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State
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This work is in the public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work.
Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. To ensure a quality reading experience, this work has been proofread and republished using a format that seamlessly blends the original graphical elements with text in an easy-to-read typeface.
We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.
24 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1919
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About the author
Vladimir Lenin
2,745 books1,840 followersVladimir Ilyich Ulyanov, better known as Vladimir Lenin, was a Russian revolutionary, leader of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party (Bolsheviks), statesman and political theorist. After the October Revolution he served as the first and founding head of government of Soviet Russia from 1917 until his death in 1924 and of the Soviet Union from 1922 until his death in 1924.
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April 10, 2023This is a lecture given by Lenin that gives a pretty basic overview of the Marxist view of the state and its formation. Honestly this is a really good read for people just learning theory, and I would probably put it just behind texts like The Principles of Communism, Wage Labour and Capital, and Value, Price, and Profit in terms of what to read first. A great primer for both Engel's The Origins of the Family, Private Property, and The State and Lenin's own State and Revolution.
Good quotes:
primitive communism
"Before the first form of exploitation of man by man arose, the first form of division into classes -- slaveowners and slaves -- there existed the patriarchal family, or, as it is sometimes called, the clan family. (Clan -- generation, kinship, when people lived together according to kinship and generation.) Fairly definite traces of these primitive times have survived in the life of many primitive peoples; and if you take any work whatsoever on primitive culture, you will always come across more or less definite descriptions, indications and recollections of the fact that there was a time, more or less similar to primitive communism, when the division of society into slaveowners and slaves did not exist. And in those times there was no state, no special apparatus for the systematic application of force and the subjugation of people by force. It is such an apparatus that is called the state."
"there was a time when there was no state, when general ties, society itself, discipline and the ordering of work were maintained by force of custom and tradition, or by the authority or the respect enjoyed by the elders of the clan or by women -- who in those times not only frequently enjoyed equal status with men, but not infrequently enjoyed even a higher status -- and when there was no special category of persons, specialists in ruling. History shows that the state as a special apparatus for coercing people arose only wherever and whenever there appeared a division of society into classes, that is, a division into groups of people some of whom are permanently in a position to appropriate the labour of others, where some people exploit others."
Slavery: the original class division
"Slaveowners and slaves were the first important class divisions. The former group not only owned all the means of production -- the land and the implements, however primitive they may have been in those times -- but also owned people. This group was known as slaveowners, while those who laboured and supplied labour for others were known as slaves. This form was followed in history by another -- feudalism. In the great majority of countries slavery -- in the course of its development evolved into serfdom. The fundamental division of society was now into feudal landlords and peasant serfs. The form of relations between people changed. The slaveowners had regarded the slaves as their property; the law had confirmed this view and regarded the slave as a chattel completely owned by the slaveowner. As far as the peasant serf was concerned, class oppression and dependence remained, but it was not considered that the feudal landlord owned the peasants as chattels, but that he was only entitled to their labour and to compel them to perform certain services...Further, with the development of trade, the appearance of the world market and the development of money circulation, a new class arose within feudal society -- the capitalist class"
"The methods of violence changed, but whenever there was a state there existed in every society a group of persons who ruled, who commanded, who dominated and who in order to maintain their power possessed an apparatus of physical coercion, an apparatus of violence, with those weapons which corresponded to the technical level of the given epoch. And by examining these general phenomena, by asking ourselves why no state existed when there were no classes, when there were no exploiters and exploited, and why it arose when classes arose -- only in this way shall we find a definite answer to the question of the essence of the state and its significance. The state is a machine for maintaining the rule of one class over another. When there were no classes in society, when, before the epoch of slavery, people laboured in primitive conditions of greater equality, in conditions when productivity of labour was still at its lowest, and when primitive man could barely procure the wherewithal for the crudest and most primitive existence, a special group of people, specially separated off to rule and dominate over the rest of society, had not yet arisen, and could not have arisen. Only when the first form of the division of society into classes appeared, only when slavery appeared, when a certain class of people, by concentrating on the crudest forms of agricultural labour, could produce a certain surplus, when this surplus was not absolutely essential for the most wretched existence of the slave and passed into the hands of the slaveowner, when in this way the existence of this class of slaveowners took firm root -- then in order that it might take firm root it was essential that a state should appear."
