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p Society without exploiters. Soviet society provides a striking example of friendly co-operation between workers, peasants and intellectuals, and of the entire nation’s sociopolitical and ideological unity.

p A new class structure has taken shape in the U.S.S.R. as a result of the economic and social reforms that were carried out in the period of transition from capitalism to socialism.

p The exploiter classes, i.e., landowners, capitalists and kulaks, have been abolished. In 1913, the landowners, the urban bourgeoisie and the kulaks with their families comprised 16.3 per cent of the population, but in 1928 the 23 exploiters accounted for only 4.6 per cent and consisted mainly of kulaks, whose economic and political positions began to crumble when the peasants took the path of socialist development.

p In some parts of the country the kulaks fiercely resisted collectivisation and organised acts of terrorism against collective-farm activists. The Soviet Government, therefore, had to take decisive measures to crush this resistance.

p Mass collectivisation completely eliminated the kulaks as a class. This, of course, does not mean that they were physically exterminated. Collectivisation did away with the social and economic conditions that had permitted them to exploit the peasant poor and farm labourers.

p Thus, in the course of the struggle for socialism a great social problem was solved, namely, an end was put to the exploiter classes and to the causes breeding exploitation.

p Two friendly classes, the working class and the peasantry, remained in the U.S.S.R.

p These far-reaching changes in the class structure of Soviet society were legislatively embodied in the 1936 Soviet Constitution, which declares (Article 1) that the U.S.S.R. is a socialist state of workers and peasants.

p In the period of socialist construction these classes, too, underwent substantial changes.

p In the U.S.S.R. the working class can no longer be called a proletariat in the content given to it in capitalist countries, where it is denied the instruments and means of production and bears the yoke of capitalist exploitation.

p With the abolition of private capitalist ownership and exploitation, the Soviet working class became a totally new class, in fact, the first of its kind in history.

p The peasants have likewise changed radically. They were freed from exploitation by landowners and kulaks, and individual labour was replaced by collective work at modern mechanised collective farms. Thanks to a community of features, the two forms of socialist ownership have brought the working class and the collective-farm peasantry closer together, consolidated their alliance and made their friendship indestructible.

p A new, people’s intelligentsia, utterly loyal to socialism, has emerged.

p Present-day Soviet society consists exclusively of work-
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24 THE SOCIAL STRUCTURE OF THE POPULATION BEFORE AND AFTER THE OCTOBER REVOLUTION (per cent) TSARIST RUSSIA-1913 U.S.S.R.-1939 (ejicjud.ing Western Ukraine and Western Byelorussia) 49,7 46 9 Individual peasants and handicraftsmen Other sections of the population 25
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ing people engaged in various branches of economy and culture. There is, therefore, every reason for saying that the U.S.S.K. is a country which is ruled by the working people.

p The U.S.S.K. has completely, abolished the age old class hierarchy, i.e., the system under which one class dominated other classes.

p All classes and social strata are equal in their relationship to the means of production, which no one can appropriate for the purpose of exploiting other people.

p Likewise, there are no social or political privileges or restrictions for any section of the population.

p Socialist society ensures the immutability of the principles of social equality and justice in all spheres of life.

p In any bourgeois country it is enough for a person to be born into a banker’s or an industrialist’s family to occupy a high place in society without any effort on his part. On the other hand, with a few exceptions, it is almost impossible for a worker’s or a small farmer’s son to climb out of poverty.

p Under socialism, a person’s place in life is determined by his personal abilities, knowledge, industriousncss and education, and not by his social origin or standing.

p Respect and fame, likewise, are not the monopoly of individual classes, for in the Soviet Union a person rises to fame only as a result of his work, his social origin or property status playing no role at all.

p Soviet workers, peasants and intellectuals have the same vital interests and this is the foundation of their indestructible social, political and ideological unity.

p Inasmuch as all classes and sections of the population in the U.S.S.R. consist of working people and are connected with socialist ownership of one and the same type, the relations between them arc completely free of antagonisms. Their interests coincide on all key issues. Socialist society has none of the class contrasts or antagonistic contradictions arising from the interests of exploiting and exploited classes and from the struggle between them.

p The workers, peasants and intellectuals are equally interested in economic growth, consolidating the socialist system and promoting democracy and culture.

p In this way, under socialism, the eternal struggle of the classes has given way to their solidarity and unity.

