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A review by antony_monir
State and Revolution by Vladimir Lenin
4.0
I don’t think it’s a stretch to say that Lenin was deeply intelligent. State and Revolution is a document that is one of the foundational texts of marxism-leninism. In the edition of the book that I have, the introduction mentions that Lenin was so precise in his understanding of theory that if Marx and Engels were correct (which is debatable), then Lenin must also be correct. I completely agree with this statement because I have never seen such depth of analysis of Marx and Engels’ writings. This book focuses on the topics of the role of the state during a communist revolution and its “withering” away thereafter. Lenin’s dedication to the foundational marxist texts leads to him arguing over details with the various other leftist groups such as the anarchists and the democratic socialists. Much of this book focuses on the details of these arguments, mainly against Kautsky who was an important figure of the second internationale. Lenin’s writing here is sharp and fiery, sometimes excessively so to the point of being repetitive. Oftentimes, it is hard to follow Lenin (which was also an issue I encountered in Imperialism) because of his style. It is somewhat of a pattern I noticed in marxist literature to have writing that is either so dense that it is hard to understand or that references something arcane which leads the reader down a rabbit hole of historical research before they can comprehend the context. Nevertheless, I think that despite the difficulty that I encountered in reading this book, it was worth the effort and I did learn a lot about the ideas of Lenin from the man himself. Now, whether or not these ideas have any modern day relevance beyond historical interest is still up for debate. Regardless, this book is important and is a must-read for people interested in the history of the 20th century. Final rating: 4/5 (Imperialism was better!)