Page:Lenin - The State and Revolution.pdf/17

 it is considered as a piece of "Hegelian weakness" on Engels' part. As a matter of fact, however, these words express succinctly the experience of one of the greatest proletarian revolutions—the Paris Commune of 1871, of which we shall speak in greater detail in its own place. In reality, Engels speaks here of the destruction of the capitalist State by the proletarian revolution, while the words about its withering away refer to the remains of a proletarian State after the Socialist revolution. The capitalist State does not wither away, according to Engels, but is destroyed by the proletariat in the course of the revolution. Only the proletarian State or semi-State withers away after the revolution.

Second, the State is a "particular power of suppression." This splendid and extremely profound definition of Engels' is presented with complete lucidity. It follows therefrom that the "particular power of suppression" of the proletariat by the capitalist class, of the millions of workers by the handful of rich, must be replaced by a "particular power of suppression" of the capitalist class by the proletariat (the dictatorship of the proletariat). It is just this that constitutes the destruction of the State as such. It is just this that constitutes the "act" of taking possession of the means of production on behalf of Society. And it is obvious that such a substitution of one (capitalist) "particular power" by another (proletarian) "particular power" could in no way take place in the form of a "withering away."

Third, in using the term "withering away," Engels refers quite clearly and definitely to the period after "the taking over the means of production by the State on behalf of the whole of Society," that is, after the Socialist Revolution. We all know that the political form of the "State" is then an absolutely complete democracy. But it never enters the head of any of the Opportunists who shamelessly distort Marxism that Engels deals here with the withering away of the Democracy. At first sight this seems very strange. But it will only be unintelligible to one who had not reflected on the fact that. Democracy is also a State and that, consequently, Democracy will also disappear when the State disappears. Only a revolution can "destroy" the capitalist State. The State in general, that is, complete Democracy, can only wither away.

Fourth, having formulated his famous proposition that "the State withers away," Engels at once explains concretely that this proposition is directed equally against the Opportunists and the Anarchists. In doing this, however, Engels draws, in the first