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The State and Revolution

Core Argument

Lenin's The State and Revolution sets out to restore the revolutionary core of the Marxist theory of the state, which he argues has been systematically distorted and betrayed by the leading figures of the Second International. The central thesis is that the state is not a neutral arbiter standing above society but an instrument of class rule, a special body of armed men that arises from irreconcilable class antagonisms. Against the reformist view that the working class can capture and reform the existing state machinery, Lenin insists that the bourgeois state apparatus—its bureaucracy, standing army, and police—must be smashed and replaced with a fundamentally different form of political organisation.

The book establishes that the dictatorship of the proletariat is not a totalitarian concept but the highest form of democracy, extending political power to the vast majority while suppressing the former exploiting minority. Drawing on the experience of the Paris Commune of 1871, Lenin argues that the workers' state must take the form of a "commune-type republic" where all officials are elected, revocable at any time, and paid no more than skilled workers' wages. This "semi-state" begins to wither away immediately, as the functions of administration become simpler and are performed by the armed population itself, until the state disappears entirely with the achievement of full communism.

The polemic is directed against two principal distortions: the bourgeois conception of the state as a force for class reconciliation, and the more subtle opportunist distortion of the Kautskyites, who accept that the state is an organ of class rule but evade the revolutionary conclusion that it must be destroyed. Lenin argues that the imperialist war of 1914-18 has driven the fusion of monopoly capitalism with the state apparatus to an extreme, making the question of the state the most urgent practical problem for the working class. The book is thus both a theoretical restoration and a political weapon, intended to arm the masses with the revolutionary conclusions that the opportunists have suppressed.

Overview

The argument develops across seven chapters, beginning with a theoretical grounding in the classical Marxist texts and moving through historical experience to a devastating critique of the opportunist betrayal. The opening chapter establishes the Marxist theory of the state as the necessary starting point, drawing on Engels to demonstrate that the state is a product of irreconcilable class antagonisms, that it cannot reconcile classes, and that it must be abolished by the proletariat in a violent revolution. Lenin insists that the "withering away" of the state applies only to the proletarian state after the revolution; the bourgeois state does not wither away but must be smashed.

The second chapter examines the experience of the revolutions of 1848-51, showing how Marx's analysis of the Eighteenth Brumaire led to the conclusion that the proletarian revolution must destroy the bureaucratic-military machine rather than perfect it. Lenin identifies Marx's three novel contributions: that classes exist only in specific historical phases of production, that class struggle necessarily leads to the dictatorship of the proletariat, and that this dictatorship is merely the transition to a classless society. The decisive test of a Marxist, Lenin argues, is whether one recognises the necessity of the dictatorship of the proletariat.

The third chapter, on the Paris Commune, represents the theoretical heart of the book. Marx's analysis of 1871 transformed a tactical defeat into a strategic lesson: the working class cannot simply lay hold of the ready-made state machinery. The Commune demonstrated what a real people's revolution entailed—the abolition of the standing army, universal suffrage, all officials made elective and revocable, salaries reduced to workmen's wages. The Commune was a working body, not a parliamentary talking shop, fusing executive and legislative functions. This, Lenin argues, is the political form at last discovered for the economic emancipation of labour.

Engels' supplementary writings are examined in the fourth chapter, sharpening the polemic against anarchist and reformist distortions. Engels argued that the democratic republic is the specific form for the dictatorship of the proletariat, that the victorious proletariat must lop off the state's worst sides as speedily as possible, and that the abolition of the state means the abolition of democracy itself. The fifth chapter provides the economic basis for the withering away of the state through Marx's Critique of the Gotha Programme, distinguishing between the lower phase of communism (socialism), which retains bourgeois right and therefore requires a state, and the higher phase, where the state becomes absolutely unnecessary.

The sixth chapter is a sustained polemic against the vulgarisation of Marxism by Plekhanov and Kautsky. Plekhanov's evasion of the question of the state in his pamphlet on anarchism is exposed as intellectual cowardice. Kautsky's betrayal is more systematic: he omitted Marx's conclusion that the state machine must be smashed, reduced the Marxist-anarchist distinction to a formula about winning rather than destroying the state, and left a fatal loophole for interpreting the conquest of power as merely acquiring a parliamentary majority. The seventh chapter, on the Russian revolutions of 1905 and 1917, exists only as a fragment, but establishes that the soviets represent the practical verification of the Commune's lessons.

