Page:Lenin - The State and Revolution.pdf/68



A most detailed elucidation of this question is given by Marx in his Criticism of the Gotha Program (letter to Bracke, May 15, 1875, printed as late as 1891 in the Neue Zeit, ix, 1). The polemical part of this remarkable work, consisting of a criticism of Lassalleanism has, so to speak, overshadowed its positive part, namely, the analysis of the connection between the development of Communism and the withering away of the State.

From a superficial comparison of the letter of Marx to Bracke (May 15, 1875), with Engels' letter to Bebel (March 28, 1875), discussed above, it might appear that Marx was much more of an upholder of the State than Engels, and that the difference of opinion between them on the question of the State is very considerable.

Engels suggests to Bebel that all the chatter about the State should be thrown overboard; that the word "State" should be eliminated from the program and replaced by “"Commonwealth"; Engels even declares that the Commune was really no longer a State in the proper sense of the word. Whereas Marx even speaks of the "future State in Communist Society," that is, apparently recognizing the necessity of a State even under Communism.

But such a view would be fundamentally, incorrect; and a closer examination shows that Marx's and Engels' views on the State and its decay were completely identical, and that Marx's expression quoted above refers merely to the decaying State.

It is clear that there can be no question of defining the exact moment of the future "withering away"—the more so as it must obviously be a prolonged process. The apparent difference between Marx and Engels is due to the different subjects they dealt with, the different aims they were pursuing. Engels set forth the problem in a plain, bold and large outline, in order to show Bebel all the absurdity of the current superstitions concerning the State, shared to no small degree by Lassalle himself. Marx