H.D.

Books in Review

Book Notes

(March 1948)


From New International, Vol. XIV No. 3, March 1948, p. 96.
Transcribed & marked up by Einde O’Callaghan for the Marxists’ Internet Archive.


Lenin as Philosopher, by Anton Pannekoek (New Essays, N.Y. 1948, 80 pp., $1.00). – Attacks Lenin’s Materialism and Empirio-Criticism from a viewpoint based on the idealistic deviations in Joseph Dietzgen’s philosophy. The latter is taken as equivalent to Marxism, without any discussion of this (to say the least) very moot point. Result is that Lenin is lambasted for being a consistent materialist. Two final chapters sing the Leninism-equals-Stalinism tune, this being somehow sucked out of the preceding philosophic disquisition. All in all, quite a far-fetched attempt to base anti-Bolshevism on old Dietzgen.


Last updated on 6 July 2017