I have always held the opinion Lenin was not right when he argued Russian eonomy had fully grown capitalistic and ripe for the revolution. He had to inspire his follwoers with an ideolgy. But it was a fact that the rotten State of Czar was ready for a fall and Lenin engineered an easy take over over the head of kiberal democrats.
His Imperialism Highest stage of Capitalism is applicable today better and was premature for his time.
No body can organise a revolution. It happens. Any organised revolution is a contrived one and suffers from distortion. A party needs to be in place to take advantage of such situations. A comunist party cannot overcome fudalism to jump to Socialism. But A communist Party is better placed to achieve capitalism after thowing the feudal State as it can approach such a development in an orderly way compared to the market dictated unplanned chaotic development such as India is facing right now. So there is a need for a communist party in any stage of development provided that party does not confuse the prevailing stage and try to build socialism straight away.
-- kalalepsarathy