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66 LENIN, Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov, as Nikolai Lenin. Zadachi proletariata v nashei revoliutsii (“The Tasks of the Proletariat in Our Revolution”). St Petersburg: Priboi Publishers, 1917 lenin publishes his bolshevik party platform, one month before the october revolution First edition of Lenin’s elucidation and expansion of his “April Theses”, his statement of the principles the Bolsheviks must adopt in the evolving revolution, developed here into a coherent party platform, printed in September 1917 one month before the Bolsheviks seized power and put the policies into action. It is rare in any form, exceptionally so untouched in the original wrappers. In April 1917 Lenin returned from exile and moved to take control of the Bolshevik Party and reorientate it according to his own vision. He wrote and presented his desired policies the same month, urging the Bolsheviks to withdraw their support from the Provisional Government, withdraw from the war, distribute land to the peasantry, and seize power for the Soviets, who would control the production of goods. These policies, since known as the “April Theses”, were published in Pravda under the same title as the present pamphlet ( The Tasks of the Proletariat in Our Revolution ). Despite initially being rejected by a gathering of Social Democrats and then the Bolshevik committee, they were adopted by the party’s seventh all-Russian conference in late April. The principles
became very popular among the workers and soldiers of St Petersburg, broadening the Bolshevik Party’s reach and support. Lenin subsequently developed and expanded the principles of the “April Theses” into a coherent party platform, which was printed in the present pamphlet in September, comprising effectively a manifesto of Leninism which guided the Bolsheviks as they overthrew the Provisional Government and secured their power. The pamphlet includes a postscript written by Lenin since the first printing of the “April Theses” and is appended with the 1915 Zimmerwald Conference resolution calling for the end of the World War. Few copies of this fragile publication passed among revolutionaries and workers survived the coming Revolution and civil war. WorldCat locates copies only in Harvard, Yale, Columbia, and Chicago, Library Hub adding Oxford; Rare Book Hub places the last appearance at auction in 1972, with no further listings by ABPC. Octavo. Original orange wrappers printed in black, wire-stitched. Very faint shadow of removed sticker to front wrapper, price altered from 50 to 60 kopecks on rear wrapper in contemporary hand (reflecting the rapid inflation of the unstable time), small nick to front wrapper fore edge, very light creasing and soiling from handling. An excellent copy of a fragile publication. ¶ Zalesky 3526. See publication in Lenin, Complete Works , XXXI, 1964, pp. 149–86; for an English translation, see publication as no. 9 in the Little Lenin Books , 1932. £8,500 [138347]
All items are fully described and photographed at peterharrington.co.uk
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