Marxism–Leninism is a communist ideology, officially based upon the theories of Karl Marx and Vladimir Lenin, that promotes the development and creation of an international communist society through the leadership of a vanguard party presiding over a revolutionary socialist state that represents a dictatorship of the proletariat. Marxism-Leninism (and its derivatives) was the dominant ideology of the international Communist movement following the ascension of Joseph Stalin in the Soviet Union, and as such, it is the political ideology and movement most often associated with the word "Communism". A society organised through a vanguard party on Marxist-Leninist principles seeks to purge anything considered bourgeois, or idealist from it; in addition, it seeks to implement universal atheism through the abolition of religion. It supports the creation of a single-party state; it rejects political pluralism external to communism, claiming that the proletariat need a single, able and unifying political party through which to represent themselves and exercise political leadership. Through the policy of democratic centralism, the communist party is the supreme political institution of the Marxist-Leninist state and is the prime legal force of societal organisation.

Alexander Theodore Callinicos (born 24 July 1950, Southern Rhodesia - now Zimbabwe) is a Trotskyist political theorist, a member of the Central Committee of the Socialist Workers Party and its International Secretary, and is a Lecturer in International Political Economy at King's College London. He is also editor of International Socialism, the Socialist Workers Party's theoretical journal.

Callinicos is a descendant, through his mother, of the 19th century English historian Lord Acton. During World War II his Greek father was active in the Greek Resistance to Nazi occupation, whilst his mother, the Hon. Ædgyth Bertha Milburg Mary Antonia Frances Lyon-Dalberg-Acton, was the daughter of the 2nd Lord Acton. He was educated at St George's College, Harare.^{[citation needed]}

Callinicos himself first became involved in revolutionary politics as a student at Balliol College, Oxford, from which he received his BA and where he was recruited by Christopher Hitchens into the International Socialists (forerunners of the SWP). His first writings for the IS were an analysis of the student movement of the period. In 1977, Callinicos married Joanna Seddon, a fellow Oxford doctoral student. He received his DPhil at Oxford.

Mao Zedong, also transliterated as Mao Tse-tung  listen (help·info), and commonly referred to as Chairman Mao (December 26, 1893 – September 9, 1976), was a Chinese Communist revolutionary, guerrilla warfare strategist, Marxist political philosopher, and leader of the Chinese Revolution. He was the architect and founding father of the People's Republic of China (PRC) from its establishment in 1949, and held authoritarian control over the nation until his death in 1976. His theoretical contribution to Marxism–Leninism, along with his military strategies and brand of policies, are collectively known as Maoism.

Mao rose to power by commanding the Long March, forming a Second United Front with Kuomintang (KMT) during the Second Sino-Japanese War to repel a Japanese invasion, and leading the Communist Party of China (CPC) to victory against Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek's Kuomintang (KMT) in the Chinese Civil War. After solidifying the reunification of China through his Campaign to Suppress Counterrevolutionaries, Mao enacted sweeping land reform, by using violence and terror to overthrow the feudal landlords before seizing their large estates and dividing the land into people's communes. During the years when Mao was China’s 'Great Helmsman', a range of positive changes came to China. These included promoting the status of women, improving popular literacy, doubling the school population, providing universal housing, abolishing unemployment and inflation, increasing health care access, and dramatically raising life expectancy. In addition, China's population almost doubled during the period of Mao's leadership (from around 550 to over 900 million). As a result, Mao is still officially held in high regard by many in China as a great political strategist, military mastermind, and savior of the nation. Maoists further promote his role as a theorist, statesman, poet, and visionary, while anti-revisionists continue to defend most of his policies.