As grim as that vision is, it’s at least more coherent than Marx’ “withering away of the state”, in which all the commissars and apparatchiks voluntarily dismantle their powers.
The withering away of the state is one of the main disputes between Marxists and anarchists, I believe, but the Marxist conception of the dictatorship of the proletariat is not some Soviet-style oligarchy, but a democratic socialist society choosing to strip away the pieces of the coercive apparatus of the state until only voluntary communal associations are left. The Marxist-Leninist conception, on the other hand, is completely insane for the reasons you imply.
As grim as that vision is, it’s at least more coherent than Marx’ “withering away of the state”, in which all the commissars and apparatchiks voluntarily dismantle their powers.
The withering away of the state is one of the main disputes between Marxists and anarchists, I believe, but the Marxist conception of the dictatorship of the proletariat is not some Soviet-style oligarchy, but a democratic socialist society choosing to strip away the pieces of the coercive apparatus of the state until only voluntary communal associations are left. The Marxist-Leninist conception, on the other hand, is completely insane for the reasons you imply.