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p Lenin always proceeded from the fact that socialism docs not come into being simply because people want it, but inevitably, according to objective economic laws that are independent of the will and consciousness of man. Imperialism is a stage in the development of capitalist society which must inevitably be followed by socialism. Imperialism represents such a high level in the development of the social character of production that the immediate possibility of socialising the most vital means of production is created.

p Lenin sharply criticised the Menshcviks and various bourgeois “theoreticians” who said that the Bolsheviks wished arbitrarily to set up new forms of social relations. He wrote that people who thought this "do not understand . . . what imperialism is, what capitalist monopoly is, what the state is, and what revolutionary democracy is. For anyone who understands this is bound to admit that there can be no advance except towards socialism."  [107•1 

p The objective laws of social development are such that it is not possible for the socialist economic system to come into being in the womb of capitalism—becausc of the difference in type between socialist and capitalist property. This was shown by Marx and Kngels.

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p Lenin demonstrated that the introduction of socialist relations in the economy is one of the first measures of the proletarian revolution, which, unlike the bourgeois revolution, inherits no ready-= made forms of new relations as a legacy from the old system. It has to create them itself. These new forms of relations do not arise in the natural course of events, but are built by the dictatorship of the proletariat in the course of class struggle. Establishing the dictatorship of the proletariat is a sine qua non in the creation of socialist relations.

p The new socialist mode of production comes into existence only with the revolutionary elimination of capitalist monopoly of the means of production, and the passing of the implements and means of production into the hands of the working people. Socialist property cannot arise in any other way. And without socialist property it is obviously impossible to build a new socialist society—this can begin only with the appearance of the new property relations. No new economic laws can arise except on a new economic basis, and no new policies can lead to the construction of socialism except on the basis of new property relations.

p Lenin brought out the fact that the property question is the main question in the transition from capitalism to socialism. He said at the Ninth Congress of the Russian Communist Party ( Bolsheviks) that property relations are the basis of class domination. Working-class domination is expressed in the abolition of landownership and capitalist property.

p Lenin explained the socialist nationalisation of the most vital means of production as a measure objectively prepared for by the entire development of capitalism. Proceeding from the specific features of imperialism that he had discovered, he indicated the correct methods and order for the socialising of the means of production: in particular, the nationalising of the big monopolies, trusts and syndicates as the most important step in the direction of socialism.

p Again, by taking into account the experience of the Paris Commune, which Marx had summarised, and the specific features of imperialism as the period of the domination of finance capital, Lenin advanced the need, as one of the first measures of the victorious proletariat, to nationalise the banks.

p Lenin was also the first to point out the possibility of nationalising the most important means of production in the course of the development and deepening of the bourgeois-democratic revolution, and the great significance of this for the development 109 of the socialist revolution. He advanced the idea even before the October Revolution that such a measure would lead to the development of the bourgeois-democratic revolution into the socialist one.

p In order to undermine the economic power of the capitalists, to eliminate their monopoly position in the economic life of the country and to build socialism, it is absolutely indispensable for the "commanding heights" of the economy to become the property of the people.

p Right-wing socialists try in vain to erase the radical difference between the capitalist and socialist systems. They claim that socialism is now being built in some of those countries where the bourgeoisie still retains power. But in fact, of course, the power of the bourgeoisie always rests on the domination of capitalist property relations.

p With bourgeois nationalisation, the means of production pass into the collective possession of the capitalist class as a whole. That is why the ruling classes of imperialist states tolerate the nationalisation of some industries. But socialist nationalisation of the means of production differs radically from this.

p Presenting the different forms of state-monopoly capitalism as socialism is an old trick of revisionists and all and sundry opportunists, who are the open apologists of capitalism. Revisionists do not stop at this, however. While ascribing to state- monopoly property a socialist character, they at the same time deny the socialist character of state property in the socialist countries, and demand the transfer of state socialist factories into the hands of individual collectives. But they are not original in this; they rather repeat what all sorts of anarcho-syndicalists have advanced in their time and against whom Lenin called upon us to wage a resolute struggle: "Any direct or indirect legalisation of the rights of ownership of the workers of any given factory or any given trade on their particular production, or of their right to weaken or impede the orders of the state authority, is a flagrant distortion of the basic principles of Soviet power and a complete rejection of socialism."  [109•1 

p The necessity for genuine public ownership is dictated by the objective state of development of the productive forces. The whole economic point of the socialist revolution is, before anything else, to replace private ownership by social ownership.

