Polemic on General Line of International ... - From Marx to Mao

that the end of the dictatorship of the proletariat will precedethe withering away of the state and will be followed byyet another stage, “the state of the whole people”.In arguing for their anti-Marxist-Leninist views, therevisionist Khrushchov clique have taken great pains to finda sentence from Marx and distorted it by quoting it out ofcontext. They have arbitrarily described the future natureof the state [Staatswesen in German] of communist societyreferred to by Marx in his “Critique of the Gotha Programme”as the “‘state of communist society’ [госyдаpствеННость коммyНИстИческогообщества in Russian], which is no longera dictatorship of the proletariat”. 1 They gleefully announcedthat the Chinese would not dare to quote this from Marx.Apparently the revisionist Khrushchov clique think it is veryhelpful to them.As it happens, Lenin seems to have foreseen that revisionistswould make use of this phrase to distort Marxism. Inhis Marxism on the State, Lenin gave an excellent explanationof it. He said, “. . . the dictatorship of the proletariatis a ‘political transition period’. . . . But Marx goes on to speakof ‘the future nature of the state [госyдаpствеННость in Russian,Staatswesen in German] of communist society’!! Thus,there will be a state even in ‘communist society’!! Is there nota contradiction in this?” Lenin answered, “No.” He then tabulatedthe three stages in the process of development fromthe bourgeois state to the withering away of the state:The first stage — in capitalist society, the state is neededby the bourgeoisie — the bourgeois state.The second stage — in the period of transition from capitalismto communism, the state is needed by the proletariat— the state of the dictatorship of the proletariat.The third stage — in communist society, the state is notnecessary, it withers away.1M. A. Suslov, Report at the Plenary Meeting of the Central Committeeof the CPSU, February 1964, New Times, Eng. ed., No. 15, 1964,p. 62.448