According to Marx, the proletariat is the class of workers who have no ownership or control of the means of production in the economy. They own nothing but the right to sell their own labor. The proletariat is not simply "the lower class" as that term is commonly used. It just so happens that the common industrial worker may be in a lower social class, lower social status is not the true definition of proletariat.
The "proletariat" actually played very little in the "Bolshevik Revolution" because there was no proletariat in Marxist terms. First, Russia had not gone through the industrialization phase of capitalism therefore there was no true proletariat. Russia was still an agrarian country. Second, the Bolshevik Revolution was not a people's revolution as Marx envisioned it. The Bolshevik Revolution was nothing more than a military and political coup staged by the Bolshevik forces in which they seized control of the government from the existing Provisional Government.
The people of Russia, soldiers, workers and peasants, simply stood by doing nothing while the Bolsheviks seized power. By and large theirs was a wait and see attitude. Most felt it was better to have a revolutionary government (Bolshevik) rather than a counter-revolutionary government (the Provisional Government) even though the Bolsheviks were not universally favored or trusted.
The proletariat are the working class individuals who sell their labor for a wage. In the Bolshevik Revolution, led by Vladimir Lenin, the proletariat played a central role by rising up against the ruling class (bourgeoisie) to establish a socialist system that aimed to create a classless society. The revolution resulted in the overthrow of the Russian monarchy and the establishment of the Soviet Union.
Lenin added the concept that the road to communism did not need to wait for the creation of a proletariat of exploited workers to rise up and seize the means of production. He believed that a properly coordinated centralized group of professional revolutionaries could do so politically and this is exactly what he and the Bolsheviks did in the October Revolution of 1917. The so-called Communist Revolution was not one that Marx had originally envisioned.
Communism / Marxism
Modern form of Communism is based upon Marxism which is the ideology presented by a sociologist Karl Marx in 1840s. The Marxism gathered the support across the Europe and under the support of Bolshevik Party the first communist government formed during the Russian revolution in early 20th century.
Proletariat.In Marxism, the dictatorship of the proletariat denotes the transitional socialist State between the capitalist class society and the classless communist society.
The essential components of Marxism include the belief in a class struggle between the bourgeoisie (the wealthy capitalist class) and the proletariat (the working class), the idea of historical materialism where social structures are determined by economic forces, and the goal of achieving a classless society through revolution and the establishment of a socialist state.
During the Industrial Revolution, Karl Marx, a German philosopher, created Marxism. He believed that everyone was essentially good and believed in an egalitarian society in which everyone would be equal. The only way this would happen, though, is if the proletariat class revolted. Sadly, when Marxism is put into practice, it creates communism. This was nothing near to what Marx intended, though. Russia tried to enforce Marxism (with the slight problem that they had no proletariat class) and ended up with communism.
Marxism
If you are referring to the Bolsheviks, they were not Marxist. The Bolsheviks set up a state capitalist system in Russia, ruled by those who controlled the state.
Lenin modified Marxism to Leninism in response to Russia's specific conditions such as its underdeveloped economy, lack of industrial proletariat, and autocratic government structure. Lenin believed that a vanguard party was needed to lead the revolution in Russia, and that the working class needed a clear and centralized leadership to succeed in their struggle for power.
Trotsky and Stalin's interpretations of Marxism differed greatly because Stalin was a Bolshevik while Trotsky was a Menshevik.
During the Russian Revolution, propaganda used included dissemination of revolutionary ideas, teachings of Marxism, and theoretical and practical knowledge of Marxism economics.
Marxism is a political and economic theory based on the ideas of Karl Marx. Its chief ideas include the critique of capitalism, the belief in the class struggle between the proletariat and bourgeoisie, the goal of achieving a classless society through revolution, and the emphasis on the central role of economic forces in shaping society.