V. I. Lenin

Plan for an Article “On the Question of the Role of the State” {7}

On the Question of the Role of the State

| Communist or Social-Democrat? |
| --- |
| Socialism and communism. (Complete community of the articles of consumption or,
at least, of the necessities .) |
| Democracy is also a state. Absterben.... “Withering away” of the
state. |
| Why not
Abschaffung {1} or
Sprengung {2} ? |
| “Allm\"ahliches
Einschlafen” {3} of one function after another. |
| Without democracy=without administration of men.
“The state is rooted in the souls of the workers”? |
| Opportunism and revolutionary Social-Democracy. Dictatorship of the proletariat. |
| {{{{ | Use of the state against the bourgeoisie. |
| Resistance to its attempts at restoration. |
| Revolutionary wars. |
| Introduction and defence of democracy. The role of democracy. |
| The role of democracy: | Education of the masses |
| Their transition to the new system |
| Form of socialist revolution: a l l i
ances of 1905. |
| Imperialism: the state and the economic organisations of the
capitalists. “State-capitalist trusts”.... |
| Democratic reforms of the imperialists and socialist revolution. |
| Marx in 1844 ( Nachlass , II. Band,
S. 50, {4} end of last but one paragraph). {8} |
| [DOUBLE BOX ENDS:]

[[
Nothing except an antithesis between
socialism and politics. Against Ruge’s purely
political
radicalism. Until 1847!

]] |
| Engels (“Dell’
Autorità” {5} ) | on revolution... (+) |
| on organisation.... {9} (+) |
| Marx
(ebenda {6} )

(( Neue Zeit , 32, I, 1913–1914)) on political influence
and struggle for c o n c e s s i o n s —on the revolutionary use of the
state
power... {10} |
| {{ Two directions in politics (politics is participation in the affairs
of s t a t e , direction of the state, definition of the forms, tasks and
content of state activity), opportunist and revolutionary, or two trends in the
attitude to the “state”? |
| {{ The democracy of the reformists and the democracy of the revolution. Two
different contents: minority and the mass. Appeasing the mass? Helping the mass struggle ? Subordination of the mass to the authority of the leaders?
Revolt against the leaders? Engels’s “lower mass” v e r s
u s “mass” behind opportunist leaders. Boils down to
revolution versus opportunism.

]] |

---
Notes:
{1}
Destruction.— Ed .

{2}
Explosion.— Ed .

{3}
“Gradual somnolence.”— Ed .

{4}
Legacy , Vol. II, p. 50.— Ed .

{5}
“On Authority.”— Ed .

{6}
Ibidem.— Ed .

{7}
The plan was drawn up not earlier than November 18 (December 1), 1916,
when Lenin was working on the material concerning the Marxist attitude to
the state. The sheet containing the plan was inserted in the notebook
“Marxism on the State”. That Lenin intended to write a work on the state
is evident from his note “The Youth International” published in December
1916. Analysing and criticising N. I. Bukharin’s article “The Imperialist
Predatory State”, Lenin wrote: “We hope to return to this very important
subject in a separate article”

(see present edition, Vol. 23, p. 166).

A comparison of the present plan with Bukharin’s articles “Concerning the
Theory of the Imperialist State” and “The Imperialist Predatory State”
shows that this is precisely the plan for an article aimed against
Bukharin’s anti-Marxist, semi-anarchist views of the state.

In a letter to A. M. Kollontai on February 4 (17), 1917, Lenin wrote:
“I am preparing (have got the material ready) an article on the question
of the attitude of Marxism to the state”

(see present edition, Vol. 35, p. 286).

The article was intended for No. 4 of Sbornik Sotsial-Demokrata ,
but was apparently not written. The material collected by Lenin for the
article made up his notebook, “Marxism on the State”

(see Fifth Russian edition of the Collected Works , Vol. 33,
pp. 123–307)

and was used by Lenin in his book The State and Revolution

(see present edition, Vol. 25, pp. 381–492).

p. 381

{8}
See Marx, “Critical Remarks on ‘Prussian’s’ Article, ‘The King of
Prussia and Social Reform’\thinspace”, Lenin quotes the article from the
book Aus dem literarischen NachlaΒ von K. Marx, F. Engels und F. Lassalle . Hrsg. von F. Mehring. Bd. 2. Gesammelte Schriften von
K. Marx und F. Engels. Von Juli 1844 bis November 1847. Stuttgart, 1902.

p. 382

{9}
Engels, “On Authority” (see Marx and Engels, Selected Works ,
Vol. 1, Moscow, 1962, pp. 636–39).

p. 382

{10}
See Marx, “Der politischen Indifferentismus” (Political
Indifferentism) (Marx/Engels, Werke , Bd. 18, S. 299–304, Dietz
Verlag, Berlin, 1962).

p. 382