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p Socialist property comes into being as a result of the operation of objective economic laws. The new form of property and the new relations of production in their turn also give rise to new economic laws which determine the entire path of progress of the new society.

p Opportunist elements have always denied, and still deny, the operation of objective economic laws under socialism, saying that the progress of such a society liberates it from the power of objective laws since its economy is directed only by the will of man. For instance, Hilferding, Bukharin and others declared at one time or another that political economy concerns itself only with spontaneously developing economies, and that, consequently, there is no place for political economy under socialism. Denying the existence of objective economic laws under socialism and ignoring the political economy of socialism can completely mislead the proletariat in its economic policy, divorce it from objective reality and lead to all manner of false, subjective, adventurist steps, i.e., to the unleashing of spontaneity. Lenin unreservedly condemned this. He was guided by the idea that the progress of any mode of production—and this, therefore, includes socialism—is determined by objective laws specific to the given mode of production.

p Even at the time of his struggle against the Narodniks, Lenin held that Marx’s greatest achievement was his discovery of socio-economic formations. Marx combined in the concept "socio-= economic formation" phenomena specific to different countries but having in common certain vital features reflecting a definite mode of production, despite the different concrete economic conditions of this or that country. Every socio-economic formation develops with the objective force of necessity in the direction dictated by the essence of the given mode of production, and not by the force of chance circumstance.

p Lenin proved that objective economic laws operate under socialism, too. He said many times that socialism could not be “introduced”, that it developed only on the basis of definite objective conditions, and that Marxism meant the application of the theory of development in its most consistent form not only to capitalism but also "to the future development of future com- munism".  [110•1 

p Lenin thus shows that to define political economy as the 111 science of the development of spontaneous commodity production means deviating from the scientific definition that has been given by Engcls.

p Since the progress of socialism is determined by objective laws, it follows that there exists under socialism, as under any formation, a basic economic law defining the main direction of its movement and progress, and expressing the essence of the socialist mode of production. Lenin defined this essence in the following words:

p "For the first time after centuries of working for others, of forced labour for the exploiter, it has become possible to work for oneself and moreover to employ all the achievements of modern technology and culture in one’s work."  [111•1 

p The purpose of socialist production is not arbitrary, but springs directly from the new character of social relations. The people, as the masters of socialist enterprises, cannot be guided in their activities by the pursuit of profit (this applies even more so to the activities of private individuals). The people rather subordinate production to an entirely new purpose, viz., that of meeting the needs of the whole of society. Profit is only one of the means of achieving this aim. The question of the objective tasks to which socialist production is geared, was discussed by Lenin from all sides along the lines of the teachings of Marx and Engels. Engels wrote that socialist production is designed to meet "the needs of the community and of each individual".  [111•2 

p In Lenin’s Draft Programme of the Party (prepared for the Second Congress of the Party), the purpose of the socialist organisation of production was given as that of guaranteeing the full well-being and free, all-round development of all the members of society.  [111•3  This formula was introduced fully into the Party Programme adopted by the Eighth Congress of the Party. In a number of his speeches after the October Revolution, Lenin pointed out that the progress of science and technology under socialism was geared to the task of making the life of the working people easier and better.

p This task is solved by developing the productive forces of society on the basis of collective labour, that is, of work for oneself, in this way securing the steady growth and improvement of production. In essence, Lenin put forward all the points of 112 the basic economic law of socialism, that is, the law defining the principal line of progress of the socialist mode of production.

