Dictatorship of the Proletariat

Also known as “dictatorship of the working class”. Socialist state power led by the proletariat (through the Communist Party) and based on the alliance of workers and peasants. It unites the broad masses of the people and exercises domination over the hostile classes, groups and forces that resist the socialist revolution and undermine the socialist construction.

The dictatorship of the proletariat is a state power established after smashing of the bourgeois state machinery through revolutionary struggle (mainly by force), and is the most recent end of the proletarian party in carrying out class struggle. Unlike the dictatorship of exploiting classes in history, it is the unity of a new type of dictatorship and a new type of democracy, exercising democracy among the people and dictatorship over the enemies, the dictatorship of the majority over the minority, the highest type of democracy in class society, and the most progressive and ultimate state system in human history. Due to the different process of revolutionary development and concrete social and historical conditions in each country, the concrete forms of the dictatorship of the proletariat in each country are also different.

The theory of the dictatorship of the proletariat is the quintessence of the Marxist theory of the state. In The Communist Manifesto of 1848, Marx and Engels initially expressed the idea that the proletariat should “violently overthrow the bourgeoisie and lay the foundation for the sway of the proletariat”, “rise to the position of ruling class to win the battle of democracy”, and put forth that the main task of the proletariat dictatorship is to wrest, by degree, all capital from the bourgeoisie, to centralize all instruments of production in the hands of the State, i.e., of the proletariat organized as the ruling class; and to increase the total productive forces as rapidly as possible. In 1850, in his book Class Struggles in France, 1848 to 1850, when summing up the experience of the French revolution, Marx specified for the first time “Overthrow of the bourgeoisie! Dictatorship of the working class!” as the aim of struggle of the working class. In March 1852, in his Letter to Weydemeyer, Marx further demonstrated that class struggle inevitably leads to the dictatorship of the proletariat, pointing out that this dictatorship itself only constitutes the transition to the abolition of all classes and to a classless society. In March 1871, French workers staged an uprising and established the Paris Commune, which was the first attempt at the dictatorship of the proletariat. In 1875, Marx further pointed out in the Critique of the Gotha Programme: “Between capitalist and communist society there lies the period of the revolutionary transformation of the one into the other. Corresponding to this is also a political transition period in which the state can be nothing but the revolutionary dictatorship of the proletariat.” In his leadership of the proletarian revolution and struggle against opportunism in Russia, Lenin wrote a series of works, such as The State and Revolution, The Proletarian Revolution and the Renegade Kautsky, inheriting and developing Marx’s theory of the dictatorship of the proletariat. Lenin pointed out that the dictatorship of the proletariat is the political rule of the proletariat over the bourgeoisie. Although it is impossible without force, “this dictatorship presupposes the ruthlessly severe, swift and resolute use of force to crush the resistance of the exploiters, the capitalists, landowners and their underlings. Whoever does not understand this is not a revolutionary and must be removed from the post of leader or adviser of the proletariat. But the essence of the dictatorship of the proletariat is not in force alone, or even mainly in force. Its chief feature is the organization and discipline of the advanced contingent of the working people, of their vanguard; of their sole leader, the proletariat.” In the revolutionary practice in Russia, Lenin has scientifically analyzed the particular situation and the comparative situation of class forces in Russia after the February Revolution, holding that the form of dictatorship of the proletariat should take the form of state of Soviets of Workers’, Agricultural Labourers’ and Peasants’ Deputies throughout the country, from top to bottom.

The Communist Party of China, represented by Mao Zedong, combined the Marxist-Leninist principle of dictatorship of the proletariat with the concrete reality of revolution and construction in China, and proceeded from China’s national conditions to create a particular form of state of people’s democratic dictatorship. In September 1948, at the September meeting of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee, Mao Zedong clearly put forth the claim of “establishing a people’s democratic dictatorship under the leadership of the proletariat and based on the alliance of workers and peasants”. In June 1949, Mao Zedong pointed out in On the People’s Democratic Dictatorship that, to sum up our experience and concentrate it into one point, it is the people’s democratic dictatorship under the leadership of the working class (through the Communist Party) and based upon the alliance of workers and peasants. This dictatorship must unite as one with the international revolutionary forces. He also pointed out that the combination of these two aspects, democracy among the people and dictatorship over the reactionaries, is the people’s democratic dictatorship. Since the founding of New China, China has established a state power in accordance with the principle of people’s democratic dictatorship, exercised democracy among the people and dictatorship over the enemies, bearing the tasks of socialist revolution and socialist construction, which, in essence, is the dictatorship of the proletariat.

The establishment of the political power of the dictatorship of the proletariat is the fundamental and primary hallmark of the victory of the proletarian revolution, the highest manifestation of the revolutionary role of the proletariat in history, and the primary condition for the victory of the socialist revolution and socialist construction. Lenin said: “Those who recognize only the class struggle are not yet Marxists”, “only he is a Marxist who extends the recognition of the class struggle to the recognition of the dictatorship of the proletariat.” The dictatorship of the proletariat is the only way to communism. During the whole period from capitalism to communism, we must uphold the dictatorship of the proletariat. However, the dictatorship of the proletariat is also a dialectical development process from establishment, fortification to gradual withering-away. The exercise of the dictatorship of the proletariat must be regarded as the transition to the abolition of classes and, with them, of the state. The dictatorship of the proletariat and its form of state is a historical category. It will gradually wither away with the final accomplishment of its own historical mission, i.e., the entry of mankind into a classless communist society.