
On this day in 1917, Lenin returned to Russia, arriving into Petrograd’s famous Finland Station. This was the beginning of his one-man struggle to politically reorient the Bolshevik Party – a vital stepping stone towards the October Revolution.

Continuing our series on the life and ideas of Lenin, 100 years after his death, Dylan Thomas explains how Lenin’s emphasis on the need for class independence was pivotal in arming the Bolsheviks for leading the working class to power in 1917.

We publish here the editorial from the latest – Lenin themed – issue of our quarterly theoretical magazine, ‘In Defence of Marxism’, in which Rob Sewell discusses the life and ideas of the great revolutionary leader, a century after his death.