Prefaces — Why the State Becomes an Urgent Question

V. I. Lenin · The State and Revolution

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Section summary

Lenin introduces the book as an intervention in the political crisis of 1917. War has expanded the reach of capitalist states, while many socialist leaders have supported their own governments. For him, this makes a dispute about Marx and Engels inseparable from the question of what workers should do with political power. His proposed method is to reconstruct their argument, examine revolutionary experience, and challenge interpretations that accommodate the existing state.

The prefaces also establish a limit on how to read the book historically. Its main argument was written before the October Revolution, not as a retrospective account of the institutions that later developed in Soviet Russia. The second-edition preface announces the addition of Chapter II §3. Read that addition alongside the earlier chapters, while keeping the difference between the book's projected transition and later historical outcomes open for investigation.

Key claims

Lenin connects the wartime conduct of socialist parties to their understanding of the capitalist state.
The book combines interpretation of Marx and Engels with lessons drawn from earlier revolutions.
The second edition adds Chapter II §3; the text should not be mistaken for a history of the later Soviet state.

Pause & reflect

For discussion

Use these questions for individual reflection or a study circle. Return to the passage to support your answer.

What connection does Lenin make between support for the war and mistaken ideas about the state? Identify the steps in his argument.
How might the urgency of 1917 shape both the questions Lenin asks and the alternatives he dismisses?
Keep two columns as you read: claims about existing states and claims about a future transition. Which would require different kinds of evidence?

Terms in context

imperialism: In Lenin's framework, a stage of capitalism shaped by monopoly, finance capital, and competition among powers over the world economy.
social-chauvinism: Lenin's label for socialist support of one's own ruling class in an imperialist war.
Second International: An association of socialist parties founded in 1889 whose wartime divisions form a central background to this book.

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