[Marxism] Marxist family tree?

[Phil <asdfqwerty123xyz@xxxxxxxxx>]

Hello, Annoying Newbie #23,689 here.

I've read all the Wikipedia articles on the most prominent Marxist figures
(not the best source, I know), but I still can't make sense of the
ideological relationships and antagonisms between them. I was hoping you
could help me out.

Here what I think I know:

Marx & Engels are the central figures, obviously, and can be essentially
taken together. Their work was more analytical and descriptive than
prescriptive.

Lenin took that foundation and built a prescriptive framework on it.

Trotsky...? This is where I'm most confused (I think; maybe everything else
I say here is just as wrong). Trotsky is mostly a mystery to me. I know some
think he represents the true continuation from Marx > Lenin > *, others hate
his guts because he was... what? Too reformist? Too non-reformist? Reformist
according to what? (Bolshevism?) And whom? (Just Stalin? Was Lenin against
Trotsky too?) That's how ignorant I am.

Stalin banished Trotsky, took the wheel, and claimed to be a continuation of
Lenin but pretty much nobody sees it that way, now or then (or do/did
they?). I get the impression Lenin was a thinker; was Stalin? My gut says
not so much, more an opportunist (apologies to his fans! I'm probably
wrong!).

Mao... any real logical progression there? Is Marx > Lenin > (Stalin?) > Mao
more or less accurate, ideologically? What were Mao's contributions? Was it
mostly just ways of adapting Marxism to China, or did he add universal value
to the thought?

Thanks much.

P.S. I don't know much about Cuba; is therealcuba.com just right-wing
propaganda? I pretty much take it for granted that whatever the US
government says about anything left-of-center will be hideously twisted
beyond any recognition as truth, but that's apparently a private site.

P.P.S. What's the deal with North Korea? Is Juche a complete abandonment of
Marxism? Is that place half as bad as it's portrayed in the West?

P.P.P.S. Every time I see the Labor Theory of Value mentioned anywhere
non-Marxist, it's described as "discredited," as though that were the final
verdict. I know as much about economics as Marxism (less), but I'm firmly
left and feel drawn to Marxism, so I bristle at this treatment of the LTV
because I know it's pretty central to Marxism (precisely how is Greek to
me). I have this gut feeling that it isn't really discredited (I've watched
YouTube videos on it that make it sound pretty solid, from what I
understood)... isn't this just more propaganda to replace the LTV with some
right-wing theory that will allow them to deny that profits are extracted
from workers?

Sorry for all this! (I'd ban my sorry butt if I were you.)
________________________________________________
YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message.
Send list submissions to: Marxism@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Set your options at: 
http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40archives.econ.utah.edu