Page:Lenin - The State and Revolution.pdf/16

 representative of the whole of Society, it will make itself superfluous. From the time when, together with class domination and the struggle for individual existence, resulting from the present anarchy in the production those conflicts and excesses which arise from this struggle will all disappear—from that time there will be nobody lo be oppressed; there will, therefore, be no need for the State. The first act of the State, in which it really acts as the representative of the whole of Society, namely, the assumption of control over the means of production on behalf of Society, is also its last independent act as a State. The inference of the authority in the State with social relations will then become superfluous one field after another, and finally will cease of itself. The authority of the Government over persons will be replaced by the administration of things and the direction of the processes of production. The State will not be "abolished"; it will wither away. It is from this point of view that we must appraise the phrase, 'a free popular State'—a phrase which, for a time, had a right to be employed as a purely propaganda slogan, but which in the long run is scientifically untenable, It is also from this point of view that we must appraise the demand of the so-called anarchists that the State "should be abolished overnight!" (Herr Eugen Duehrings Unwaelzumg der Wissenschaft; p. 302–303, third German edition.)

Without fear of committing an error, it can be said that the only point in this argument by Engels, so singularly rich in ideas, which has become an integral part of Socialist thought among modern Socialist parties has been that, according to Marx, the State "withers away," in contradiction to the anarchist teaching of the "abolition" of the State. To emasculate Marxism in such a manner is simply to reduce it to, opportunism, for such an "interpretation" only leaves the semi-articulate-conception of a slow, even, continuous change, free from leaps and storms, free from Revolution, The current popular conception, if one may say so, of the "withering away" of the State is undoubtedly that it means a quenching, if not negation, of Revolution. Yet, such an "interpretation" is a most vulgar distortion of Marxism, advantageous only to the capitalist classes, based theoretically on the neglect of the most important conditions and considerations pointed out in the very passage summarizing Engels' ideas, which we have just quoted in full.

In the first place, at the very outset of his argument, Engels says that in assuming State power, the proletariat "by that very act destroys the State as such." It is not usual to reflect on what this really means. Generally, it is either ignored altogether or