Can one really say that work for oneself only represents a subjective wish, the aspiration of the individual, when it is quite clear that collective work for oneself is objectively conditioned by the entire process of social production, engendered by the objective conditions of society’s progress and is, therefore, an objective law. It is also indisputable that such work for oneself, work aimed at improving the welfare of the people, can attain its aim only if it constantly strives to increase its effectiveness. Again, no matter what specific features individual socialist countries may have, and no matter what their different economic levels, the progress of all the socialist countries is directly subordinated to but one and the same task, the full satisfaction of the needs of the people. It is in this that the essence of the new socio-economic formation, unlike capitalism, finds its fullest expression.

p The aim of production under socialism is radically different from that of capitalist production and follows from the social ownership of the means of production. The realisation of this aim, and the extent to which it is fulfilled, depend on the radical changes taking place first of all in the production process itself, in the relations among people taking part in production, and in the development of the productive forces.

p Public ownership of the means of production was introduced in Russia after the victory of the October Socialist Revolution, creating the necessary conditions for united work within the framework of the whole of society. Labour has assumed a new character since it has been freed from exploitation. Lenin was the first in economic science to deal with the question of the specific character of socialist labour. Marx and Engels gave the general definition of labour under socialism as social labour free from exploitation and organised in a planned way. This definition was enlarged upon by Lenin. He showed that the new relations that arise in the labour process are those of comradely co-= operation, subject only to the common interest.

p New property relations, and the elimination of the exploitation of man by man, meant the appearance of a new, socialist labour discipline. Lenin made clear the main characteristics of socialist labour discipline, and its distinction in principle from that of any exploiting society. He defined it as "the discipline of 113 class-conscious and united working people, who know no yoke and no authority except the authority of their own unity, of their own, more class-conscious, bold, solid, revolutionary and steadfast vanguard".  [113•1  Socialist labour discipline is thus a discipline of comradeship subordinated to the interests of a collective.

p Lenin showed that socialist relations of production find their best expression in socialist emulation. Socialist labour discipline is based on a conscious attitude to work. Its strengthening therefore requires a persistent struggle against the view that work is only one’s own private business. Lenin saw all the difficulties of introducing the new labour discipline. But he also saw the inevitability of its consolidation.

p Only on the basis of public ownership and the elimination of exploitation does the possibility arise for workers to show genuine creative initiative. Socialism not only does not curtail competitiveness but, on the contrary, it is the first social system to involve the widest sections of the people in emulation.

p Lenin recognised the early buds of the conscious attitude towards work in the first communist subbotniks and these buds have broken into rich blossom under socialism. Lenin’s prediction concerning the growth of socialist emulation was wholly based on his belief that there were tremendous, truly inexhaustible forces latent in the people. He made an exhaustive analysis of the significance of socialist emulation and showed it to be a stimulus to the most effective application of available resources, and that it enabled the best possible implementation of the general principles of socialist construction under local conditions. Lenin advanced these ideas in the atmosphere prevailing at the beginning of the revolution. But they have an even greater meaning in present-day conditions. Today, in the period of the gradual transition to communism in the USSR, none of the most burning questions of economic development can be solved without the widest and most active participation of the people. Lenin saw the main task of the Party in clearing the way for the initiative of the workers.

p Both moral and material incentives are necessary in the promotion of socialist emulation. The material incentive, by securing personal interest in increasing the efficiency of socialist labour, was regarded by Lenin as an essential element in the new relations of production.

p But the establishment of socialist labour discipline also calls, 114 as Lenin pointed out, for the use of compulsion in dealing with the die-hards who cling to the old customs of giving the state as little as possible while taking more for themselves. However, in the course of the transition to communism, the method of direct state compulsion gradually develops into that of moral persuasion. This process is one aspect of the evolution of the communist attitude to work.

p Lenin considered it necessary to direct all the activities of the Party to the promotion of a high level of social consciousness among the working people, so that they become more and more accustomed to doing their public duty without the need for any special apparatus of compulsion. "Communism is the highest stage in the development of socialism, when people work because they realise the necessity of working for the common good,"  [114•1  he wrote.

p "Communist labour in the narrower and stricter sense of the term is labour performed gratis for the benefit of society, labour performed not as a definite duty, not for the purpose of obtaining a right to certain products, not according to previously established and legally fixed quotas, but voluntary labour, irrespective of quotas; it is labour performed without expectation of reward, without reward as a condition, labour performed because it has become a habit to work for the common good, and because of a conscious realisation (that has become a habit) of the necessity of working for the common good—labour as the requirement of a healthy organism."  [114•2 

Lenin always held the firm belief that the socialist system of incentives is much more effective than the capitalist system of free enterprise, that is, competition and exploitation, inevitably crushing and ruining the greater part of the working people. Under capitalism, the success of the few is, and can only be, based on the sufferings of the vast majority.