Introduction
The writings of Marx and Engels on a socialist society and the revolution that would achieve it are somewhat fragmentary; they were more concerned with a critique of capitalist society and the bourgeois state than in predicting what would replace them or how it would do so. Furthermore, capitalism and the world have changed immensely since their time, and their vision would have to be updated substantially. Yet it is still worth tracking down what they wrote in order to understand the general principles of what they meant by socialism before we proceed to evaluate it and update the details.
There are two important reasons why this is necessary. First, for those of us who want to create a socialist society, it is vital to know the general direction in which we ought to be heading, even if all the twists and turns in the pathway cannot be anticipated. And second, so many followers of Marx and Engels have distorted their vision, resulting in a definition of socialism completely at odds with what they themselves outlined, that it is necessary to set the record straight.