p Lenin gave the classical definition of classes. “Classes,” he wrote “ar_P largp groups of people differing frnm parh ^tVlpr ^Y <*" P1arp cupy in a historically determined system of social jroduction, by their relation (in most cases fixed and formulated in law^ to the means of production. by their role in the social organisation of jabour, and, consequently, by the dimensions of the share of social wealth of which they dispose and the mode of acquiring it. Classes are groups of people one ot whirh can appropriate the labour of anntlifr owing to the different- places they occupy in a definite system of social economy.”  [361•2 

p The fundamental trait of classes, specified by Lenin, is people’s relation to the means of production; the other teatures are determined by it.

p In fact, people’s place in the system of social production hinges on whether or not they are owners of the means of production. If they own the means of production, then it is their requirements that determine the objective of production, its size and the direction of development. If, on the other hand, they are deprived of the means of production, then they represent just a productive force, utilised by the owners of the means of labour for their own purposes. People’s role in the organisation of labour also depends on this: those who own the means of production are the masters and organisers of production, and, vice versa, those who are deprived of the means of production execute the will of others and play a subordinate role.

p The dependence of the form of appropriation and quantity of the material wealth produced on people’s relation to the means of production is no less evident. The owners of the means of production hold the lion’s share of the social wealth and give only a tiny portion of the goods produced to the direct producers-the working people.

p The possibility for one part of society to live at the expense of the other’s labour, is also conditioned by the relation to the means of production. By appropriating the means of production without which it is impossible to transform natural objects and phenomena into means of 363 subsistence, a specific group of individuals acquires the possibility of using these means to exploit those who have been deprived of them and become economically dependent on the former.

This definition of classes applies primarily to the classes of antagonistic formations, but this does not mean that it cannot be the basis for analysis of classes in socialist society. On the contrary, this definition helps us better to understand the qualitative changes through which the classes in socialist society have passed on their way to extinction as classes. The classes of socialist society-the working class and the collective-farm peasantry-do not posses some of the qualities specified by Lenin in his definition of classes. In particular, the classes of socialist society do not differ from each other by their relation to the means of production, since they both own them. The only difference is that the working class is related to state property or the property of the whole people, while the collective-farm r> easantry-to collective or group property in the means of production. However, both types of property are socialist. The working class and the collective-farm peasantry do not substantially differ from each other in the role they play in organising social production. In socialist society production is managed by representatives of both classes. Finally, the classes of socialist society do not greatly differ in either the amount of, or ways of acquiring, social wealth. The two classes receive their wages in amounts determined by the quality and quantity of social labour 364 expended. This shows that classes in a socialist society are not antagonistic. While having common interests in the vital issues of life and a common goal-the building of communist society-they maintain relations of comradely co-operation and mutual assistance. As they progress towards communism, the differences between them will be gradually eradicated till they vanish entirely.