To what extent would you consider the Russian Revolution of 1917 a distortion of Marx's social/political theory as expounded in the Communist Manifesto (and later works)?

by Proktovsky29

I've just written an essay loosely based on this; I considered the Paris Commune and the February/October Revolutions of 1917, evaluating the extent to which they detracted from 'orthodox Marxism' (if such a thing exists).

As someone particularly interested in the latter event, I thought that would be as good a place as any to get some scope for further discussion (and hopefully some insight from those many people more knowledgeable in this area than I).

I also hope that the question makes enough sense for it to be answered appropriately.

Many thanks!

siecle

I don't want to argue about "Orthodox Marxism" but if you're talking about what Marx himself thought, look up the drafts of his letters to Vera Zassulich, who asked him whether Russia could be socialist without ever being bourgeois first.