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p The social, political and ideological unity of the whole Soviet people is one of the greatest gains of the Soviet Union.

p This unity is a qualitatively new state of society in which not individuals but the whole people have set themselves a definite aim and are working to achieve it.

p This aim is the building of communism.

p The above, however, does not imply that all social and class distinctions have disappeared in the Soviet Union.

p In order to make away with classes completely, Lenin said, it is imperative to abolish not only “all private ownership of the means of production, it is necessary to abolish the distinctions between town and country, as well as the distinctions between manual workers and brain workers”.  [26•* 

p Classes—workers and collective-farm peasants—will continue to exist in the U.S.S.R. in the period of communist construction as well. These are friendly classes united by a single socialist system of economy and enjoying equal rights.

p The distinctions between them are due to the existence of two forms of socialist ownership of the means of production and are manifested in the different organisation and remuneration of the labour of workers and peasants, in the different distribution and realisation of their production and in the different management of state enterprises and collective farms.

p In the course of communist construction all distinctions between the working class and the peasantry, and between these two classes and the intelligentsia are being steadily erased. This is actively furthered by the policy of the socialist state.

p The Soviet working class. In socialist society the leading role is played by the working class. The Soviet worker has inherited the finest qualities of the revolutionary proletariat. Profoundly devoted to the ideals of the Party, he is a politically-conscious fighter for the people’s cause and the creator of the traditions in labour and life which bring us closer to communism. The workers building communism today are worthy successors of the proletarians who fought at the barricades in the Krasnaya Presnya District in 27 Moscow and stormed the Winter Palace in Petrograd, and of the heroes of the first five-year plans from whom the present working class has taken over the baton of revolution. The Soviet working class is a new class in world history. Under capitalism the proletariat is a class of hired workers denied instruments and means of production and has to sell its labour power.

p In tsarist Russia the proletariat lived in particularly difficult conditions. It was mercilessly exploited and suffered life-long poverty. But as a result of the October Socialist Revolution, the working class together with the whole people became the owner of the instruments and means of production and assumed the leading role in society. This is manifested in all spheres of economic, political and cultural activity. The Communist Party of the Soviet Union, whose nucleus consists of workers, is the spokesman of the working class. The vanguard of the whole people, the C.P.S.U. unites in its ranks the foremost section of the working class, the peasants and the intelligentsia. But the Party’s policy and ideology continue to express the stand of the working class which is the principal force in the building of a new world.

p The leading role of the working class is determined by the fact that through its labour it is connected with the most advanced form of socialist ownership, i.e., public ownership.

p The working class is also the principal exponent of communist ideology. Among workers there are incomparably fewer survivals of proprietory psychology and much stronger traditions of socialist mutual assistance and comradely solidarity. It is not accidental, therefore, that the working class initiates the most advanced movements with the purpose of promoting communist forms of labour, fulfilling plans ahead of schedule and furthering economic and cultural development.

p However, the fact that the working class plays the leading role does not give it any privileges or advantages over the rest of the people. This leading role does not rest on exclusive rights acquired at the expense of other classes or social strata. It is based on the high moral and political prestige enjoyed by the working class, which is the most advanced and most highly organised force of Soviet 28 society. The working class will have fulfilled its role as leader of society when communism is built and when class distinctions are completely eradicated.

p The Soviet working class is growing and its professional and cultural level is rising rapidly. By I960, the number of workers increased twofold as compared with the pre-war period.

p This numerical growth is due to the steady influx of new workers—young men and women just out of school, the manpower released in the countryside as a result of mechanisation in agriculture, as well as housewives, members of collective-farm families working on subsidiary plots of land, and pensioners who are drawn into social production.

p Statistics attest also to its unremitting qualitative and numerical growth. The number of industrial workers has increased 2.5 times as compared with the pre-war period. At the same time there has been a considerable rise in the number of building, transport and state-farm workers. More and more people are being drawn primarily into the engineering, mctalworking, iron and steel, and chemical and other key industries. The composition of the industrial workers in the U.S.S.R. mirrors an important aspect of Soviet economy, namely, the priority development of the leading heavy industries.

