The Twentieth Century was Lenin’s Century

The twentieth century was Lenin’s century. In fact, Leninism was a self-styled synthesis between Marxian revolutionary doctrine and the Russian tradition of nihilistic repudiation of the status quo. Yet one should not forget that Lenin was a committed Marxist, who intensely believed that he was fulfilling the founding fathers’ revolutionary vision. For Lenin, Marxism was “a revelation to be received with unquestioning faith, which admits of no doubt or radical criticism.”

--Vladimir Tismaneanu, The Devil in History: Communism, Fascism, and Some Lessons of the Twentieth Century (Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 2012), 90.