p The people make history; they do not make it at will, but in accordance with the objective conditions, and, above all, with the mode of production which is historically determined. Since material production constantly develops from 228 the lower to the higher, the people’s role in the historical process also changes. Moreover, as mankind progressively develops, the people’s role in history rises. Marxism has established that the deeper the social transformations and the more important the tasks facing society, -the larger is the number of people taking part in the historical process and the greater is their activity. “Together with the thoroughness of the historical action,” Marx and Engels wrote, “the size of the mass whose action it is will... increase.”  [228•* 

p In slave-owning and feudal socio-economic formations the working people were deprived of the most elementary human rights; their creative powers had no outlet and, consequently, could not display themselves to the full. The slave-owners and feudal lords monopolised the state administration, politics, science and art, and kept the people in darkness and ignorance, dooming them to unbearable toil. The people’s activity in those days was relatively restricted and their disunited and spontaneous actions against the exploiters were ruthlessly suppressed. At that time, as Lenin noted, history could only crawl at a painfully slow pace.

p The material prerequisites for the emancipation of the working people from exploitation are created under capitalism. Large-scale machine production appears along with the proletariat, the class capable of leading the people in the fight against capitalism and achieving the victory of socialism. This class creates the Communist party which is guided by the theory of Marxism-Leninism and heads the revolutionary struggle of the working people. For these reasons the people play a bigger part in life under capitalism. Millions upon millions of working people are drawn into active political struggle and this considerably accelerates the course of history.

p The working people are the main driving force in the socialist revolution. In contrast to preceding revolutions in which the people simply destroyed the old social system, in the course of the socialist revolution they not only demolish the old, capitalist society, but also create the new, socialist society.

p The activity of the people and their role in social affairs are especially great under socialism. Socialism is consistent with the fundamental interests of the people, and that is why they are vitally concerned with building it. “Living, creative socialism is the product of. the masses themselves,” Lenin wrote.  [229•*  Greater activity of the people in building a new life is a law of socialist development. This has been strikingly displayed in the Soviet Union, the first country in which socialism triumphed.

p The role of the people in socialist conditions greatly increases mainly due to the very nature of the socialist system, the dominance of socialist production relations. Socialist ownership, which is now firmly established in socialist countries, unites, welds together all sections of the working people and ensures their active participation in building socialism and communism.

p Only socialism promotes the harmonious combination of social and personal interests and stimulates the material interest of the working people in the results of their labour. In capitalist society the working people produce the greatest material and spiritual values, and are the main participants in all progressive social movements but the great part of the fruits of their labour, their struggle and efforts are appropriated by a handful of exploiters. The situation is different in socialist society: here the workers are vitally interested in strengthening and developing the socialist system because it is the basis of their political freedom, material wellbeing and cultural progress. The people are aware that they work for themselves, for their own society, and this is the source of their enthusiasm for work, stimulates their initiative, pioneering endeavours and mass socialist emulation.

p The people’s role under socialism increases also because of the immensity of the tasks confronting them in building communism. The victory of communism will signify a gigantic leap in society’s development, it will be a result of vast, unparalleled changes in all spheres of social life; and all this is absolutely inconceivable without the energetic participation of the millions of working people. The Soviet people are renowned for their heroism and labour exploits. 230 In the most difficult conditions they secured the world historic victory of socialism. They safeguarded the gains of socialism and saved humanity from enslavement in the titanic struggle against the nazi invaders in the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945. They rehabilitated the war-ruined economy, made further progress in their creative labour, built a developed socialist society and are now building communism.

p The Soviet people feel the nearness of communism whose shoots are already sprouting in their life and work as a result of their owri efforts and are aware that the time when communism triumphs depends on them, on their contribution to the great cause of communist construction. Hence their colossal labour and political enthusiasm which has found its reflection in the nation-wide movement for the fulfilment of the great programme of communist construction drawn up by the CPSU.

p Leadership by the Communist Party of the Soviet Union is a primary factor of the people’s enhancing role in socialist society. The Party equips the Soviet people with a scientific policy which is based on objective laws and takes into account the requirements of society’s material life. Acting on the basis of the current production level, of the real possibilities, the Party sets the people further tasks and indicates the ways and means of accomplishing them. The Party educates the people constantly, stimulates their activities and seeks to enlist them on an ever wider scale in building the new society.

The masses are the decisive political force of our age. Proof of this are the unprecedented successes of the Soviet people who are building communism, the enormous creative enthusiasm of the peoples of other socialist countries who are building socialism, the vigorous participation of the working people in capitalist states in the struggle for democracy, social progress and socialism, and the further deepening of the national liberation movement of the peoples in the developing countries. In our day the labouring masses are ardent, consistent champions of world peace. Their struggle for peace seriously impedes the efforts of the imperialist forces to unleash another world war.