State power and class society
The opening chapter connects the state to antagonisms between social classes. Lenin argues against accounts that present it as an institution standing above those conflicts. He also distinguishes the eventual withering of the state from the immediate abolition of state power. These distinctions structure the book’s argument about political transformation and the institutions through which it could proceed.
Revolution and the Paris Commune
The discussion turns to Marx’s writings on the revolutions of 1848–1851 and the Paris Commune. Lenin gives particular attention to state machinery, public officials, representative bodies and administration. The Commune becomes a central historical case in his account of how working-class political power would differ from the existing state. The text develops this interpretation through sustained engagement with earlier Marxist writings.
Transition and the phases of communism
A later chapter examines the passage from capitalism and the distinction between lower and higher phases of communist society, drawing on Marx’s Critique of the Gotha Programme. The discussion addresses the relationship between economic development, distribution, political power and the continuing functions of public authority. It gives the work a scope extending beyond the moment of revolution itself.
Argument within the socialist movement
Lenin challenges interpretations associated with Plekhanov and Kautsky and presents the theoretical dispute as politically consequential. The archive’s introductory note explains that a planned seventh chapter on the Russian revolutions of 1905 and 1917 was not completed. The published work’s shape therefore reflects both its theoretical plan and the circumstances of its composition.
Edition: written August–September 1917 and first published in 1918. The 1919 second edition added a section concerning Marx’s 1852 statement. The linked archive ebook identifies Collected Works, volume 25, as its source; its later proofreading and conversion dates belong to the online edition.
Original source: Vladimir Ilyich Lenin; Marxists Internet Archive edition.
Related reading: Socialist Theory and Chinese Documents · Terms and Institutions.