, The State and Revolution, and key episodes in Southern political history, the book explores how Lenin understood crisis, organisation, and political timing. It demonstrates how his method (thinking and acting within conjuncture) offers practical tools for analysing contemporary conflicts across the South. By connecting long-standing debates in Marxism with current Global South scholarship, Samaddar provides an innovative alternative to traditional Lenin studies and expands a field still dominated by Eurocentric perspectives. He also traces Lenin’s global legacy, showing why his analyses of imperialism and uneven development remain vital for understanding sovereignty, democracy, and development today.

Written for students and researchers across political theory, international relations, sociology, and postcolonial studies, The Actual Lenin offers an accessible, authoritative guide for anyone seeking to understand crisis, imperialism, and the possibilities of radical politics in the twenty-first century.

Zielgruppe

Postgraduate, Undergraduate Advanced, and Undergraduate Core

Autoren/Hrsg.

Samaddar, Ranabir

Fachgebiete

• Sozialwissenschaften Politikwissenschaft Internationale Beziehungen Kolonialismus, Imperialismus
• Sozialwissenschaften Politikwissenschaft Politische Ideologien Marxismus, Kommunismus
• Sozialwissenschaften Politikwissenschaft Politikwissenschaft Allgemein Politische Geschichte
• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Geschichtliche Themen Kolonialgeschichte, Geschichte des Imperialismus
• Sozialwissenschaften Politikwissenschaft Politikwissenschaft Allgemein Politische Theorie, Politische Philosophie

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Preface  1. Introduction 2. The Figure of Lenin in a Time of War and Crisis 3. Lenin’s Method 4. A Text from the Void  5. Revolution and the Question of the State  6. Leninist Geopolitics  7. A Leninist Crisis in the South  8. Lenin’s Legacy  9. Stakes in this Study.  Epilogue

Über Autor(innen)

Ranabir Samaddar is Emeritus Professor at the Mahanirban Calcutta Research Group, India. He belongs to the critical school of thinking and is considered as one of the foremost theorists in the field of migration and forced migration studies. His writings on migration, forms of labour, urbanization, and political struggles have signaled a new turn in post-colonial thinking.