you actually have this backwards. communism in a marxist sense is hierarchiless as described in das kapital. however the bosheviks broke from the larger communist movement because the mensheviks (the larger of the two factions of russian communists) advocated for building a larger and larger coalition that could create durable anti-authoritarian change in russia. lenin believed in vanguard party politics, that it would be better to do the overthrow of the capital class first, and then slowly cede power to the workers. unfortunately in the first elections under bolshevik control the workers didn’t vote how lenin had assumed they would and he ceased democratic elections in soviet russia. following a series of strokes, power was not slowly ceded to the workers, rather, stalin manipulated petty beurocratic power in order to consolidate, rather than disperse, power. ultimately, much like the french revolution, what happened was the typical revolution cycle:
things are bad
the people revolt
two parallel movements develop representing either a coup by power or a great societal reform
the coup by power faction consolidates a core faster and takes over
the great societal reform faction is purged as counter-revolutionary
the driving force behind the coup by power faction goes mad with power and dies
in the vaccuum of power a new cult of personality arises in which a previously mostly ignored person takes full control and re-establishes the old order with himself at the head and the only real change is the aesthetic of the imperium.
in france, the result was a totalitarian authoritarian regime “liberating” europe. in russia it was a totalitarian authoritarian regime “liberating” the workers.
to get an idea of who the bolsheviks really were look at how quickly they abandoned leftist unity to purge the anarchocommunists from eastern europe. these were people they, allegedly, shared ideals with and had been fighting to free the serfs alongside up until the moment they could purge the anarchocommunists in order to consolidate personal power at the top of the hierarchy.
tl;dr marxism is without hierarchy, marxist-leninism is very much with hierarchy
you actually have this backwards. communism in a marxist sense is hierarchiless as described in das kapital. however the bosheviks broke from the larger communist movement because the mensheviks (the larger of the two factions of russian communists) advocated for building a larger and larger coalition that could create durable anti-authoritarian change in russia. lenin believed in vanguard party politics, that it would be better to do the overthrow of the capital class first, and then slowly cede power to the workers. unfortunately in the first elections under bolshevik control the workers didn’t vote how lenin had assumed they would and he ceased democratic elections in soviet russia. following a series of strokes, power was not slowly ceded to the workers, rather, stalin manipulated petty beurocratic power in order to consolidate, rather than disperse, power. ultimately, much like the french revolution, what happened was the typical revolution cycle:
in france, the result was a totalitarian authoritarian regime “liberating” europe. in russia it was a totalitarian authoritarian regime “liberating” the workers.
to get an idea of who the bolsheviks really were look at how quickly they abandoned leftist unity to purge the anarchocommunists from eastern europe. these were people they, allegedly, shared ideals with and had been fighting to free the serfs alongside up until the moment they could purge the anarchocommunists in order to consolidate personal power at the top of the hierarchy.
tl;dr marxism is without hierarchy, marxist-leninism is very much with hierarchy