p Nationalisation gives rise to a socialist system of economy founded on public ownership with co-operation and mutual assistance underlying the relations of production and with social forms of distribution according to work. This system puts an end to exploitation, to the antagonisms between the social nature of production and the private form of appropriation inherent in capitalist society, and to sporadic development, which gradually gives way to planning. Nationalised enterprises give the proletarian state a firm economic foundation, which expands and grows stronger with progress towards socialism.
p Depending upon the situation, nationalisation is implemented directly or indirectly, i.e., by a series of intermediate phases.
p One of these phases is state capitalism, which takes the form of concessions, the lease of enterprises to private employers, mixed state-private enterprises, and so forth. However, the socio-economic character of all these forms is the same: all these enterprises function with the aid of private capital but are controlled by the proletarian state; they fulfil the demands of the proletarian state and are, in the final analysis, used by it to further the building of socialism.
p Another form of transition to nationalisation is control of capitalist enterprises by the workers employed in them. This control covers the organisation and management of production, the hire and discharge of workers and office employees, the quality of the output and its distribution, the system of payment, and so forth. In the process of this control the working people acquire experience of managing production, distribution, financing, accounting and other aspects of industry.
p Various forms of workers’ control of capitalist enterprises were in operation in Russia and the accumulated experience was used and enriched in other socialist countries. The workers’ councils, factory production commissions and factory committees set up in these countries were an important step towards nationalisation.
p Land belonging to big landowners is also nationalised (completely or partly) during the period of transition. In 158 the Soviet Union, for example, all the land was nationalised and a large portion of it was turned over to the peasants for their free use in perpetuity. Another portion was used by the state for the setting up of state farms. In other countries part of the land has been nationalised and part given to the peasants.
p The complete triumph of the socialist system of economy necessarily presupposes the reorganisation of the small peasant farms in order to establish socialist ownership in agriculture.
p It would seem that nothing would be simpler than to nationalise the small farms and thus make them the property of the state. But this is something that cannot be done under any circumstances, for although the peasant owns property he is not an exploiter. He wins his livelihood by his own labour and, naturally, his property cannot be expropriated in the same way as that of the big capitalist or landowner. Besides, the psychology of the peasant, who is attached to his tiny plot of land, must be taken into consideration.
p Land-hungry and landless peasants and farm labourers actively participate in the revolution in the hope of receiving land and thus being assured of a livelihood. The victorious revolution must not disappoint them. In the course of the revolution a considerable portion of the land, belonging to big landowners and capitalists is usually turned over to those who till it, i.e., the farm labourers and the poor and the middle peasants, with the result that far from being amalgamated agriculture becomes still more scattered because the number of small producers increases.
p In this situation the only possible way to reorganise agriculture along socialist lines is to set up agricultural co-operatives. The small private farms voluntarily unite to form large co-operatives.
p In these co-operatives labour and the basic means of production are socialised. The type of co-operative depends upon the extent to which socialisation is put into effect. In the U.S.S.R. and other socialist countries there were three main types of co-operatives:
p 1. Associations for the joint cultivation of the land. These are the lowest, initial type of co-operatives, where 159 socialisation covers only labour: the peasants pool their labour for various jobs.
p 2. Co-operatives where the means of production and labour are socialised and the land remains the property of the peasants. Incomes are distributed correspondingly: the larger portion according to work, and a smaller portion according to the size of the plot of land.
p 3. The agricultural artel. Here socialisation embraces the land, labour and the means of production, and the entire income is distributed according to work. This is a higher type of co-operative. In the Soviet Union it is called a collective farm.
p The setting up of co-operatives gradually abolishes smallscale private ownership in favour of socialist public ownership. Essentially, this is identical with state socialist ownership, inasmuch as it rules out exploitation and establishes the principle of distribution according to work. However, unlike state property, co-operative property belongs not to the whole people but to a group of people, to the members of the co-operative. This may be defined as group socialist ownership.
p The socialisation of labour and the means of production at the co-operatives does not imply the abolition of personal husbandries. A member of a co-operative owns a house, items of household use, productive livestock, and certain implements allowing him to cultivate a subsidiary plot of land turned over to his possession (or ownership).
