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p It is now some time since the progressive people of our time first realised the truth of the scientific proposition that world communism is the splendid future of the whole of mankind. This principal scientifically-based and optimistic conclusion about the future of all mankind was first reached by Marx and Engels a century or so ago. Having created a truly scientific theory of social development, the founders of scientific communism predicted that world communism would be the result of the spread and full victory of the socialist revolution. This uniquely scientific theory of the communist transformation of the world in new historical conditions was further developed and elevated to a new, higher stage by Lenin who has gone down in history as the great architect of communist society. Marxist-Leninist theory, constantly developed by the GPSU and other Communist and Workers’ parties, their leaders and theoreticians, has become a powerful, invincible weapon in the struggle for communism. No theories or forecasts of bourgeois ideologists about the future of mankind can withstand this spiritual weapon.

p The Programme of the CPSU contains the following definition of communist society based on Marxist-Leninist theory and generalisation of the experience in building the new society: “Communism is a classless social system with one form 348 of public ownership of the means of production and full social equality of all members of society, under it, the all-round development of people will be accompanied by the growth of the productive forces through continuous progress in science and technology; all the springs of co-operative wealth will flow more abundantly, and the great principle ’From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs’ will be implemented. Communism is a highly organised society of free, socially conscious working people in which public self-government will be established, a society in which labour for the good of society will become the prime vital requirement of everyone, a necessity recognised by one and all, and the ability of each person will be employed to the greatest benefit of the people."  [348•1 

p The transition period from the old system to the new one is an essential, universally inevitable stage in the birth of the new society. The emergence and development of the world socialist system has shown that no country, regardless of its stage of economic, political and cultural development, can bypass the transition period, for this is the period of the revolutionary transformation of capitalist society into socialist society through the dictatorship of the proletariat. Depending on the concrete historical conditions the operation of this general law is characterised by many features which manifest themselves in the various forms of the dictatorship of the working class, in the presence of a single-party or multi-party system with the indispensable guiding role of the Communist Party, in the periods and rates of industrialisation of the country or the all-round development of industry as the leading branch of the economy, in forms of agricultural cooperation, the carrying out of a cultural revolution, etc. The difficulties of building a new society with all the related consequences and contradictions arise in all socialist countries in various degrees and forms.

p The victory of socialism, its steady consolidation and all-round development, which reveal more and more fully the historic advantages of the new system, are an inevitable stage in the development of the communist formation. The international experience of all the socialist countries confirms the Marxist-Leninist tenet that no nation can bypass not only the transition stage, but also the first, socialist 349 phase in the development of the communist formation. In general, in order to understand the many distinctive aspects and historic advantages of the communist formation and the two main phases of its development, it is essential to compare it with the preceding, capitalist formation. As is known, the formation and development of the capitalist formation, including its two principal stages—the premonopoly and monopoly stages—took more than 300 years. The pre-monopoly stage in the leading capitalist countries covered more than 200 years.

p The formation and development of the communist formation is taking place at immeasurably faster rates, in spite of totally new difficulties involved in the birth and formation of the new system.

p Today, on the basis of the experience of the USSR and the whole world socialist system, one can draw the theoretical conclusion that the socialist phase is not only an inevitable stage in the development of the communist formation, but that it will take a relatively longer time than the transition period.

p In the Soviet Union the transition period took approximately twenty years. The socialist phase, however, in the course of which there is all-round development of the new society and preparation of all the economic, political, social and ideological prerequisites for communism, which steadily accelerate the gradual transition to the higher phase of the communist formation, takes considerably more time. This law applies to the other socialist countries as well, regardless of their special features. And this is no mere accident.

p The transition period, the period of the revolutionary transformation of capitalism into socialism, ensures the creation of a new type of society. But subsequent development is connected with the consolidation and all-round development of a fundamentally new type of social relations, with the fuller unfolding of historically unprecedented aspects and properties of the socialist system. One must also bear in mind not only the inner laws of the socialist phase, but also the principal contradiction of our age—the competition and struggle of two opposing social formations—the old, capitalist one and the new, communist one.

