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p In Marxism-Leninism a place of paramount importance is occupied by the question of the general and specific features of the transition of different countries to socialism.

p The fundamental propositions on this question were worked out by Marx and Engels. Underlying their views was their dialectical understanding of the link between the general and the specific in social development, and their profound study of the concrete conditions of the existence of the capitalist system as a whole and in individual countries, and of the struggle of the working class. Dealing with the laws of the building of communism, Engels wrote as far back as 1845 that “there are different ways of attaining this goal. The English probably will begin with the establishment of individual colonies and let every person decide for himself whether to join or not; the French, on the contrary, will probably prepare and achieve communism on a national scale. It is difficult to say how the Germans will begin because in Germany the social movement is a new phenomenon.”  [122•* 

p Lenin enlarged on and concretised the teaching of the general and specific features of the transition to socialism. His point of departure was that since “the development of world history as a whole follows general laws it is by no means precluded, but, on the contrary, presumed, that certain periods of development may display peculiarities in either the form or the sequence of this development”.  [122•** 

p A large contribution towards elucidating the question of the general laws governing all countries taking the road of socialism and of the distinctive character of the forms of 123 transition to socialism in different countries was made by the Communist International. For instance, at its fifth extended plenary meeting in 1925 the Comintern Executive pointed out that an essential condition for the development of the Communist parties along the Leninist road was the “ability to apply the general principles of Leninism to the given concrete situation in one country or another”. The main “link” by which the entire chain may be pulled out, the decision of this plenary meeting stated, “cannot be the same in each country in view of the diversity of the socio-political situation that we observe today”.  [123•* 

p The 7th Congress of the Comintern, held in 1935, noted that in the basic political and tactical propositions of the world revolutionary movement the “point of departure for the decision of all questions must be the concrete conditions and features in each country" and that “a mechanical transfer of the experience of one country to another and the supplanting of a concrete Marxist analysis by a stereotype and by general formulas"  [123•**  should be avoided.

p At the present stage of development, which witnesses the existence of a socialist community and the expansion and deepening of the world revolutionary movement, the CPSU and other fraternal parties are furthering the theoretical and practical elaboration of the problem of the general and specific features of the transition to socialism. This problem was dealt with at length at the International Meetings of Communist and Workers’ Parties in 1957, 1960 and 1969.

p The Communist parties of different countries accentuate the need to take the general laws of the transition to socialism into account, and militate against neglect of these laws, overestimation of the peculiarities of the development of individual countries and the non-dialectical, unscientific counterposing of the specific to the general.

p Why is the communist movement giving so much of its attention to the correlation between the general and the specific during the transition to socialism? Because this is 124 the key problem in fashioning the strategy and tactics of the Communists in each country and on a global scale. A correct understanding of general laws and of the distinctions in economic, political and ideological issues of the transition period underlies the strategy and tactics of the world revolutionary movement, fruitful exchanges of experience and effective mutual assistance between individual contingents of the world communist movement.

p The following circumstances explain the existence of general laws governing the transition to socialism.

p 1. The countries accomplishing the transition to socialism belong to the same social type, i.e., have a similar class structure. In developed capitalist countries, for instance, the overwhelming majority of the population are wage workers, and the number of capitalists is steadily diminishing. In all these countries there is a tendency towards a sharp growth of the urban middle strata and a reduction of the number of peasants. This determines the similarity in the content and volume of social ties, the alignment of opposing class forces and the tasks of reshaping social relations.

p 2. The countries moving towards socialism have a similar economic and political system. The economic system and the social and political relations are founded on private ownership of the means of production.

p All these countries are characterised by the development of state-monopoly capitalism, by a steadily closer intertwining of the activities of various state and public institutions in the interests of the monopolies, and by attempts to integrate the working-class movement into the mechanism of the capitalist state. The political system of the developed capitalist countries represents some form of a bourgeois dictatorship. Even in countries with the broadest bourgeois freedoms and with a developed parliamentary system the working masses have little influence on the policy pursued by the ruling circles. Whatever political changes occur under the exploiting system the institutions of state remain in the hands of the bourgeoisie.

