Lenin's dialectics of Imperialism: Relevance One Hundred Years Later

The article deals with the dialectical content of Lenin's works devoted to the study of the nature of the imperialist stage of capitalism at the beginning of the last century. The author highlights the sides and aspects of Lenin's methodology that are especially important for understanding the modern processes of socio-economic development and, in particular, the system of international economic relations and world politics. On the basis of theoretical developments of the “Tsagolov” (“University”) school of political economy and the post-Soviet school of critical Marxism, the author reveals Lenin's methodological approach to the study of the category of monopoly capital, which in Lenin's theory of imperialism is its system-forming feature and the source of the main contradictions. The article pays special attention to the definition of capitalist monopoly and imperialism in general as transitional forms of relations of production. In particular, it is shown that late capitalism, including the phenomenon of its socialization, is a complex system of transitional relations, within the framework of which there is a change in the structure and modification of the content of the elements of the capitalist mode of production. The article proves that the dialectical method, and Lenin's theory of imperialism based thereon, remain relevant in the early XXI century.