Valdamir Ilyich Lenin was a socialist who lived from 1870 to 1924; he was a Russian Revolutionary, the founder of Bolshevism and the major force behind the Revolution of October 1917. Lenin was a friend and confident of the famous socialist of that time who was Carl Marx. Lenin was greatly influenced by Marx's ideas. Lenin made many contributions to the theory that became known as the Marxist theory. There are four major contributions that stand out, the first being the formation of the Vanguard party, the second being the alliance that was made between the peasants and workers, thirdly, the role of imperial capitalism in the world system, the fourth contribution would be the development of Marx's idea of state and its role.
Lenin knew the proletariat needed to be led to revolution in order for social revolution to occur. The working class wasn"t doing anything at this point to better their situation and change the working conditions and trade unions. Lenin thought a party formed of "professional revolutionaries" was needed in order to bring about some changes. Lenin thought no revolutionary movement could take place or have lasting power "without a stable organization of leaders maintaining continuity". According to Lenin, the more people that are drawn into the struggle and start a movement the greater the need for a strong organization to back them up. The people who make up this organization according to Lenin needed to be "engaged in revolutionary activity", he thought by doing this that the party would be much more difficult to break up because the members would all be trained in some sort of military combat and be devoted to the cause. This would also make it easier for more people from the working class and other classes to join and participate in the movement. .
Lenin believed that a smaller organization made up of a select amount of members was better than having a huge party that consisted of "a hundred fools".