Lenin’s Testament

“Last Testament”
Letters to the Congress


Written: December 1922 – January 1923
First Published: 1956 in Kommunist (No. 9)
Source: Lenin Collected Works, Volume 36 (p. 593-611)
Online Version: Lenin Internet Archive (marx.org, marxists.org) 1997, 1999
Transcription/Mark-up: Brian Baggins


Contents:

Letter to the Congress
Granting Legislative Functions to the State Planning Commission
The Question of Nationalities or “Autonomisation”


These letters, and those that follow (See Lenin’s Last Works subject index), make up the last of Lenin’s works which are equivalent to an outline programme for the future of the Soviet government.

In these letters Lenin emphasises the need to make changes to the Soviet government and warns of potentially disastrous consequences if the necessary but difficult steps are not taken. These works offer Lenin’s early and incredibly insightful critique of the Soviet government, and critique some of its members, Stalin in particular. The present work was not published until 1956, repressed by Stalin until his death, first published three decades after they were written.

Printed from the short hand notes.

See Lenin’s Last Testament in the Encyclopedia of Marxism for a more thorough historical overview of the document.