Date: 1917
Source: ru:LS/v21

FOREWORD

Lenin corrects a draft submitted to him, which recommended simply "distributing" machines among the peasants; instead, Lenin transfers the right to "dispose of" machines to local organs of Soviet power (including volost land committees), while emphasizing that "ownership of the machines remains with the state."

Questions related to industry, the necessity of its development and elevation to the proper level, were always at the forefront for V.I. Lenin. Now, after the October Revolution, he pushes through a decision to create the Supreme Council of National Economy. V.I. Lenin devoted much attention to the complex issue, requiring much effort, of the immediate transfer of military industry to work to satisfy the economic needs of the country. The resolution adopted by the Council of People's Commissars on Lenin's proposal on December 12, 1917, indicated that "the production of agricultural implements, machines, the production and repair of locomotives is particularly urgent." A month later, Lenin pushes through a decision on the need to "immediately begin the transfer of metal plants to work on the repair and strengthening of railway materials, as well as on the production of products suitable for exchange for bread, etc." The Collection reflects Lenin's work on implementing a state monopoly on leather, fabric, metal, work on the nationalization of enterprises, work in the field of railway and water transport.

However modest our economic successes were in the first year of Soviet power, in the conditions of a fierce civil war, nevertheless the proletarian dictatorship already had certain achievements in overcoming economic devastation and replacing capitalism with a socialist system. Lenin considered it necessary to widely popularize—in connection with the first anniversary of the October Revolution—the results of our activities in the field of industry, the results of the work of the Supreme Council of National Economy: "This is important both for Europe and for the peasants. Clearly, simply, with facts, tell: (a) the participation of workers' organizations. (β) the non-syndicalist, but precisely communist (Marxist) character of the construction (i.e., the new social order, system), (γ) the subordination (i.e., the breaking of resistance) of the capitalists. (δ) practical successes (they took into account all manufacturing: figures) 5-10 best examples."

Along with measures to raise industry and agriculture, it is necessary to note Lenin's struggle against the penetration of kulak and generally anti-Soviet elements into local organs of Soviet power. Proposing to issue a 172-million loan to one of the uyezds of the Tambov Governorate, Lenin motivates this proposal as follows: "An extremely instructive example of an exemplary uyezd, where kulaks have been effectively ousted from all Soviets. In my opinion, such an uyezd needs to be helped first and foremost." Lenin was always very attentive to all indications from the local population regarding the presence of anti-Soviet elements in Soviet bodies. When a teacher from the Tver Governorate, a certain V.S. Ivanova, appealed to V.I. Lenin with a complaint about abuses of power in one of the volosts, indicating that former and current Black Hundreds members had infiltrated the local committee of the poor, Lenin immediately ordered the chairman of the Tver Governorate Executive Committee to investigate the matter: "Start the investigation carefully, so that there is no publicity ahead of time, so that you can cover and expose everything completely. If it turns out to be true, these Black Hundreds members must be publicly expelled and a leaflet published throughout the volost and uyezd, for it is imperative to accustom the population to the fact that worthwhile complaints have serious significance and lead to serious results." As a rule, not a single complaint received by the Council of People's Commissars or personally addressed to Lenin was left without investigation.

He was implacable towards violations of revolutionary legality, arbitrariness, and lawlessness. Lenin demanded especially merciless repressions against bribe-takers and was outraged by the lenient sentences that our judges sometimes handed down. "Instead of shooting bribe-takers, handing down such mockingly weak and lenient sentences is a shameful act for a communist and revolutionary. Such comrades must be prosecuted by the court of public opinion and expelled from the party." Lenin was much involved in the proper organization of affairs in the courts and revolutionary tribunals, and the Collection reflects his activities in this area as well.

