What Is to Be Done?
E75713
"What Is to Be Done?" is a 1902 political pamphlet by Vladimir Lenin that outlines his theory of a vanguard party and revolutionary organization for leading the proletariat.
All labels observed (6)
How this entity was disambiguated
This entity first appeared as the object of triple T604428 — resolving that mention is where its identity was fixed. The disambiguator weighed these candidate entities and picked the highlighted one (or “None”, minting a new entity). This is how homonymy is resolved: the same surface form can point to different entities.
NED1
Entity disambiguation (via context triple)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: What Is to Be Done? Context triple: [Vladimir Lenin, notableWork, What Is to Be Done?]
-
A.
Permanent Revolution
Permanent Revolution is a seminal Marxist theory text by Leon Trotsky that argues socialist revolutions in less-developed countries must become continuous and international to succeed.
-
B.
The Conquest of Bread
The Conquest of Bread is a foundational anarchist-communist text by Peter Kropotkin that advocates for a decentralized, cooperative society based on mutual aid and the abolition of private property.
-
C.
Reform or Revolution
Reform or Revolution is a seminal 1899 pamphlet by Rosa Luxemburg that critiques revisionist socialism and defends the necessity of revolutionary struggle over gradual reform within capitalism.
-
D.
Le Coup d’État permanent
Le Coup d’État permanent is a political essay by François Mitterrand that sharply criticizes France’s Fifth Republic and the presidential power structure established by Charles de Gaulle.
-
E.
October: Ten Days That Shook the World
"October: Ten Days That Shook the World" is a 1928 Soviet silent historical film by Sergei Eisenstein that dramatizes the events of the 1917 October Revolution using his pioneering montage techniques.
- F. None of above. chosen
- G. Unsure - the case is ambiguous/there is not enough information to decide.
NED2
Entity disambiguation (via description)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: What Is to Be Done? Target entity description: "What Is to Be Done?" is a 1902 political pamphlet by Vladimir Lenin that outlines his theory of a vanguard party and revolutionary organization for leading the proletariat.
-
A.
Permanent Revolution
Permanent Revolution is a seminal Marxist theory text by Leon Trotsky that argues socialist revolutions in less-developed countries must become continuous and international to succeed.
-
B.
The Conquest of Bread
The Conquest of Bread is a foundational anarchist-communist text by Peter Kropotkin that advocates for a decentralized, cooperative society based on mutual aid and the abolition of private property.
-
C.
Reform or Revolution
Reform or Revolution is a seminal 1899 pamphlet by Rosa Luxemburg that critiques revisionist socialism and defends the necessity of revolutionary struggle over gradual reform within capitalism.
-
D.
Le Coup d’État permanent
Le Coup d’État permanent is a political essay by François Mitterrand that sharply criticizes France’s Fifth Republic and the presidential power structure established by Charles de Gaulle.
-
E.
October: Ten Days That Shook the World
"October: Ten Days That Shook the World" is a 1928 Soviet silent historical film by Sergei Eisenstein that dramatizes the events of the 1917 October Revolution using his pioneering montage techniques.
- F. None of above. chosen
Statements (49)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf |
book
ⓘ
non-fiction work ⓘ political pamphlet ⓘ |
| alsoKnownAs |
What Is to Be Done?
ⓘ
surface form:
What Is to Be Done? Burning Questions of Our Movement
|
| author | Vladimir Lenin ⓘ |
| centralClaim |
A centralized, disciplined party is necessary to lead the proletariat
ⓘ
Socialist consciousness must be brought to workers from outside the spontaneous trade-union struggle ⓘ The working class needs a vanguard party to achieve socialist revolution ⓘ |
| countryOfOrigin | Russian Empire ⓘ |
| criticizes |
Economism in the Russian socialist movement
ⓘ
spontaneity in workers’ movements ⓘ trade-unionism as a sufficient form of struggle ⓘ |
| genre |
Marxist theory
ⓘ
political theory ⓘ |
| historicalContext |
pre-revolutionary Russia
ⓘ
struggle within the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party ⓘ |
| impact |
became a foundational text for communist party organization
ⓘ
helped define the organizational principles of the Bolshevik faction ⓘ |
| influenced |
20th-century revolutionary movements
ⓘ
Russian Social Democratic Labour Party (Bolsheviks) ⓘ
surface form:
Bolshevik Party organization
Communist parties worldwide ⓘ Leninism as a political doctrine ⓘ concept of democratic centralism ⓘ |
| influencedBy |
Economism (Russian socialist current)
ⓘ
Friedrich Engels ⓘ Karl Marx ⓘ 1st Congress of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party ⓘ
surface form:
Russian Social Democratic Labour Party debates
|
| mainSubject |
class consciousness
ⓘ
Central Committee ⓘ
surface form:
democratic centralism
party discipline ⓘ proletarian revolution ⓘ revolutionary organization ⓘ role of intellectuals in the workers’ movement ⓘ vanguard party ⓘ |
| movement |
Russian revolutionary movement
ⓘ
surface form:
Russian Social Democratic movement
|
| notableQuote |
The history of all countries shows that the working class, exclusively by its own effort, is able to develop only trade-union consciousness
ⓘ
Without revolutionary theory there can be no revolutionary movement ⓘ |
| originalLanguage | Russian ⓘ |
| originalTitle |
What Is to Be Done?
self-linksurface differs
ⓘ
surface form:
Что делать? (Chto delat’?)
|
| politicalOrientation |
Leninism
ⓘ
Marxism ⓘ |
| proposes |
centralized party press
ⓘ
professional revolutionaries as core party members ⓘ strict party membership criteria ⓘ |
| publicationYear | 1902 ⓘ |
| relatedConcept |
democratic centralism
ⓘ
party of a new type ⓘ vanguardism ⓘ |
| relatedWork | One Step Forward, Two Steps Back ⓘ |
How these facts were elicited
The pipeline generated the facts above by prompting gpt-5.1 with this entity's name + description and the instruction below.
Instruction
You are a knowledge base construction expert. Given a subject entity and a description of it, return factual statements that you know for the subject as a JSON list of dictionaries(triples), where keys must be "subject", "predicate" and "object". The number of facts may be very high, between 25 to 50 or more, for very popular subjects. For less popular subjects, the number of facts can be very low, like 5 or 10. # Requirements - If you don't know the subject at all, return an empty list. - If the subject is not a named entity, return an empty list. - Include at least one triple where predicate is "instanceOf". - Do not get too wordy. - Separate several objects into multiple triples with one object.
Input
Subject: What Is to Be Done? Description of subject: "What Is to Be Done?" is a 1902 political pamphlet by Vladimir Lenin that outlines his theory of a vanguard party and revolutionary organization for leading the proletariat.
Referenced by (11)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.
this entity surface form:
What Is to Be Done? Burning Questions of Our Movement
this entity surface form:
Что делать? (Chto delat’?)
this entity surface form:
What Is To Be Done?
this entity surface form:
Lenin’s pamphlet "What Is To Be Done?"
this entity surface form:
Lenin’s pamphlet "What Is To Be Done?"
this entity surface form:
Lenin’s "What Is To Be Done?"