p Socialism is characterised by domination of public ownership of the means of production and absence of exploitation. Consequently, it cannot rise in the womb of capitalism, like the capitalist system arose in feudal society.
p This does not mean, however, that socialism springs up from nothing. The prerequisites for socialism—large-scale machine production, a high degree of concentration and socialisation of labour, and a high level of science and technology—arise under capitalism. The social force destined to build socialism, namely the working class, which becomes steeled in the struggle against the bourgeoisie, organises its own party and masters scientific ideology, also forms in capitalist society.
p But these prerequisites alone are by no means all that is necessary for the building of socialism. Socialism does away with private ownership of the means of production, for ever abolishes exploitation and all forms of social, national and racial oppression. For this to happen a socialist revolution and then a period of transition from capitalism to socialism are necessary. In this period the working class, which has taken power in its hands together with all the working people, consciously and in a planned way builds the new, socialist society. Nationalisation, cooperation of agriculture, industrialisation and cultural revolution—these are the main elements of Lenin’s plan for socialist construction which has been successfully carried into life by the Soviet people under the guidance of the Communist Party. They have built up socialist production, and the basis and superstructure of socialism.
p The foundation of socialism as that of any other society, is the production of material wealth. Socialist production is a dialectical unity of the productive forces and relations of production. Socialist industry and agriculture, transport and communications, the construction industry, and also people working in these spheres of the national 218 economy, are the productive forces of socialist society.
p The technological foundation of the socialist economy consists of large-scale, constantly progressing machine industry,, based on the wide use of electricity and chemistry as well as atomic energy in some branches, and extensive mechanisation and partial automation. Heavy industry is the cornerstone of the socialist economy, the source of its might and wealth.,
p The people—workers, collective farmers, technicians and engineers—are the principal element of the productive forces of socialism. In Soviet times they have accumulated vast production experience; they are successfully operating the most diverse and intricate machines, and ensuring steady technical progress and the constant growth of labour productivity.
p Development of the productive forces—constant improvement of the means of production and professional skill—is a necessary requisite for the socialist economy’s progress.
p Socialist relations of production have arisen and are developing on the basis of socialism’s productive forces. These relations are founded on social socialist ownership of the means of production. There are two forms of social property: state, i.e., property belonging to the whole people represented by the socialist state, ana co-operative collective-farm, property, i.e., the property of individual collective farms or co-operatives. Both forms of property are socialist in character and ensure the accomplishment of the tasks of communist construction. State property is the dominant form in socialist society.
p Socialist ownership determines the production relations of fraternal cooperation and mutual assistance between workers. The greatest advantage of socialist production relations and their fundamental distinction from production relations in antagonistic class societies is that they preclude all exploitation of man by man.
p The socialist principle of distribution according to work has been applied on the basis of socialist ownership. “He who does not work, neither shall he eat.”
p Socialist society has done away for ever with the antagonistic contradiction between the social character of production and the private form of appropriation inherent in capitalism. In socialist society, relations of production 219 conform to the character of the productive forces. Under socialism production bears a strikingly pronounced social character. Millions of people work at large industrial and agricultural enterprises. But in contrast to capitalism where the fruits of the labour of millions are appropriated by a small group of exploiters, in socialist society the fruits of labour belong to the producers, the working people themselves. The dominance of social ownership, which constitutes the basis of socialist production relations, also determines the social nature of distribution. Three-quarters of the Soviet Union’s national income goes to satisfy the personal material and cultural requirements of the working people. The rest of the national income is used for expanding production, for defence purposes and for other social needs, i.e., it also belongs to the working people.
p Since they conform to the productive forces, socialist relations of production afford great scope for their advance and are a powerful factor in the expansion of production. -It is not the quest for profit, but the interest of all the working people in production’s progress that is the driving force behind the development of the socialist economy.
p The socialist relations of cooperation and mutual assistance are most clearly evident in socialist emulation, through which the working people, displaying mass labour heroism eliminate shortcomings in their work, assist those who lag behind and make them advance to the level of the leading workers.
p Socialist production relations also contain a powerful stimulus to economic progress in the form of material interest of the workers in the results of their labour. The better and more efficiently a worker, collective farmer or intellectual works, the greater is his remuneration. This also benefits society. Organic combination of personal and social interests in socialist society is an important factor in the development of production.
p Thanks to the socialist relations of production, the Soviet people, led by the Communist Party, have transformed backward Russia into a country with powerful industry and agriculture. In 1978, the production of pig iron in the Soviet Union was 26 times greater than in tsarist Russia in 1913; steel, nearly 40 times; oil, 56 times; coal, 25 times; and electricity, 600 times. Socialist agriculture 220 has also made good progress and can now fully satisfy the ever increasing requirements of the country in foodstuffs and raw materials.
p Socialist production relations ensure rapid economic growth in all the socialist countries. It is important to note that socialist production developed at a considerably faster rate than production in capitalist countries. In 1978, for example, socialist countries produced 23 times more industrial output than was produced on the same territory in 1937, while production in capitalist countries in that period rose by 6.2 times.
p Socialist production relations are the economic basis of socialism. The necessary condition for building up the economic basis of socialism is the establishment of the workingclass state. Having concentrated all the basic means of production in its hands,’the proletarian state organises the planned development of socialist relations of production in town and country.
p As distinct from the basis, some of the elements of the future socialist superstructure appear in the preceding capitalist formation. The Marxist-Leninist theory, the party of the working class, trade unions, proletarian morality, literature and art come into being during the domination of the capitalist basis and then turn into the superstructure of the socialist society. Moreover, this superstructure includes the greatest achievements in science, culture and philosophy of the preceding epochs. Yet all these elements do not make up the socialist superstructure as a totality of ideas and institutions. As a whole it is built only after the socialist basis is formed.
p The socialist ideology and its institutions—the socialist state, the Communist Party, the trade unions, the Komsomol, cultural and educational, defence and other organisations—make up the socialist superstructure.
p The progressive socialist basis also determines the nature of the socialist superstructure, its dynamic, revolutionary, transforming nature. Reflecting the actual course of history—mankind’s inexorable advance from capitalism to communism—the socialist superstructure promotes this movement with every means and strengthens and develops the socialist basis.
p The distinguishing features of the socialist society’s 221 superstructure are its unity, absence of antagonistic contradictions, all of which are due to the solidity of the socialist basis. Under socialism there are no classes which entertain and spread reactionary ideas and views, and the absolute majority of the working people are interested in the further development of socialist society, in its successful advance towards communism. They are doing everything possible to strengthen the economic basis of socialism, and broaden and improve its superstructure.
The socialist superstructure is truly of the people. It expresses and protects the interests of the working people and enjoys their unremitting backing. Hence its great dynamism and its enormous influence on the development of the basis and the entire progress of socialist society. It should be noted that as Soviet society advances towards communism, the importance of the superstructure, particularly of the Communist Party and the Soviet state, its influence on the development of the basis and society in general steadily increases. This is due to the vast scale of the tasks of cultural and economic development in the USSR, the active participation of ever increasing masses in public life and the heightening role of ideological education.
Notes