THE English edition of the Selected Works of Lenin in twelvevolumes corresponds with the selection made by the Lenin Institutein Moscow,which is being published not only in Russian but inmany other languages. Its purpose is to give to the proletariatand to all who labour in English-speaking countries the oppor-tunity of knowing Lenin's great life work,of becoming acquaintedwith Leninism and with the history of the victorious proletarianrevolution in Russia and of the international proletariat,a historyover which he exercised such a decisive influence.

“Leninism is Marxism in the epoch of imperialism and of theproletarian revolution. More exactly: Leninism is the theoryand tactics of the proletarian revolution in general，the theoryand tactics of the dictatorship of the proletariat in particular."iLeninism is the theory and tactics of the proletarian worldrevolution as a whole, as well as of the revolutions in the differentcountries，which are the constituent parts and factors in the pro-cess of the world revolution. It is the theory and tactics ofthe proletarian revolution in the highly developed capitalistcountries and of the growth of the bourgeois-democratic revolu-tion into the proletarian revolution inthe more backwardcapitalist countries and particularly in the colonies. It is not,as the Social-Democrats,the Trotskyists, the Brandlerites and allthe other opponents of Leninism maintain，a specifically Russianphenomenon，impossible to apply to other countries.It is thetheory and tactics of the proletarian dictatorship, for the establish-ment of which the revolutionary proletariat all over the worldis fighting,allied with the peasantry and the oppressed colonialpeoples. As such,it is of decisive importance for the entire inter-national revolutionary movement.