Reconsidering Lenin: What Can Be Said about What Is to Be Done?

Lars Lih's explication of the intended meaning of Lenin's What Is to Be Done? is not only the most sophisticated to date, it is also unlikely to be surpassed in the foreseeable future. Lih's portrayal of Lenin as a democratic 'Erfurtian' Marxist undoubtedly poses a powerful challenge to those would suggest that Stalinism can be deduced from the arguments of the book. Nonetheless, there exists contemporary evidence to suggest that not only Mensheviks but also some Bolsheviks interpreted Lenin in a way not too dissimilar from what Lih calls the 'textbook-interpretation'.