> There is only one place in Lenin's writings where he specifically describes
> what a "vanguard" means. It is the section "The Working Class as Vanguard
> Fighter for Democracy" in "What is To Be Done". The notion of a vanguard
> emerges out of Lenin's struggle with the "Economists", *not* the
> "Mensheviks". This is often neglected by those "Marxist-Leninists" who use
> the pamphlet as some kind of organizing handbook.
> Louis Proyect
Volume 13 of Lenin's *Collected Works* (in English, Moscow: Foreign
Languages Publishing House) includes a piece entitled "Preface to the
Collection 'Twelve Years'" written in 1907 in which L warns against
taking *What is To Be Done* out of context...he maintains that it was
intended as a brief on Iskra, that parts of it were unnecessarily
sharp and divisive, and that some of his "correctives" of Economist
positions were admittedly arguable...Michael
