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About this quote

What does it mean?
Lenin defines the state as the proletariat itself, the leading force of the working class.
In plain terms
The state is the proletariat’s advanced guard.
What can you take from it?
A true state represents the working class directly.

Where it applies

  • theory of state
  • revolutionary organization

Putting it to work

  • build institutions staffed by workers
  • promote class consciousness

Questions to consider

  • Can a state truly embody a single class?
  • How to handle internal class diversity?

Another view

It ignores pluralism and dissent within the working class.

More from Vladimir Lenin

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  3. Communism is Soviet government plus the electrification of the whole country.

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