Study on the Writing Thoughts of "State and Revolution"
I. Background of the Writing of The State and Revolution
To understand an article, one must understand the context in which it was written and have a deep grasp of the author’s “context”. Culture unfolds in specific history and times. Only by understanding the author’s humanity, language, and deep cultural structure can one truly experience the essence of Lenin’s thought.
1. Realistic Background of Writing
"State and Revolution" is a famous work written by Lenin in August-September 1917, which systematically expounds the Marxist theory of the state. The book includes the preface to the first edition, the postscript to the first edition, the preface to the second edition and six chapters of the main text. As the various contradictions of capitalism continued to deepen and intensify, the First World War in 1914 prompted the conditions for the proletarian revolution to mature. Different schools of thought emerged on the issue of revolution, which led to the continuous intensification of contradictions and caused adverse effects in the socialist movement. In such an environment, Lenin planned to write an article specifically expounding the attitude of Marxism towards the state. Subsequently, the February Revolution and the July Incident occurred. Lenin, who was in a secret state, wrote the brilliant work "State and Revolution" on the shore of Lake Razliv.
2. On Lenin Himself
Lenin was born in 1870 in the home of an educator in Simbirsk. He was the successor of Marx and Engels' cause and doctrine, and the great mentor and leader of the proletariat and working people all over the world. Since his student days, "he began to study Marxist classics, conduct social surveys, and soon became an outstanding Marxist." In 1903, the Second Congress of the Russian Social Democratic Labor Party formed the ideological system of the Bolshevik Party headed by Lenin, Bolshevism, which creatively developed Marxism and founded Leninism. Lenin inherited and defended Marxism, became the new leader of the international communist movement, and founded the world's first socialist country.
3. Lenin’s inheritance and development of Marxism
The basic viewpoints in "State and Revolution" are almost all inherited from "The Civil War in France" and other works of Marx and Engels. However, because Lenin combined theory with practice and redeveloped the original viewpoints, "State and Revolution" has a profound ideological thickness. The whole book involves the basic question of what is the concept of a socialist state. Lenin targeted the fallacy of the bourgeoisie and opportunists who tried their best to cover up the class nature of the state, summarized the basic ideas of Marx and Engels, clearly revealed the class nature of the state, further developed the essence of Marxist state theory, fully demonstrated the necessity of the dictatorship of the proletariat, and revealed the consistency between the dictatorship of the proletariat and the new socialist democracy. In addition, it also explored the development law of the new socialist democracy from a theoretical perspective, noticed the diversity of the functions of the dictatorship of the proletariat, and concentrated on explaining the economic basis of the demise of the state. The focus of "State and Revolution" is from Chapter 3 to Chapter 6. Lenin carefully discussed the basic principles of the future socialist state. This principle is the principle of the "Paris Commune", which is also Lenin's conception of the blueprint for the construction of a socialist state.
In "The State and Revolution", the mentor Lenin analyzed the basic Marxist viewpoints on the state issue, thus pointing out the aspects and tasks of the proletarian revolution in the state at that time.
II. Writing Features in The State and Revolution
1. Original excerpt writing method
"Whenever there was a need to solve some principled problems of the revolutionary movement, Lenin would ask Marx for advice." The advice mentioned here is just to read Marx's works repeatedly and seek solutions from them. This also happens to illustrate how a firm Marxist treats Marxism correctly. A very prominent feature of the writing of "State and Revolution" is that Lenin quoted a lot of Marx and Engels' views and original works. Lenin's writing also has clear purpose, selectivity and systematicity. In the creation of "State and Revolution", he explained the origin, development and future historical destiny of the concept of the state through historical experience and predecessors' research. In the writing method guided by dialectical materialism and historical materialism, comments and independent forms of discussion account for a part of the proportion, but the original excerpt method, content summary method and other writing methods still occupy an important position. The selection and arrangement of original documents itself reflects the author's "basic ideas for the upcoming ideological experiment". While excerpting and writing down his own annotations and insights, it also reflects Lenin's initial conception and context of the next ideological experiment.
2. Language Features
When describing opportunists and the great revolutionary doctrine, Lenin exposed the ignorance and one-sidedness of anarchism and opportunism with angry and intense emotions, and at the same time used a lively tone to convincingly see the hope of the inevitable victory of revolutionary principles. Another thing that is impressive is that Lenin's works contain irony and humor. Through the most convincing arguments, the materials he has are written in the most appropriate form, and the most vivid tone and color to express his thoughts. In this work, we can see that the form and language of his writing have created Lenin's immortal ideological legacy.
In short, Lenin wrote the historic work "State and Revolution" with his unique writing style and unique views on Marxism, making great contributions to the cause of the proletariat. As a great Marxist, Lenin inherited and developed the cause of Marxism and formed Leninism, which will always be an immortal miracle for us.
References:
1. Guangren Hong, Han Chengwen, et al. Modern History of the World (Volume 2). People's Publishing House, 1984 (10). Page 283
2. Gorkov et al., Translated by Liu Xunyi. How Lenin Wrote. Sanlian Bookstore, 1984 (12). Page 1
3. Wang Xiaohong. A Preliminary Study on the Writing Method of Marx's Notes. Jianghan Forum, 2008 (9). Page 39
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