p In the developed capitalist countries the system of political parties tends to narrow down to or is already a twoparty system and, in many ways, this determines the political combinations, strategy and tactics of the class struggle. The massive working-class movement with strong 125 organisations is a salient common feature of the political scene in the developed capitalist countries.

p 3. The nature of the main contradictions which the socialist revolution is called upon to resolve is similar in the countries moving along the road of transition to socialism. These contradictions determine the largely similar alignment of class forces and the direction of the struggle waged by them. The main contradiction of capitalist society—the contradiction between the social nature of production and the private-capitalist form of appropriation—is growing increasingly more acute and objectively facilitates the unity of the broad masses. In the developed capitalist countries the contradiction between the monopolies and the majority of the nation is mounting, bringing the socialist revolution closer through the stage of democratic, anti-monopoly struggle.

p Let us now examine the principal laws inherent in all countries entering the road of socialism. These consist of three inter-related and indivisible groups of laws, governing, respectively, society’s political, economic and spiritual life.

p The general laws operating in the political sphere include: the leadership of the working masses by the working class and its Marxist-Leninist party; the consummation of the socialist revolution and the establishment of the proletarian dictatorship; the alliance of the working class with the bulk of the peasantry and other strata of working people; the abolition of national oppression and the establishment of equality and fraternal friendship between peoples; the defence of the gains of socialism against attack by external and internal enemies; proletarian internationalism.

p In the Manifesto of the Communist Party Marx and Engels wrote: “Of all the classes that stand face to face with the bourgeoisie today, the proletariat alone is a really revolutionary class.”  [125•*  The proletariat’s revolutionary nature is not only due to the fact that it is an exploited class interested in overthrowing capitalism. Other strata of the population— small peasants, intellectuals, artisans, urban poor and so on —likewise suffer under capitalism. They are antagonistic to and wage a struggle against the bourgeoisie. However, as distinct from other groups of the exploited population, the 126 proletariat is linked with the most modern, machine production, and with the development of machine production the working class itself grows and develops. The conditions of labour unite the working class, teach it to be disciplined and organised and mould it into the grave-digger of capitalism. Besides, all the preceding classes that had won supremacy had sought to consolidate their rule and impose on society conditions ensuring their mode of appropriation. The proletariat, on the other hand, has to destroy everything that has hitherto safeguarded and ensured private ownership.

p The proletariat’s strength lies not only in its revolutionary character, class consciousness, organisation and steady numerical growth but also in its community of vital interests with all working people. The masses therefore accept the leadership of the working class and this increases its might tenfold and makes its victory possible even in countries where it does not constitute the majority of the population.

p The socialist revolution is the condition ensuring the victory of the working class over the bourgeoisie. MarxismLeninism teaches that social revolution is the binding law of the change of socio-economic systems, for it is only by revolution that the old system can be swept away and replaced by a new formation, and power transferred from the hands of the outworn class into the hands of the progressive class. In this respect the socialist revolution does not differ from the feudal or the bourgeois revolution. However, as distinct from all other revolutions, the socialist revolution is the first that abolishes all exploiting classes, all exploitation of man by man. While in the period of the bourgeois revolution the feudal lords had, by modifying the form of exploitation, the possibility of adapting themselves to the new conditions and preserving part of their incomes, the bourgeoisie does not have that possibility because the socialist revolution puts an end to all exploitation of man by man. This changes the nature of the revolution, turning it into the most sweeping upheaval in history.

p The dictatorship of the proletariat is the basic content of the proletarian revolution. In Critique of the Gotha Programme Karl Marx wrote: “Between capitalist and communist society lies the period of the revolutionary transformation of the one into the other. Corresponding to this is 127 also a political transition period in which the state can be nothing but the revolutionary dictatorship of the proletariat."  [127•*  This thesis was repeatedly underscored by Lenin, who considered that without the dictatorship of the proletariat mankind could not be delivered from capitalist oppression, and that this would be a major issue in all countries.

