Dictatorship of the proletariat

From MarxWiki

In Marxist thought, the use of state power by the proletariat during the conversion from capitalism to communism. Originally this theory entailed a workers democracy where the proletariat would be in power. This was tweaked by Stalin to imply a dictatorship in the name of the proletariat. Marx took ‘dictatorship’ to mean the rule of a class by another class. Therefore, capitalism, the dictatorship of the bourgeoisie, would be replaced by socialism, the dictatorship of the proletariat. This however would only serve as an intermediary stage to a classless and thus stateless society, communism. In 1873 Mikahail Bakunin predicted that under the `dictatorship of the proletariat of the Marxists the party leaders would concentrate the reins of government in a strong hand and divide the masses into two great armies - industrial and agricultural - under the direct command of state engineers who will constitute a new privileged scientific and political class`. Bakunin wrote that government was a form of oppression and that anything resembling “political power” should be destroyed in a social revolution. However, he thought that the idea of a small group of people taking power for the benefit of the majority was a “heresy against common sense”. Bakunin felt that a dictatorship of the proletariat would only lead to another group, in this case intellectuals, taking control of the masses.