p The implacable struggle of the working class and the peasants against the defeated but resisting bourgeoisie is a major factor in social development in the transition period from capitalism to socialism. This struggle ultimately leads to the complete abolition of the social roots of the bourgeoisie as a class and to the establishment of a-society without exploitation of man by man.

p What means does the working class use to overcome the resistance of the bourgeoisie and what is its attitude to the use of force?

p Bourgeois ideologists portray the dictatorship of the proletariat as a reign of unrestricted terror and destruction and claim that the proletariat uses force, armed struggle, as the sole means of fighting the bourgeoisie. In reality, however, Marxism-Leninism, both in theory and in practice, proceeds from the principle that different methods, both forcible and peaceful, can be used to overcome the resistance of the bourgeoisie.

p The proletariat is the most humane class of our age. It strives to preserve and to enhance the achievements of human culture, to raise the level of production and to protect the principal productive force—man, the working people. That is why the proletariat is vitally interested in peaceful transition from capitalism to socialism. The peaceful way safeguards huge material values, saves many human lives and therefore, as Lenin wrote, is the most painless, easiest and most advantageous path for the people to follow.

p But whether the socialist revolution will develop peacefully or non-peacefully after the establishment of the dictatorship of the proletariat does not depend on the will of one or another class and even less so of an individual, but above all on the objective correlation of class forces in the given country, and particularly on the strength of the resistance of the bourgeoisie or on its willingness to make concessions.

p If the forces of the victorious working class and its allies are far superior to the forces of the bourgeoisie, it will realise that armed resistance is futile and will prefer, as Lenin said, to “save its heads”, and the revolution then can follow a peaceful path. If, on the other hand, the bourgeoisie does not submit to the demands of the new authority and resorts to arms in an attempt to reverse the course of history, the working class has no option other than to crush the resistance of the bourgeoisie by armed force, for in the circumstances this is the only thing it can do to safeguard its gains and the vital interests of all working people.

p In the Soviet Union, the first country of the socialist revolution, the bourgeoisie tried to regain its lost power, property and privileges by force of arms and enlisted the armed assistance of international capital. In these conditions the working class had to resort to force to smash the bourgeoisie. The suppression of the bourgeoisie by force of arms, the civil war, was a specific form of the class struggle in the Soviet Republic during the transition period.

p The experience of the European socialist countries, however, has shown that forcible suppression of the bourgeoisie is not always a necessary form of the class struggle in the transition period. There was no civil war in these countries because real power was on the side of the proletariat. The main positions of the reactionary forces in these countries had already been destroyed in the course of the liberation struggle against German fascism, while the remaining part of the bourgeoisie, not possessing sufficient strength, did not venture to offer armed resistance to the people’s government.

p The acuteness of the class struggle in the transition period differs not only from country to country, but also in one and the same country at different periods of its development The experience of the Soviet Union and other 257 socialist countries shows that as the dictatorship of the proletariat is consolidated and socialist construction makes headway, the balance of the class forces steadily changes in favour of socialism with the result that the resistance offered by the remnants of the hostile classes grows weaker. This is the general tendency in the class struggle in a country in the transition period from capitalism to socialism.

Acting on the principle that the class struggle can acquire diverse forms in the transition period, the proletariat and its Marxist party set themselves the aim of mastering all forms of class struggle and applying those which best correspond to the concrete situation, to the objective correlation of the class forces.