Summing up the lessons of the October Revolution and the first years of the post-October development, Lenin stated: "We have to admit a fundamental change in our whole point of view on socialism." This way the question was raised about the need to create a theory of renewed socialism that meets the conditions of the 20^th century. The theory that would solve the problem: how, leading society out of the deadlocks of capitalism, does not plunge it into other dead ends – the dead ends of an authoritarian-bureaucratic system. In this context the article analyses the contribution made by Lenin to the theory of renewed socialism. The following question is posed: what of Lenin's legacy can be included (“water of life”) in the modern socio-transformative theory (this is discussed in the first article published in the current issue of the journal), what is discarded (“water of death”) and how can it be supplemented, based on the realities of the 21^st century.