Postscript — An Unfinished Chapter and an Open Historical Question

V. I. Lenin · The State and Revolution

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Section summary

The postscript explains why the promised chapter on the Russian revolutions of 1905 and 1917 was not completed. Lenin says the political crisis and October Revolution interrupted the work. That is the endpoint of this book, not a missing chapter that a study guide can reconstruct as if Lenin had written it.

The brief ending changes how the reader should assess the work's scope. Earlier revolutionary experiences support an argument directed toward Russia in 1917, but the book does not supply the planned extended examination of that year's events or a retrospective assessment of subsequent Soviet institutions. A final study discussion should therefore distinguish textual interpretation, the institutional programme proposed, and later historical evaluation. Returning to the prefaces makes the gap between the immediate political intervention and the longer projected transition especially visible. The pilot ends here while leaving those further historical questions available for a separate reading programme.

Key claims

Lenin attributes the interruption of the book to the revolutionary events of late 1917.
The planned extended chapter on the Russian revolutions was not completed in this work.
The book's projected transition and the subsequent history of Soviet institutions require distinct forms of assessment.

Pause & reflect

For discussion

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

How does the unfinished chapter limit what this book can establish about the Russian Revolution?
Which question from your initial reading can the completed text answer, and which requires another source?
State Lenin's central argument in your own words, then identify its strongest piece of evidence and one unresolved institutional problem.

Terms in context

postscript: A concluding addition that explains the circumstances under which the manuscript was left unfinished.
October Revolution: The Bolshevik-led revolution of 1917 that Lenin identifies as interrupting completion of the book.
retrospective evaluation: Assessment using later developments, which must be distinguished from reconstructing what an author argued at the time.

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