"The forms of state were extremely varied. During the period of slavery we already find diverse forms of the state in the most advanced, cultured and civilized countries according to the standards of the time -- for example, in ancient Greece and Rome, which rested entirely on slavery. At that time the difference was already arising between the monarchy and the republic, between the aristocracy and the democracy. A monarchy is the power of a single person, a republic is the absence of any nonelected power; an aristocracy is the power of a relatively small minority, a democracy is the power of the people (democracy in Greek literally means the power of the people). All these differences arose in the epoch of slavery. Despite these differences, the state of the slaveowning epoch was a slaveowning state, irrespective of whether it was a monarchy or a republic, aristocratic or democratic."
Slavery transforms into feudalism
"The change in the form of exploitation transformed the slaveowning state into the feudal state. This was of immense importance. In slaveowning society the slave enjoys no rights whatever and is not regarded as a human being; in feudal society the peasant is tied to the soil. The chief token of serfdom was that the peasants (and at that time the peasants constituted the majority; there was a very poorly developed urban population) were considered attached to the land -- hence the very concept serfdom. The peasant might work a definite number of days for himself on the plot assigned to him by the landlord; on the other days the peasant serf worked for his lord. The essence of class society remained: society was based on class exploitation. Only the landlords could enjoy full rights; the peasants had no rights at all. In practice their condition differed very little from the condition of slaves in the slaveowning state. Nevertheless a wider road was opened for their emancipation, for the emancipation of the peasants, since the peasant serf was not regarded as the direct property of the landlord. He could work part of his time on his own plot, could, so to speak, belong to himself to a certain extent; and with the wider opportunities for the development of exchange and trade relations the feudal system steadily disintegrated and the scope of emancipation of the peasantry steadily widened."
"In order to maintain their rule and to preserve their power, the landlords had to have an apparatus by which they could unite under their subjugation a vast number of people and subordinate them to certain laws and regulations; and all these laws fundamentally amounted to one thing -- the maintenance of the power of the landlords over the peasant serfs. And this was the feudal state"
Feudalism transforms into capitalism
"Feudal society represented a division of classes under which the vast majority -- the peasant serfs -- were completely subjected to an insignificant minority -- the landlords, who owned the land.
The development of trade, the development of commodity exchange, led to the crystallization of a new class -- the capitalists. Capital arose at the close of the Middle Ages, when, after the discovery of America, world trade developed enormously, when the quantity of precious metals increased, when silver and gold became the instrument of exchange, when money circulation made it possible for individuals to hold tremendous wealth. Silver and gold were recognized as wealth all over the world. The economic power of the landlord class declined and the power of the new class -- the representatives of capital -- developed. The reconstruction of society was such that all citizens supposedly became equal, the old division into slaveowners and slaves disappeared, all were regarded as equal before the law irrespective of what capital each owned; whether he owned land as private property, or was a starveling who owned nothing but his labour power -- all were equal before the law. The law protects everybody equally; it protects the property of those who have it from attack by the masses who, possessing no property, possessing nothing but their labour power, grow steadily impoverished and ruined and become converted into proletarians. Such is capitalist society."
The capitalist state
"This society advanced against serfdom, against the old feudal system, under the slogan of liberty. But it was liberty for those who owned property"
"it protected property no matter how it arose, because the state rested on private property"
"The state recognized the property rights of every merchant, industrialist and manufacturer. And this society, based on private property, on the power of capital, on the complete subjection of the propertyless workers and labouring masses of the peasantry, proclaimed that its rule was based on liberty."
"Yet the state continued to be a machine which helped the capitalists to hold the poor peasants and the working class in subjection. But in outward appearance it was free. It proclaimed universal suffrage, and declared through it champions, preachers, scholars and philosophers, that it was not a class state. Even now, when the Soviet Socialist Republics have begun to fight it, they accuse us of violating liberty, of building a state based on coercion, on the suppression of some by others, whereas they represent a popular democratic state."
"every state in which private ownership of the land and means of production exists, in which capital dominates, however democratic it may be, is a capitalist state, a machine used by the capitalists to keep the working class and the poor peasants in subjection; while universal suffrage, a Constituent Assembly, parliament are merely a form, a sort of promissory note, which does not alter the essence of the matter. The forms of domination of the state may vary: capital manifests its power in one way where one form exists, and in another way where another form exists -- but essential ly the power is in the hands of capital, whether there are voting qualifications or not, or whether the republic is democratic one or not -- in fact the more democratic it is the cruder and more cynical is the rule of capitalism. One of the most democratic republics in the world is the United States of America, yet nowhere (and those who were there after 1905 probably know it) is the power of capital, the power of a handful of billionaires over the whole of society so crude and so openly corrupt as in America. Once capital exists, it dominates the whole of society, and no democratic republic, no form of franchise can alter the essence of the matter."
