Brezhnev as Leader

Abstract

Leadership is a central component of communist politics. As early as 1848 Marx and Engels noted that communists have over the working class the advantage of knowing the general march of history. It was this knowledge that enabled communists to ‘always represent the interests of the movement as a whole’.¹ The centrality of leadership given by socialist intellectuals in communist politics was also recognised by Russian Social Democrats, and is a well-known aspect of Lenin’s thought. According to Lenin, workers left to their own devices would develop only trade union consciousness. To attain socialism workers would have to be guided by Bolsheviks.² Lenin’s view of the relationship between vanguard communist leaders and the rank-and-file acquired a special prominence following the October Revolution. Both admirers³ and detractors’ have claimed that without Lenin’s guidance one of the key events of the twentieth century would not have happened.