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p Insofar as needs govern (man’s behaviour, the formation of reasonable and healthy needs is indispensable for the moulding of communist morality. Morality, as we all know, characterises the standards and rules of behaviour in society and people’s relations to one another and to society.

p The formation of needs is not a single act but a long and complex process embracing virtually man’s entire lifespan from birth to death, because as man grows and develops his place in society and his goals and aspirations change, and this is inconceivable without the formation of corresponding needs, the correction of these needs and the rejection of some and the acquiring of others.

p The formation of not just any needs but only reasonable 324 and healthy needs is the basis of moral education because these are the only needs that can make man behave in accordance with the lofty principles of communist morality.

p Inasmuch as needs as well as the form of human intercourse and activity are stimulated only through objects or phenomena (material or spiritual), it is important to create objects that cultivate in man the needs and interests which ’conform Avith lofty communist ideals. One of the cardinal conditions for shaping needs is to place the cor responding material values as well as objects of spiritual production at man’s disposal. Moreover, it is important to teach every person not only rationally to utilise social values but also to create these values, i.e., to engage in socially useful work to the best of his ability.

p In socialist society there is no place for plunderers of public property, for those whose needs are not commensurate with their own contribution to social wealth, for those who seek to satisfy their needs at the expense of the people around them. He who does not work has no right to the satisfaction of his requirements.

p In the process of imbuing people with the need for work, which is the foundation for the satisfaction of all other needs, the latter, acquire the nature of a lofty moral aspiration which is the sole vehicle for the improvement of all of man’s physical and spiritual qualities. The profound meaning underlying all educational work, A.. S. Makarenko wrote, lies “in the selection and formation of human needs, in raising them to the moral summit that can only be attained in a classless society and which alone can stir man to aspire to further improvement".

p It goes without saying that in socialist society not all citizens have learned to harmonise their needs with their duties, with socially useful activity. The inability or lack of desire to adjust needs to one’s labour contribution is one of the main direct reasons for immorality and, frequently, for crime. Indeed, can one deny that excessive needs give rise to immoral features such as money-grubbing, greed, an unhealthy lust for luxury, dishonesty, careerism, pgoism, disregard for the interests of other people, theft, bribery, and so forth?

p The formation of needs is the business of Ihe family, the school, the place of work and the whole of society.

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p The foundations of genuinely human needs are laid in the family when a person is very young. Therefore, jointly with the school, the place of work and society as a whole, the family must shape in people the need for work and knowledge, for intercourse with other people and for noble actions, without which lofty moral qualities cannot be moulded. We all know, for example, that knowledge ennobles man, raises his level of culture, and imbues him with love for nature and respect for other people and nations. Thus, the formation and satisfaction of aesthetic needs likewise play an important role in moral education. A person who feels an inner need to build life according to the laws of beauty mixes well with other people and is conscious of and appreciates the beauty of human labour and of harmonious, truly human relations between people. Also important in the moral upbringing of a person is the formation of the need for movement, for physical improvement. Physical culture and sports train people to be persevering and courageous, and to surmount difficulties, and steel their will-power.

p In the shaping of man’s behaviour a prominent role is played by the sphere of services which embraces various fields of economy and culture. One group of these fields (trade, public catering, communal services, and so forth) ensures the satisfaction primarily of material needs. Another group (education, public health, culture, art, and so on) specialises in the satisfaction mainly of spiritual and other non-material needs.

p Efficient services, aesthetic attractiveness and smooth organisation, attention, politeness and competence on the part of the services personnel, the swift and qualitative fulfilment of orders, and so on help to foster good tastes and habits in consumers, make it possible to organise everyday life rationally, preserve people’s health, keep them in good spirits and give them additional leisure time which they can use for the satisfaction of other, chiefly spiritual needs, for the upbringing of children.

p The formation of healthy and reasonable needs presupposes a struggle against pernicious needs, whose satisfaction frequently leads to misdemeanours that clash with the standards of communist morality. Take drunkenness, for example. It is a dreadful social evil, to say nothing of the 326 fact that it is immoral, that it leads to violations of production discipline, poisons people’s lives, breaks up families and, lastly, leads to crime.

p The socialist system has every possibility for stamping out this and any other evil. But it would be wrong to think that this pernicious need will disappear by itself. Neither can it be uprooted by measures of compulsion, although such measures are necessary. The main thing is that really human needs should be set off against this and other unhealthy needs, that the former should be fostered and conditions created for their satisfaction. In moral education it is important to form lofty spiritual needs and to teach people to utilise their leisure time rationally with the purpose of satisfying these needs.

Communist society, which the close-knit family of Soviet peoples is building, will ensure complete harmony between needs and people’s behaviour. The needs of every person will be truly human and behaviour in the spirit of the lofty principles of communist morality will itself be an inner need. Man’s majesty and beauty will be expressed in the wealth of his capabilities and needs and in his resultant gracious behaviour.