‘‘Revolution is War’’: The Development of the Thought of V. I. Lenin on Violence, 1899––1907

This article examines violence, in various forms, in Lenin's thought from his earliest Marxist writings until 1907, allowing observation of the influence of the 1905 Revolution on his conceptualization of violence and terror(ism). The article argues that this was a crucial period in the development of the Leninist world-view and formation of the intellectual basis of Leninism-in-power. There was a clear logic in Lenin's ideas on class warfare and violence evident in these years that remained and was invoked during the crucial period of the First World War when the Bolsheviks came to power, and once Lenin found himself head of the Soviet state.