The state, it is revealed, is not a neutral arbiter standing above society, but rather an organ of class rule, an instrument for the oppression of one class by another. It emerges precisely when class antagonisms become irreconcilable, serving to legalize and perpetuate this oppression, creating "order" which, in essence, means sanctioning and solidifying the subjugation of the exploited by the exploiters. This fundamental truth, often obscured by bourgeois ideologues and opportunists, lies at the very heart of understanding the state's true nature.
Examining the historical trajectory, one sees how, through various epochs, the state has consistently functioned to maintain the dominance of the economically elite. From ancient slave-owning societies to feudal systems and then to modern capitalism, the state's apparatus – its special bodies of armed men, its prisons, its bureaucracy – exists to preserve the privileges of the ruling class and to suppress any resistance from the oppressed. Even in the most democratic republics, this underlying function persists, with wealth exercising its power, albeit indirectly.
A profound critique is leveled against those who preach reformism and parliamentary participation, the social democrats who have, by 1917, largely abandoned the revolutionary essence of Marxism. They mistakenly believe that the working class can simply lay hold of the existing state machinery and wield it for its own purposes, or that gradual changes within the bourgeois state can lead to socialism. Such a view, it is argued, is a distortion of Marxist theory, serving only to perpetuate illusions and divert the proletariat from its revolutionary potential. The state, being a product of class irreconcilability, cannot be reformed; it must be smashed.
The path to genuine liberation demands a violent revolution, a forceful overthrow of the existing order. The working class, the proletariat, must break and destroy the old state machine, which is inherently designed to oppress it. This is not a call for the abolition of the state immediately, but for the dismantling of the bourgeois state and its replacement with a new, proletarian state.
This new state, often termed the "dictatorship of the proletariat," is a necessary transitional phase. It is a state of the armed workers, serving as an instrument for the vast majority to suppress the minority of exploiters. Its purpose is to crush the inevitable and desperate resistance of the bourgeoisie, to expropriate the expropriators, and to organize all working and exploited people for a new economic system. It is a state that is democratic for the immense majority of the people, and dictatorial against the exploiters.
The Paris Commune of 1871 stands as a powerful historical example, offering a glimpse into the form this workers' state might take. It demonstrated the crucial features: the replacement of the standing army with the armed people, the election of all officials with the right of recall, the restriction of officials' salaries to workmen's wages, and the abolition of parliamentarianism in favor of workers' councils combining legislative and executive functions. This was not a state in the old sense, but already a "semi-state," beginning to wither away from its very inception.
Ultimately, this dictatorship of the proletariat is itself only a temporary measure. As class distinctions fade, as capitalist exploitation is eliminated, and as society transitions to the higher phase of communism, the need for a state will gradually diminish. With the disappearance of class antagonisms, the state, as an instrument of class oppression, will become unnecessary and will "wither away," leaving behind a truly classless and stateless society where personal freedom can be fully expressed.