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p Capitalism, for all its internally irremediable defects which hamper the potentialities for social progress, is still capable of relative and uneven growth of production by using scientific and technological advances. The new formation, already in the socialist phase, is demonstrating its indisputable superiority to capitalism. This superiority will be revealed to an even greater extent as maximum use is made of all the possibilities of the scientific and technological revolution. This is one of the main tasks facing the economy of the USSR and the development of other socialist countries.

p When socialism fully reveals and realises all its advantages in the process of the gradual transition to communism, the higher stage of communism will arrive.

p The indissoluble link between the emergence of communism and the all-round development of socialism is obvious. Lenin, foreseeing this dialectical connection between the two phases in the development of the communist formation, said: “...In striving for socialism ... we are convinced that it will develop into communism...."  [350•1  He warned about the difficulties of building not only socialism but also the higher phase of communism which is to complete the radical renewal of all aspects of social life on a fundamentally new basis, where the free and all-round development of each individual will be a condition of the full flowering of the whole society. Speaking about the higher stage of communism, Lenin stressed: “The future society we are striving for, the society in which all must work, the society in which there will be no class distinctions, will take a long time to build."  [350•2  Unlike socialism, which arises in the process of destroying capitalism, the building of communism takes place on the basis of socialism and within the framework of the socialist phase. This fact relatively accelerates the process of the building of communism and determines the new law of its emergence.

p Marx called this law the emergence of communism on its own basis. The transition to the higher phase of communism will be complete only after the implementation of the following three main tasks set out in the CPSU Programme—the creation of the material and technical basis for 351 communism, the improvement of social relations and the moulding of the new man. This will crown the world process of society’s transition from pre-history to the true history of the progressive development of mankind. Unlike the historically transient, although prolonged, socialist phase, the communist phase, in the words of Marx and Engels, will be the highest form of human organisation.

p This general outlook for the advance towards communism, which takes into account the real possibilities created under developed socialism, was the subject of profound, scientific analysis and theoretical elucidation at the 24th CPSU Congress. Quite understandably and logically, attention was concentrated on ways of accelerating the creation of the material and technical base of communism, on vital problems of the socio-economic and socio-political development of society, and on the tasks involved in the formation of the new man.

p The creation of the material and technical base of communism is the crucial task in communist construction. As Lenin said: “We value communism only when it is based economically."  [351•1  And this was the basis which the 24th Congress provided for the further development of Soviet society. The CPSU Central Committee Report, the Directives for the Ninth Five-Year Plan, and the Congress resolutions contain a thorough and profound analysis of the Communist Party’s economic policy at the present stage, which is based on a comprehensive theoretical study of the present situation and its tasks.

p The essence and supreme aim of this policy is “to secure a considerable rise in the living standard and cultural level of the people on the basis of high rates of growth of socialist production, increase in its effectiveness, scientific and technical progress and accelerated growth of the productivity of labour".  [351•2  The actual elaboration of this task as the main one in the Ninth Five-Year Plan is the result of the creative application of Marxist-Leninist methodology to the analysis of the present stage of the Soviet state.

p The advancing of this main task, which provides for a certain increase in the growth rate of production of means of 352 consumption by comparison with the growth rate of production of means of production, is based on the tremendous success of Soviet society, on the economic and military power of socialism. The correctness of this policy is based on consideration of the objective economic laws of socialism and the Party’s general political strategy in communist construction.

p In conformity with the objective economic laws the GPSU is continuing the general policy of accelerated development of the production of means of production, heavy industry, particularly those of its branches which promote the creation of the material and technical base of communism. Explaining the essence of the Communist Party’s main strategical line after the victory of the October Revolution, Lenin said that it was essential to do as much as possible in one country to accelerate the victory of the revolution in other countries and influence the course of world revolution mainly by one’s example, by successes in the field of economic construction.

p The most that can be done in one country is the building of socialism and communism. The victory of socialism in the Soviet Union has demonstrated the superiority of the new world in many respects, above all in the planned development of the national economy and in the rapid, steady growth rates of socialist production for the benefit of the constant growing standard of living of all working people.

