"Whereas previous studies of Lenin have concentrated either on his political activities or on his theoretical works, Lenin: The Theory and Practice of Revolution brings together these two aspects of Lenin's life in an original synthesis, shedding fresh light on the key episodes of Lenin's revolutionary action and his socialist thought." "The book breaks new ground in a number of ways: it shows that the influence of his brother Alexander, who was hanged for his assassination attempt on the tsar in 1887, on Lenin's political views was much more profound than has hitherto been believed; it challenges the accepted view that Lenin deliberately set out to form the Bolshevik party, by documenting his efforts to gain control of the existing Russian Social Democratic Labour Party: and it reveals that Lenin's strategy for taking power in October 1917 was not actually put into effect and that his assumptions about how socialism would develop in Russia were unfounded."--BOOK JACKET.