"Critique of the Gotha Program" (in German: *Kritik des Gothaer Programms*) is a document based on a letter by Karl Marx, written in early 1875 to the German social-democratic group in Eisenach, with whom Marx and Friedrich Engels were closely allied.

Offering perhaps one of Marx's most detailed statements on revolutionary matters in terms of program and strategy, the document discusses the socialist revolution, the "dictatorship of the proletariat" — the transitional period from capitalism to communism; proletarian internationalism; and the role of the working-class party.

The *Critique* is also notable for its elucidation of the principle "From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs," as the foundation for communist society. Marx also mentions that in socialism "the individual receives from society exactly what he gives it," indicating that while communism would base compensation on needs, socialism, being incomplete and immature, would base wages on achievements.

The "Critique of the Gotha Program", published posthumously, is considered one of Marx's most valuable writings for its detailed portrayal of "Communism."

The letter was directed to the German city of Gotha, where a party congress was to take place. At the congress, the Eisenach socialists planned to unite with the Lassalleans to consolidate the party, which would later grow stronger under the name Social Democratic Party of Germany. The Eisenachers sent a draft of the party's unification program to Marx for comment.

Marx believed the program was negatively influenced by Ferdinand Lassalle, whom Marx saw as an opportunist aiming to limit the labor movement's demands in exchange for government concessions. Nevertheless, at the Gotha congress in late May 1875, the draft was accepted by the majority with minimal changes.

Marx's letter was only published in 1891, eight years after his death, when the German Social Democracy announced its intent to adopt a new program, and Engels used Marx’s letter as a possible program proposal, publishing it.