THE DIALECTICAL SOCIOLOGY OF SOCIAL CHANGE: A STUDY OF LENIN AND HEGE

This thesis analyzes the connection between Lenin's major post-1914 theoretical works and their relevance to the sociology of revolution. Methodologically, this is the first full-length study to single out and stress Lenin's extensive studies of Hegel.;His 1914-1915 writings, mainly on Hegel's Science of Logic, are examined in detail. As Lenin studies Hegel, he appropriates, at least in part, new dialectical concepts such as the transformation into opposite, free self-development, and the unity of idealism and materialism. He seems to be revising his earlier views on dialectics and criticizing those of his Marxist contemporaries.;The second part of this study examines the relationship of these unpublished notebooks on Hegel to Lenin's major theoretical works after 1914. The study Imperialism: The Highest Stage of Capitalism is found to have some decidedly Hegelian influences. This work also stresses the dialectical relationship Lenin draws between imperialism and national liberation movements. This concept of a new revolutionary subject seems as well to have been influenced by the Hegel studies.;This work also examines the 1917-1918 writings, including but not limited to the book State and Revolution. This work finds there a Promethean vision of a Soviet democracy. This seems to have a connection with the theme of free self-development found in the Hegel notebooks. This dissertation also traces Lenin's abandonment of his own vision of 1917-1918.;This work concludes with an assessment of the whole. No other Marxist revolutionary leader makes such a study of dialectics and none develop a new dialectical concept such as national liberation.;On the other hand, this dissertation singles out two major limitations in Lenin's dialectic: (1) his failure to make his Hegel studies public or to draw them to a conclusion in the form of a methodological book or article. We term this his "philosophical ambivalence," a term borrowed from Raya Dunayevskaya. (2) His abandonment of his 1917-1918 vision of a Soviet democracy in favor of a more centralized state. In these areas, Lenin fails to carry his new and creative ideas through to their conclusion. Nonetheless, his usually slighted theoretical works constitute an important contribution to the sociology of revolution.