State and Revolution

Lenin’s pamphlet, written between the February and October revolutions of 1917, returns to Marx and Engels to argue that the state is an instrument of class rule and cannot be captured and reused by the working class — it must be smashed, and replaced during a transitional dictatorship of the proletariat by something that eventually “withers away.” Much of the text is polemic against Kautsky and the German social democrats, whom Lenin accuses of quietly abandoning that conclusion. It was written weeks before he had the chance to act on it.

Why it’s on the list: Assigned in UATX’s “Intellectual Foundations of Economics”, a course that reads economics through its arguments rather than its models — so the strongest case against the market order is assigned as a primary text, not summarized by its critics.

Where I saw it: The University of Austin’s Fall 2025 reading list, 65 Texts Our Students Are Reading, published November 13 2025 and saved to Kyle’s “Books To Read” Apple Note. The full 65-text curriculum is transcribed on UATX Fall Reading List.

Connections

• UATX Fall Reading List — the curriculum this is assigned in.
• Vladimir Lenin — the author, already in the wiki.
• Socialism — the tradition the pamphlet is arguing inside of.
• Government — the institution it argues cannot be reformed, only replaced.