The Absolute Idea. The Idea, as unity of the Subjective and Objective Idea, is the notion of the Idea - a notion whose object (Gegenstand) is the Idea as such, and for which the objective (Objekt) is Idea - an Object which embraces all characteristics in its unity."
Russell goes on to comment, "The original German is even more difficult." Past all the word salad and definitional spaghetti-tossing, we have two useful notions IMHO: the concept of God as zeitgeist taken over in greater detail by Nietzsche, and the model (for that's what it is) of progress in history as thesis/antithesis/synthesis, a model described by one of my philosophy professors as "artillery style" - one shot short, one long, fire for effect. (Army veteran, could you tell?) The assumption here is that thesis/antithesis encompasses the entirety of reality between, and it's not a good assumption.
Still, it's heady stuff it you like that sort of squirrel-cage approach to philosophy.
Where Hegel is most attractive to the Left in general is his explanation of the State and the individual's relation to it - yes, it is unremittingly collectivist and authoritarian.
The State is the reality of the moral idea - the moral spirit, as the visible substantial will, evident to itself, which thinks and knows itself, and fulfils what it knows in so far as it knows it. - Philosophy of Law
The individual is what he or she is by virtue of his or her relationship to the State. It is a philosophy of ants. I'll let Russell have the final word: "This illustrates an important truth, namely, that the worse your logic, the more interesting the consequences to which it gives rise."
Somebody needed to tell him the German version of “Don’t post when you’re toast!”