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This article outlines an alternative narrative to the one which contends that Lenin’s political outlook was primarily influenced by Karl Kautsky and the proceedings of the 1891 Erfurt Congress of the German Social Democrats. It argues that Lenin’s thought owed rather more to ideas evolved by a pre-existing socialist movement in Russia, and especially by the model of Marxism developed by Plekhanov during the 1880s. Plekhanov helped formulate an original response to uniquely Russian problems such as a complete lack of political liberty, a small industrial proletariat dwarfed by a much larger agrarian population, a recent history of rural serfdom and a widespread tradition of collective land-tenure among the small farmers. He linked all these features to a general doctrine of class struggle and the progression of society from capitalism towards socialism. We suggest that Lenin accepted the greater part of Plekhanov’s arguments, even though Plekhanov himself was prepared to abandon them at a later stage.