Dialectical and Historical Materialism

First English language edition.  44pp booklet in original paper wraps, portrait plate frontispiece.  16mo.  Covers are toned and faded, rubbed at edges with multiple small cracks over the spine.  Previous owner's name neatly inked on the first (blank) page.  Internally some mild toning and faint spotting, with the occasional line in page margins.  Binding is weakened, requiring careful handling. Dialectical materialism is a materialist theory developed from the political writings of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels which emphasises the importance of social conditions, and the contradictions within them.  Stalin's commentary became a central text within the Soviet Union's understanding of Marxism-Leninism.  While some argued that Stalin had not added any original thought to the concept of historical materialism, the publication was widely praised in the Soviet Union and serve to further Stalin's reputation as a leader and philosopher.