p Most of the new workers, particularly young people, have either an eight-year or secondary polytechnical education. This enables them to master mechanised and automated production more rapidly. At present, about 50 per cent of the workers have an incomplete or complete secondary education. This figure is higher in the metallurgical, engineering, chemical, printing and publishing and many other industries. This is a great achievement, for it will be recalled that some 42 years ago, in 1926, only 1.5 per cent of the manual workers in industry had a secondary or incomplete secondary education.

p There are industrial enterprises which arc virtually technical colleges that have become centres training engineers from among the workers. At these enterprises theoretical instruction alternates with practical training: while part of the students attend theoretical studies, others are engaged in practical work. A week later they switch 29 roles and this process continues until the study course is completed.

p The Likhachev Auto Works in Moscow became a factorycollege in 1960 with two departments (automobile and mechanical-technological) having 10 chairs and a staff of more than 60 instructors. Future engineers are transferred three or four times from shop to shop during the 6-year course, depending on the subject they arc studying at the time.

p When Vyacheslav Vclovin came lo the Likhachev Works he was given the opportunity to study and became first a foundryman and then a moulder-experimenter. After that he was promoted to foreman, and in 1966 he became a fullfledged research engineer.

p The technical college at the Auto Works has more than 2,100 students. All of them receive 50 per cent of their monthly wages and 50 per cent of a scholarship grant, which is 15 per cent higher than the grants received by students at conventional institutions of higher learning.

p S. I. Vorotnikov, leader of a composite team of miners in Lugansk, spoke of the rising cultural and technical level of the Soviet working class at the 23rd Congress of the C.P.S.U. He said:

p “The life of the working man has become interesting and purposeful. More than ever before people have become eager to improve their knowledge and cultural level. In my team the average age is 36 and almost all of us are studying. Three of my comrades and I, for example, are second-course students at the evening department of a mining and metallurgical institute, ten others are studying at a mining technical school, and 45 at a school for young workers. Besides giving them a broader mental outlook and enabling them lo provide technically sound solutions to many production problems, this completely changes their way of life, gives them a greater sense of responsibility and makes them more exacting towards themselves.”

p A characteristic feature of the Soviet working class is the constant growth of skilled workers and the gradual disappearance of unskilled and unmcchanised labour. By 1959, as compared with 1926, the number of instrument makers, moulders and mechanics increased 21-23 limes, while the total number of metalworkers 30 increased 9 times. In this period the number of lathe and automatic line operators and electricians rose almost 65 times. At the same time, many trades connected with unskilled labour have disappeared altogether. For instance, excavating machines have completely replaced navvies who had previously dug canals, foundation pits for buildings, and so forth.

p Significant changes have also taken place in the territorial distribution of the working class. The Leninist nationalities policy has stimulated the rapid economic development of the backward non-Russian regions, which have built new factories, electric power stations, roads and railways, and new industries and are industrially exploiting their mineral wealth. All this, naturally, promoted the formation of the working class in these areas. By 1959, the total number of workers in the U.S.S.R. increased 81 per cent as compared with 1940, while in Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and Moldavia the corresponding increases were 200 per cent, 100 per cent and over 200 per cent respectively.

p As a result, all the nationalities of the U.S.S.R. are broadly represented in the working class.

p The changes in the numerical and professional composition of the working class, in its educational and cultural training as well as in its territorial distribution are greatly helping it to fulfil its role as the leading class of society and the decisive force in the building of communism.

p Soviet peasantry. In pre-Revolution Russia the word village was a synonym of stagnation, ignorance and poverty. Russian literature vividly portrayed the bitter and hopeless lot of the peasants in the long years of tsarist autocracy and the rule of the landowners and capitalists. Being a class of small producers loosely connected with one another, the peasants dragged out a miserable existence on their tiny plots of land. Rural life bred extreme cultural backwardness.

p Under Soviet rule, as a result of collectivisation and the cultural revolution, the countryside has changed beyond recognition and the peasants have become a totally new class, qualitatively differing from the pre-revolutionary peasantry.

p For the first time in world practice the peasants in the U.S.S.R. broke with private property and bound up their 31 labour with public socialist property, with the collectivefarm system. The bulk of the peasants are farmers working collectively and employing large numbers of machines. Together with the working class and the working intelligentsia they are vigorously building communism.

