Without revolutionary theory there can be no revolution.”-Vladimir I. Lenin “What Is to Be Done?“
“a revolution is a miracle.”
–Vladimir I. Lenin “Speech at a Plenary Meeting of the Moscow Soviet of Workers’ and Peasants’ Deputies,” Feb 1921, in Collected Works, vol. 32
IN SHORT:
UPRIGHT: Praxis–or the ability to translate theories into practice. Indicates the desire and capacity to manifest and materialize through conscious self-awareness.
REVERSE: Cult-of personality, fetishization of self, power corrupts, the corruption of power. Don’t become the thing you hated.
AT LENGTH: Our magician plays chess, he plays with the mirror of language, he plays with history. This is where ideas are translated into reality. Two chess boards, one floats above, the other below is a stage for a scene. A scene after the fact of history, but imbued with all its momentum. A bouquet of lilies, a sword, cup, wand and pentacle. Each suit of the tarot is present in full force here—the cup is offered, the sword is on guard, the wand floats, and the pentacle is tucked away. These object confer a special type of power and directive to our magician.
Finally at the center of all this: a collection of trinkets featuring the likeness of Vladimir Lenin. A display of a man transformed into tokens of his own historical machinations.
IN DEPTH: Born Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov (April 1870 – January 1924) and better known as his alias Vladimir Lenin was a Russian revolutionary, politician, and political theorist. He served as a founding head of government for Soviet Russia & the Soviet Union from 1917 to 1924. Under his leadership, Russia became a one-party socialist state. Ideologically a Marxist, he developed a subset of Marxism called Leninism. In the April Thesis, he promoted the establishment of a dictatorship of the proletariat, a revolutionary vanguard party, initial abolition of the police, army and bureaucracies. His relevance endures as a central theorist of the State-Form, and his rise to power remains a fable of Communist potential and pitfall.
FURTHER READINGS:
Tariq Ali, Dilemmas of Lenin https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Dilemmas_of_Lenin
Oxana Timofeva. What Lenin Teaches Us About Witchcraft. https://www.e-flux.com/journal/100/268602/what-lenin-teaches-us-about-witchcraft/
vladamir lenin, April Thesis https://www.marxists.org/archive/lenin/works/1917/apr/04.htm
vladamir lenin, What is to be done? https://www.marxists.org/archive/lenin/works/1901/witbd/i.htm
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