p By G. A. KOZLOV

p Karl Marx and Frederick Engels were the first to establish scientifically the objective necessity for the replacement of capitalism by communism. They made clear the main features of the communist society, gave some of the principal laws of its development, and showed the need for the two phases of communism. Marx and Engels demonstrated the inevitability of the victory of communism on the basis of their study of the general laws of the pre-socialist social formations. Thus the essential principles of the political economy of socialism were brought out in the works of Marx and Engels. But there was no experience of building socialism at the time they were written, and they could therefore contain only the most general scientific concept of the future society.

p When the proletarian revolution and the building of socialism became the immediate tasks of the day, the need arose to develop further the economic theory of socialism. Lenin was the first, after Marx and Engels, to work out the scientific foundations of the political economy of socialism, and thus to create a new section of political economy. The entire programme of building the socialist economy and the practical work of the Communist Party and the Soviet state have been based on these scientific foundations laid by Lenin.

p Half a century’s experience has fully confirmed the truth of Lenin’s theory which will continue to light the way of the people in their struggle to build communism.

p Marx and Engels showed that under capitalism the objective and subjective prerequisites are prepared for a new, socialist mode of production, which can however only come into existence 105 through socialist revolution and the setting up of a dictatorship of the proletariat.

p Lenin elucidated the question of the rise of the socialist mode of production, taking into account the whole history of capitalist development. He showed that imperialism is a stage when capitalism has become over-ripe, when history has led mankind to the verge of the creation of a new mode of production, i.e., that imperialism represents the eve of the socialist revolution. He discovered that under imperialism the entire world capitalist system is objectively prepared for the socialist revolution, but because of the extreme uncvcnness of the economic and political development of the capitalist countries, the simultaneous victory of socialism in all countries is impossible. In these conditions a socialist victory becomes possible and necessary at first in only one or a small number of countries, and then, later on, as a result of revolutions, in other countries breaking away from the capitalist system, up to the complete victory of the proletariat the world over.

p Lenin’s theory of socialist revolution defines the transition to socialism as an entire historical period of proletarian revolutions and national liberation movements. This theory has been proved correct in practice. Proletarian revolutions have already triumphed in a number of countries. A socialist world economic system has sprung up alongside the capitalist one. The coexistence of the countries belonging to these two systems is inevitable until those nations still under capitalism solve the question of their transition to socialism. The course of events over the last half century is graphic evidence of the force of Lenin’s historical prediction.

p The successful development of the world revolution has enriched the content of the present epoch, making it an epoch of the triumphant building of socialism and communism, of struggle between two diametrically opposed world economic systems, an epoch of transition from capitalism to socialism.

p Bourgeois economists often say that Marxists had no idea what society would be like after the revolution. This assertion is a mixture of slander, naivety and ignorance. The followers of Marx and Engels already knew what the main features of the new society that was to replace capitalism and which would be based on socialist property relations, would be like. However, the concrete forms of this new society, and the concrete ways of building it were not yet known. There were no books containing information about the concrete forms, rates and timing, etc., of socialist transformations. These things could only be learned by 106 summing up the practical experience of the people in the actual course of building socialism.

p Lenin skilfully developed the methodology of Marxism and applied it to the analysis and the solution of the tasks of the new epoch. He dealt with the objective nature of economic laws, the priority of production over consumption, the application of the principle of historicity, the unity of all the fields of economics and their interaction, the question of the objective and the subjective in social life, of the economic role of the state and the relation of economics to politics, and of what the proper subjects of economic investigation should be. All these questions were analysed by Lenin in solving the problems of building socialism.

p Through the consistent application and development of Marxist methodology, Lenin also elaborated the questions of the rise and advance of the socialist mode of production, and the paths of transition from capitalism to socialism. He advanced further and gave concrete content to the Marxist theory of the dictatorship of the proletariat, made a thorough study of production relations in the transition period, the class structure of the transitional economy, and the question of the alliance of the working class and the peasantry in the struggle for socialism and the complete elimination of exploitation. Lenin enlarged upon Marx’s ideas concerning the laws of the socialist mode of production, and showed how they arose and what their content is.

p Lenin also studied the questions of socialist property and its forms, the need for the planned development of the socialist economy, the introduction of a new socialist labour discipline, and universal people’s control and accounting in production. He revealed the significance of combining moral and material incentives, defined the role of the principle of material incentive and the need for commodity-money relations during the construction of socialism and communism. On this basis, Lenin described the chief methods of conducting a socialist economy, pointed out the need to implement the principle of self- sufficiency and economic accounting at enterprises, and indicated the various means of ensuring socialist accumulation.

p In addition, Lenin made clear the importance of the policies of the socialist state for securing the victory of socialism. He became the first person to elaborate a concrete plan of socialist construction.

p Half a century of experience has fully confirmed the accuracy of Lenin’s theory. The recognition of this theory by the international communist movement is contained in the 107 Declaration of the Meeting of the Communist and Workers’ Parties of the Socialist Countries (November 1957). All the points of this Declaration are based entirely on the Marxist theory of building socialism as developed by Lenin and on the historic experience of the USSR and the other countries now building socialism.

p The International Meeting of Communist and Workers’ Parties held in Moscow in 1969 declared in its Main Document: " Socialism has shown mankind the prospect of deliverance from imperialism. ... It has been proved that only socialism is capable of solving the fundamental problems facing mankind."

Lenin’s theory indicates the ways, means, and forms of socialist construction, and also arms the people with the only correct scientific theory of building socialism.