p The time has now come when the Communist Party, following its Leninist strategical line, has set the task of effecting a considerable rise in the material and cultural standards of the whole people. The fulfilment of this task will reveal even more fully and comprehensively to all peoples the vast superiority of communism over capitalism. Raising the material well-being of the working people is dictated by the inner laws of socialist society, by the needs of the development of its economy, and is one of the most important prerequisites for the further growth of production which, at the present stage, is making increasing demands not only on machines and technology, but principally on the workers themselves. Thus, on the one hand, the main task of the Nine-Year Plan reflects the consistency of the Communist Party’s policy to increase material and moral labour incentives. On the other hand, “the question is posed much more broadly: to create conditions favourable for the all-round development of the abilities and creative activity of Soviet 353 people, of all working people, that is, to develop the main productive force of society."  [353•1 

p The solution of this main task demands corresponding changes in economic proportions. But this does not mean that less attention is to be paid to heavy industry. On the contrary, its high development rates retain their importance in the present situation, because heavy industry is the basis of expanding socialist reproduction, creating the material and technical basis of communism and maintaining the country’s defence capacity at the required level.

p The communist movement is advancing towards its ultimate goal, consistently passing through the objectively inevitable phases of the communist formation which are universally compulsory for all countries—the phases of socialism and communism. In the process of socialist transformation scientific communism is confronted with a new problem—that of the main stages in the building of the new society. Basing itself on Lenin’s scientific predictions and generalising the experience of the Soviet Union and other socialist countries, the 24th CPSU Congress made a profound analysis of developed socialist society, a stage which is inevitable for all countries.

p The main criterion of the maturity of socialist society is the achievement of harmonic unity of three basic spheres of social life—economic, political and ideological. Being the first country to have built a developed socialist society, the Soviet Union is now advancing towards the creation of the foundations of communist society, principally its material and technical basis. The other socialist countries, drawing themselves on the experience of the Soviet Union and taking into account their own specific peculiarities, are striving to build a developed socialist society and preparing the essential prerequisites for a subsequent gradual transition to communism. This is postulated in the congress documents of the Communist and Workers’ parties in the socialist countries.

p Thus, the international experience of the Soviet Union and other socialist countries has confirmed and enriched the fundamental tenet of scientific communism that the communist formation goes through two phases in its development, that with the building of a developed socialist society, its 354 steady consolidation and development, socialism gradually develops into communism. Guided by this conclusion, the 24th Congress of the CPSU again pointed out that the transition to communism requires lengthy and serious preparation, definite material and spiritual prerequisites.

p Modern bourgeois ideologists insist that communism is an impossible Utopia. Unlike the bourgeois ideologists of the last century, the exponents of modern anti-communism admit at best the possibility of achieving socialism, for it is impossible to deny the actual existence of the world socialist system and, particularly the victory of socialism in the Soviet Union. Many of them declare that the building of communism is impossible, particularly such features of it as the all-round development of the individual who is ready to work according to his ability and receive according to his needs.

p The bourgeois critics of communism considered and still do consider this principle to be unrealistic and Utopian. They advance the following arguments against it. First, they think it impossible to bring about distribution according to needs, because they believe that society will never attain a level of labour productivity which could ensure full abundance of material and spiritual values. The most that society can provide is a more or less even distribution of incomes. Secondly, they believe that if people receive according to their needs, they will not work because of “incurable” human weakness.

p A few years ago at a special meeting of the Roman Academy of St. Thomas Aquinas devoted to the struggle against communism, the Vatican “experts” attempted to produce theoretical proof that communism is Utopian and that capitalist society is eternal, God-given. At this meeting great stress was laid on the idea that reason also condemns communism because the latter by its methods (i.e., by revolutionising the economic system) is attempting to create a new man, an ideal human society, free from struggle and oppression, in which each person will be able to satisfy his wishes and be ready to work for the good of others with all his strength. Human nature is such, however, they maintain, that an abundance of good things will not satisfy man’s wishes or moderate his passions. Envy, jealousy, vanity and thirst for power—these are the human weaknesses which, in the opinion of 355 these theoreticians, cannot be changed by any economic Utopia.

