Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels argued that the state is an instrument of class oppression. They posited that once the proletariat overthrows the bourgeoisie and establishes a classless communist society, the state, having no further function as a tool of class rule, would naturally wither away.

Mikhail Bakunin was a prominent Russian revolutionary and a key figure in anarchist thought. Unlike liberal thinkers like J.S. Mill or T.H. Green, who generally supported private property within a regulated framework, Bakunin advocated for collectivism and the abolition of private property, arguing that it was a source of inequality and state-sponsored oppression.

Surplus value is a central concept in Marx's critique of capitalism. It represents the value created by workers in excess of their own labor cost, which is then appropriated by the capitalist as profit. This extraction of surplus value is identified by Marx as the primary mechanism of exploitation in a capitalist system.

Anarchists generally view private property as a source of exploitation and inequality that serves the interests of the wealthy at the expense of the community. Therefore, they would reject the notion that private property is inherently designed to produce socially useful goods, as they believe it prioritizes profit and individual accumulation over the genuine needs of society.

Marxist theory suggests that the state is a product of irreconcilable class antagonisms. In the development of human history, the emergence of private property and the subsequent division of society into slave-owners and slaves created the necessity for a coercive apparatus to manage these conflicts. Thus, the social conditions of slave-owning preceded the formal institutionalization of the state as a mechanism for class suppression.

Marxist historical materialism posits that the capitalist state solidified as the political superstructure corresponding to the rise of industrial capitalism. This transition is generally associated with the late 18th century, coinciding with the Industrial Revolution and the decline of feudal structures, which allowed the bourgeoisie to consolidate political power.

Karl Marx was born on May 5, 1818, in Trier, a city in the Rhineland province of the Kingdom of Prussia, which is now part of modern-day Germany. This location was significant in his early life and upbringing before he moved to Bonn and later Berlin for his university studies.

The dissolution of the USSR in 1991 signaled the definitive conclusion of the Cold War. This era was characterized by intense ideological, political, and military competition between the capitalist bloc led by the United States and the communist bloc led by the Soviet Union. With the collapse of the Soviet state, the primary structural antagonism that defined international relations for over four decades ceased to exist.

While Marxism famously views the state as an instrument of class rule, the provided answer identifies it as a 'power system.' In Marxist theory, the state functions as an apparatus of coercion used by the ruling class to maintain dominance over the proletariat. By defining it as a power system, the theory highlights the state's role in enforcing social order and protecting the interests of those who control the means of production.

Wage Labour and Capital is a significant economic treatise written by Karl Marx. It was based on a series of lectures he delivered to the German Workingmen's Club of Brussels in 1847. The work explains the relationship between labor and capital, specifically how the capitalist system exploits the worker by extracting surplus value, which is a core concept in Marxist economic theory.