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Why do people say "Marxist-Leninist" since Lenin was a Marxist; therefore, just saying Leninist would include the teachings of Marx, wouldn't it? (lemmygrad.ml)

submitted 2 weeks ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Still you have "orthodox Marxists" who will claim ML is not really Marxism but I think if it was called just "Leninism" it would've been even easier for them to claim Leninism isn't even Marxism.

I wonder if nowadays I can just call myself a Leninist and people will get the message since nobody questions Lenin’s adherence to Marxism anymore.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Apparently Leninism is a wider term including ML, Trotskyism, and other tendencies: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leninism

So it wouldn't be wrong call MLs Leninist, or just Marxist if you want to cast an even wider net.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 weeks ago

Although I can understand this argument, I don't think it's realistically so. Leninism COULD mean that, but in practice, it's used only to exclude Marxist Leninists from the group. When someone says Leninist, they are so often referring to it in opposition to "Stalinists" that the umbrella model can't really work.