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p Non-capitalist development is the road to socialism for countries that have not reached the capitalist stage. It is the road to socialism by-passing capitalism generally or some stage of developed capitalism provided socialism has triumphed or there is a proletarian dictatorship in other countries.

p The transition to socialism is accomplished as a result of a socialist revolution springing from definite material and class prerequisites (the required level of economic development, the existence of a developed and politically active proletariat led by a Marxist party, and so forth). These prerequisites usually mature at the capitalist stage of development, which means that a direct transition to socialism is possible in developed capitalist countries.

p It is different in the case of pre-bourgeois countries, such as are most of the new sovereign states. They lack the prerequisites for a socialist revolution and, therefore, require a certain period of preparation for the transition to socialism, a period in which the material and class conditions for this transition are created. This period, during which countries approach socialist reforms, is an indispensable element of non-capitalist development.

p The social and economic processes of this initial period (economic development and the accompanying regrouping of class forces in favour of the working masses, primarily of the proletariat) are in some measure analogous to the processes witnessed during capitalist development. However, non-capitalist development greatly accelerates these processes, and the most important thing is that it delivers 131 the masses from much of the sufferings and hardships of capitalist development. Side by side with bourgeois-democratic reforms, the initial stage of non-capitalist development witnesses reforms of a socialist nature (restriction of private capitalist ownership and exploitation, the transfer of part of the means of production to public control and management, economic planning, and so forth). However, at this stage the latter reforms are not decisive and do not determine the social and economic character of society as a whole.

p At this initial stage the correlation of bourgeois-democratic and socialist reforms and their influence and significance are not the same in different countries, for this depends on the level of the given country’s economic and social development, on the balance of class forces in it. At the same time, regardless of their depth and form, socialist reforms are an unmistakable indication of the non-capitalist road. Where reforms of this type are absent it is a sign that society is following the road of usual capitalist development.

p The initial stage, during which bourgeois-democratic reforms predominate, is followed by a stage of definitely socialist reforms in all spheres of social life, a stage of direct transition to socialism.

p At this new stage, socialist reforms become predominant, non-capitalist development is consolidated, society finally embarks upon the socialist road and the national liberation revolution grows into a socialist revolution.

p How quickly this new stage is reached depends upon how actively the masses participate in the revolution, how deeply the democratic reforms become rooted in social and political life, how quickly the role of the working class grows and its alliance with the peasants strengthens, and on how speedily the leading core of the revolution becomes the spokesman of the masses.

p The social and economic objectives of the non-capitalist road as a whole are, thus, to complete the national liberation revolution, create the material and class prerequisites for socialism and then promote the growth of the national liberation revolution into a socialist revolution.

It must be emphasised that non-capitalist development is possible only in the present epoch of mankind’s transition from capitalism to socialism, when countries taking the 132 non-capitalist road can count on the disinterested assistance of the world socialist system. The backward countries can emerge from their present stage of development, Lenin wrote, “when the victorious proletariat of the Soviet Republic extends a helping hand to these masses and is in a position to give them support”.  [132•*