the socialist state
"we shall place this machine in the hands of the class that is to overthrow the power of capital. We shall reject all the old prejudices about the state meaning universal equality -- for that is a fraud: as long as there is exploitation there cannot be equality. The landlord cannot be the equal of the worker, or the hungry man the equal of the full man. The proletariat casts aside the machine which was called the state and before which people bowed in superstitious awe, believing the old tales that it means popular rule -- the proletariat casts aside this machine and declares that it is a bourgeois lie. We have deprived the capitalists of this machine and have taken it over. With this machine, or bludgeon, we shall destroy all exploitation. And when the possibility of exploitation no longer exists anywhere in the world, when there are no longer owners of land and owners of factories, and when there is no longer a situation in which some gorge while others starve -- only when the possibility of this no longer exists shall we consign this machine to the scrap heap. Then there will be no state and no exploitation. Such is the view of our Communist Party."
Good quotes:
primitive communism
"Before the first form of exploitation of man by man arose, the first form of division into classes -- slaveowners and slaves -- there existed the patriarchal family, or, as it is sometimes called, the clan family. (Clan -- generation, kinship, when people lived together according to kinship and generation.) Fairly definite traces of these primitive times have survived in the life of many primitive peoples; and if you take any work whatsoever on primitive culture, you will always come across more or less definite descriptions, indications and recollections of the fact that there was a time, more or less similar to primitive communism, when the division of society into slaveowners and slaves did not exist. And in those times there was no state, no special apparatus for the systematic application of force and the subjugation of people by force. It is such an apparatus that is called the state."
"there was a time when there was no state, when general ties, society itself, discipline and the ordering of work were maintained by force of custom and tradition, or by the authority or the respect enjoyed by the elders of the clan or by women -- who in those times not only frequently enjoyed equal status with men, but not infrequently enjoyed even a higher status -- and when there was no special category of persons, specialists in ruling. History shows that the state as a special apparatus for coercing people arose only wherever and whenever there appeared a division of society into classes, that is, a division into groups of people some of whom are permanently in a position to appropriate the labour of others, where some people exploit others."
Slavery: the original class division
"Slaveowners and slaves were the first important class divisions. The former group not only owned all the means of production -- the land and the implements, however primitive they may have been in those times -- but also owned people. This group was known as slaveowners, while those who laboured and supplied labour for others were known as slaves. This form was followed in history by another -- feudalism. In the great majority of countries slavery -- in the course of its development evolved into serfdom. The fundamental division of society was now into feudal landlords and peasant serfs. The form of relations between people changed. The slaveowners had regarded the slaves as their property; the law had confirmed this view and regarded the slave as a chattel completely owned by the slaveowner. As far as the peasant serf was concerned, class oppression and dependence remained, but it was not considered that the feudal landlord owned the peasants as chattels, but that he was only entitled to their labour and to compel them to perform certain services...Further, with the development of trade, the appearance of the world market and the development of money circulation, a new class arose within feudal society -- the capitalist class"
"The methods of violence changed, but whenever there was a state there existed in every society a group of persons who ruled, who commanded, who dominated and who in order to maintain their power possessed an apparatus of physical coercion, an apparatus of violence, with those weapons which corresponded to the technical level of the given epoch. And by examining these general phenomena, by asking ourselves why no state existed when there were no classes, when there were no exploiters and exploited, and why it arose when classes arose -- only in this way shall we find a definite answer to the question of the essence of the state and its significance. The state is a machine for maintaining the rule of one class over another. When there were no classes in society, when, before the epoch of slavery, people laboured in primitive conditions of greater equality, in conditions when productivity of labour was still at its lowest, and when primitive man could barely procure the wherewithal for the crudest and most primitive existence, a special group of people, specially separated off to rule and dominate over the rest of society, had not yet arisen, and could not have arisen. Only when the first form of the division of society into classes appeared, only when slavery appeared, when a certain class of people, by concentrating on the crudest forms of agricultural labour, could produce a certain surplus, when this surplus was not absolutely essential for the most wretched existence of the slave and passed into the hands of the slaveowner, when in this way the existence of this class of slaveowners took firm root -- then in order that it might take firm root it was essential that a state should appear."
