The Fundamentals of Marxism–Leninism is considered to be one of the fundamental works on dialectical materialism and Leninist communism. The book remains important in understanding the philosophy and politics of the Soviet Union, by consolidating the work of important contributions to Marxist theory.
The First Edition of The Fundamentals, was published in 1961. a Second Edition was published in 1963. The Text Draws heavily on the Works on Marx and Lenin, with additional References to Engels, Stalin and Khrushchev.
Part One of Fundamentals covers Materialist and Idealist Philosophy, the use of Dialectics within Materialist Philosophy and its opposition to Metaphysics, and develops a Theory of Knowledge, Truth, Necessity and Human Freedom.
The text argues that only a consistently materialist approach to philosophy can be truly scientific, since it requires the recognition of the objective existence of matter, as outside and independent of the human mind.
Part Two covers marxist theories of history, or historical materialism, by outlining the role of the mode of production, class, class struggles, the state and the individual in social development.
Part Three summaries Marx's Capital and Lenin's theory of Imperialism.