Through a rigorous examination of Lenin’s writings and the shifting contexts in which he wrote them, Freeman masterfully rebuffs both accusations towards Lenin of elitism, and the determinist conclusions that many have drawn from Lenin’s political legacy.

Freeman defends Lenin’s conception that revolutionary Marxist conclusions can only originate externally to the working class (after all, workers generally do not have the time and resources to sit in the British Library for decades writing Capital), but also shows that Lenin’s goal was not an elitist seizure of power by middle-class intellectuals, but for working-class intellectuals to develop and ultimately make middle-class intellectuals obsolete within the revolutionary party.

Freeman also demonstrates the continuity of Lenin’s political thought. While Lenin did argue for a number of different organisational schemas for the party, these did not represent breaks in his politics, but rather a continuity in his argument that as material circumstances change, and as the class consciousness of layers of the proletariat develops, the party must both respond to these changes and, most importantly, that is only by adapting the party’s organisational structure that it is able to intervene in the class struggle to further develop the class consciousness of the most advanced laters of the proletariat.

Whilst this text is interesting in its own right in uncovering the history of class struggle in the Russian Empire, it’s major significance undoubtedly is in its political lessons: firstly, that it is possible for a small group of committed and serious revolutionary Marxists to grow to encompass the vast majority of the working class, and bring about the overthrow of capitalism and the self-emancipation of the working class; and secondly, in order to do this it is absolutely necessary for revolutionary Marxists to build a revolutionary Marxist party to actively intervene in the class struggle.

An incredibly inspiring read.