p In the Soviet Union the words “collective farmer" are pronounced with deep respect. Solidly united with the working class, the collective farmers are a considerable political force in Soviet society.

p Thanks to the advantages of the collective-farm system, the peasants’ way of life has completely changed.

p The traditional Russian thatched hut is now a thing of the past. Comfortable houses with modern conveniences, including electricity and running water, are built in all villages. Most families own radio receivers and TV sets. For collective farms architects have designed standard villages with large social centres, secondary schools, shops, cafes, and the like. Illiteracy has been wiped out in the countryside and the peasants’ cultural level has risen tremendously.

p In pre-Revolution Russia only three persons per 1,000 of the rural population had an education above the elementary school level. In 1965, the corresponding figure was 300. At present 31 per cent of the collective farmers have a secondary education. Previously there was one teacher in a rural district consisting of several villages. In the countryside today there are 400,000 specialists, including agronomists, veterinary surgeons, zootechnicians, engineers, bookkeepers, teachers and doctors.

p Books and newspapers have become part and parcel of the life of the peasants, and the development of the TV system has brought Moscow with its theatres, picture galleries and other cultural facilities to many remote farming areas.

p There is yet another factor of no small importance. Before collectivisation smiths were the only representatives of industrial labour in the countryside, and even they were artisans. The peasant had to perform all jobs himself. Now, every collective farm has dozens of its own specialists, and the important thing is that many of them have industrial trades.

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p Many collective farmers have become tractor drivers and combine operators, mechanics, drivers and electricians and have mastered numerous industrial trades.

p Sociological investigations conducted in a Stavropol Region collective farm disclosed that it had specialists in 60 fields. Moreover, of its 202 machine operators, 117 were experts in two or three allied trades, and 35 had four and even five trades.

p The collective-farm system led to a rapid rise of the peasants’ cultural level and considerably broadened their mental outlook. It drew them into active public life and gave them an incentive to work efficiently for the benefit of their own collective farm and the country as a whole.

p Collectivisation helped the individual peasant to overcome his egoism and seclusiveness. These were the features that the literature of the past often described as being intrinsic in peasants.

p The advantages of the collective-farm system may be illustrated on the example of the work and standard of living of the members of the Novy Shlyakh Collective Farm, Chernigov Region. Before the Revolution the peasants of a village aptly named Peski (Sands) situated in a wooded district lived in dire poverty. The sandy podzol soil, cultivated with primitive implements, yielded not more than three or four hundred kilograms of grain and 5 tons of potatoes per hectare.

p After setting up a collective farm, the peasants of that village received farm machines and fertilisers which permitted them to go over to advanced farming methods. Today they can boast of rich harvests. In 1965, the per hectare yield at the collective farm was 2.87 tons of grain, 22.8 tons of potatoes and 0.6 tons of flax. The monthly income of the members averages 70 rubles, while the earnings of livestock-breeders average 140-150 rubles a month.

p The collective farmers are well oil’ and their cultural level has risen immeasurably. Before the Revolution the only literate person here was the village priest. Today it would be hard to find an illiterate person in the village, while 30 people have a higher education. The village itself has changed: 80 per cent of the farm members live in new houses and there are a palace of culture seating 500 and a museum of local lore.

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p This village is by no means an exception. The Now Shlyakh Collective Farm is one of many prosperous collective farms in Chernigov Region. In other regions there arc many bigger and richer collective farms.

p As we have already mentioned, industrial development in the U.S.S.R. leads to a rapid growth of the working class. In agriculture, however, the opposite is taking place. Although gross agricultural output is rising, the number of agricultural workers (particularly collective farmers) among the gainfully employed population of the country is diminishing.

p The Soviet peasants master the latest machinery, raise labour productivity and improve their living and cultural standards. This is due primarily to the large-scale use of machines in agriculture and the employment of improved methods of work. Mechanisation makes it possible substantially to reduce the number of people engaged in farming, whose services are required in other branches of the economy.

p People who are released from work in agriculture quickly find employment in industrial enterprises, building projects, and so forth. The working peasantry is a true and tested ally of the working class. With the completion of socialist construction this alliance, in which the leading role is played by the working class, has become still stronger. It has developed into a lasting friendship, for the relationship between these classes is founded on socialist production. The alliance of the working class and collective-farm peasantry, forged in their joint effort in the building of a new life, is a mighty force stimulating social progress.

