As for the question of the state, you're actually spot-on. The state (in the Marxist conception) can only wither globally. Without that, property globally cannot be sublimated. You can't achieve communism in one country, but you can certainly move the process forwards without needing everyone else to do the same. That's why AES states aren't withering, they can't, nor are they trying to. To begin with, withering isn't a choice, it's an economic compulsion. Once all capitalist states have fallen and global socialism exists, gradually all of the socialist states will shed their national differences, borders will lose significance, into one, unified, collectivized system. At least, that's the Marxist conception.
As for what the USSR actually looked like in practice, comrade @[email protected] hosts some excellent books on Comrade's Library. I also like ProleWiki. You can go to this page on socialist states and look at summarizations of different aspects of the economy and political structures, though you won't get depth that way, just a better understanding.
Funny that you mention a re-edit of What is to be Done? would be wanted. The Red Sails crew hosts What is to be Done? (Abridged), which modernizes the lingo and trims it a bit. Might be a good alternative for you! It's based on Lenin Rediscovered, I believe.
Left-Wing Communism is a great text. Imperialism makes most sense if you already have a good conception of Marxist economics, but ultimately it stands on its own. Good luck!
Love frijoles de la olla, one of the culinary world's best simple dishes that never gets old. Vegan, cheap, nutritious, delicious, they always have your back! Just made a batch of pintos from beans I soaked last night and oh, what a treat. 
Mega mega mega THREAD 
No worries! Seems others actually are reading it, haha. Not just me speaking into the void. And yea, it:s pretty dense, but the first 3 chapters are the hardest. After that, it's pretty smooth sailing! Just for when you feel up for it.
Great! I genuinely thought I was the only one still reading, haha. And I agree, I started taking notes for Volume 2 and I am now behind about a week, on chapter 4 and trying to read a chapter a day to catch up. It's like Chapter 1-3 of Volume 1, but for seemingly every chapter, haha.
Great job, comrade! Really shows the value in what reading threads can bring.
If only the Capital reading threads weren't basically me talking about my own reading of Capital by myself, haha... seems everyone else dropped it
Great timing, considering Sylvia's portrait in this weeks Trans Liberation: Beyond Pink and Blue reading thread!
Super cool!
31
Hop in, comrades, we are reading Capital Volumes I-III this year, and we will every year until Communism is achieved. (Volume IV, often published under the title Theories of Surplus Value, will not be included, but comrades are welcome to set up other bookclubs.) This works out to about 6½ pages a day for a year, 46 pages a week.
I'll post the readings at the start of each week and @mention anybody interested. Let me know if you want to be added or removed.
Week 18, June 18 - June 24, we are finishing Volume 1!
For those reading the Fowkes translation, read Appendices 3-4. For all else, take this as a break weak, a catch-up, and share your thoughts on the whole volume! You did it! Congratulations. Next week we will be starting Volume II!
Discuss the week's reading in the comments.
Use any translation/edition you like. Marxists.org has the Moore and Aveling translation in various file formats including epub and PDF: https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1867-c1/
Ben Fowkes translation, PDF: https://libgen.is/book/index.php?md5=AA342398FDEC44DFA0E732357783FD48
(Unsure about the quality of the Reitter translation, I'd love to see some input on it as it's the newest one)
AernaLingus says: I noticed that the linked copy of the Fowkes translation doesn't have bookmarks, so I took the liberty of adding them myself. You can either download my version with the bookmarks added or if you're a bit paranoid (can't blame ya) and don't mind some light command line work you can use the same simple script that I did with my formatted plaintext bookmarks to take the PDF from libgen and add the bookmarks yourself. Also, please let me know if you spot any errors with the bookmarks so I can fix them!
Resources
(These are not expected reading, these are here to help you if you so choose)
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Harvey's guide to reading it: https://www.davidharvey.org/media/Intro_A_Companion_to_Marxs_Capital.pdf
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A University of Warwick guide to reading it: https://warwick.ac.uk/fac/arts/english/currentstudents/postgraduate/masters/modules/worldlitworldsystems/hotr.marxs_capital.untilp72.pdf
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Reading Capital with Comrades: A Liberation School podcast series - https://www.liberationschool.org/reading-capital-with-comrades-podcast/
2024 Archived Discussions
If you want to dig back into older discussions, this is an excellent way to do so.
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2025 Archived Discussions
Just joining us? You can use the archives below to help you reading up to where the group is. There is another reading group on a different schedule at https://lemmygrad.ml/c/genzhou (federated at [email protected] ) (Note: Seems to be on hiatus for now) which may fit your schedule better. The idea is for the bookclub to repeat annually, so there's always next year.
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Great point on Trots, it's an example of how misusing theory to justify opposition to AES is a pervasive issue. Even if communism must be global, national revolutions are not only immediately beneficial for those living there, but help other nations have their own revolutions and help pave the way for eventual communism. You can't have a global revolution without national revolutions.