i stilll dont think lenin's claim to marx was justified. yes russia was imperialist, opressive, etc. but it wasnt in capitalism, and Marx was quite specific about the revolution occuring in a developed capatilist country first, rather than an undeveloped country. capitalism produces a different type of opression and misery, that is not seen in other systems. largley single ownership of the means of production, in which greedy bosses earn the profit, which is totally unjustifiable as the employer did not make the product, but still gains the money which should belong to the worker, and that makes 100% sense to me.
the fact is, if it wasnt for lenin, stalin would never have got into power, and millions of massacres and deaths would never have happened. even more so, lenin's party structure 'democratic centralism' set up the perfect beaurocratic structure for stalin to rise to leader of the vanguard party.
my problem with real problem with marx's theory, is the dictatorship period. in theory it sounds perfect, the proletariat uses the arms of the state to transform the economic base from single to common ownership of the means of production and abolishes private property. if this is all done successfully, then yes, the state would have, in effect, destroyed itself with the abolishment of private property. but so far, no country, which has claimed to be communist, has ever done this, but instead hav become authoritarian systems instead, and even more opressive than before...stalin, china, etc. in england, a famous politician, quite bravely (considering he's a politician) said "all power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely" - something which seems to be true in all the failed attempts for communism.
of course, marx's analysis shows an inevitable progression to a true and justifiable revolution...but so far, i dont think thats happened, otherwise we'll all be living happily in a system where everyyone helps each other, rather than a state which abuses power for itself. i agree more on the line of the anarcho-communists, who want a revolution, but want the revolutionary period to be the point where the economic base, rather than an arbituary dictatorship period. therefore, an almost spontaneous transfer to communism from capitalism.