In Marxist theory, the dictatorship of the proletariat is a state of affairs in which the proletariat, or the working class, holds political power. The term, as used by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels,
Gracchus Babeuf
Auguste Blanqui, whose concept of a revolutionary dictatorship by a conspiratorial elite is often contrasted with Marx's concept of a class dictatorship.
Barricade during the Paris Commune of 1871, which Marx and Engels regarded as an example of the dictatorship of the proletariat
Friedrich Engels
Leninism
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Leninism is a political ideology developed by Russian Marxist revolutionary Vladimir Lenin that proposes the establishment of the dictatorship of the proletariat led by a revolutionary vanguard party
Dictatorship of the proletariat
…Marxists, such as Karl Kautsky and Rosa Luxemburg, who argued that it betrayed the democratic principles central to Marx's original conception. The Leninist interpretation became the official doctrine of the international communist movement and was used to justify one-party rule in states such as the Soviet…
Vladimir Lenin, after whom Leninism is named
First edition Russian cover of Lenin's 1917 book Imperialism, the Newest Stage of Capitalism
1970 French edition of Lenin's 1917 book The State and Revolution
Leon Trotsky was exiled from Russia after losing to Stalin in the factional politics of the Bolsheviks.