p In the U.S.S.R. the plan for organising agricultural cooperatives was drawn up by Lenin. Its basic principle is that peasants should join co-operatives voluntarily. The Communist Party, opposing the forcible planting of cooperatives against the wishes of the peasants, emphasised that peasants should be drawn into co-operatives by persuasion, by a concrete demonstration of the advantages of the co-operatives over the small goods private economy.
p Lenin’s socialist co-operative plan envisages gradual socialist reforms in the countryside, a transition from the lowest to the highest type of co-operative with due account of geographical, economical, national and other concrete conditions. It presupposes consistent democracy in the management of the co-operatives and the coupling of personal with social interests.
160p Lenin attached special importance to aid to the co-operatives from the proletarian state and to strengthening and developing the alliance between the working class and the peasants. By supplying the co-operatives with machinery, helping them to apply the achievements of agricultural science, improve and irrigate land, and promoting state and co-operative trade between town and country, the proletarian state facilitates the growth of farm production and of the peasants’ standard of living. On their part, the peasants respect and trust the working class and become active in building socialism when they see that the proletarian state renders them day-to-day assistance and support.
p Thanks to the co-operatives agricultural production makes rapid headway. Being large production units they give scope for the utilisation of modern machines and scientific advances and make it possible to use manpower and socialised means of production more rationally. Moreover, socialist ownership makes it possible to direct agriculture as well, to draw it into the sphere of state planning and administration. Small, individual farms developing in a haphazard fashion cannot be directed and their output cannot be planned. On the other hand, with the setting up of co-operatives farm output begins to rise. If we take the total agricultural output of Russia in 1913 as our initial index (100), we shall find that in 1940 (when collectivisation was completed) farm production rose 41 per cent. At the same time, due to rapid industrialisation there has been a considerable decrease of the rural population.
p In addition to co-operatives (collective farms) there are large state farms that belong to the whole people.
p Collectivisation and the organisation of state farms put an end to the social stratification of peasants into poor and middle peasants and kulaks and rule out the possibility of private capitalist elements—kulaks and private traders—existing, let alone arising in the countryside. Socialism is thereby consolidated in agriculture as well. The socialist mode of production ceases to be one of several systems, becoming the only system in all branches of economy and marking the complete economic triumph of socialism.
p Socialist industrialisation, i.e., the building up of a modern, large-scale industry founded on the latest scientific and technical achievements, is an indispensable condition 161 of socialism, particularly in countries with a small or undeveloped industry.
p Heavy industry, the foundation of foundations of socialist society, is built up in the period of transition from capitalism to socialism. “A large-scale machine industry capable of reorganising agriculture is the only material basis that is possible for socialism,” Lenin wrote. [161•*
p Socialist industrialisation ensures uninterrupted scientific and technical progress in the economy, enhances labour productivity, increases the machine-to-worker ratio and improves working conditions. It provides a modern technical basis for all branches of the economy, opens the road to scientific, technical and cultural progress, and facilitates the achievement and consolidation of a country’s economic and political independence and the strengthening of its defence capacity in face of reactionary imperialist forces.
p Its impact on a country’s inner political life is likewise tremendous. The growth of large-scale industry is accompanied by the numerical growth of the working class and a steady enhancement of its role and importance in society, of its influence over other classes and social strata. In other words, industrialisation enlarges and strengthens both the economic and the political foundation of the proletarian state, i.e., it strengthens the position of the socialist social forces.
p It is important to note that there is a radical difference between socialist and capitalist industrialisation. Capitalist industrialisation is attended by the exploitation of the working people, the plundering of less developed countries or the receipt of military tribute from defeated nations. Socialist industrialisation proceeds primarily at the expense of inner accumulations obtained by boosting labour productivity, planning economic development, strict economy and the rational utilisation of material, manpower and financial resources.
p The aims pursued by socialist industrialisation are likewise radically different. Capitalist industrialisation seeks to ensure the capitalists with the largest possible profits, while socialist industrialisation is subordinated to the humane 162 objective of serving the working people, satisfying their requirements and promoting their all-round development.
