Engels further elucidates the concept of the "power" which is termed the state-a power which arises from society, but Which places itself above it and becomes more and more alienated from it. What does this power mainly consist of? It consists of special bodies of armed men which have prisons, etc., at their disposal.
We are justified in speaking of special bodies of armed men, because the public power which is an attribute of every state is not "directly identical" with the armed population, with its
"self-acting armed organization."
Like all the great revolutionary thinkers, Engels tried to draw the attention of the class conscious workers to the very fact which prevailing philistinism regards as least worthy of attention, as the most common and sanctified, not only by long standing, but one might say by petrified prejudices. A standing army and police are the chief instruments of state power. But can it be otherwise?
From the point of view of the vast majority of Europeans of the end of the nineteenth century whom Engels was ad-dressing, and who have not lived through or closely observed a single great revolution, it cannot be otherwise. They completely fail to understand what a "self-acting armed organization of the population" is. To the question, whence arose the need for special bodies of armed men, standing above society and becoming alienated from it (police and standing army, the West European and Russian philistines are inclined to
From Lenin’s The State and Revolution
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