p Communism as the future of all mankind is declared a utopia not only by bourgeois ideologists, but also by many reformists among the modern social democratic theoreticians. Karl Popper in his work The Poverty of Historicism calls Marx a Utopian thinker because he envisaged the building of a society in which each individual would work freely according to his ability and all his needs would be satisfied.

p Summarising these ideas widespread among the ideologists of anti-communism, the American professors Karel and Irene Hulicka do their best to prove the impossibility of building communism. They maintain that most non-Communists hold the opinion—not without grounds, according to them—that distribution “according to needs" will always be impracticable. Summing up their “arguments”, they conclude that the new Soviet man will not appear after all. Neither man nor the organisation of society will approach the ideal, and social distinctions, transgressions, greed, envy and conceit will not be eradicated.

p The experience of socialist and communist construction confirms the most important tenet of Marxist-Leninist ideology that the revolutionary transformation of society is also the prime condition for overcoming those negative features in man’s character (or, as the Papal experts like to put it, “in human nature”) which have become inculcated over the centuries by the economic system and the ideology of antagonistic formations.

p The opponents of communism pretend to criticise on the basis of a common-sense interpretation of the new processes and prospects of social development. In fact, however, they turn out to have tiny minds, incapable of understanding the great social transformations which took place in the first half of the twentieth century and even more incapable of envisaging the communist future of mankind. Karel and Irena Hulicka and their like have not learnt any lessons from the fact that bourgeois forecasts about the impracticability of socialism and its main features have been disproved, particularly those about the abolition of private property and the establishment of public property, the elimination of the exploitation of man by man and the creation of relations based on mutual aid and cooperation in the 356 production process, the abolition of national oppression and the attainment of equal rights and friendship between peoples. All these and other features of socialism, the prerequisites for which were prepared in our time, have been realised thanks to the victory of the socialist revolution.

p A profound knowledge of the laws of social development enabled Lenin in the very first years of the birth of the new society not only to speak with conviction about the victory of socialism, but also to reveal the young shoots of communism and forecast their inevitable victory. This applies, above all, to the communist attitude to work, the main feature of the new, fully developed man.

p The new, fully developed man is formed during the creation of the material and technical basis of communism, particularly of its main attributes, such as automation.

p During the gradual transition to communism the creative nature of work increases. It gradually turns into man’s prime vital need. His inner freedom is revealed more and more, and his activity in all spheres of production and social life develops continuously.

p These shoots of communism in labour grow constantly as socialist competition gets under way. The following statements are typical of the majority of Soviet people: “I cannot live without work. We find life’s inspiration and meaning in the work done in the name of communism”; “For me, as for millions of Soviet people, work has become a great joy and happiness”; “Each day I go to my factory with joy in my heart, because for me, as for many Soviet workers, work is a need, happiness”; “The factory is not only the production but also the social nucleus of society”; “I like work. It is the most important thing for me because it is necessary for society. This is the requirement without which we cannot live.” These and other similar statements show the process of development, as Lenin predicted, from the young shoots of communism to full communism.

p The formation of the new man combined with other tasks of building communism will lead to the realisation of its main principle: “From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs.”

p It would be wrong to reduce this principle simply to consumption. In fact it expresses the most important and indissoluble aspects of the life and activity of communist 357 society—the higher stage in the development of production, consumption and the progress of the individual.

p The principle of communism demands from each member of society that he works according to his ability. The allround development of the latter makes it possible to create an abundance of consumer goods without which there can be no distribution according to needs.

p The realisation of the communist principle will be heralded by the achievement of full equality between people. Under socialism equality is achieved in relation to the basic means of production, but there still remains a certain inequality in the material reward which each person receives according to his labour and not according to his needs. Since people have varying abilities and marital status (married, single, large families, small families, etc.) it is natural that distribution according to labour does not and cannot provide full material equality, the same level of economic well-being. Marx pointed out that individual talent and unequal capacity for work are natural privileges.