p The further development of Soviet society presupposes the all-round consolidation of this alliance which is of decisive political, social and economic importance for Unbuilding of communism in the U.S.S.R.

p Soviet intellifjenlsia. The intelligentsia comprises a large section of socialist society.

p It is neither part of the working class nor of the peasantry. Nor is it a special class, for it does not occupy an independent position in social production.

p The Soviet intelligentsia is not a closed social stratum. It is a genuinely people’s intelligentsia, flesh of the flesh of the workers and peasants. It serves the people and thus 34 not only raises the cultural standard of society as a whole but also spiritually enriches the work of the intellectuals themselves.

p As soon as Soviet rule was established, a new intelligentsia began to be moulded by re-educating the old intellectuals and training new ones from among workers and peasants.

p In 1926, when socialist industrialisation was starled, the Soviet Union had slightly more than 2,500,000 mental workers. In 1961 their number exceeded 27,000,000, i.e., more than 20 per cent of the gainfully employed population.

p In contrast to capitalist countries, where intellectuals are primarily people from the privileged classes, such as the bourgeoisie, landowners, merchants, and so forth, the vast majority of the Soviet intelligentsia are people who have come from workers or collective farmers. Typical in this respect are the replies to the questionnaire circulated among the engineering and technical personnel at the Pervouralsk Tube Factory in 1966. They showed that 44.4 per cent of those questioned had come from workers’ families, 25.6 per cent were of peasant stock, 24.3 per cent from families of non-specialist office employees and 5.7 per cent from the families of specialists.

p A questionnaire conducted in the spring of 1966 among 100 leading members of the staff at the Urals Shoe Factory disclosed that 49 had come from workers’ families, 41 from peasant families and 10 from the families of office employees.

p The intelligentsia is growing faster than any other section of Soviet society due to the rapid technical progress and the rising cultural and technical level of the working people. In 1966 alone, the Soviet economy received over a million specialists, of whom 432,900 were university or college graduates and 685,000 had finished special secondary schools.

p Today the Soviet Union trains more engineering and technical personnel than any other country in the world.

p A huge number of young people are trained for scientific and cultural work, particularly for schools, medical institutions, libraries, children’s institutions, and so on.

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p Special mention should be made of the growth of scientific personnel. In 1914, tsarist Russia had a little more than 10,000 scientific workers, whereas today there are more than 712,000. Of course, the level of science in the U.S.S.R. cannot be measured exclusively by the number of scientists and scientific institutions in the country. It is determined primarily by the achievements of Soviet scientists, which are great indeed. The fact that Soviet science had ushered in a new epoch in the development of world civilisation, inaugurated the exploration of outer space, and vividly demonstrated the economic and technical might of the U.S.S.R., is common knowledge.

p The 1966-70 five-year plan provides for a further growth of scientific and cultural personnel, particularly in the previously less developed regions—Siberia, the Soviet Far East, Kazakhstan and the Central Asian republics. Siberia is becoming major scientific centre and the Siberian Division of the U.S.S.R. Academy of Sciences is functioning successfully in Novosibirsk.

p The improvement of the territorial distribution of scientific institutions and higher educational establishments has further boosted scientific and technical development in all the Union Republics. Soviet scientists are concentrating on vital scientific problems, accelerating to the maximum scientific and technical progress, speeding up the introduction of scientific achievements into national economy and ensuring high rates of growth of labour productivity.

p Communist construction gives the intellectuals wider scope for applying their knowledge and skill in designing new machines, the managing production, education and bringing up young builders of communist society, and promoting of culture, science, literature and art.

p Growth of Soviet society’s social homogeneity. All classes that had come to power at one time or another had tried to perpetuate their rule. The working class is the only class which does not pursue this goal. After winning power it guides the development of society towards the eradication of all class distinctions.

p At a congress of transport workers in 1921, Lenin spoke of a poster with the words “The workers and peasants will reign for ever”. The designers of the poster wanted to underline that the rule of workers and peasants was durable 36 and stable. But evidently they did not slop to think whether there would always be the classes of workers and peasants. Lenin explained that communism is a society which will have no classes or class distinctions and, consequently, it will have no working class.

