In 1922 and 1923, V.I. Lenin, central leader of the world’s first socialist revolution, waged what was to be his last political battle. At stake was whether that revolution, and the international movement it led, would remain on the proletarian course that had brought workers and peasants to power in October 1917. Indispensable to understanding how the privileged caste led by Stalin arose and the consequences for the class struggle in the 20th and 21st centuries.Introduction by Jack Barnes and Steve Clark, chronology, notes, index.