Comrades, the topic of our discussion today, according to the plan that has been prepared and communicated to me, is the issue of the state. I do not know to what extent this issue is already known to you. If I am not mistaken, your circles have just begun, and you are obliged for the first time to systematically engage with this issue.

If this is the case, then it is very likely that in the first lecture on this difficult topic I may not be able to be sufficiently clear and understandable for many listeners. And if that happens, please do not worry about it, because the issue of the state is one of the most complex, the most difficult, and nearly one of those issues that have confused bourgeois scholars, writers, and philosophers the most.

Therefore, we should never expect that it would be possible in a brief discussion to achieve absolute clarity on this issue. After the first discussion on this, you should note the points that you did not understand or that are unclear, so that we can return to them for a second, third, and fourth time, allowing us to clarify and explain everything that remained incomprehensible, which will be done both through reading and through separate lectures and discussions.

I hope that we will manage to gather once more; and then on all the supplementary issues we will be able to exchange views and check what remains most obscure. I also hope that, in addition to the discussions and lectures, you will dedicate some additional time to read at least a few of the main works of Marx and Engels.

There is no doubt that in the list of bibliography and resources available in your library for students of the Soviet and party school, there is no doubt that you will find these essential works and, although the difficulty of the wording may frighten some, I must again warn you that this should not worry you.