Imperialism, the Highest Stage of Capitalism
제국주의론
A Marxist political-economic work written by Lenin in Zurich in 1916, arguing that capitalism had transitioned into imperialism, its monopoly stage. It formalized five defining features of imperialism (monopolies, finance capital, capital export, international cartels, and the territorial division of the world) while refuting Karl Kautsky's theory of 'ultra-imperialism' and defining imperialism as 'the highest stage of capitalism' and 'the eve of socialist revolution.' It analyzed the World War as an imperialist war and provided the theoretical foundation for the revolutionary defeatist line.
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Sources
- Wikipedia (EN) Summary of the work: ten-chapter structure, five features of imperialism, critique of Kautsky and ultra-imperialism, publication history
- Wikipedia (RU) Russian Wikipedia: original title, writing history in Zurich (Jan–June 1916), influences from Hobson and Hilferding, relationship to Bukharin's work, publication through Gorky's Parus
- Wikipedia (KO) Korean Wikipedia: confirms Korean title 제국주의론, original Russian title, the work's role as a foundational Marxist-Leninist text
- Marxists Internet Archive Marxists Internet Archive: full text in English, preface to French and German editions, ten-chapter structure, Lenin's Notebooks on Imperialism comprising ~800 pages of preparatory materials from 148 books and 232 articles