p The class pattern of society undergoes profound changes with the building of socialism. The exploiting classes are removed in both town and country. The contrast between town and country is abolished inasmuch as the working people of town and country are liberated from exploitation, work for themselves and society, and enjoy equal rights to receive for their work in accordance with its quantity and quality. The distinction between mental and physical work is surmounted because people engaged in mental work serve the common cause of socialism side by side with the workers and peasants.

p In the Soviet Union the exploiting classes were extirpated as far back as 1937, when the building of socialism was, in the main, completed. In that year 36.2 per cent of the population were industrial or office workers, 57.9 per cent were collective farmers or co-operated artisans, and 5.9 per cent were individual farmers and non-co-operated artisans. By 1963 the latter figure dropped to 0.1 per cent. Thus in the Soviet Union there are two friendly classes: the proletariat and the collective-farm peasantry, as well as a working intelligentsia, which has changed fundamentally during Soviet years.

p The Soviet working class is no longer the exploited and oppressed proletariat of capitalist days. Along with the entire people it owns the means of production and is a genuine master of its country. Remaining the most organised and politically conscious class and championing comradely co-operation and mutual assistance, the working class plays the leading role in socialist society.

p In agriculture collectivisation and the cultural revolution have completely remoulded the Soviet peasantry. Once dismembered, downtrodden and exploited by the landowners and the kulaks, the peasants have become a free class working at large-scale, mechanised farms.

p Collective work for the good of the country has broken down the peasant’s age-old reserve, helped him to overcome his private proprietorship psychology and infused 179 him with a spirit of collectivism, friendship and comradeship. His cultural level is rising steadily. The widespread use of the latest types of machines has given the countryside its own skilled machine operators, whose work hardly differs from that of industrial workers.

p The Soviet intelligentsia has likewise undergone drastic changes. Today it is a genuine people’s intelligentsia with its roots in the working class and the peasantry. Having come from the people it serves them with devotion and dedication. The number of intellectuals has increased considerably during Soviet years: at the beginning of 1966 more than 25 million people or over one-fifth of the entire population were engaged in mental work. Today the Soviet Union has millions of teachers, scientific workers, doctors, engineers, technicians, lawyers, financial experts and other specialists.

p Socialism destroys class domination and subordination. In socialist society no class or group of people enjoy special privileges. The relation of all members of society to the means of production is identical and this rules out the possibility of anybody exploiting other people and appropriating the fruits of their work. Since socialist society is free of exploiters and the exploited, having only working classes and social groups, class struggles are non-existent in it.

An unbreakable social, political and ideological unity consisting of a community of basic economic and political objectives of the working class, the peasants and the intelligentsia, of their unanimous desire to rise to a still higher stage of social development and build communism, takes shape in socialist society. This identity of objectives induces all members of socialist society to act together, to pool their efforts in order to surmount difficulties and carry out epoch-making tasks.