p The establishment of the dictatorship of the proletariat is one of the cardinal laws of the transition from capitalism to socialism; without this dictatorship socialism cannot take shape and develop. Socialist relations of production do not mature in the bosom of capitalism. They can only be established through the expropriation of capitalist private property. The capitalists, naturally, will not voluntarily accept such expropriation.

p History teaches that having concentrated in its hands the factories, the railways, trade and finances, in fact, all the key positions in the economy, and possessing state power, including the machinery of coercion (the army, the police, jails), and the means of exercising ideological influence, the bourgeoisie tenaciously fights for the retention of its “ sacred" property, political rule and privileges in society. To defeat the exploiters the proletariat has to establish its own dictatorship, i.e., its own power resting on strength. The task before this power is to safeguard the gains of the working class against internal and external enemies. The successful fulfilment of this task is vital to the victory and existence of the new society and is one of the principal laws operating in all countries during the transition from capitalism to socialism.

p However, as Lenin said, the substance of the dictatorship of the proletariat is not solely or chiefly in violence. Its main essence is in the building of the new social system, in the ability of the working class to lead the other sections of the working people, above all the peasants, and secure the building of classless socialist society.

p Important general laws of the transition from capitalism to socialism include the eradication of national oppression, the establishment of equality and fraternal friendship between peoples, and the implementation of proletarian internationalism.

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p Marxism-Leninism teaches that the national question is part of the general question of the socialist revolution and the dictatorship of the proletariat. The appearance of nations is linked with the emergence of capitalism. With its private property and exploitation, capitalism inevitably intensifies national discord and the oppression of nationalities, and seeks to disunite the proletariat and other working masses of different countries. This fragments the proletariat, undermines its position and strengthens the position of the exploiting classes. The bourgeoisie fans nationalistic sentiments in order to dull the proletariat’s class consciousness. History has shown that nationalism is one of the most sinister weapons used by capitalism to safeguard its power.

p Socialist social relations cannot be set up without abolishing national oppression and establishing complete equality between all nations. The correct solution of the national question is of the utmost importance to the successful building of socialism. As was shown by the recent experience of Czechoslovakia, nationalism taken to extremes can, under certain conditions, serve as a medium for the dissemination of various ugly opportunist ideas and for the restoration of capitalism.

p Trust and friendship are the key prerequisites for the internationalist cohesion of the working people.

p During the transition of different countries from capitalism to socialism there are general features and laws not only in politics but also in the economic sphere. Socialism cannot be built without the successful solution of cardinal problems, namely, the abolition of capitalist ownership and the establishment of public ownership of the means of production, the gradual reorganisation of agriculture along socialist lines, and the planned development of the entire national economy.

p All the class social formations preceding the socialist system had one and the same foundation—private ownership of the means of production, which was preserved during and after the revolutions. The socialist revolution ushers in a radical change. It replaces one form of ownership (private) by another (public), which did not and could not develop in the preceding (bourgeois) society. “As soon as our Party is in possession of political power,” Engels wrote, 129 “it has simply to expropriate the big landed proprietors just like the manufacturers in industry.”  [129•* 

p This expropriation is indispensable because private ownership is the source of the exploitation of the majority by the minority, the source of the poverty of the masses, of piratical wars that enrich only the capitalists. It is imperative because private ownership of the basic implements and means of production is incompatible with the nature of the dictatorship of the proletariat, which signifies the rule of the proletariat over the bourgeoisie, i.e., of the majority over the minority.

p The replacement of private ownership by public ownership is, therefore, a key condition and law of the proletarian revolution and the building of socialism in all countries.

p Under capitalism industry achieves a high level of development and concentration. In some of the countries moving towards socialism the level of industrial development may be adequate for the creation of the material basis of socialism. Therefore, industrialisation as a decisive condition for the building of socialist society will not be a mandatory law in some industrially developed countries. Incomprehension of this proposition has led, for example, to serious errors in the development of Czechoslovakia’s economy, to the disproportionate enlargement of the country’s already large heavy industry to the detriment of other branches of the economy.

