Lenin's April Theses and the 'Psychic State'
anecdote · history ·
retold in 4 talks
Lenin’s April Theses were so radical that his wife Krupskaya and Stalin thought he was in a 'strange psychic state' needing a doctor, illustrating the necessity of 'utopian' intuition to seize unique historical moments.
≤2000talks it is told in, per year2026
As told 4
“even his wife Nadezhda Krupskaya wrote... that Vladimir Ilyich is getting into some kind of a strange psychic state maybe he needs a doctor”
“What if the complete hopelessness of our situation, by stimulating our efforts, offered us the opportunity to create the fundamental requisites of civilization in a different way from that of the West European countries?”1:37:07 Slavoj Žižek Masterclass: Jacques Lacan: A Lateral Introduction. Part 8pub. 2018-11-29 · 2:11:18
“did you notice what are lenin's arguments about stalin? it's not wrong economic politics... it's simply stalin doesn't have good manners.”
What it carries
one story, many jobs: the ideas this anecdote is deployed to argue, one tally mark per use (an idea page shows the same relation from the other end, as its shelf of stories)
Its cast and sources
populated by
Danny Burns1Lynn1Augustus1François Ewald1Anarchy (Personified)1Design Museum Brussels1Victor Frankenstein1Kevin Anderson1
alongside works
Every retelling 4
17:30 Slavoj Zizek:Lenin,Stalin, China,India, Africa,Yugoslavia,Latin America, fascism, democracy, & West2024-02-03 · 1:25:29
Lenin’s April Theses were so radical that his wife Krupskaya and Stalin thought he was in a 'strange psychic state' needing a doctor, illustrating the necessity of 'utopian' intuition to seize unique historical moments., illustrating Peace and Land,Lenin's pragmatic instinct
1:37:07 Slavoj Žižek Masterclass: Jacques Lacan: A Lateral Introduction. Part 8pub. 2018-11-29 · 2:11:18
Citing Lenin’s last writings, Žižek argues Lenin foresaw a 'state capitalism' model (like modern China/Blair) as a necessary modernizing step, not a betrayal., illustrating Third Way Social Democracy
Re-reads Lenin's final testament not as a critique of Stalin's economic policy, but as a complaint about his 'bad manners' and roughness, using this to justify a leftist strategy of reclaiming 'civility' against Trump/Bolsonaro., illustrating Leninist,ideology
13:19 "A new age of shamelessness" | Slavoj Žižek on Trump, authoritarians and "the new left"2025-04-18 · 17:25
Žižek quotes Lenin (1921) to argue that when revolution gets stuck, one must 'descend back to zero point and start to climb the mountain from a totally different direction,' implying the left must abandon its current ironic/subversive stance., illustrating revolution-violence,neo-conservative left