Lenin, a Russian leader of the Bolshevik revolution, argues that change could only come about through complete revolution. His primary problematic was very different from that of Karl Marx's. While Marx was concerned with capitalism and transcending it, Lenin was concerned with developing an effective political mechanism for overthrowing the czarist form if power. More generally, Lenin wanted a st

Marx believed that capitalism would fall from its own contradictions and socialism would emerge. However instead of this occurring the opposite occurred. In many of the developed European countries, particularly Germany and Italy, rather than developing socialism, a fascist authoritarian system emerged in these countries. What's more, the working class was supportive of this system despite the fact that it was the reason for their oppression. Given this problematic, Gramsci extends Marx's analysis by concerning himself with developing political strategies for purposes of developing the subjective moment of the proletariat, as Marx had laid out.

Lenin's second revision again came as a result of Russia's then current situation. Lenin reworks Marx's conception of the class composition of the agent of revolution. To Marx, the only agent that could embody this revolution was the proletariat (worker). Marx believed that after the long crisis and competition that occurs in the capitalist system, two major classes would develop - the capitalist and proletariat class. Marx believed that it was pivotal that the proletariat class be the universal, oppressed class in order to have the transition from capitalism to socialism. However, in Russian demographics, the majority of the population was composed of peasants (due to neo-feudalistic economy), therefore, Lenin modifies the class composition of the revolution by incorporating the peasant class into the category of the proletariat. He does this because he believes that the interests of the peasant class is linked to the interests of the proletariat. Thus, for practical purposes, and in an attempt to adapt classic Marxism into Russia, Lenin revises Marx's original ideas and includes the peasants as an integral agent of revolution. Although this is completely opposite to Marx's beliefs, it is a necessary change for Lenin to be able to promulgate revolutionary mentality in Russia.

Lenin believed that the capitalists understood that in the monopolistic stage, if they invested capital domestically then productivity would likely increase. This meant that there would be more goods and this would drive prices down because if you have the same amount of money with greater numbers of goods then prices have to reduce. Given that capitalists understood this, Lenin argued that they developed imperialism as a way of creating new markers abroad (especially in the third world countries). In other words, the capitalists were able to increase their level of profits because they were able to find new markets for their goods outside the domestic market. This was made possible because political control in these new markets was absolute, which allowed the capitalist to pay the workers in these countries near subsistence wage without having to deal with political opposition. Due to this, Lenin argues that profits were enormous. Because of the large amount of profit that was being made in these other countries (third world usually), capitalists were able to grant concessions to the working class that worked domestically (advanced countries) by giving them higher wages. Therefore, in the advanced European countries, the workers were able to enjoy a higher standard of living, at the same time the capitalist were able to realize a high level of profit. This relationship, Lenin believes, undermined the development of any revolutionary class-consciousness on the part of the proletariat. Therefore, the advancement of some proletariats comes at the cost of others living abroad. This is imperialism, which Lenin believed to be another phase of capitalism; this phase is simply another manifestation of capitalism, leading to its ultimate destruction. Lenin did not believe that this policy would last, it would merely postpone the collapse of capitalism, but ultimately capitalism would be annihilated. Therefore, Lenin agrees with Marx that the contradictions of capitalism will ultimately lead to

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