If you feel that you are well acquainted to the basics and the criticisms of the points, we recommend you to skip the Introduction.

Introduction

The very fundamental definition goes as “Communism is the doctrine of the conditions of the liberation of the proletariat” (Frederick Engels). In the work THE HISTORICAL DESTINY OF THE DOCTRINE OF KARL MARX, V. I. Lenin put forwarded the question, “The chief thing in the doctrine of Marx is that it brings out the historic role of the proletariat as the builder of socialist society. Has the course of events all over the world confirmed this doctrine since it was expounded by Marx?” This question throws ample light over the fact that a crucial contemplation is indispensable.

Frederick Engels gives the elucidation of the word proletariat as ‘The proletariat is that class in society which lives entirely from the sale of its labor and does not draw profit from any kind of capital; whose weal and woe, whose life and death, whose sole existence depends on the demand for labor – hence, on the changing state of business, on the vagaries of unbridled competition. The proletariat, or the class of proletarians, is, in a word, the working class of the 19th century’. Can we hold the same definition now? The questions that need adequate explanations are – What is profit? Can wages be counted as profit if he earns much?

The origin of proletariat is further stated as – ‘The Proletariat originated in the industrial revolution, which took place in England in the last half of the last (18th) century, and which has since then been repeated in all the civilized countries of the world.’