Ones and Tooze Heterodox Economists: Vladimir Lenin
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Dec 5, 2025 
Adam Tooze, a Columbia University professor and Foreign Policy economics columnist, dives into the life and ideas of Vladimir Lenin. He explores how Lenin's mixed background influenced his revolutionary thinking and his interpretation of capitalism's emergence in rural Russia. Tooze discusses Lenin's theory of imperialism and contrasts his activist approach to Marx's scientific views. Additionally, he analyzes Lenin's pragmatic shifts in economic policy and assesses his lasting impact on the Soviet state and its eventual trajectory.
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Capitalism Rooted In The Countryside
- Lenin argued Russia was undergoing capitalism primarily through its agrarian changes rather than only urban factories.
- He saw richer and poorer peasants diverging, making a peasant-based teleology obsolete and opening revolutionary possibilities.
Imperialism Recasts Revolutionary Subjects
- Lenin updated Marx by theorizing imperialism as capitalism's global, violent phase tied to states and war.
- He broadened revolutionary subjects to include billions in Asia and agrarian masses, not just European industrial workers.
Act To Make History, Not Wait For It
- Lenin emphasized agency: revolutionaries should act to make history rather than wait for deterministic stages.
- He justified interventionist tactics as responding to a dangerous, imperialist world where inaction risked catastrophe.
