During this period of transition, the victorious proletariat, led by their communist party establish the class government of the working classes. The communists call it the Dictatorship of the Proletariat. It is not a constitutional, parliamentary government, which, according to the communists, suits the capitalist States of the bourgeoisie. It is a revolutionary government of the working classes, invested with oppressive and autocratic powers. “In order to break down the resistance of the bourgeoisie.” writes Marx, “the workers invest the State with a revolutionary spirit.”
Its purpose is to prevent and suppress all attempts of the dispossessed capitalists from regaining their former hold on the State and in the society. Hence the revolutionary dictatorship of the communists will wage a long and obstinate struggle during this transitional period. As Lenin says, “the transition from Capitalism to Communism forms whole historical epoch”. During this period, the communist Dictators will bring about the following changes and transitions: the abolition of private property; nationalisation of the means and methods of production, such as land, factories, industrial plants, banks, trade and commerce, and the means of communication and transport; enforcement of an equal liability of all to work; abolition of all class distinctions and privileges; prohibition of child labour in factories and farms; the universalisation of education and culture, etc.
These are its negative tasks. It will also undertake positive functions and tasks, such as the extension of public ownership in other fields of production, popularisation of culture, universalisation of education, science and learning and the building of socialist character and morality. Thus the Communist State has both destructive and constructive tasks, i.e., to destroy capitalism and construct socialism. When these tasks are completed, its historic role will end, and the foundation of the communist society will be laid. With this the revolutionary State of Communism will come to a close.
The Post-Revolutionary State; the “withering away” of the State. When the bourgeoisie is suppressed, and all traces of capitalism are wiped out, the necessity of the State comes to an end. This is the twilight of the State. It will then, as Lenin says, “wither away”, giving place to a free society of voluntary associations formed for the transaction of public business. This is the beginning of the new classless, Stateless, communistic society—the ultimate historic goal of Communism. Its advent will mean that the revolutionary period is over. “When organizing production anew”, says Engles, “on the basis of a free and equal association of the producers, society will banish the whole State-machine to the place which will then be the most proper one for it—the museum of antiquities-side by side with the spinning-wheel and the bronze axe.”