By Vladimir Lenin
The Communist Manifesto authored by Marx and Engels were a criticism of capitalism and the process Adam Smith describes to accumulate wealth. One major criticism of the manifesto is its lack of application given that it was all theory and no practice. While it opposed the capitalist organisation of society, it provided no real examples of how it can be overthrown successfully.
Unfortunately, neither Marx nor Engels lived long enough to have the benefit of hindsight. State and Revolution takes advantage of Lenin’s ability to look back at the impact of the revolutions of 1848 and the Paris commune of 1871. What I found most valuable was the knowledge that Lenin found “opportunists” touting what he would consider corrupted versions of Marx’s ideas from as early as the 1910’s, when communism existed for no more than 70 years. Corruption of Marxism-Leninism was a sticking point between communist states throughout the 20th century and led to doctrinal differences that caused the Sino-Soviet split.
It is important to note that Lenin repeats Marx’s call to use democracy to advance the Marxist agenda. Too often, modern Western misconception ties communism with autocracy when, in fact, communism requires a democracy to raise the entire proletariat to the ruling class by providing citizenship to all in the new post-revolution state.
