In anticipation of the upcoming campus event to mark the centenary of the 1917 Russian Revolution (learn more about it here: Why Study the Russian Revolution?), the IYSSE will hold a discussion this week on VI Lenin’s political tract The State and Revolution. We will use the recent online lecture From the July Days to the Kornilov Coup: Lenin’s The State and Revolution hosted by the World Socialist Web Site for the discussion. We ask students and youth to listen to the lecture and attend our meeting this Thursday. At the meeting we will collectively try to answer the following questions: What are Marx and Engels’ main conceptions of the state, and the tasks of the proletarian revolution in relation to the state?What are some of the ways in which the Marxist conceptions of the state have been distorted or rejected? For example by Bernstein, by Kautsky, by the Mensheviks?Why did Lenin return to the basics of Marxism on the question of the state after the July Days?How would you answer those who claim the state exists as a means for the reconciliation of the class struggle?Has the state always existed?In what ways does this tract relate to modern political and social developments? For instance in the ongoing events in Catalonia, or with the increase in police violence in the United States? We will also discuss our plans to promote the November 8 lecture "Why Study the Russian Revolution?  by WSWS International Editorial Board Chairman David North. This lecture will take place exactly 100 years and one day after the October insurrection, led by the Bolshevik Party. We hope you will take part in these critical and timely meetings.