![]() That the book was written in the midst of the Russian Revolution should not escape notice. Following Marx’ and Engels’ conception of the dictatorship of the proletariat, Lenin calls for the dismantling of the bourgeois state and its replacement with a workers’ state directed at the expropriation and suppression of the bourgeoisie, without which the overthrow of class society, and with it the material basis for the “withering away” of the state would not be possible. In contrast to the anarchists however, Lenin does not simply call for the “abolition” of the state or the rejection of state power in and of itself. Today this criticism retains its full force, when self-proclaimed “socialists” rush to support “their” own state in imperialist adventures around the world, and the interests of “their” bouregoisie at home, whilst preaching pacifism and compromise to the workers. ![]() Setting out the ideas of Marx and Engels on the state, and the position of the working class in relation to it, Lenin directs his fire at the “servile adaptation of the ‘leaders of socialism’ to the interests not only of ‘their’ national bourgeoisie, but of ‘their’ state”. ![]() ![]() Written in Lenin’s characteristically clear and incisive style, this book is a cornerstone of revolutionary Marxism. Written by Lenin in August-September 1917, The State and Revolutionprovides a definitive presentation of the Marxist theory of the state. ![]()
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