p Industrialisation is not an easy task. It requires a vast labour effort on the part of the people, huge financial investments and, frequently, sacrifice. The difficulties encountered by the Soviet people were exceptionally formidable because they pioneered the building of socialism. The country was backward and the economy was dislocated by the First World War and then the Civil War. The then young Soviet Republic was surrounded by enemies who did their utmost to halt the building of socialism, resorting to all means ranging from an economic blockade to armed intervention. Soviet Russia was deprived of the possibility of obtaining loans: the imperialists gave a country credit in return for some inroad into its political independence, and this, naturally, was something the workers and peasants were not prepared to grant. They had not driven out their own capitalists only to become bondsmen to foreign capitalists.
p There was only one way out: to depend upon the will, energy and labour of the revolutionary people. In face of difficulties and hardship, the Soviet people built a firstclass industry, which they are now enlarging and improving.
p Industrialisation changed the Soviet Union beyond recognition. New industries and numerous large factories and power stations sprang up. Compared with 1913, total industrial output increased 750 per cent in 1940, while the output of large-scale industry rose nearly 12-fold and the power output increased 225-fold. Thanks to industrialisation, the Soviet Union, which had had to import machines, began not only to manufacture but also to export modern machinery and equipment. It became possible to promote collective farming on a large scale and supply it with the latest types of machines, raise the standard of living and increase the country’s defence capacity.
p Industrialisation has been markedly successful in other socialist countries as well. Their industrial product is steadily growing, and a particularly rapid expansion is registered by power engineering, heavy engineering, chemical and other industries forming the basis of the economy and ensuring technical progress. The share of these industries in the total industrial output increased in the period 1951-65: in Bulgaria from 13.7 to 22.3 per cent, in Hungary from 163 32.5 to 38.3 per cent, in the German Democratic Republic from 38.3 to 51.2 per cent, in Mongolia from 4.6 to 11.7 per cent, in Poland from 14.4 to 35.9 per cent, in Rumania from 18.6 to 40.8 per cent, and in Czechoslovakia from 23.2 to 41.1 per cent.
p Being general laws of socialist construction, nationalisation, the co-operation of agriculture and industrialisation were implemented in different ways by countries building socialism. In the Soviet Union nationalisation was achieved rapidly, in a matter of a few months (December 1917 to June 1918). Transitional forms, state capitalism particularly, did not become widespread for the sole reason that the bourgeoisie refused to accept them and engaged in sabotage wherever possible. In the People’s Democracies nationalisation took several years. First the enterprises belonging to nazi collaborators were confiscated and then other enterprises were nationalised gradually. Various forms of state capitalism, especially mixed enterprises, were widespread. In some countries the former owners were paid compensation for the confiscated enterprises. No compensation was paid out in the Soviet Union.
p The forms of the socialist changes in agriculture were likewise dissimilar in different countries. In Czechoslovakia, for instance, four different types of agricultural co-operatives have taken shape. The difference between them is in the extent to which the means of production and labour are socialised. In Cuba with its huge sugar and other plantations there are large people’s estates, which now account for more than three-fourth’s of the sugar-cane output, the entire output of industrial crops and half of all the cattle.
The conditions under which socialism was built in the U.S.S.R., particularly the fact that this building proceeded in only one country, which, in addition, was encircled by hostile imperialist powers, made it imperative to speed up industrialisation, especially the development of the basic industries. The Soviet Union could confidently hold its own against the aggressive forces of imperialism only after it had surmounted its backwardness, built up a modern industry and, on that basis, strengthened its defences. In this connection, as we have already pointed out, the people had to face serious difficulties and hardships. As regards the People’s Democracies, they were delivered from many of 164 these difficulties. They did not have to speed up industrialisation and develop all branches of industries because they had the possibility of taking advantage of the benefits of the socialist division of labour, the experience and help of the U.S.S.R. and the assistance of other socialist countries.
Notes
[161•*] Lenin, Collected Works, Vol. 32, p. 459.