Communist Mode of Production. The Programme of the CPSU provides the 56 following definition of the essence of communism as a socio-economic formation: "Communism is a classless social system with one form of public ownership of the means of production and full social equality of all members of society; under it, the all-round development of people will be accompanied by the growth of the productive forces through continuous progress in science and technology; all the springs of co-operative wealth will flow more abundantly, and the great principle ’ From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs’ will be implemented. Communism is a highly organised society of free, socially conscious working people in which public self- government will be established, a society in which labour for the good of society will become the prime vital requirement of everyone, a necessity recognised by one and all, and the ability of each person will be employed to the greatest benefit of the people" (The Road to Communism, p. 509). The communist mode of production represents the productive forces and relations of production inherent in this formation in their unity. Its development takes place in the process of building socialism and communism as the initial and highest stages respectively of communist society. The common feature of the socialist and communist stages of production is fundamentally the fact that they are based on public ownership of the means of production (see Ownership). At both these stages, production is aimed at achieving the complete wellbeing and all-round development of every member of society. Direct producers work for themselves and for society; labour is free from exploitation. The principle of the universality of labour is proclaimed and realised. Relations between people are based on collectivity, comradely cooperation and mutual assistance between equal and free members of society. Public ownership of the means of production underlies a qualitatively new stage of socialisation of production, and gives it a directly social character (see Direct Social Production). Because of this fact, the development of production proceeds in a planned way, on the basis of scientific forecasting (see law of Planned, Balanced Development of the Economy). As well as common features, the socialist and communist stages of production have several significant particularities. The relatively lower maturity of production at the stage of socialism stems from the fact that socialism comes into being not on its own, adequate socio-economic base, but emerges from the depth of the capitalist system and retains the “birth-marks” of this system. Communism develops on its own base, and is therefore the highest stage of production maturity. Socialism creates conditions for an enormous production growth. But this growth does not by itself ensure the quantity of consumer goods sufficient for satisfying the many requirements of the comprehensively developed members of society. This objective is attained by creating the material and technical base of communism. Public ownership of the means of production under socialism assumes two forms: state socialist property (belonging to all the people) and collective farm-and- cooperative property; accordingly, there are two kinds of socialist enterprises. Following the triumph of communism, universal communist ownership of all the people of the means of production, and a universal communist type of enterprise will be established. Under socialism, labour has not yet become the prime inner requirement of all members of society; under communism, all members of society will feel an inner urge to work for the good of all the people, and labour for society will become the prime vital need of the people (see Communist Labour). Communist property of all the people is the foundation of the highest form of planned organisation of production, based on the highest stage of development of directly social labour. The commodity forms of production links that play a significant role under socialism will disappear from the historical scene once full communism is attained. In the first phase of communism, society distributes material goods in accordance with the quantity and quality of work expended by the worker in social production. The 57 second phase of communism will be characterised by the transition to the principle "From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs”. During the evolution of socialist relations of production into communist, the vestiges of class differences will also be totally eliminated. Socialism eliminates the contradiction between urban and rural life, between mental and physical labour. However, significant socio-economic distinctions between them still exist (see Essential Distinctions Between Mental and Physical Labour; Essential Distinctions Between Town and Country under Socialism). Under communism these differences will be eliminated. In terms of the level of productive forces, of the character of labour, and cultural and living standards, rural life will catch up with urban. This will be accompanied by a change in the appearance of cities. The building of communism will naturally merge mental and physical labour in the people’s production activities. Other social relations, as well as the ideological and political superstructure, will also undergo significant changes; the socio- economic differences between members of society will entirely disappear; the unity of social, collective and personal interests will lead to totally harmonious relations between the individual and society. The development of socialist statehood will gradually result in its transformation into communist social self-government. The differences between the socialist and communist stages of production are quite significant. But this is no reason to consider them as special, independent or relatively independent modes of production. The transition from socialism to communism is based on the development of the productive forces and the gradual evolution of socialist production relations into communist. Reaching the stage of developed socialism implies the creation of the objective conditions for the broad building of communism.