Exploitation of Man by Man, gratuitous appropriation by the class of owners of the means of production of the surplus and at times of a part of the necessary labour of the direct producers. The exploitation of man by man arose as a result of the appearance of surplus product, private ownership of the means of production and the division of society into antagonistic classes. Exploitation is inherent in all socioeconomic formations founded on private ownership of the means of production— the slave-owning system, feudalism, and capitalism. The character of the given society’s dominant relations of production determines the corresponding forms of exploitation. Exploitation in the slave-owning system was based on the slave-owners’ total ownership of the means of production and of the toilers—the slaves—themselves; the feudal form of exploitation was based on the feudal lords’ ownership of the land and partial ownership of the peasant serfs; capitalist exploitation is based on the capitalists’ ownership of the means of production and on the hired labour of nominally free workers. Capitalism is the last exploiting system in human history. After the triumph of the socialist revolution, when capitalist ownership of the means of production is abolished and social ownership is established, the exploiting classes are liquidated and all exploitation of man by man is eliminated.