I have always been fascinated by Russian history. I have read several books about the October Revolution of 1917. I have read biographies about Vladimir Lenin but I don’t think I have ever read from start to finish anything that Vladimir Lenin wrote. This week I finished reading State and Revolution.

It was written in 1917 after the February Revolution but before the October Revolution. It is a relatively short read but it allows the reader to follow Lenin’s thought process. Most of the time it felt like I was getting Lenin’s interpretation of Marx.

I saw the appeal of what he was writing about but I didn’t see a way to make it a reality. Perhaps the best example is from the following excerpt:

“The state will be able to wither away completely when society adopts the rule: "From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs", i.e., when people have become so accustomed to observing the fundamental rules of social intercourse and when their labor has become so productive that they will voluntarily work according to their ability. "The narrow horizon of bourgeois law", which compels one to calculate with the heartlessness of a Shylock whether one has not worked half an hour more than anybody else--this narrow horizon will then be left behind. There will then be no need for society, in distributing the products, to regulate the quantity to be received by each; each will take freely "according to his needs".

Upon reading this I immediately had several thoughts. What is the difference between fundamental rules of social intercourse and bourgeois law? Does the productivity of people have to increase first before they voluntarily work according to their ability or do they voluntarily work because they are so productive? Most importantly however how do you factor in human personalities, characteristics, and ambitions?

Lenin described my thought process in his next paragraph. It is a utopian idea to assume that the state would just wither away. He stated “ From the bourgeois point of view, it is easy to declare that such a social order is "sheer utopia" and to sneer at the socialists for promising everyone the right to receive from society, without any control over the labor of the individual citizen, any quantity of truffles, cars, pianos, etc.”

It is a sheer utopian idea, but Lenin never wanted to reach that state during his lifetime anyway. A couple of paragraphs later he explained.

“Until the “higher” phase of communism arrives, the socialists demand the strictest control by society and by the state over the measure of labor and the measure of consumption; but this control must start with the expropriation of the capitalists, with the establishment of workers' control over the capitalists, and must be exercised not by a state of bureaucrats, but by a state of armed workers.”

Paraphrasing from James Madison until “men became angels and no government was necessary” Vladimir Lenin demanded total control enforced by the power of his red army. By force he would steal from the rich and destroy society so that some future generation would be able to live as angels. In the meantime he and his successors would have complete control over the state and everyone living there.

Overall this is a book of theory and is pretty dry, but there are insights that can be gleaned from it. At a glance his ideas are attractive but with any scrutiny they are at best utopian and at worst a pretext for his authoritarian rule. I rate this book 2.5 out of 5 stars.