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Lenin taught that the Communist Party is not only an instrument for bringing about the dictatorship of the proletariat, but also an instrument for retaining, strengthening, and extending this dictatorship. It is the general staff of the proletarian revolution. Unless such an organizing and leading staff exists, the victory of the proletariat and the maintenance of power is impossible. Hence, the enormous importance of Party organization, of unity of view and singleness of will, the strictest Party discipline, and the expulsion from its ranks of all opportunist and alien elements.

The Bolshevik Party became a ruling Party and began to attract to itself elements alien to it. This became particularly dangerous at the time of the transition to N. E. P., when the civil war had come to an end. Lenin then raised the question of purging the Party and proposed that 99%, of the ex-Mensheviks be expelled. Of course this was not meant to be taken literally. In suggesting this, Lenin had in mind principally, the intellectuals, who joined the Bolshevik Party after the victory of the October Revolution. He suggested that special attention should be paid to these, to see whether they did not come into the Party in pursuit of selfish aims, and whether they had not brought with them corrupting elements, or deviations alien to a Bolshevik Party. Such elements must be ruthlessly driven from the Party. Lenin’s motto was: "Little and Good."

Lenin taught that in the period of transition from capitalism to Communism the proletariat can retain