"The forms of state were extremely varied. During the period of slavery we already find diverse forms of the state in the most advanced, cultured and civilized countries according to the standards of the time -- for example, in ancient Greece and Rome, which rested entirely on slavery. At that time the difference was already arising between the monarchy and the republic, between the aristocracy and the democracy. A monarchy is the power of a single person, a republic is the absence of any nonelected power; an aristocracy is the power of a relatively small minority, a democracy is the power of the people (democracy in Greek literally means the power of the people). All these differences arose in the epoch of slavery. Despite these differences, the state of the slaveowning epoch was a slaveowning state, irrespective of whether it was a monarchy or a republic, aristocratic or democratic."
Slavery transforms into feudalism
"The change in the form of exploitation transformed the slaveowning state into the feudal state. This was of immense importance. In slaveowning society the slave enjoys no rights whatever and is not regarded as a human being; in feudal society the peasant is tied to the soil. The chief token of serfdom was that the peasants (and at that time the peasants constituted the majority; there was a very poorly developed urban population) were considered attached to the land -- hence the very concept serfdom. The peasant might work a definite number of days for himself on the plot assigned to him by the landlord; on the other days the peasant serf worked for his lord. The essence of class society remained: society was based on class exploitation. Only the landlords could enjoy full rights; the peasants had no rights at all. In practice their condition differed very little from the condition of slaves in the slaveowning state. Nevertheless a wider road was opened for their emancipation, for the emancipation of the peasants, since the peasant serf was not regarded as the direct property of the landlord. He could work part of his time on his own plot, could, so to speak, belong to himself to a certain extent; and with the wider opportunities for the development of exchange and trade relations the feudal system steadily disintegrated and the scope of emancipation of the peasantry steadily widened."
"In order to maintain their rule and to preserve their power, the landlords had to have an apparatus by which they could unite under their subjugation a vast number of people and subordinate them to certain laws and regulations; and all these laws fundamentally amounted to one thing -- the maintenance of the power of the landlords over the peasant serfs. And this was the feudal state"
Feudalism transforms into capitalism
"Feudal society represented a division of classes under which the vast majority -- the peasant serfs -- were completely subjected to an insignificant minority -- the landlords, who owned the land.
The development of trade, the development of commodity exchange, led to the crystallization of a new class -- the capitalists. Capital arose at the close of the Middle Ages, when, after the discovery of America, world trade developed enormously, when the quantity of precious metals increased, when silver and gold became the instrument of exchange, when money circulation made it possible for individuals to hold tremendous wealth. Silver and gold were recognized as wealth all over the world. The economic power of the landlord class declined and the power of the new class -- the representatives of capital -- developed. The reconstruction of society was such that all citizens supposedly became equal, the old division into slaveowners and slaves disappeared, all were regarded as equal before the law irrespective of what capital each owned; whether he owned land as private property, or was a starveling who owned nothing but his labour power -- all were equal before the law. The law protects everybody equally; it protects the property of those who have it from attack by the masses who, possessing no property, possessing nothing but their labour power, grow steadily impoverished and ruined and become converted into proletarians. Such is capitalist society."
The capitalist state
"This society advanced against serfdom, against the old feudal system, under the slogan of liberty. But it was liberty for those who owned property"
"it protected property no matter how it arose, because the state rested on private property"
"The state recognized the property rights of every merchant, industrialist and manufacturer. And this society, based on private property, on the power of capital, on the complete subjection of the propertyless workers and labouring masses of the peasantry, proclaimed that its rule was based on liberty."
"Yet the state continued to be a machine which helped the capitalists to hold the poor peasants and the working class in subjection. But in outward appearance it was free. It proclaimed universal suffrage, and declared through it champions, preachers, scholars and philosophers, that it was not a class state. Even now, when the Soviet Socialist Republics have begun to fight it, they accuse us of violating liberty, of building a state based on coercion, on the suppression of some by others, whereas they represent a popular democratic state."
"every state in which private ownership of the land and means of production exists, in which capital dominates, however democratic it may be, is a capitalist state, a machine used by the capitalists to keep the working class and the poor peasants in subjection; while universal suffrage, a Constituent Assembly, parliament are merely a form, a sort of promissory note, which does not alter the essence of the matter. The forms of domination of the state may vary: capital manifests its power in one way where one form exists, and in another way where another form exists -- but essential ly the power is in the hands of capital, whether there are voting qualifications or not, or whether the republic is democratic one or not -- in fact the more democratic it is the cruder and more cynical is the rule of capitalism. One of the most democratic republics in the world is the United States of America, yet nowhere (and those who were there after 1905 probably know it) is the power of capital, the power of a handful of billionaires over the whole of society so crude and so openly corrupt as in America. Once capital exists, it dominates the whole of society, and no democratic republic, no form of franchise can alter the essence of the matter."