The book occupies a unique place in the Marxist tradition as both a theoretical restoration and a revolutionary manual. It was written in the months between the February and October Revolutions of 1917, when Lenin was in hiding, as a weapon against the reformist and centrist currents that dominated the Second International. The postscript, written after the October insurrection, declares that the unfinished chapter on the Russian revolutions has been rendered unnecessary: the experience is now being lived rather than written about.

Chapter Guide

  1. Introduction by Alan Woods — Establishes the state as a foundational question for Marxism, arguing that every state is an instrument of class oppression rooted in the relations of production, and that the dictatorship of the proletariat is workers' democracy, not totalitarianism.
  2. Prefaces — Lenin establishes the state as the central theoretical and practical question of the epoch, indicting the Second International for betraying Marxism through "social-chauvinism" and capitulation to the bourgeois state.
  3. Class Society and the State — Establishes the Marxist theory of the state as a product of irreconcilable class antagonisms, arguing that the bourgeois state must be abolished by violent revolution while only the proletarian state withers away.
  4. The Experience of 1848-51 — Examines Marx's conclusion from the revolutions of 1848-51 that the proletarian revolution must smash the bureaucratic-military state machine, and establishes the dictatorship of the proletariat as the decisive test of Marxism.
  5. The Experience of the Paris Commune: Marx's Analysis — Presents the Commune as the political form at last discovered for the economic emancipation of labour, demonstrating a proletarian democracy where officials are elected, revocable, and paid workmen's wages.
  6. Supplementary Explanations by Engels — Engels refines the theory by arguing the democratic republic is the specific form for proletarian dictatorship, that the state must be lopped of its worst sides, and that the abolition of the state means the abolition of democracy.
  7. The Economic Basis for the Withering Away of the State — Marx's Critique of the Gotha Programme distinguishes between socialism, which retains bourgeois right and requires a state, and full communism, where the state becomes absolutely unnecessary.
  8. The Vulgarisation of Marxism by the Opportunists — Dissects the systematic betrayal by Plekhanov and Kautsky, who evaded or distorted Marx's conclusion that the state machine must be smashed, reducing the conquest of power to winning a parliamentary majority.
  9. The Experience of the Russian Revolutions of 1905 and 1917 — Establishes the soviets as the practical verification of the Commune's lessons, arguing the bourgeoisie is inherently counter-revolutionary and the proletariat must take power directly.
  10. PostScript to the First Edition — Written after the October insurrection, Lenin declares that revolutionary practice has overtaken theoretical work and the unfinished chapter on the Russian revolutions is now being lived rather than composed.

Key Concepts

  • Dictatorship of the proletariat — The political form of the transition from capitalism to communism, representing workers' democracy for the vast majority and forcible suppression of the exploiting minority.
  • Smashing the state machine — The revolutionary destruction of the bourgeois bureaucratic-military apparatus, not its capture and reform, as the precondition for proletarian emancipation.
  • Withering away of the state — The gradual disappearance of the state as a special coercive force when classes are abolished and people become accustomed to observing social conditions without subordination.
  • Semi-state — The proletarian state after the revolution, which is no longer a state in the proper sense because suppression is carried out by the armed majority without a special machine of coercion.
  • Social-chauvinism — Socialism in words, chauvinism in deeds; the betrayal of internationalism by socialist leaders who supported "their" national bourgeoisie in the imperialist war.
  • Bourgeois right — The principle of equal exchange that persists in the lower phase of communism, rewarding unequal individuals unequally for unequal labour, requiring a state to enforce it.
  • Commune-type republic — The political form discovered by the Paris Commune, fusing executive and legislative functions, with all officials elected, revocable, and paid workmen's wages.
  • Vulgarisation — The systematic distortion of Marxism by opportunists who evade revolutionary conclusions while claiming to defend the theory, particularly on the question of the state.

Chapters

10 chapters