V.I. Lenin was not satisfied with minor reforms in the judicial department, and he demanded "the creation of a truly revolutionary, swift, and mercilessly strict court towards counter-revolutionaries, hooligans, idlers, and disorganizers." Elsewhere, Lenin speaks of a strict court in relation to "violators of discipline." Our party has always paid much attention to the struggle for labor discipline, against idlers and loafers. In the basic provisions of economic policy, written by Lenin in April 1918, there is the following point on this issue: "Recognition of the absolute necessity and urgency of the most merciless measures to combat chaos, disorder, and idleness, the most decisive and draconian measures to raise the discipline and self-discipline of workers and peasants."

Lenin attached great agitational and propagandistic importance to the removal of old monuments in Moscow and Petrograd and their replacement with new ones, corresponding to the spirit of the proletarian dictatorship and the revolutionary era in general. He also considered it necessary to decorate public buildings in both cities with "good quotes and inscriptions." The matter moved slowly due to red tape and the inflexibility of Soviet institutions. "There is no bust of Marx for the street, nothing has been done for propaganda with inscriptions on the streets," Lenin was indignant in a note to Comrade Lunacharsky. On the basis of the red tape of the Soviet bodies responsible for the matter, a correspondence arose between Lenin and the People's Commissariat of Education and the then presidium of the Moscow Soviet: both of these institutions did nothing to decorate Moscow with busts for the anniversary of the October Revolution. The presidium blamed the People's Commissariat of Education and even recorded in the minutes that it was removing responsibility for the disruption of the matter. Lenin responded to the red tape and negligence of the People's Commissariat of Education with the following telegram to the People's Commissar (who was then in Petrograd): "I declare a reprimand for criminal and negligent attitude, I demand the sending to me of the names of all responsible persons for bringing them to trial. Shame on saboteurs and dawdlers." As for the excerpt from the minutes of the Moscow Soviet Presidium that he received, Lenin responded to it with a remarkable letter. It is small in volume, less than one page, but only Ilyich could write so passionately, so scathingly, angrily lashing out at

FOREWORD

Soviet workers who did not fulfill their duty, did not do the task assigned to them. "If the People's Commissariat of Education does not answer you and does not fulfill its duty towards you, then you are obliged to complain, and with documents. ...When did you complain? Where is the copy? Where are the documents and evidence? And the entire presidium and Vinogradova*, in my opinion, should be put in prison for a week for inaction. If the People's Commissariat of Education 'does not issue busts' (when did you demand? from whom? copy and document? when did you complain?),—you should have fought for your right. And 'removing responsibility' is the manner of capricious young ladies and silly Russian intellectuals." The letter ends with the following words: "Forgive me for the frank expression of my opinion and accept a communist greeting from one who hopes that you will be taught a lesson by prison for the inaction of power, and from Lenin, deeply outraged by you."

From the mass of V.I. Lenin's remarks (of 1918), concerning the most diverse issues, let us note here only the following of his instructions: the need for economical use of fuel, the organization for this purpose of "popular agitation and propaganda about the importance of saving fuel"; the role of banks in the Soviet state ("banking policy, not limited to the nationalization of banks, should gradually but steadily move towards turning banks into a single apparatus for accounting and regulating the socialistically organized economic life of the entire country as a whole"); the demand for decisive measures to collect income tax; "the creation of mobile groups of controllers in all areas of economic life"; in the field of industry, "the unwavering demand for preliminary plans and estimates, weekly reports, and the actual increase in labor productivity."

Also of interest are V.I. Lenin's notes on the procedure for preparing meetings of the Council of People's Commissars**.

The policy of the Soviet republic has always been and is determined by the interests of the international proletarian revolution. "We are fighting not only for the victory of socialism in Russia, but also throughout the world" (from the plan of a speech at the 1st Congress on Education). When the revolution began in Germany in the autumn of 1918, the inevitability of which V.I. Lenin foresaw, he takes all measures to mobilize the attention of the broad masses to the events taking place in Germany, calls on workers and peasants to prepare broad assistance to the German revolutionary proletariat ("things have 'accelerated' so much in Germany that we cannot lag behind either") and at the same time reins in those who are rushing ahead, speaks out against "running ahead" (this is against Kamenev, who even before the onset of the crisis in Germany proposed to conduct negotiations on revising Brest). In a directive letter of October 1, Lenin outlines the tactics of the Soviet republic in relation to the German revolution: "We will all die to help the German workers

* Employee of the People's Commissariat of Education.
** From V.I. Lenin's notes, not directly related to his political work, a small list of books that V.I. Lenin asked to be given to him for reading when he began to recover after being wounded is of interest. Among the authors, among others, are Chekhov and Dickens.

