Cadres 
Eric Hobsbawm
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Lenin’s ‘vanguard party’ of Marxist cadres, disciplined and ideally full-time, his ‘professional revolutionaries’, was the most formidable political invention of the 20th century. Its impact on the history of that century was extraordinary. Some thirty years after Lenin arrived at the Finland Station, parties of this type ruled over one third of the world’s population. By dint of following the Leninist model, small groups were able to punch far above their weight, while in the right historical circumstances, their structure afforded them enormous potential for expansion and, indeed, state-building. Even in unfavourable conditions, such as those that prevailed in Britain, their impact was out of proportion to their size.
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From the LRB letters page: [ 10 May 2007 ] David Craig.
Eric Hobsbawm’s most recent book is Globalisation, Democracy and Terrorism.
Other articles by this contributor:
An Assembly of Ghosts · Gorbachev, My Hero
Could it have been different? · Budapest 1956
Benefits of Diaspora · the Jewish Emancipation
Diary · Memories of Weimar
Retreat of the Male · Revolution in the Family
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