p With distribution according to labour these natural privileges are the cause of a certain material inequality between members of society enjoying equal rights. Only the transition from the principle of distribution according to labour to the principle of distribution according to needs will ensure full social equality independent of these natural privileges.

p This truth is beyond the understanding of bourgeois ideologists, who consider the building of a classless society unrealistic because, they argue, there will always be a difference in people’s abilities. This traditional argument was repeated at the VII Sociological Congress by the American ideologist of the “post-industrial society" Daniel Bell. He said that the ideal post-industrial society would never be classless because individuals had different abilities and possibilities. Such statements reveal an incurable defect in bourgeois sociology—confusion of the biological with the social.

p By true equality Marxism-Leninism does not mean biological equality, as the enemies of communism would have people believe, but social equality. There never has been and never will be biological equality. Communism stands for 358 a variety of human features and talent, unseen before in history, with the full social equality of each person. This means that, in spite of different physical and mental abilities, marital status, age, etc., everyone will have the opportunity to satisfy all his material and spiritual needs. This is the meaning of the great basic principle of communism.

p The creation of the material and technical basis of communism, the all-round cultural development of all members of society, the perfection of all aspects of producton relations, the attainment of higher labour productivity and full abundance, this is the necessary economic basis for the transition to the communist principle of distribution according to needs. Lenin constantly stressed that raising labour productivity is one of the prime tasks without which the ultimate transition to communism is impossible.

p Communist education of the masses, turning labour into a prime vital requirement, a conscious attitude, growing into a habit, towards the fulfilment of all one’s obligations to society, this is the necessary spiritual basis for the transition to communist distribution according to needs. Lenin wrote that we give the name of communism to the type of system in which people grow accustomed to their social obligations without special organs of coercion.

p The high sense of communist awareness of members of society will show itself in the fact that under communism people will not demand the impossible or take more than they need. This is what Engels had in mind when he wrote that under communism each person will be sure of the satisfaction of his reasonable needs on a constantly growing scale. Under communism it will be a question not of an unlimited, artificial increase in consumption of products of prime necessity, but of extending the range of new needs and their reasonable satisfaction regulated by the high sense of communist awareness of the members of society.

p Only taken together, as a whole, can the economic, social and spiritual bases of communism provide the opportunity to change to the principle of distribution according to needs. This is understandable. It is impossible to switch to distribution according to needs if there is no full abundance. Nor can one do so, if people have not yet become accustomed to the communist attitude towards work as a prime 359 vital requirement. There may be full abundance, but it cannot be distributed according to needs if people regard work as a burden and do not carry out their obligations to society voluntarily.

p Consequently, only the combination of the material, social and spiritual bases of communism makes it possible for society to go over to distribution according to needs.

p Before this principle can be put into practice it will be necessary to raise the planning of the national economy to a higher level. The prime task of the planning organs will be to take full account of growing social and personal needs.

p Distribution according to needs, which is possible on the basis of popular communist ownership of the means of production, will not exclude personal ownership of consumer goods. Moreover, communism will provide all members of the classless society for the first time with the opportunity of having at their personal disposal everything needed for the satisfaction of the reasonable needs of fully developed people.

Exposing the lies of the enemies of the working class, who insist that Communists want to level the tastes and needs of all people and abolish all personal ownership, Marx and Engels wrote in the Manifesto of the Communist Party: “We Communists have been reproached with the desire of abolishing the right of personally acquiring property as the fruit of a man’s own labour, which property is alleged to be the groundwork of all personal freedom, activity and independence—We by no means intend to abolish this personal appropriation of the products of labour, an appropriation that is made for the maintenance and reproduction of human life, and that leaves no surplus wherewith to command the labour of others. Communism deprives no man of the power to appropriate the products of society; all that it does is to deprive him of the power to subjugate the labour of others by means of such appropriation."  [359•1