p Contemporary opportunists distort the essence of the principle of peaceful coexistence. They consider that peaceful coexistence reconciles the contradictions between the socialist and capitalist systems and spells an end to the struggle between the socialist and bourgeois ideologies.

p In reality, however, peaceful coexistence does not at all signify reconciliation of the contradictions between socialism and capitalism and discontinuation of struggle between them. Peaceful coexistence and international detente concern relations between states. “Detente,” states the Report of the CPSU Central Committee to the 25th Congress of the CPSU, “does not in the slightest abolish, nor can it abolish or alter, the laws of the class struggle.”  [322•*  Moreover, peaceful coexistence is a special form of the class struggle between the two opposing world systems. It is a continuation of the struggle between the two opposing social systems, socialism and capitalism, on the international scene. It is an 323 economic, political and ideological struggle, but in no way a military one. It is waged by peaceful means, without weapons or wars, and without one state interfering in the domestic affairs of another.

p Peaceful coexistence is the basis for the economic competition between socialism and capitalism on an international scale. It is a struggle between socialism and capitalism for the trends, rates and scale of economic and cultural growth. In the course of this struggle people find out from their own experience which system can satisfy their needs more fully.

p The course and the results of the competition, of the struggle of the two opposing systems determine contemporary world development. It should be stressed that the principle of peaceful coexistence does not signify renunciation of political struggle, of the revolutionary class struggle of the proletariat against the bourgeoisie, renunciation of the working people’s struggle for liberation from capitalist exploitation, and of the fight of the oppressed peoples for national independence, against colonialism and neocolonialism.

p Peaceful coexistence of the two opposing systems also implies an irreconcilable ideological struggle, a battle between the socialist and bourgeois ideologies. Socialist ideology which expresses the interests of the working class, of all working people and proves the historical necessity of the proletariat’s struggle against the bourgeoisie, for socialism and communism, is the antithesis of bourgeois ideology. It is pitted against bourgeois ideology which expresses the interests of the imperialist reactionary forces, attempts to justify the existence of imperialism and is used as a weapon in the fight against peace, democracy and socialism. All means of ideological influence are exploited for these purposes. The chief of them is anti-communism, which mainly consists of slander on socialism and a falsified interpretation of the policies and aims of the communist parties and of Marxism-Leninism. A consistent and implacable struggle against bourgeois ideology is an indispensable condition for the victory of socialism in the peaceful competition with capitalism.

p Thus, the existence and development of the socialist system, which opposes more and more successfully the 324 capitalist system, creates increasingly favourable international conditions for the growth of the world revolutionary process.

The internal conditions too are now more favourable for the transition of more countries to socialism; this is due to the deepening of the general crisis of capitalism and the aggravation of all its intrinsic contradictions.