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Communism is a stateless, classless and moneyless society. It is characterized as a mode of production in which the means of production are owned in common by the workers. Friedrich Engels called communism the doctrine of the conditions of the liberation of the proletariat.
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In Karl Marx's theory, communism represents the final mode of production. Each mode of production is defined by its relations of production: the class dynamics, the methods of exploitation, the systems of exchange, the level of development of the means of production, etc. Capitalism is defined by the relationship between the bourgeoisie and the proletariat, commonly referred to as a "dictatorship of the bourgeoisie". Socialism is defined by the same relations but inverted, instead exhibited as a "dictatorship of the proletariat". Socialism still has class dynamics and exploitation, but the proletariat is the class that controls the state.
In the Communist Manifesto, Marx and Engels described the evolution of society through the material changes as epochs of history. The relationships between opposing ranks such as patricians, knights, plebeians, slaves, merchants, feudal lords and vassals serve as forces of class antagonism. The current stage or epoch after the demise of feudalism at the hands of capitalism only created new classes and forms of oppression, this time between the bourgeoisie and the proletariat.
For more detail, see Communism.