Journal of the Charles University Law Faculty
Pavel Maršálek
Author’s affiliation:
Faculty of Law, Charles University in Prague
Class struggle and legal forms of persecution in European communist dictatorships
Jurisprudence 1/2026 Section: Articles Page: 45-50
DOI: https://doi.org/10.71372/SIYD6930
Keywords: class struggle, legal forms of persecution, communist dictatorships
Abstract: The article deals with the concept of class struggle in Marxist thought and its practice in European communist dictatorships. For Marxists, class struggle represents a permanent social conflict between classes with irreconcilable interests. According to them, it gives history its dynamism and will only cease after the victory of the proletarian revolution, the elimination of private property and classes. However, the practice of communist dictatorships did not confirm this hypothesis. Class struggle took place in an intensified form against the remnants of the classes defeated by the revolution and all those designated by the communists as enemies. Legal forms of persecution were widely used. These reached the level of terror and were legal injustice. After the end of Stalinism, this practice was mitigated, with the exception of the suppression of mass anti-communist actions.