<s
л 1:1 in iic k ii] i c б о р н и к in the cause of moving forward the revolution that has begun in Germany. Conclusion:
J) ten times more effort on the extraction of bread (clean out the reserves for both us and for the German workers), 2) ten times more enlistment in the army. An army of 3 million should be with us by spring to help the international workers' revolution." The revolutionary situation in Germany made the struggle against Kautsky's "most vulgar opportunism" especially relevant, "replacing the point of view of the dictatorship of the proletariat with vulgar social-liberalism in the spirit of Bernsteinianism and other opportunists." Lenin therefore insisted on the need, precisely in Germany, the center of developing revolutionary events, precisely on the part of the "leftists" (Spartacists, etc.) to speak out against Kautsky's vulgarization of Marxism.

Each new "Lenin Collection," extracting from the archives Lenin's documents that have not yet been published, representing a most valuable contribution to the treasury of Marxist-Leninist thought, gives the Bolsheviks a new weapon in the struggle for the victory of the general line of our party, for the complete triumph of socialism in the Soviet Union and throughout the world.

The main materials of the Collection (post-October period) were prepared by Comrade E.D. Novitskaya. The following comrades also participated in the preparation of the Collection: M.I. Glyasser (pp. 10-30), N.A. Podvoiskaya (pp. 31-87), M.A. Avilova (pp. 204-215, 273-284), P.G. Sennikovsky (pp. 285-309).

February 22, 1933.
Vl. Sorin.

MATERIALS FOR THE BROCHURE
"THE STATE AND REVOLUTION"
JANUARY - AUGUST 1917

The series of documents published here under the general title "Materials for the Brochure 'The State and Revolution'" represents successive stages of Lenin's development of excerpts and notes on the state collected by him in the "notebook in a blue cover" (see "Marxism on the State," Lenin Collection XIV, pp. 497-583).

The first document in this series—the plan of the article "On the Question of the Role of the State"—is most closely related to the brochure "The State and Revolution." This article, directed against Comrade N.I. Bukharin, in response to the latter's article "On the Theory of the Imperialist State"* sent in the second half of 1916 to the editorial board of the "Collection of 'Social-Democrat,'" was planned by Lenin even abroad, during his direct studies of the works of Marx and Engels on the state (January-February 1917).

In "Bolshevik" No. 22 for 1952, the correspondence of the editorial board of the "Collection of 'Social-Democrat'" with Comrade N.I. Bukharin is published, from which it is clear that, being extremely negative about N. Bukharin's views on the state, Lenin initially did not intend to publish his article in the "Collection of 'Social-Democrat'" at all. Later, Lenin changed his intention and decided to place Comrade Bukharin's article, but with his response to it. In a letter to A. Kollontai 47 (February 1917), Lenin informs her that he has almost prepared material for an article on the question of the attitude of Marxism to the state, and further writes: "Oh, if only—there is no money! We would publish Collection S.-D. No. 3 (all the material is lying) and No. 4 (Bukharin's article, which we rejected at first, about the state and my article about the state)!" (Works, vol. XXIX, p. 294). Even earlier, in December 1916, analyzing and criticizing in the note "The Youth International" Bukharin's article "The Imperialist Robber State," written by Bukharin after the editorial board of the "Collection of 'Social-Democrat'" rejected his first article and published in the journal "Jugend-Internationale" under the signature "Nota Bene," Lenin promised to return to the question of the state and the attitude of revolutionary social democracy to it in a special article (Works, vol. XIX, p. 296). A comparison of the plan of the article "On the Question of the Role of the State" with N. Bukharin's articles and Lenin's note "The Youth International" leaves no doubt that this is precisely the article against Bukharin that Lenin intended for No. of the "Collection of 'Social-Democrat'." The sheet with the plan is inserted in the notebook "Marxism on the State." As can be seen from this plan, Lenin did not intend to fully use all the material collected by him in the notebook; sharpening the article against anarchist tendencies in the interpretation of the question of the state, he intended to use in it, apparently, mainly that part of these materials that is devoted to the polemics of Marx and Engels with the anarchists.

