The Marxist-Leninist Pocket Guide: Key Concepts and Terminology, from Alienation to the Withering Away of the State (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9798189193910)

From alienation to the withering away of the state, this pocket guide gathers 136 essential terms from Marxist philosophy, Soviet political economy, and the ideological disputes that shaped the twentieth-century Communist movement.

Each entry explains a concept the way it has been understood and used within the Marxist and Marxist-Leninist tradition, on its own terms, with enough historical context to show why it mattered. Where a term is tied to specific historical events, this guide describes them honestly, including where they were violent, coercive, or remain genuinely contested among historians and among Marxists themselves.

Arranged alphabetically for fast reference, with cross-references linking related concepts throughout, this guide is designed to sit alongside primary texts by Marx, Lenin, Stalin, Trotsky, and others - a ready companion for readers working through the tradition's dense and often contested vocabulary.

Covers core philosophical concepts (dialectical materialism, alienation, historical materialism), political economy (surplus value, imperialism, the falling rate of profit), Soviet institutions and history (the Five-Year Plans, collectivization, the Great Purge, glasnost and perestroika), and the ideological disputes between tendencies including Bolshevism, Trotskyism, Maoism, and Eurocommunism.

A quick-reference companion for students, general readers, and anyone working through the tradition's primary texts.