p The socialist basis differs radically from the previous, antagonistic bases. In contrast to the antagonistic bases, which reposed on private ownership of the means of production and the exploitation of man by man, the socialist basis reposes on social ownership of the means of production, which excludes appropriation of the labour of another.

p The specific features of the socialist basis inevitably condition the qualitative difference of the socialist superstructure from those of the exploiter formations. The socialist superstructure expresses and safeguards not the exploiters’ interests but those of all the working people.

p The socialist basis, which is diametrically opposite in nature to the previous antagonistic bases, cannot arise within the old, capitalist 357 society. It only begins to form during a socialist revolution that wrests power from the exploiting class and transforms private ownership of the means of production into social property. During the transition from the capitalist to the socialist system, a socialist transformation of the basis does not, therefore, precede a political revolution but rather, on the contrary, the latter must precede the economy’s transformation. The proletariat should begin to transform society once it gains political power and then proceed, in the course of the revolution, using this power for the economic transformation of society’s basis.

p On what, however, does the political power of the proletariat, gained through revolution, rest during the period preceding the creation of the socialist basis? It rests on socialist production relations, which are formed immediately after the seizure of power, as well as on the process of destroying and transforming the old basis. After the working class has seized power, it immediately starts transforming private capitalist enterprises into socialist ones and thus gradually deprives the bourgeoisie of its economic basis. No revolutionary workers’ government is able to stay in power for long if it does not immediately decide to start the socialist transformation of industry. This means that the dictatorship of the proletariat may only be established once capitalist production relations have been destroyed and the socialist basis created.

p Another specific feature of the socialist superstructure is that the old state apparatus, the chief 358 element of the superstructure, is not merely improved, as was the case when previous economic formations emerged, but is completely destroyed and replaced by a new, proletarian state apparatus, designed not to oppress the working people but to safeguard and satisfy to the maximum the latter’s interests and re-educate them in the socialist spirit.

The role of the socialist superstructure is not confined to its participation in transforming the capitalist basis into a socialist one. In_ contrast to the superstructure of capitalist society, whose Involvement in the economic sphere is strictly limited, the socialist superstructure actively intervenes in all the areas of the society’s^ economy. Socialist ownership of the means of production” makes the socialist superstructure, through the socialist state, the main distributor of the means of production and the nation-wide manager of production processes. This means that, apart from its political functions, the socialist superstructure performs administrative and economic functions as well.