Regardless of which tendency is “orthodox”—a fruitless conversation given that each tendency claims orthodoxy—the great majority of Marxists in the world are Marxist-Leninists, and the only successful communist projects to date have been Marxist-Leninist ones.
that’s because “orthodox” in the case of marxism is largely a matter of optics. the mensheviks could be considered orthodox simply because of their ties to russia, the bolsheviks, and so on, but when we analyze their policies we realize they were simply opportunistic and reactionary. today the term is widely used in the sense i describe. essentially to differentiate between actual revolutionary movements that did not abandon class struggle, and eurocommunism which is essentially red liberalism in circlejerk academia groups.
It seems you do not know the history of Marxism very well or we are using differing definitions.
The Mensheviks were largely orthodox Marxists e.g.
Regardless of which tendency is “orthodox”—a fruitless conversation given that each tendency claims orthodoxy—the great majority of Marxists in the world are Marxist-Leninists, and the only successful communist projects to date have been Marxist-Leninist ones.
that’s because “orthodox” in the case of marxism is largely a matter of optics. the mensheviks could be considered orthodox simply because of their ties to russia, the bolsheviks, and so on, but when we analyze their policies we realize they were simply opportunistic and reactionary. today the term is widely used in the sense i describe. essentially to differentiate between actual revolutionary movements that did not abandon class struggle, and eurocommunism which is essentially red liberalism in circlejerk academia groups.