State and Revolution

by Vladimir Ilich Lenin

Overview

Lenin wrote 'State and Revolution' in 1917, while he was hiding from the Russian secret police. The book describes the inherent nature of the State as a tool for class oppression, a creation born of one social class's desire to control all other social classes. Drawing on detailed quotes from Karl Marx and Friedrick Engels, Lenin lays down a Marxist view of the state, describes how a working-class revolution will overthrow it, and goes further in showing how social democracy is not enough-even in democratic republics such as those enjoyed by many western countries today, the ruling class is still in control of society, and will never relinquish power. According to Lenin, a Communist revolution is the only remedy for class struggle. This work by Lenin is important to communist thinking and the Marxist concept of the state which is clearly and concisely expressed in this book. Without doubt this is a classic work and will give the reader important concepts in the theory of Marxist-Leninism.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9789354990113
Publisher:	General Press
Publication date:	09/20/2021
Pages:	154
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.50(h) x 0.50(d)

About the Author

Lenin, Vladimir Ilyich (1870-1924) - one of the leaders of the Bolshevik party since its formation in 1903. Led the Soviets to power in October, 1917. Elected to the head of the Soviet government until 1922, when he retired due to ill health. Lenin, born in 1870, was committed to revolutionary struggle from an early age - his elder brother was hanged for the attempted assassination of Czar Alexander III. In 1891 Lenin passed his Law exam with high honors, whereupon he took to representing the poorest peasantry in Samara. After moving to St. Petersburg in 1893, Lenin's experience with the oppression of the peasantry in Russia, coupled with the revolutionary teachings of G V Plekhanov, guided Lenin to meet with revolutionary groups. In April 1895, his comrades helped send Lenin abroad to get up to speed with the revolutionary movement in Europe, and in particular, to meet the Emancipation of Labour Group, of which Plekhanov head. After five months abroad, traveling from Switzerland to France to Germany, working at libraries and newspapers to make his way, Lenin returned to Russia, carrying a brief case with a false bottom, full of Marxist literature. On returning to Russia, Lenin and Martov created the League for the Struggle for the Emancipation of the Working Class, uniting the Marxist circles in Petrograd at the time. The group supported strikes and union activity, distributed Marxist literature, and taught in workers education groups. In St. Petersburg Lenin begins a relationship with Nadezhda Krupskaya. In the night of December 8, 1895, Lenin and the members of the party are arrested; Lenin sentenced to 15 months in prison. By 1897, when the prison sentence expired, the autocracy appended an additional three year sentence, due to Lenin's continual writing and organising while in prison. Lenin is exiled to the village of Shushenskoye, in Siberia, where he becomes a leading member of the peasant community. Krupskaya is soon also sent into exile for revolutionary activities, and together they work on party organising, the monumental work: The Development of Capitalism in Russia, and the translating of Sidney and Beatrice Webb's Industrial Democracy. After his term of exile ends, Lenin emigrates to Münich, and is soon joined by Krupskaya. Lenin creates Iskra, in efforts to bring together the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party, which had been scattered after the police persecution of the first congress of the party in 1898.

Table of Contents

	Preface to First Edition	5
	Preface to Second Edition	6
I.	Class Society and the State	7
1.	The State as the Product of the Irreconcilability of Class Antagonisms	7
2.	Special Bodies of Armed Men, Prisons, etc.	10
3.	The State as an Instrument for the Exploitation of the Oppressed Class	12
4.	The "Withering Away" of the State and Violent Revolution	15
II.	The Experiences of 1848-1851	21
1.	On the Eve of Revolution	21
2.	Results of the Revolution	24
3.	The Formulation of the Question by Marx in 1852	29
III.	Experiences of the Paris Commune of 1871: Marx's Analysis	32
1.	In What Does the Heroism of the Communards Consist?	32
2.	What is to Replace the Shattered State Machinery?	35
3.	The Destruction of Parliamentarism	39
4.	The Organisation of National Unity	44
5.	Destruction of the Parasite-State	47
IV.	Supplementary Explanations by Engels	49
1.	The Housing Question	49
2.	Polemic Against the Anarchists	51
3.	Letter to Bebel	54
4.	Criticism of the Draft of the Erfurt Programme	57
5.	The 1891 Preface to Marx's Civil War in France	62
6.	Engels on the Overcoming of Democracy	66
V.	The Economic Base of the Withering Away of the State	69
1.	Formulation of the Question by Marx	69
2.	Transition from Capitalism to Communism	71
3.	First Phase of Communist Society	75
4.	Higher Phase of Communist Society	78
VI.	Vulgarisation of Marx by the Opportunists	86
1.	Plekhanov's Polemic Against the Anarchists	86
2.	Kautsky's Polemic Against the Opportunists	87
3.	Kautsky's Polemic Against Pannekoek	93
	Postscript to First Edition	101
	Explanatory Notes	102

Editorial Reviews

"Lenin's greatest contribution to political theory." Lucio Colletti

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