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Out of the chaos following Lenin's death and the mounting fury against Lukács and his freshly penned History and Class Consciousness (1923), this book bears an assessment of Lenin as "the only theoretical equal to Marx." Lukács shows, with unprecedented clarity, how Lenin's historical interventions--from his vanguard politics and repurposing of the state to his detection of a new, imperialist stage of capitalism--advanced the conjunction of theory and practice, class consciousness and class struggle. A postscript from 1967 reflects on how this picture of Lenin, which both shattered failed Marxism and preserved certain prejudices of its day, became even more inspirational after the oppressions of Stalin. Lukács's study remains indispensable to an understanding of the contemporary significance of Lenin's life and work.… (more)
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The book is divided into six chapters, each discussing a different aspect of Leninism:
1) The Actuality of the Revolution - (the recognition by Lenin of the approaching Russian revolution, and his will to immerse
2) The Proletariat as the Leadng Class - (the necessity of Russia's reletively small proletariat class leading the revolution against the bourgeosie following the overthrow of Tsarism, as opposed to the peasantry).
3) The Vanguard Party of the Proletariat - (the revolution as being led by a party of professional revolutionaries and iron will, yet one which is able to adjust to navigate the revolution which has created it).
4) Imperialism: World War and Civil War - (the choice for the proletariat: to fight against foreign proletarian soldiers - their natural class allies - or against their domestic bourgeosie who push them into such a conflict).
5) The State as Weapon - (the formation of a 'counter state' made up of soviets).
6) Revolutionary 'Realpolitik' - (Lenin's ability to navigate the revolution by tact and compromise).
The book is wholly biased towards Lenin, but this is not a negative, for that was the book's purpose (and it is actually accepted as the case by Lukács in the 1967 Postscript included in the Radical Thinkers version, where it is clear he remains warm to Lenin, although not so vehemently as he had been in the 20s).
Personally, I found it a difficult read in places, but I'm not sure to what extent this is because of the writing style, or content, or simply because of myself. I recommend however, before reading, that you have some familiarity with dialectics, which is central to the author's and Lenin's conception of history, and thus the book.