p Morality or ethics is the aggregate of standards or rules of behaviour in society, reflecting people’s ideas of justice and injustice, good and evil, honour and dishonour, etc. In contrast to legal standards, moral standards and rules are not recorded in laws, but are maintained by force of public opinion, customs, habits and education, by force of man’s conviction. They determine man’s attitude to society, to the family and other persons and other nations.

p Morality arose with the birth of human society. Society has always made definite demands on its members expressed in moral standards. These standards are not eternal. They change with society’s development under the influence of changes in production and above all in relations of production. In primitive society moral standards were equal for all members. With the appearance of classes they began to reflect the interests of one class or another. Morality acquired a class character. In a society divided into antagonistic classes there exist the morality of the exploiters and the morality of the exploited, the morality of the ruling class prevailing: under slavery, the morality of the slaveowners dominated; in feudal society, the morality of the 375 feudal lords, and in bourgeois society, the morality of the capitalists. They are opposed by the moral standards and principles of the slaves, peasants and proletarians.

p As an element of the superstructure, morality influences all aspects of life in society. Through the attitude of the people to work and property, it influences the economy. Communist morality, for example, by declaring socialist property sacred and inviolable, stands guard over the economic foundation of socialism. Morality also has a direct bearing on politics; any political action of a state receives moral appraisal, approval or disapproval from the members of society. It is natural that the people’s moral approval of a political action is an important factor making for its success. The success of the Soviet Union’s peace policy is largely due to the moral support of the peoples of all countries, all progressive mankind.

p At present, two moralities are pitted against each other in society: communist and bourgeois. What is their essence? What social problems do they solve? Bourgeois morality, which protects the interests of the imperialist bourgeoisie, plays a reactionary role in society’s development. Its main social aim is to preserve the keystone of capitalism, private property and exploitation.

p Bourgeois morality is conditioned by the dominance of private capitalist property which disunites people, turns them into enemies, rivals in the struggle for profit, the holy of holies of capitalism. In the quest for profit the capitalist tramples upon all standards of human morality; he is absolutely indifferent to the fate of the people around him, to the fate of his country and society as a whole. He places his selfish interests above everything else in the world. Extreme selfishness is the basic principle of bourgeois morality. “Man to man is a wolf”, “Everyone for himself and the devil take the hindmost"—these are the ethical rules proclaimed by the morality of bourgeois society. There could be no other rules in a society where private property holds sway, where money is the supreme moral measure, where everything—love and honour, the dignity and conscience of man—is bought and sold.

The spirit of individualism, self-interest, the thirst for profit, hostility and competition make up the essence of the ethics of capitalist society. The exploitation of man by man, 376 on which bourgeois society rests, is the grossest violation of ethics.