The manuscript of the article "On the Question of the Role of the State" has not yet been found. Apparently, the article remained unwritten due to lack of time; it is also possible that Lenin deliberately postponed it due to the lack of money to publish
4 "Collection of 'Social-Democrat'" (see above, letter to A. Kollontai).

As is known, Lenin returned to work on the materials of the notebook "Marxism on the State" after the February Revolution, hiding in the July days in a hut at the Razliv station. The Revolution of 1917 gave Lenin new, rich additional material for theoretical work on the question of the state.

This question, in connection with the Bolsheviks' struggle for the victory of the proletarian dictatorship, became particularly important not only in theoretical, but also in practical-political terms. It is clear, therefore, that the entire plan of this work had to be substantially changed by him.

In the plan of the preface to the brochure "The State and Revolution," Lenin indicates, as a reason for its writing, disputes about the demarcation of Marxism and anarchism, thus linking it to the previous polemics with N. Bukharin. Excerpts and notes from the notebook "Marxism on the State," proving N. Bukharin's incorrect formulation of the question of the state, in one form or another, were first used in the plans for the brochure, and then in the brochure itself. An analysis of the plans and a comparison of the brochure with the materials of the notebook "Marxism on the State" show in this way that Comrade Bukharin's disagreement with Lenin on the question of the state was not "removed" at all in 1917, as some comrades claimed. In fact, the brochure "The State and Revolution," giving a devastating critique of the opportunist distortions of Marx's teaching on the state, at the same time, in a certain part of it, is also directed against the incorrect, semi-anarchist views of the "left communists" (Comrade Bukharin and others) on this question.

All the other plans and outlines printed here were written by Lenin after the February Revolution, before the start of work on the brochure. This is indicated by the reference in all plans, not excluding the very initial draft, to the experience of the revolutions of 1905 and 1917. In the first two drafts of the plan, Lenin groups the material of the notebook "Marxism on the State," and in the third, most detailed, main plan of the brochure, in each paragraph he indicates the corresponding pages of the notebook (cf. Lenin Collection XIV, pp. 208-209).

ON THE QUESTION OF THE ROLE OF THE STATE*.
[January-February 1917]
C[ommun]ist or social d[emocrat]?
Soc[ialism] and com[munism]. Complete commonality of items of consumption (or at least those necessary)
D[emo]cr[acy] is also a st[ate]. Absierben**...
("Withering away" of the st[ate].
Why not Abschaffung*** and not Sprengung****?
"Allmähliches Einschlafen"***** of one function after another.
Without democracy = without management of people.
"The roots of statehood in the souls of the workers"?
Opp[ortuni]sm and r[evolutionary] soc[ial]d[emocracy].
Dict[atorship] of the pr[oletariat].
"Use of the st[ate] against the b[ourgeoisie].
Repulse of its attempts at restoration.
Rev[olutionary] wars.
Intro[duction] and defense of democracy.
The role of democracy:
Education of the masses
Transfer of them to a new system
Form of soc[ial] rev[olution]: unions of 1905.
Imp[eriali]sm: st[ate] and economic] o[rganiza]-
tions of c[apita]lists. "State-capit[alistic]
trusts".....
18703
* The title is given by Lenin. Ed.
** withering away. Ed.
*** destruction. Ed.
**** blowing up. Ed.
***** gradual falling asleep. Ed.