the socialist state
"we shall place this machine in the hands of the class that is to overthrow the power of capital. We shall reject all the old prejudices about the state meaning universal equality -- for that is a fraud: as long as there is exploitation there cannot be equality. The landlord cannot be the equal of the worker, or the hungry man the equal of the full man. The proletariat casts aside the machine which was called the state and before which people bowed in superstitious awe, believing the old tales that it means popular rule -- the proletariat casts aside this machine and declares that it is a bourgeois lie. We have deprived the capitalists of this machine and have taken it over. With this machine, or bludgeon, we shall destroy all exploitation. And when the possibility of exploitation no longer exists anywhere in the world, when there are no longer owners of land and owners of factories, and when there is no longer a situation in which some gorge while others starve -- only when the possibility of this no longer exists shall we consign this machine to the scrap heap. Then there will be no state and no exploitation. Such is the view of our Communist Party."
January 2, 2016
In which Lenin briefly elucidates the history of the state, as described in Engels' The Origin of the Family, Private Property and the State. Sample: One of the most democratic republics in the world is the United States of America, yet nowhere (and those who have been there since 1905 probably know it) is the power of capital, the power of a handful of multimillionaires over the whole of society, so crude and so openly corrupt as in America. Once capital exists, it dominates the whole of society, and no democratic republic, no franchise can change its nature.
October 28, 2024
a great & concise summarization of Engel’s findings on the nature & origin of class and the State in Engel's Origin of the Family, Private Property and the State! covering an outline of the stages of development from pre-stateless society to the age of Capital, the nature and the origin of the State is laid about as bare as it gets.
obviously Engels is about as concise as it gets when it comes to the question, but Lenin, with his newfound perspective from the Revolution (speech was delivered in July 1919), gives a sound analysis on the history of societal development, the current state of the most developed democratic republics (US & Switzerland), and how the idea of Liberty obfuscates the terror of Capital. using Engel’s historical analysis, we can connect the dots to how Republics and Democracies of past epochs are independent to the formation of the State - a great prelude to Engel's Origin of the Family.
obviously Engels is about as concise as it gets when it comes to the question, but Lenin, with his newfound perspective from the Revolution (speech was delivered in July 1919), gives a sound analysis on the history of societal development, the current state of the most developed democratic republics (US & Switzerland), and how the idea of Liberty obfuscates the terror of Capital. using Engel’s historical analysis, we can connect the dots to how Republics and Democracies of past epochs are independent to the formation of the State - a great prelude to Engel's Origin of the Family.
September 29, 2025
For my money, this is the best and most concise summary of The Origin of the Family, Private Property and the State that exists. Lenin's clarity of voice (this is a transcript of a 1919 lecture he gave at Sverdlov University) and expansions on Engel's own work could be essential to truly unlocking someone's understanding of the origin and function of the state apparatus, should Engel's own words prove too difficult. So it's a shame that this edition is so scarce, compared to many of Lenin's other writings.
Also, his takedown of America is arguably truer today than it was then. Truly a prescient and wonderful lecture.
Also, his takedown of America is arguably truer today than it was then. Truly a prescient and wonderful lecture.
December 28, 2022
A concise reading of Lenin's basic thought process around "the state". How it arose, it's historical background, and how it's composition affects the way that the very question of the state should be approached.
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November 3, 2025The law protects everybody equally; it protects the property of those who have it from attack by the masses who, possessing no property, possessing nothing but their labour-power, grow steadily impoverished and ruined and become converted into proletarians. Such is capitalist society.
August 17, 2021
Bra bok för nybörjare. den var ett tal så det är bra format
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February 25, 2022Excuse me, Lenin but you dissolve the duma! And your view on Roman slavery is not really good! Other than that, very impressive
June 28, 2010
مفهوم الدولة هو شيء مهم جداً لكل المهتمبن بالشأنين الاقتصادي والسياسي .. و هذا مختصر بسيط عن الدولة من وجهة نظر لينين الفلسفية .. ويمكن الرجوع بتوسع أكبر إلى كتاب انجلس .. أصل العائلة .. للفائدة
ملخص كامل وافي غير مخل ..
ملخص كامل وافي غير مخل ..
February 2, 2015
V I Lenin has clearly outlined the nature of Capitalist "Democracies" and why they are still bad. A short but in-depth analysis of the nature of governments.
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews