Law of Correspondence of Relations of Production to the Nature and Level of Development of the Productive Forces, an economic law reflecting the intrinsic causality and dependence between productive forces and relations of production which constitute two interlinked aspects of the mode of production. "In the social production of their existence, men inevitably enter into definite relations, which are independent of their will, namely relations of production appropriate to a given stage in the development of their material forces of production" (Karl Marx, A Contribution to the Critique of Political Economy, p. 20). As they develop, the productive forces cause changes in production relations, which, representing a social form of the development of the productive forces, in turn exercise a reverse influence, either accelerating or impeding the development of the productive forces. The nature of this influence depends entirely on whether the given production relations correspond to the nature and level of development of the productive forces. It is on the basis of the law of correspondence of production relations to the nature and level of the productive forces that one social system transforms into another, this change occurring in the form of a social revolution in societies that are divided into antagonistic classes. "At a certain stage of development,” Marx wrote, "the material productive forces of society come into conflict with the existing relations of production or— this merely expresses the same thing in legal terms—with the property relations within the framework of which they have operated hitherto. From forms of development of the productive forces these relations turn into their fetters. Then begins an era of social revolution" (Karl Marx, A Contribution to the Critique of Political Economy, p. 21). In capitalist society, a relative correspondence between production relations and the nature and level of the productive forces existed only in the early stages of its development. As a result of the development of the productive forces and the growing socialisation of capitalist production, production relations ceased to correspond to the nature and level of the development of the productive forces and began fettering their development. This contradiction became particularly acute under the conditions of imperialism, with the beginning of the general crisis of capitalism. Socialism opens up boundless vistas for the development of the productive forces. Public ownership of the means of production creates the objective conditions for consciously, in a planned way, eliminating any disparity that might arise between production relations and the productive forces. By organising economic management, the socialist state implements all the processes of society’s economic life and makes use of economic laws, including the law of correspondence of production relations to the nature and level of development of the productive forces. This correspondence between the two aspects of the communist mode of production is becoming increasingly stabilised as society advances towards communism. Especially favourable conditions for the operation of the law of correspondence of production relations to the nature and level of the productive forces come into being at the stage 191 of developed socialism. This finds expression in growing socialisation, concentration and centralisation of production, new organisational forms of management and improvement of the economic mechanism. Along with the development of the productive forces, the level of the socialisation of collective farm-and-cooperative property in agriculture is also growing, specialisation and concentration of production are developing on the basis of inter-sectoral cooperation through the pooling of the means of state and cooperative enterprises, and large inter-sectoral state-and-collective farm and other associations and enterprises are being formed (see Integration, Argo-Industrial, under Socialism; Inter-Farm Enterprises, Associations and Organisations in the USSR). In this way, the conditions are created for the two forms of socialist ownership of the means of production to draw closer together and socialist production relations are becoming more mature. Production relations realise themselves to a growing extent as a social form of development of the productive forces. With the emergence of the world socialist system, the operation of the law of correspondence of production relations to the nature and level of development of the productive forces goes beyond the boundaries of individual national economies. The tendency towards the internationalisation of the productive forces and the increasing similarity in the economic conditions in the socialist countries, as well as the mutually complementary nature of their economies, serve as an objective foundation for this process. Integration processes taking place in the world socialist economic system (see Integration, Economic Socialist) provide vast opportunities for making socialist production relations more mature, forming highly efficient national economic structures and elevating the productive forces to the level dictated by the scientific and technological revolution.