[pdpi]

The two aren’t independent.

Marx’s idea of communism required a “dictatorship of the proletariat” as an intermediate stage between capitalism and communism. Lenin took that notion and, under the pretence of needing absolute power to prevent a counter-revolution, turned it into the totalitarian regime of the USSR. Since then, communism and totalitarianism have gone hand in hand.

[defrost]

With the aside that most of this bored me stupid 40 years past and still does today ...

Marx's "dictatorship" as used by Marx back in the days of late nights in the British Libraries wasn't the authoritarian "dictatorship" we associate with the term today.

  In the 19th century, the term "dictatorship" did not yet have the modern connotation of an authoritarian, autocratic one-man rule. Its meaning was derived from the ancient Roman dictatura, a constitutionally sanctioned office for a magistrate granted extraordinary powers during an emergency. For Marx and Engels, the "dictatorship of the proletariat" was not a specific form of government but a term for the class content of the state that would follow a proletarian revolution. 

~ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dictatorship_of_the_proletaria...

Sure, Lenin had a hard on for authoritarian behaviour and started the USSR trend of dangling a communist utopia as a reward for grinding through petty nitpicking committees and even more hard core authoritarians .. but that's more the bait and switch of human greed than any necessary coupling of communes and boot first hierarchies.

[pdpi]

Yeah, I wasn't quite clear there. That's what I meant, that Lenin is the one who took the "emergency powers until communism is established" interpretation of "dictatorship of the proletariat", and turned it into "all the powers until forever". But that interpretation is effectively what became synonymous with communism just about everywhere — the USSR, China, Cuba, North Korea... Curiously enough none of the Communist states ever really transitioned from that intermediate state to full communism.

[defrost]

Sure, but

  effectively what became synonymous with communism just about everywhere

is a cultural association, not an actual real "always happens" coupling

  Curiously enough none of the Communist states

sorry, what actual communist states?

  ever really transitioned from that intermediate state to full communism.

of course not, they were all highjacked by opportunistic epaulette wearing authoritarians dangling a dream.

Much as, say, the notions of freedom, fairness, and making central north america great again has been a beard for robber barons.