TODAY is 150 years since the birth of Lenin, arguably the greatest single figure in the most significant event in recent human history. Why might we say this? 

Marxists do not celebrate history as a succession of great men but as the history of class struggles that emerge from the contradictions of development within the forces and relations of production. In what sense then might we celebrate Lenin’s greatness?

For Marxists, the greatness of humans and indeed of classes lies in the extent to which they are able to analyse and understand the forces at work in their historical moment, their potentials and limits and then to use this in self-conscious practical action that enables the further development of progressive forces that work independently of their will.