Delivered during the Russian Civil War to students at Sverdlov Communist University, this lecture is Lenin asking; what is the state, where did it come from, and why do revolutionaries seek not merely to capture it but ultimately to abolish it?

Drawing on Marx and Engels, Lenin presents the state as an instrument of class rule rather than a neutral arbiter of social life. The lecture condenses many of the arguments developed more fully in The State and Revolution, making it one of the clearest introductions to the political foundations of Marxism-Leninism. Whatever one's political commitments, it remains a significant historical document: a revolutionary leader explaining his theory of power while actively engaged in building a new state.

Published by Beijing's Foreign Languages Press during the Cold War, this edition belongs to a fascinating period of international communist publishing, when Chinese state presses produced inexpensive English-language editions of Marxist classics for global circulation. These pamphlets travelled widely through activist networks, student organisations and labour movements, and have become increasingly collectible as artefacts of twentieth-century political history.

Foreign Languages Press, Beijing, 1965. Stapled pamphlet. Good condition with age toning, light creasing and handling wear consistent with age.