Essay Questions

Expound the irony of the revolutionaries’ treatment.

Lenin explains, “During the lifetime of great revolutionaries, the oppressing classes constantly hounded them, received their theories with the most savage malice, the most furious hatred and the most unscrupulous campaigns of lies and slander. After their death, attempts are made to convert them into harmless icons, to canonize them… All the social-chauvinist are now “Marxists.”

The hypocritical praises for the revolutionaries after their deaths are intended to mislead the oppressed classes. The superficial praises give the misleading impression that the social-chauvinists are sponsors of revolution and societal transformation, but in reality, they intend to subvert the calls for revolution. The social-chauvinists encourage the vulgarization and subversion of the revolutionary theories.

What is the implication of state alienation on revolution?

Lenin elucidates, “Theoretically”, it is not denied that the state is an organ of class rule, or that class antagonisms are irreconcilable. But what is overlooked or glossed over is this: if the state is the product of class antagonism, if it is a power standing above society and “alienating itself more and more from it.” Alienation is projected to prevent a successful revolution. Due to the state’s extensive and immense power, it would be hectic for the revolutionaries to dismantle the state and its power right away. The state’s alienation complicates the course of dismantling its power.

Expound on the interrelationship between capitalism and the state.

Lenin elaborates, “Capitalism simplifies the functions of “state” administration; it makes it possible to cast “bossing” aside and to confine the whole matter to the organization of the proletarians (as the ruling class), which will hire “workers, foremen and accountants” in the name of the whole society.” Capitalism hoodwinks the proletarians by providing them with administrational power that makes them appear and feel like a ruling class. The proletarians act on behalf of the state; hence, they are not absolutely powerful. Capitalism is a potent tool of perpetuating oppression of the working class through their own.