> CB: I'd say _The State and Revolution_ is a good one to read in
> conjunction with "Reds", especially for fundamental principles from
> Marx such as "dictatorship of the proletariat".
I'd say that Lenin's _The Three Sources and Three Component Parts of Marxism_ (1913) is the best thing he wrote and one of the best concise explanations of the fundamental principles of Marx:
<http://www.marxists.org/archive/lenin/works/1913/mar/x01.htm>
Notice however that Lenin says absolutely nothing about the "dictatorship of the proletariat". It is only in 1917 and after that this concept becomes "the very essence of Marx's teaching", as Lenin put it in _State and Revolution_.
-- Lew