You may like this Marxist-Leninist intro list I made. Rather than just recommending a bunch of good works, it's formatted to build up on itself over time, so you are more prepared for the later works by reading the earlier ones. Might fix your momentum obstacle!
this post was submitted on 15 Jun 2025
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It's not theory per se, but The Dispossessed by Ursula K Le Guin just describes the value system of a socialist society without big words or sweeping statements.
If there was a ratio of how dense and vitally important the information is, and how short and easy it is to read, pretty much anything Stalin wrote.
Foundations of Marxism Leninism, Dialectical and Historical Materialism, Marxism and the National Question, all good examples.
Complex ideas laid bare in simple terms, I read Critique of the Goetha Programme by Marx first then State and Revolution by Lenin and then Foundations of Marxism-Leninism and it was helpful like honing a blade.
But I think it would have been easier going backwards.
Stalin's writing style is also just really relaxed, clear, and patient. Very different from how the West depicts him.
“In the so called mistakes of Stalin lies the difference between a revolutionary attitude and a revisionist attitude. You have to look at Stalin in the historical context in which he moves, you don’t have to look at him as some kind of brute, but in that particular historical context. I have come to communism because of daddy Stalin and nobody must come and tell me that I mustn’t read Stalin. I read him when it was very bad to read him. That was another time. And because I’m not very bright, and a hard-headed person, I keep on reading him. Especially in this new period, now that it is worse to read him. Then, as well as now, I still find a Series of things that are very good.”
-Che Guevara
He was a published poet, after all.
It's 2025 the trans woman with a unicorn profile picture is telling you to read Stalin.
Why Socialism? The author? Albert Einstein.
But really, it actually is good and easily approachable. Liberals can read it and understand it without having to agonize over its meaning ir challenges.
It's good, don't get me wrong, but it's effectively the definition of the concept of socialist memes being long winded
Blackshirts and Reds is a must read 
I'm not sure if you'd consider it theory, but The Principles of Communism is a great document to send to someone who knows nothing about communism: https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1847/11/prin-com.htm
is a great document to send to someone who knows nothing about communism
same with Socialism: Utopian and Scientific
in the spirit of the thread, ill dump the rest of my theory here:
Draft Theses on National and Colonial Questions by lenin
Theses on Feuerbach (simpler as in shorter, but not as "clearheaded" as the next one:)
Ludwig Feuerbach and the End of Classical German Philosophy (goes from Hegel to Feuerbach to Marx)
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My ADHD ass made it through Parenti's Blackshirts and Reds, and I re-read Steinbeck's Grapes of Wrath 20 years after high school and had it finally click, so there's that
Combat Liberalism is so short and impactful I think it's a must read. It will take you 5 minutes
honestly this one is for people who already are bought into socialism tbh, not great for beginners or liberals. It makes a lot of assumptions and has axioms that would seem like a leap for a liberal who doesn't already subscribe to our tenets
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Today I learned I am a liberal
Combat Liberalism fits in a Reddit comment. Use that as you will.
I mean the communist manifesto was pretty easy to understand tbh. State and Revolution wasn't so bad either
I don't know if there are annotated versions of state and revolution, because I remember it referencing what would be common knowledge/current events in early 20th century Russia, but that it wouldn't be so easy to get now
The Wretched of the Earth by Frantz Fanon is one i found quite easy to read.
It's very emotionally charged, especially if you're at the intersection of different oppressions.
I agree, but i think that's what made it easier to read for me. Validating all of these thoughts and feelings i've had for years.
Oh definitely. It's just that it can be retraumatizing sometimes. Or just make you so angry you put the book down and need to take a walk to calm yourself down.
wait am i just stupid
No. It wasn't horribly difficult, but I found it slow and required a lot of reflection.
I dunno, i barely graduated high school, dropped out of college, and work as a tradesman. Maybe I found it easy just because it made a million different thoughts and contradictions in my head click, and i just tore through it. Time for a reread, i guess.
Communist Manifesto was of course easy, and I thought there's been some feminist-Marxist stuff on the abolition of family and the like. I remember that clicking pretty fast. I think Engels also wrote a piece like that?
I think Engels also wrote a piece like that?
Origin of the Family, Private Property, and the State
The first time I came into contact with the manifesto it was in audio book form. I think this made far more approachable.
Lenin's State and Revolution was surprisingly accessible. The Conquest of Bread is another good one that's very easy and you can really appreciate Kropotkin's passion for wanting to free his fellow man. Anything Parenti is a smooth read, imo; Blackshirts and Reds, Inventing Reality being tops.
Blackshirts and Reds, on Comlib. State and Revolution on Prolewiki, and The Conquest of Bread on Standard Ebooks (couldn't find it on the Anarchists library in the few seconds I used to search so went for Standard Ebooks, lol).
Oh, and I don't know if I'd count Jakarta Method as Theory, but it's an important read and accessibly written.
Came in here to say that blackshirts and reds was an incredible read
Oh look practically 
for me so I can go start my 10th epub (I just started the 9th)
I'm just gonna give myself the award in preparation 
Nah, this one: 
One Piece was a pretty easy read. Long though
Harry Potter by JK Rowling
I just started reading Planet Of Slums by Mike Davis and it’s easy albeit depressing. It’s not theory per se
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