p The expansion and development of the socialist world will continue through more and more countries falling away from the capitalist system.

p In the course of the revolution socialist changes are intertwined with democratic, anti-imperialist changes. Lenin, developing and explaining his theory of the bourgeois-democratic Devolution growing over into the socialist revolution, maintained that in the epoch of imperialism there could be no “pure” revolutions unconnected with a democratic, anti-imperialist movement of the most diverse social groups. In these conditions the proletariat, the most consistent champion of the popular anti-imperialist aspirations, must head the democratic movement, unite the different classes taking part in it and lead them to the overthrow of the bourgeoisie and the victory of socialism.

p It is possible that the revolution in a number of countries may pass through two relatively independent stages: general democratic and socialist. This is how the revolution developed in the Soviet Union and some other socialist countries. In the Sovigt Union the February bourgeoisdemocratic revolution preceded the Great October Socialist Revolution. In a number of other socialist countries the revolution passed through an anti-imperialist, democratic phase before entering the socialist phase. The development of the revolution in some other countries where capitalism still holds sway may also proceed in this way.

p Powerful democratic movements developed after the Second World War: the national liberation movement and the struggle for the preservation of national sovereignty, the movement for peace and national security and the struggle for democracy in a number of capitalist countries. Contemporary democratic movements are marked by their exceptionally vast scale and organisation. They are spearheaded against imperialism, against the reactionary home and foreign policies of the monopolies.

p Of course, the struggle against the monopolies, for peace and democratic reforms is not socialist in character, it does not aim to abolish private property and the exploitation of man by man. But it undermines the rule of the monopolies 328 and facilitates the attainment of national independence and democracy, and thus creates the necessary conditions for undertaking the tasks ot the socialist revolution. “General democratic struggles against the monopolies,” says the CPSU Programme, “do not delay the socialist revolution but bring it nearer. The struggle for democracy is a component of the struggle for socialism. "  [328•* 

p The alliance of the working class with all the other working people, and above all with its main ally, the peasants, is being forged in the struggle against the capitalist monopolies, for democracy and peace. Uniting around the working class and its Marxist party, the working people—the peasants, white collar workers and a large number of intellectuals—are schooled in the struggle against reaction. In the course of it they become increasingly convinced that under capitalism they cannot get rid of monopoly oppression and gradually come to the conclusion that the abolition of capitalism is the only way out for them. This is how rightwing socialist, reformist illusions are dispelled and how the political army of the socialist revolution is built up.

It is clear from all this that today the mainstays of capitalism are destroyed not only in the course of the direct social revolution of the proletariat. Socialist revolutions, national liberation, anti-imperialist revolutions, national democratic revolutions, broad peasant movements, the people’s struggle against fascist and other tyrannical regimes, and the general democratic movement against national oppression—all merge into a single world revolutionary process which undermines and destroys capitalism.