p The CPSU has always allotted a major place in its activity to ideological work. This work has become especially 366 important now, in the period of communist construction. The realisation of the programme of communist construction, the creation of the material and technical base of communism, the further consolidation and strengthening of the Soviet Union’s economic might, and attainment of an abundance of material and spiritual wealth directly depend on the further development of the people’s consciousness. That is why it is vitally important for each Soviet citizen to master the fundamentals of Marxism-Leninism, profoundly assimilate the communist world outlook and fully comprehend the policy of the Party.

p The Soviet socialist state draws its strength from the consciousness of the masses. And today, when communist construction is underway in the USSR, when methods of persuasion and education are playing an increasing role in the life of Soviet society, it is most important to raise the consciousness of the people to a still higher level. The greater the consciousness of the people, the deeper their awareness of the tasks facing them and the higher their activity in the life of socialist society, the faster is their progress towards communism.

p Greater consciousness of the people strengthens the ideological and political unity of the workers, collective farmers and the intelligentsia and promotes their gradual fusion into a monolithic collective of the working people of communist society.

p In order to carry out the grandiose programme of communist construction it is necessary decisively to improve educational work and enhance communist consciousness and activity of Soviet people.

p The CPSU Programme holds that the paramount tasks in the ideological field in the present period are “to educate all working people in a spirit of ideological integrity and devotion to communism, and cultivate in them a communist attitude to labour and the social economy; to eliminate completely the survivals of bourgeois views and morals; to ensure the all-round, harmonious development of the individual; to create a truly rich spiritual culture”.  [366•* 

p Ideological education also necessitates the popularisation of the great advantages of socialism and communism 367 over the capitalist system. Today when the problems of the ideological confrontation of the two social systems, the problems of ideological struggle are moving more and more into the forefront, the truth about socialism is a mighty weapon in this struggle.

p Increasing significance is being attached to the struggle against bourgeois ideology, reformism and revisionism. The development of economic, scientific, technical and cultural cooperation between countries with different social systems stimulated by detente has changed and complicated certain conditions of the struggle against bourgeois ideology. In the first place this is due to the broadening of cultural and scientific exchange. The opponents of communism endeavour to take advantage of this circumstance to intensify hostile propaganda. Naturally, the USSR cannot tolerate such a development. Advocating the promotion of scientific and cultural exchange the USSR at the same time expects that due respect is shown to Soviet laws and customs, and condemns any attempt to interfere in its internal affairs. It maintains that exchange of information should foster mutual understanding between peoples, and widen the exchange of experience and cultural values.

p Ideological education is a mighty factor in the struggle for communism, a most important means of communist education of the working people. But it can fulfil its lofty mission only if it maintains the closest bonds with life, with the practice of communist construction. Only if educational work is closely connected with life, production and the practical experience of the people, can it produce positive results and play its part in moulding a new man, an active builder of communist society. “Nothing adds so much to the stature of the individual as a constructive attitude to life and a conscious approach to one’s duty to society, when matching words and deeds becomes a rule of daily behaviour, "  [367•*  says the Report of the CPSU Central Committee to the 25th CPSU Congress.

p In order to educate highly-principled, politically conscious builders of communist society, it is not enough to bring communist ideas home to the people. What is most 368 important is that the masses should be able to translate them into reality, to assimilate them in the form of concrete tasks of communist construction. It is important that each worker, collective farmer, intellectual, each Soviet person should learn to work in a communist manner, raise his labour productivity, display concern for the preservation of public property, uphold and spread advanced experience and introduce new technology. It is only in work for the benefit of society that one can become a true communist; therefore the fostering of a communist attitude to labour and the desire of each Soviet citizen to make a personal contribution to the great cause of communist construction is a key objective of ideological work.

p Concrete deeds are the criterion of the political education. Communist integrity is an alloy of knowledge, convictions and practical deeds. Today’s scope of socialist emulation is the result of the fusion of ideological, political and labour education.

p The purpose oT the Party’s ideological work is to create such a moral atmosphere in Soviet society that would contribute to the affirmation of respect and care for man, honesty, exactingness towards oneself and other people, and trust combined with strict responsibility and the spirit of comradeship in all walks of social life. The Party wants all Soviet people to live better and work without a hitch.

p Today the CPSU and the Soviet Government attach special importance to the communist education of the younger generation. One of the key tasks is to bring it up in the spirit of the revolutionary, labour and combat traditions of the Soviet people. It was noted at the 25th CPSU Congress that the way to make education more profound was to adopt a complex approach to the whole matter of education, i.e., to ensure a well-integrated ideological, political, labour and moral education which would take the specific features of various groups of people into account.

Soviet working people are genuinely interested in Marxist-Leninist theory and are anxious to master it. And ideological education is designed to help them in this.