Revolution at the Gates : Zizek on Lenin : The 1917 Writings

How to reinvent Lenin in the era of “cultural capitalism.”

Isn’t Lenin little more than a byword for one of the great catastrophes of the twentieth century? No, Slavoj Zizek argues, Lenin deserves wider consideration, and his writings of 1917 are testament to a formidable political mind. Everything is here, from Lenin-the-ingenious-revolutionary-strategist to Lenin-of-the-enacted- utopia. To use Kierkegaard’s phrase, what we can glimpse in these writings is Lenin-in-becoming: not yet Lenin-the-Soviet-institution, but Lenin thrown into an open, contingent situation. In Revolution at the Gates, Zizek locates the 1917 writings in their historical context, while his extensive afterword tackles the key question of whether Lenin can be reinvented in our era of ‘cultural capitalism’. He concludes that whatever the discussion—the crisis of capitalism, the possibility of a redemptive violence, the falsity of liberal tolerance—the time is ripe for us to revise our understanding of Lenin.