How did Marx explain the collapse of Capitalism and how did the ideas of Lenin and Trotsky develop Marxist theory?

Although in other respects a critic of Hegel, Marx nevertheless embraced his belief that the driving force of historical change was the dialectic, a process of interaction between competing forces that leads to a higher stage of development. In effect, progress is the consequence of internal conflict. For Hegel, this explained the movement of the 'world spirit' toward self-realisation though conflict between a thesis and its opposing force, an antithesis, producing a higher level, a synthesis, which in turn constitutes a new thesis. Marx, as Engel's put it, 'turn Hegel on his head' by investing this Hegelian dialectic with a materialistic interpretation. Marx thus explains historical change by reference to internal contradictions within each mode of production arising from the existence of private property. Capitalism is thus doomed because it embodies its own antithesis, the proletariat, seen by Marx as the 'grave digger of capitalism'. Conflict between capitalism and the proletariat will therefore lead to a higher stage of development in the establishment of a socialist, and eventually a communist, society.

This enabled Marx to divide history into a series of stages, each characterised by its own economic structure and class system. Marx identified four stages: primitive communism or tribal society, in which material scarcity provided the principal source of conflict; slavery, covering classical or ancient societies and characterised by conflict between master and slave; feudalism, marked by antagonism between land owner and serfs; capitalism, dominated by the struggle between the bourgeoisie and the proletariat. Human history had therefore been a long struggle between the oppressed and the oppressor, the exploited and the exploiter. Each stage of history nevertheless marked an advance on the last in that it brought about further development of the 'forces of production': machinery, technology, labour processes and the like. However, following Hegel, Marx envisaged an end of history, which would occur when a society was constructed that embodied no internal contradictions or antagonisms. This, for Marx, meant communism, a classless society based on the common ownership of productive wealth. With the establishment of communism, the 'pre-history of mankind' will have to come to an end.

Another critique of capitalism rests on the notion of alienation for Marx. This suggest that capitalism has separated people from their genuine or essential natures, that is, from their capacity as workers to develop skills, talents and understanding though the experience of free productive labour. Since capitalism is a system of production for exchange, it alienates humans from the product of their labour: they work to produce not what they need or what is useful, but 'commodities' to be sold for profit. In addition the work is not social: individuals are encouraged to be self-interested and are therefore alienated from fellow human beings. Finally, workers are alienated from themselves. Labour itself is reduced to a mere commodity and work becomes depersonalised activity instead of a creative and fulfilling one. In Marx's later work, however, capitalism is more often analysed in terms of class conflict and exploitation.

Marx did not use class in its conventional sense but defined class in terms of economic power, specifically where people stand in relation to the ownership of 'means of production', or productive wealth. Marx believed that capitalist society was increasingly being divided into 'two great classes facing each other: Bourgeoisie and Proletariat'. The bourgeoisie make up the capitalist class and live off the ownership of productive wealth; the proletariat constitute the property less masses, who are forced to subsist though the sale of their labour power and can thus be seen as 'wage slaves'. For Marx the analysis of the class system provides the key to historical understanding and enables predictions to be made about the future development of capitalism. So Marx's prediction was that capitalism was destined to be overthrown by a proletariat revolution.

Vladimir Illich Lenin (1870-1924), soviet communism was also shaped by the decisive personal contribution of the first Bolshevik leader, Lenin and then later by Stalin. Lenin was both a political leader and a major political thinker. Lenin's ideas reflected his overriding concern with the problems of winning power and establishing communist rule. He remained faithful to the idea of revolution, believing that parliamentary politics were merely a bourgeoisie sham, aimed at tricking the proletariat into believing that political power was exercised through the ballot box. Lenin also echoed Marx's call for a transitional dictatorship of the proletariat, between the overthrow of capitalism and the achievement of 'full communism'.