LENIN COLLECTION
Democratic] ref[orm]s of int[ernationalists] and social]
r[evolution].
M[ar]x in 1844 ("Nachlass", II B[and], S.* 50, end of the penultimate paragraph2).
Nothing but the opposition of socialism to politics.
Against purely political radicalism
Ruge.
Before
1847!
Eng[els] ("DeirAutorita"** about rev[olution]... (+ )
about organization... (-j-)3
M[arjx (ebenda***) ("N[eue] Z[eit], 32, II, 1913-4)) about political] influence] and the struggle for concessions"
— about r[evolutionary] use] of st[ate]
power.....
Two directions in politics (politics is participation in the affairs
st[ate], the direction of the state, the determination
of the form, tasks, content of the act[ivity] of the st[ate]), opp[ortunistic] and rev[olutionary], or two directions in relation to "statehood"?
Democracy of ref[ormists] and dem[ocracy] of rev[olution]. Two
different contents: m[inority] and mass. Pacification
of the mass? assistance]
struggle of the mass? Sub[mission]
mass to the auth[ority] of leaders? rebellion] against leaders?

"Lower mass" in Engels v[ersu]s "mass" behind
opportunistic] leaders.
It comes down to rev[olution] v[ersu]s opp[ortuni]sm.
* "Legacy", Volume II, page... Ed.
** "On Authority". Ed.
*** there too. Ed.

PLANS OF THE BROCHURE

18703
PLANS OF THE BROCHURE
JULY - AUGUST 1917
I.
The teaching of Marxism on the state.
Choose a historical-dogmatic (α) order of presentation or
logical (β)?
(α) Development of views (chronological) of M[arx] and E[ngels]. 1847, 1848, 1852, 12. IV. 1871, 1872, 1873,
1875, 1878 (Anti-Dühring]), 1891 (Critique of the Erfurt Program]), (1891: preface to Bürgerkrieg*) 1894, (1895)
(β) St[ate] in [pre-class society...
) in intro-| st[ate] in class society...
}
duction | Entfremdung**; How does the b[ourgeoisie] dominate in a democratic] r[epublic]?
E[ngels] 1887. E[ngels] 1894 (Ursprung)
St[ate] and r[evolution] (and soc[ialism]).
1847 and 1848.
1852: experience of the Fr[ench] r[evolution]s
Experience of the Commune. . . 1871; 1872; 1873; 1875.
Tr[ansition] from cap[italism] to soc[ialism]:
ec[onomic]: Critique
of the Gotha program:
2 Phases of com[munist] society
Karl K[autsky] v[ersu]s M[anne]k[up] IV) 12. (Ki and worse
than nil).
Experience of 1905 and 1917. Soviets...
* Civil War. Ed.
** Alienation. Ed.
*** nothing. Ed.

II.
Elwa\
I. Intro[duction]. St[ate] in pre-class and class
society. What is a st[ate]?)
II. The newest st[ate].
Democratic] republic] and the stock exchange. |
| Armament] and war
III. a "Withering away of the st[ate]."
| The summary of this concept. |
IV. 1847 and 1848: "Theory."
V. 1852: lessons of Fr[ench] history and Fr[ench]
r[evolutions].
VI. Experience of the C[om]m[une]. ("Endlich entdeckt")**.
ad*** VI:
letter 12. IV. 1871.
1871
Preface] to the Communist] M[anifesto] 21. VI.
1872. 1873.
1875.
VII.
Economics] of the trans[itional] stage from cap[ital]ism to com[mun]ism.
VIII. Politic[al] tr[ansition] from st[ate] to "no
st[ate]"
IX. Forgetting and vulgarization of Marxism.
Pl[ekhanov] 1894 and K. K[autsky] 1912 back.
X. Experience of 1905 and 1917.
maybe more carefully: X. Conclusion (experience of 1905 and 1917).
*
approximately. Ed.
** "Finally discovered". Ed.

PLANS OF THE BROCHURE

1800*
III.
PLAN OF THE BROCHURE:
The teaching of Marxism on the state.
(p.

Preface: Theoretical] importance and actuality] of the question.
1. Introduction.
Quote from Ursprung*: pre-class society without
st[ate] and class society with st[ate].
What is a st[ate]? (This is t,