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p Having formulated the concept of a socio-economic system, shown the place occupied in it by various social relations and singled out economic relations as the most important and determining relations, Marx and Engels revealed the laws of social development and, thereby, gave the key allowing social processes to be guided scientifically for the benefit of man and all mankind.

p To guide the development of society, in which millions upon millions of people live and work, is an extraordinarily intricate process. Its cardinal prerequisite is a correct policy, correct strategy and tactics conforming with the progressive trends of social development, with the interests of the foremost class, of the masses, who are the makers of history.

p Marx and Engels, who were the first to bring the laws of social development to light, showed that as a result of the operation of these laws capitalism must yield its place to socialism, to a society without private property and without exploitation of man by man. Moreover, they particularly emphasised that socialism docs not supersede capitalism of itself, automatically. Perceiving in the working class a social force capable of establishing the new society and liberating man, they made it plain that the proletariat could fulfil its great historic mission only in the process of the class struggle and the socialist revolution.

p The collapse of capitalism and the consolidation of socialism stem not only from the operation of objective laws but also from the subjective activity of people, as a result of a conscious and purposeful remaking of society, of the guidance of social processes. By consciously 38 promoting and organising the class struggle in capitalist society, the working class and its party accomplish mainly a negative, destructive task. However, if they do not fulfil this task, if they do not destroy capitalism they cannot initiate creative work, the building of socialism.

p The founders of scientific communism demonstrated that there must be a directing authority in every society engaged in more or less large-scale production. There is, therefore, a directing authority in capitalist society as well.

p “All combined labour on a large scale requires, more or less, a directing authority in order to secure the harmonious working of the individual activities, and to perform the general functions that have their origin in the action of the combined organism, as distinguished from the action of its separate organs. A single violin player is his own conductor; an orchestra requires a separate one.”  [38•* 

p At the same time, they stressed that under capitalism the functions of the directing authority are limited to a narrow field. The bourgeoisie is capable of giving efficient and even exemplary guidance to individual or groups of enterprises and even to entire branches of economy on a nation-wide scale or on the scale of groups of countries. However, it is unable to direct socio-economic processes, the development of society as a whole, by plan. This is due to private ownership, anarchy of production, the unpredictable nature of the market and competition, which rule out the possibility of planning social development.

p It becomes possible to direct social processes and society as a whole scientifically only after the socialist revolution, after the dictatorship of the proletariat is established, private ownership abolished and production in all spheres of economy socialised. Production ceases to be sporadic and planned economic development is ensured only after socialist reforms are carried out. The economic foundation of socialism, public socialist ownership, unites people, turning the masses of scattered people consumed by capitalist competition into a “collective man”, into “associated producers”. In Capital, Marx wrote: “...socialised man, the associated producers, rationally regulate their 39 interchange with Nature, bringing it under their common control, instead of being ruled by it as by the blind forces of Nature; and achieving this with the least expenditure of energy and under conditions most favourable to, and worthy of, their human nature.”

p Marx saw the “real realm of freedom" of society and man in the conscious direction and regulation of production and of all spheres of social life, emphasising that this realm can flourish only on the foundation of objective laws of social development cognised by man and used for his benefit.

p Marx and Engels scientifically settled the basic questions that the Utopian Socialists only raised. Firstly, rejecting speculation in favour of the real laws of social development, of an analysis of the objective dialectics of capitalism, they showed that capitalism would inevitably be superseded by socialism. Secondly, they brought to light the fact that in alliance with other working masses the proletariat had the great historic mission of destroying capitalism and establishing the new, socialist society. Thirdly, they demonstrated that capitalism would be destroyed and the new society established through the class struggle and the socialist revolution. Fourthly, they revealed the social essence of man, his place in the system of social relations, showing the trend of human development and pointing out that communist society was not an end in itself but only a means of emancipating the working man and promoting his all-round development, that man himself was the objective of communism. Fifthly, they proved that social processes could be directed, that they could be subordinated to the will of man, that the very process of the revolutionary overthrow of capitalism and the building of socialism and communism was a conscious, purposeful process of directing social development, a process of the advance of man and mankind towards the realm of real freedom.

p It goes without saying that these are far from being all the problems raised and solved by the founders of scientific communism.

We must note yet another feature of scientific communism, namely, its organic tie and unity with revolutionary action, with practice.