p Of course, the erasure of class and social distinctions is a gradual and long process though an inevitable one. Characteristic of Soviet society in present-day conditions is its growing social homogeneity. Indeed, in contrast to the capitalist countries, where the rift between the ruling circles and the rest of the people is deepening, the distinctions between the Soviet working class, the collective-farm peasantry and the intelligentsia are gradually being obliterated. In the U.S.S.R. the obliteration of class and social distinctions is proceeding along two principal lines. One is connected with the development and the drawing together of collective-farm and state property, with the changing character of agricultural work which is now highly mechanised and with the eradication of the distinctions between the living standard and working conditions of the collective-farm peasantry and industrial workers.

p In this connection immense significance is attached to the gradual introduction of guaranteed monthly remuneration for labour at the collective farms and giving collective farmers equal pension rights with factory and office workers. The measures planned for 1966-70 will make it possible lo bring the standard of living of the rural and urban population closer to each other and at the same time to raise the general standard of living Ihroughout the country. The accent in this field is on housing programmes, town planning, the building of cultural establishments, the developmenl of public ulilities and large-scale electrification of the countryside.

p Another contributing factor is the gradual obliteration of the distinctions between manual and menial labour. In olher words, as regards the nature of their labour, industrial workers and collective farmers are drawing closer to specialists and office workers. The chief aspect of this process is that industrial workers and collective farmers are rising lo Ihe level of engineers, economists, scientists, cultural workers and other intellectuals.

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p Today there are many young workers in the Soviet Union who have fully mastered complex production techniques and, while continuing their studies, have reached the level of qualified engineers and technicians. The further growth of industrial efficiency, the introduction of comprehensive mechanisation and the installation of automatic lines and compulors will increase the number of young workers whose educational level is very close to that of engineers and technicians.

p When we speak of the obliteration of social distinctions, we cannot by-pass the fact that in the Soviet Union very many working people are moving from one social stratum to another. It has become commonplace for the children of industrial workers and collective farmers to become scientists or specialists in various fields of knowledge.

p To illustrate this point let us compare the social composition of students at institutions of higher learning in the U.S.S.R. and some capitalist countries.

p In the U.S.S.R. 58 per cent of the university and college students are children of industrial workers or peasants, while in the U.S.A., the Federal Republic of Germany and France the corresponding figures are f> per cent, 5.1 per cent and 5.2 per cent respectively.

p These figures describe the situation so eloquently that no special comment is required. Moreover, they convincingly show that Soviet society neither has nor can have a privileged section. Afler graduating from an institute of higher learning children of industrial workers and peasants occupy leading posts in the state apparatus and in the economy.

p It is easy for a Soviet citizen to change his social status, lie may be a rank-and-file worker or peasant today, and, after completing his education, an engineer, agronomist or scientist tomorrow.

p Many families provide striking examples of Ihe growing social homogeneity of Soviet society. Quite often a family consists of working people of various social groups, including manual and mental workers.

p The closer the workers, peasants, office workers and specialists draw together as regards the standard of living, education, way of life and public activity, the easier and more naturally they move from one social group to another.

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p Progress and the drawing together of the material and cultural standards of the working people lead to a further merging of all social groups.

p The consolidation of the political and ideological unity and social homogeneity of Soviet society is an essential and law-governed process.

p Communism will be a classless society. The social, economic and cultural distinctions between town and country will disappear. Mental and manual labour will merge organically.

p The intelligentsia will cease to be a special stratum and the cultural and professional level of the manual workers will rise to that of mental workers. All this will make it possible to put an end to the division of society into classes and secure complete social equality for all citizens.

p “Communism,” the Programme of the C.P.S.U. says, “is a classless social system with one form of public ownership of the means of production and full social equality of all members of society; under it, the all-round development of people will be accompanied by the growth of the productive forces through continuous progress of science and technology; all the springs of co-operative wealth will flow more abundantly, and the great principle ’From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs’ will be implemented.”  [38•* 

Communist construction raises the co-operation of the classes and social groups of Soviet society to a new level. Working shoulder to shoulder they create the material basis of communism, improve social relations and consolidate the moral, political and ideological unity of the people.