p In agriculture the situation is different. Fragmented peasant husbandries predominate numerically in most of the capitalist countries. After the victory of the proletarian revolution in any country, a. contradiction therefore arises between large-scale industry, which becomes socialist as a result of expropriation, and the petty peasant economy. This contradiction can only be resolved by switching the small peasant economy to large-scale socialist agriculture. “Our task relative to the small peasant,” Engels pointed out, “consists, in the first place in effecting a transition of his private enterprise and private possession to co-operative ones.”  [129•**  Lenin regarded co-operatives as expressing this 130 association of ownership. Under the dictatorship of the proletariat the co-operative is for the peasants the most accessible, understandable and profitable form of transition from scattered individual farms to large production associations— collective farms. On this point Lenin wrote that “given social ownership of the means of production, given the class victory of the proletariat over the bourgeoisie, the system of civilised co-operators is the system of socialism”.  [130•*  Of course, the task of paving the road to socialism for the peasants will be easier in countries where a large co-operative movement had been built up under capitalism.

p The founders of Marxism-Leninism indicated not only the ways of achieving the socialist reorganisation of agriculture but also the methods of accomplishing this task. They stressed that while the big landowners and industrialists could be expropriated, this was impermissible in the case of peasants and artisans. The methods here were concrete agitation and persuasion, otherwise the peasants might turn away from the working class, and this would irreparably damage the building of socialism and even lead to the fall of the proletarian dictatorship.

p In order to allow industry and agriculture to develop under socialism proportionately and purposefully, without anarchy, it is necessary to plan their development. No social system can exist without definite proportions in the distribution of labour and of the means of production. However, this proportionality is achieved in different ways. Under capitalism the constantly arising economic disproportions are surmounted temporarily only as a result of periodic crises of overproduction. Under socialism, where social ownership of the implements and means of production predominates, the necessary proportionality in economic development and the rational and economical utilisation of material resources and labour are achieved through planning. In the same way as capitalism is inconceivable without anarchy, competition and crises, so socialism is inconceivable without planned economic and cultural development. This is one of the fundamental laws of socialism.

p Ideology occupies an important place among the general laws of the transition of different countries from capitalism 131 to socialism. The founders of Marxism-Leninism showed that the socialist revolution is a revolution not only in sociopolitical and economic relations but in ideology as well. Concretely, this is manifested in the following.

p First, a process takes place in which the proletariat and other working masses become aware that they can deliver themselves from the chains of exploitation only by replacing the power of the bourgeoisie by the power of the working class, only by building a socialist society. The masses do not at once arrive at this conclusion. It is only through the influence of socialist ideas spread by the revolutionary party and by their own experience that the masses come round to seeing the need for socialism. With the triumph of socialism, the Marxist-Leninist ideology becomes predominant among the working people.

p Second, the revolution in ideology presupposes a change in people’s attitude towards labour and property, in their morals, habits, psychology and so forth. It signifies the liberation of people’s minds from the “birthmarks” of capitalism and the conversion of Marxism-Leninism into the general theoretical, scientific foundation of all forms of social consciousness.

p Third, a cultural revolution takes place and a numerous army of intellectuals devoted to the working class and to socialism is created. Under capitalism, by virtue of their position in society, most intellectuals are compelled to serve the bourgeoisie. After the proletarian dictatorship is set up there takes place, on the one hand, a differentiation of the intelligentsia during which its advanced segment is won over to the side of the working class and, on the other, the formation of a new, people’s, socialist intelligentsia that differs fundamentally from the old intelligentsia by its composition and its socio-political position. In some form, degree and volume all these problems have been or will be resolved in all countries during their transition from capitalism to socialism.

p Leadership by the Marxist-Leninist party is a mandatory condition of the victory of the socialist revolution and the building of communist society. No socio-political, economic or cultural changes can be effected without such a party, which knows and applies all the laws of the transition from capitalism to socialism.

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The general laws of the transition to socialism are thus founded on objective trends of social development, which are inherent in all countries regardless of their specifics. The application of these laws predetermines the success of the working-class movement which is fighting for socialism.