ramework. Lenin was well aware of the fact that in Marx's theory of revolution, the proletariat class was the mechanism for promoting socialism. In Russia, however, the proletariat class did not exist in any significant proportion because there had been few factories. Additionally, it was in the incipient stages of industrialism. Despite this, Lenin was completely committed to the idea that Russia was ripe for revolution. Russia was still in a neo-feudalistic economy with only a small capitalist faction. Marx believed that a natural progression from feudalism to capitalism had to take place, followed by the capitalist state exhausting all of its productive capacity. Only then, could the "universal" revolution occur. Lenin's Russia was centuries away from this; he was therefore forced to modify portions of Marxist theory in an attempt to accommodate it to the Russian situation and bring about planned capitalism. In doing so, he made four revisions to classic Marxism so that it would fit the Russian conditions.
             Lenin's first major modification to classical Marxism concerns the nature of the vanguard party. For Marx, the vanguard party had a very specific role for bringing about a proletariat revolution. They were to organize themselves to learn Marx's analysis of capitalism so that they can organize the masses and help them develop class-consciousness (subjective moment in proletariat). Marx believed that the vanguard party could do this by translating Marx's analysis of capitalism into a form of critique that the masses could understand, however, Marx never specifies clearly what the nature of the vanguard party should be like, therefore, Lenin takes it upon himself to structure the party.
             Lenin's vanguard party is a para-military organization composed of a few elite intellectuals who understand both the workings and consequences of capitalism, as well as the role they must play ...