ABSTRACT
Occasional remarks of this type by Lenin, and his ability to adapt his position to the power requirements of the moment, have led many persons to regard him as a pure careerist, interested only in power and lacking in political principles. In line with the general Marxist tradition, Lenin emphasized the oppressive features of the state in his famous pamphlet State and Revolution, completed in August 1917, during the midst of the struggle against the Provisional Government. In August 1917 Lenin also advocated the suppression of all outward signs of status distinction in the administration of the new workers' state. He also favored eliminating the possibility that such distinctions would grow up on the basis of income differentials. Lenin and other Marxists devoted more attention than is generally realized to the role of the peasantry in both the existing society of the day and the society they hoped to create.
