Historical Mission of the Proletariat

The particular historical task and role of the proletariat in the transition of human society from class society to classless society, i.e., under the leadership of the proletarian party, unite all exploited workers, overthrow the rule of the bourgeoisie through the proletarian revolution, establish the dictatorship of the proletariat, realize socialism and communism, and liberate all mankind. The Communist Manifesto pointed out that the proletariat must first of all form a class, forcibly overthrow all existing social order, overthrow the bourgeois supremacy, conquer the political power, and win the battle of democracy, so that the proletariat can rise to the position of the ruling class, use its political rule, wrest, by degree, all the capital from the bourgeoisie, abolish bourgeois private property, centralize of all instruments of production in the hands of the state, i.e. of the proletariat organized as the ruling class, and increase the total productive forces as rapidly as possible.

The great historical mission of the proletariat is determined by the social status and class characteristics of the proletariat. The economic status of the proletariat in capitalist society determines that it must shoulder the historical mission of emancipating itself and all mankind. In The Holy Family, Marx pointed out that the conditions of life of the proletariat sum up all the conditions of life of society today in their most inhuman form… Its aim and historical action is visibly and irrevocably foreshadowed in its own life situation as well as in the whole organization of bourgeois society today. A large part of the British and French proletariat is already conscious of its historical task and is constantly working to develop that consciousness into complete clarity. The proletariat is the most revolutionary, advanced and organized class. It can accept the Marxist world outlook and methodology and use it to arm itself, constantly improve its consciousness, organization and fighting potential, find a real path to emancipation, and unite and lead all the exploited working masses to the victory of the revolution. Of all the classes currently opposed to the bourgeoisie, only the proletariat is a truly revolutionary class. The rest of the classes are declining and withering away with the development of large-scale industry, but the proletariat is the product of large-scale industry itself. That the proletariat has such a historical mission is the historical necessity of the replacement of capitalism by socialism, the inevitable result of the development of fundamental contradictions in capitalist society, and history has shown that the bourgeoisie not only forged the material weapons turned against itself—the modern productive forces of society, but also forged its own gravediggers—the modern proletariat.

The only way for the proletariat to realize its historical mission is proletarian revolution. The proletariat should establish its own party, take Marxism as its guiding ideology, forge an alliance with all the working and exploited people, forcibly overthrow the bourgeoisie and establish its own political rule, which is the first step for the proletariat to realize its historical mission. “The immediate aim of the Communists is the same as that of all other proletarian parties: formation of the proletariat into a class, overthrow of the bourgeois supremacy, conquest of political power by the proletariat.” This decisive step was later called by Engels as the only door to the new society and created conditions for the transition to communism. The day when the communist society is built is the time when the historical mission of the proletariat is accomplished.

Marx and Engels’ knowledge of the historical mission of the proletariat had a process of formation, development and gradual deepening. As early as 1844, according to their analysis of the proletariat in Germany, France and England, Marx and Engels formed the important thought on the historical role of the proletariat. In 1845, in their first co-written book The Holy Family, Marx and Engels clearly put forth the scientific conclusion that “the proletariat can and must emancipate itself”, and further demonstrated the historical mission of the proletariat to liberate all mankind. In 1848, in The Communist Manifesto, Marx and Engels analyzed the process of the emergence, development and maturity of the proletariat, and then clearly put forth and demonstrated that the proletariat shoulders the great historical mission of “gravediggers of the capitalist system” and the builder of socialist and communist society, which marked the formation of the doctrine of the great historical mission of the proletariat. In the first draft of The Civil War in France, Marx pointed out that only the proletarians, fired by a new social task to accomplish by them for all society, to do away with all classes and class rule, were the men to break the instrument of that class rule—the State, the centralized and organized governmental power usurping to be the master instead of the servant of society. In the epoch of imperialism and proletarian revolution, Lenin inherited and developed the scientific socialist doctrine of the historical mission of the proletariat, pointing out that “the great historic merit of Marx and Engels that they indicated to the workers of the world their role, their task, their mission, namely, to be the first to rise in the revolutionary struggle against capital and to rally around themselves in this struggle all working and exploited people.” He put forth the international nature of the historical mission entrusted to the proletariat, i.e., the proletariat of all countries strive together to “unite the proletariat of all countries with the oppressed peoples and oppressed nations”, overthrow the dictatorship of the bourgeoisie, establish their own political rule and strive for the emancipation of all mankind and the realization of communism. Beginning with Mao Zedong, Chinese leaders of all generations promoted the Sinicization of Marxism in accordance with the concrete national conditions of the time, strived to realize the combination of Marxism with Chinese reality, explored how to build socialism with Chinese characteristics and ultimately realize the ideal of communism in China.

Due to the different national conditions, the historical tasks faced by the proletariat in different countries are also different. In order to fulfill their historical mission, the proletariat of all countries should, under the leadership of proletarian political parties, combine the fundamental principles of scientific socialism with their own concrete realities, correctly formulate the lines, steps and policies of proletarian struggle, unite all possible forces and fight for victory. Guided by Lenin, the Russian proletariat not only fulfilled its historical mission of revolutionary conquest of political power, but also made arduous explorations on how to consolidate and develop socialism after gaining political power. It has made great achievements in socialist construction and enriched and developed the theory of the historical mission of the proletariat. In China, because of the oppression of the Three Mountains, in order to fulfill its historical mission, the Chinese proletariat had to first carry out a democratic revolution to be followed by a socialist revolution. At the same time, owing to the extremely backward economy and culture of the Old China and the extreme poverty of the people’s lives, the Chinese proletariat, after winning the victory of the revolution and becoming the ruling and leading class of the country, had to give top priority to the development of the productive forces of society. After more than ninety years of hard struggle, the Communist Party of China has united the people of all nationalities and turned the poor and backward Old China into a prosperous and powerful New China, and the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation shows bright prospects. At the present stage, the main task of building socialism with Chinese characteristics is to build a moderately prosperous society in all respects in the 100 years since the founding of the Communist Party of China, which is the first grand goal of the Chinese dream; to build a strong, democratic, civilized, harmonious and beautiful socialist modernization power by the 100 years since the founding of the People’s Republic of China in the middle of the 21st century is the second grand goal of the Chinese dream.

The historical mission of the proletariat is the basic content of the scientific system of Marxism. It runs through the proletarian revolution and construction and is the basis of the whole international communist movement. The theory of the historical mission of the proletariat has correctly revealed the trend of the development of modern capitalist society, had a tremendous impact which pushed the development of human society, and inspired and guided the proletarians of all countries to strive bravely for its great historical mission. Lenin pointed out that the main point in Marx’s theory is to clarify the world-historical role of the proletariat as the creator of socialist society. The historical mission of the proletariat is extremely great and arduous. It is not only to put an end to the old capitalist world but also to build a new communist world; it is not only to abolish the exploiting classes and the system of exploitation but also all classes and class distinctions; it is to fight for the emancipation of its own nation as well as the emancipation of all mankind; it is to constantly change its subjective world, while changing the objective world after the image of its own class. In a word, the proletariat should abolish the system of exploitation and oppression of man by man from the earth and create a new communist world of “from each according to his ability, to each according to his needs”. This is an extremely arduous historical task that can only be accomplished thorough a long struggle.