ABSTRACT
Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels theorized in general terms about the transition between capitalism and communism. V. I. Lenin's idea of a "preliminary transition" or initial stage of preparation before beginning the actual construction of socialism has been adopted by most contemporary socialist regimes in underdeveloped societies. Lenin totally disagreed with the idea of a parliamentary road to socialism espoused by Karl Kautsky and other theoreticians. Rosa Luxemburg, like Lenin, rejected Kautsky's conception of the parliamentary road to socialism, but she also disagreed with Lenin and Leon Trotsky on the need for an authoritarian party dictatorship during the transition to socialism. Luxemburg's conception of the transition to socialism involves the immediate establishment of socialist democracy and not a dictatorship of the revolutionary party. In her criticism of the Bolsheviks, Luxemburg contended that freedom only for the supporters of the government and the members of the revolutionary party amounted to no freedom at all.
