馬克思與列寧之間的思想傳承關係何在,是馬克思主義政治思想史上的一大公案,在過去七、八十年間累積了汗牛充棟的相關討論與文獻。列寧主義的理論與實踐廣被認為是促成二十世紀馬列主義極權政治的重要原因之一。於是,人們不免進一步追問:在馬克思的思想裡,是否有些、或有哪些特殊成份,可以視為是促成列寧主義乃至於馬列主義的思想要因?本文以「從列寧到馬克思」為題,嘗試針對馬克思共產革命思想裡與列寧主義最具關聯性的面向進行分析和批評。作者認為,列寧繼承並且發展了馬克思(與恩格斯)共產思想裡的一些重要質素,尤其是國家終結、政治終結、超越布爾喬亞民主、以公有制計畫經濟取代私有制與市場經濟、科學的社會主義等主張。職是,批評列寧主義、批評列寧,也就等於是對馬恩在這些方面的議論進行反思和批評,而也唯有如此,我們才有可能區辨出馬恩思想中的合理成份以及那些不盡合理的成份。
The present essay aims to examine Marx's communist thought especially in relation to Lenin's. Marxism-Leninism was a twentieth- century phenomenon entirely foreign to Marx's thought; yet few people today will seriously deny that Marxism-Leninism would have been totally inconceivable without Lenin. The question then arises as to the connections between Marx's and Lenin's communist thought. The present essay argues that there are strong connections between Marx and Lenin. That is to say, for all the differences between Marx and Lenin, Leninism would have been inconceivable without Marx's terrible blindspots about state power, communist revolution, and the political and economic organization of communist society. In retrospect, to criticize Lenin and Leninism is to criticize the inadequacies and errors in what Marx had to say about these matters.