p It is very important in scientific and practical activities to take into account the dialectics of the individual and the universal. Only knowledge of the interconnection, the dialectics of the individual and the universal enables us to find our way in the maze of diverse processes of objective reality, to discover the laws of its development and apply them properly in practice. Moreover, knowledge of the universal and its connection with the particular forms the basis of scientific forecasts, makes it possible not only to disclose important features of known objects and phenomena, determine their main course, the direction of their development, but also to deduce the existence of other particular objects and processes so far unknown to man. Mendeleyev, for example, proceeding from the periodic law of chemical elements which revealed their most general properties, deduced the existence of four chemical elements unknown at that time. Later he described in detail the properties of three of chem. After a certain time these elements (gallium, scandium and germanium) were discovered.

p Strict account of the interaction of the individual and the universal is of great importance in social life, especially at the present time when mankind is making the great transition from capitalism to communism. The course of this transition largely depends on the correct solution to the question of the correlation between the general laws of the socialist revolution and national distinctions in one country or another. That is why such an acute worldwide ideological struggle is now being fought on this issue.

p It is clear from the experience of socialist construction in the USSR and other countries that the replacement of capitalism in all countries is a uniform revolutionary process 127 which has common, fundamentally important laws. In the first place, they are the leading role of the Marxist-Leninist party—the party and vanguard of the working class; the consolidation of the power of the working class in one form or another; the transformation of the economy and all social relations along socialist lines; and defence of the revolution against all attacks by class enemies.

p Present-day nationalists and revisionists ignore the general laws governing socialist development; they absolutise the individual, concrete national conditions of various countries. In contrast to the theory of scientific communism, they promote unscientific ideas of “national communism" which, in effect, is renunciation of the socialist revolution. These ideas are wholly repudiated by the entire course of the international working-class and communist movement.

p Dogmatists, on the other hand, ignore the need to take into account concrete historical conditions in a revolution. They claim that revolutions everywhere are made according to one and the same pattern, pre-cast once and for all. What makes this position harmful is that it belittles the creative initiative of the masses, undermines their faith in socialism and thereby greatly impedes the movement towards socialism.

p Marxism-Leninism, while pointing out that these general laws are indispensable for the transition to socialism, does not at all ignore the national distinctions of each country. On the contrary, it calls for the creative application of these laws to concrete historical conditions. No two countries have the same level of economic development, nor the same correlation of class forces, nor the same historical and national traditions. All this taken together determines the specific features and distinctions in the forms and methods of building socialism and the pace of socialist changes in various countries. It is a key task of Marxist parties to take into account the national features of each individual country and to find the forms and methods of applying the general laws of socialist revolution in it.

p Now that we have given an idea of the particular and shown that it is bound up with the universal, we shall go further into it and find out what are the particular objects, things and phenomena which man constantly encounters.

The category of content and form gives an idea of what a given object actually is.