Imperialism, the Highest Stage of Capitalism

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Imperialism, the Newest Stage of Capitalism
Cover of a Russian first edition
AuthorVladimir Lenin
Original titleИмпериализм как новейший этап капитализма
CountryRussian Republic
LanguageRussian
GenrePolitical economy, economic theory
Published1917
TextImperialism, the Newest Stage of Capitalism at Wikisource

Imperialism, the Highest Stage of Capitalism (Russian: Империализм как высшая стадия капитализма, romanized: Imperializm kak vysshaja stadija kapitalizma), originally published as Imperialism, the Newest Stage of Capitalism (Russian: Империализм как новейший этап капитализма, romanized: Imperializm kak novejshij etap kapitalizma),[1] is a book written by Vladimir Lenin in 1916 and published in 1917. It describes the formation of oligopoly, by the interlacing of bank and industrial capital, in order to create a financial oligarchy, and explains the function of financial capital in generating profits from the exploitation colonialism inherent to imperialism, as the final stage of capitalism. The essay synthesises Lenin's developments of Karl Marx's theories of political economy in Das Kapital (1867).[2]

Summary

In the Prefaces to the essay, Lenin said the First World War (1914–1918) was "an annexationist, predatory, plunderous war"[3] among empires, whose historical and economic background must be studied "to understand and appraise modern war and modern politics".[4] That for capitalism to generate greater profits than the home market can yield, the merging of banks and industrial cartels produces finance capitalism, and the exportation and investment of capital to countries with undeveloped and underdeveloped economies. In turn, that financial behaviour divides the world among monopolist business companies. In colonizing undeveloped countries, business and government will engage in geopolitical conflict over the exploitation of labour of most of the population of the world. Therefore, imperialism is the highest (advanced) stage of capitalism, requiring monopolies to exploit labour and natural resources, and the exportation of finance capital, rather than manufactured goods, to sustain colonialism, which is an integral function of imperialism. Moreover, in the capitalist homeland, the super-profits yielded by the colonial exploitation of a people and their economy permit businessmen to bribe native politicians, labour leaders and the labour aristocracy (upper stratum of the working class) to politically thwart worker revolt (labour strike) and placate the working class.[5][6]

Theoretical development

Lenin's socio-political analysis of empire as the ultimate stage of capitalism derived from Imperialism: A Study (1902) by John A. Hobson, an English economist, and Finance Capital (Das Finanzcapital, 1910) by Rudolf Hilferding, an Austrian Marxist, whose syntheses Lenin applied to the geopolitical circumstances of the First World War, caused by imperial competition among the European empires. Three years earlier, in 1914, Karl Kautsky proposed a theory of capitalist coalition, wherein the imperial powers would unite and subsume their nationalist and economic antagonisms to a system of ultra-imperialism, whereby they would jointly effect the colonialist exploitation of the underdeveloped world. Lenin countered Kautsky by proposing that the balance of power in international relations among the European empires continually changed, thereby disallowing the political unity of ultra-imperialism, and that such political instability motivated competition and conflict, rather than co-operation:

Half a century ago, Germany was a miserable, insignificant country, if her capitalist strength is compared with that of the Britain of that time; Japan compared with Russia in the same way. Is it "conceivable that in ten or twenty years' time the relative strength will have remained unchanged?" It is out of the question.[7]

The post–War edition of Imperialism, the Highest Stage of Capitalism (1920) identified the territorially punitive Russo–German Treaty of Brest-Litovsk (1918) and the Treaty of Versailles (1919) as proofs that empire and hegemony—not nationalism—were the economic motivations for the First World War.[8] In the Preface to the French and German editions of the essay, Lenin proposed that revolt against the capitalist global system would be realised with the "thousand million people" of the colonies and semi-colonies (the weak points of the imperial system), rather than with the urban workers of the industrialised societies of Western Europe.[9] That revolution would extend to the advanced (industrial) capitalist countries from the underdeveloped countries, such as Tsarist Russia, where he and the Bolsheviks had successfully assumed political command of the October Revolution of 1917.[8] In political praxis, Lenin expected to realise the theory of Imperialism, the Highest Stage of Capitalism via the Third International (1919–1943), which he intellectually and politically dominated in the July and August conferences of 1920.[10]

Publication history

In 1916, Lenin wrote Imperialism, the Highest Stage of the Capitalism, in Zürich, during the January–June period. The essay was first published by Zhizn i Znaniye (Life and Knowledge) Publishers, Petrograd, in mid 1917. After the First World War, he added a new Preface (6 July 1920) for the French and German editions, which was first published in the Communist International No. 18 (1921).[11]

Editions
  • Владимир Ленин (1917), Империализм, как новейший этап капитализма, Петроград: Жизнь и Знание.
  • Vladimir Lenin (1948), Imperialism, the Highest Stage of Capitalism, London: Lawrence and Wishart.
  • Vladimir Lenin (2000), Imperialism, the Highest Stage of Capitalism, with Introduction by Prabhat Patnaik, New Delhi: LeftWord Books
  • Vladimir Lenin (2010), Imperialism, the Highest Stage of Capitalism, Penguin Classics.

See also

References

  1. ^ Foster, John Bellamy (2015). "The New Imperialism of Globalized Monopoly-Finance Capital: An Introduction". Monthly Review. 67 (3): 1–22. doi:10.14452/MR-067-03-2015-07_1. Retrieved 20 September 2022.
  2. ^ John Baylis and Steve Smith (2005) The Globalization of World Politics OUP: p. 231.
  3. ^ "Imperialism and Capitalism" in the Communist International, No. 18, October 1921. p. 3. http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/1916lenin-imperialism.html#bm3.
  4. ^ "Imperialism, The Highest Stage of Capitalism Preface, 26 April 1917. http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/1916lenin-imperialism.html.
  5. ^ Paul Bowles (2007) Capitalism, Pearson: London. pp. 91–93
  6. ^ "Lenin: 1916/imp-hsc: III. FINANCE CAPITAL AND THE FINANCIAL OLIGARCHY". www.marxists.org.
  7. ^ Lenin Imperialism: The Highest Stage of Capitalism.
  8. ^ a b Christopher Read (2005) Lenin. London: Routledge. pp. 116–126.
  9. ^ Vladimir Lenin (2000) Imperialism, the Highest Stage of Capitalism pp. 37–38.
  10. ^ Prabhat Patnaik (2000) "Introduction" to Imperialism: The Highest Stage of Capitalism, by Lenin. New Delhi, Leftword Books. pp. 10–11
  11. ^ Vladimir Lenin (2000) Imperialism, the Highest Stage of Capitalism, with Introduction by Prabhat Patnaik, New Delhi: LeftWord Books

External links

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