Period of Transition from Capitalism to Socialism, a special historical period in which capitalist society is transformed into socialist society in a revolutionary way. It begins with the establishment of the dictatorship of the proletariat and ends with the complete triumph of socialism and the building of the socialist base. "Between capitalist and communist society,” wrote Marx, "lies the period of the revolutionary transformation of the one into the other. Corresponding to this is also a political transition period in which the state can be nothing but the revolutionary dictatorship of the proletariat" (Karl Marx and Frederick Engels, Selected Works in three volumes, Vol. 3, p. 26). The need for the period of transition from capitalism to socialism stems from the specific character* of socialist relations of production as they emerge and develop. Bourgeois and socialist economies are in essence diametrically opposed, as they are based on two radically different types of ownership. Socialism cannot therefore emerge spontaneously or in an evolutionary way in the womb of the capitalist system. The socialist rebuilding of society begins with the smashing of the old state machinery, i. e., the replacement of the capitalist state which implements the dictatorship of the bourgeoisie by the state of the dictatorship of the proletariat. The transition period is marked by the multistructural nature of the economy, i. e., the existence of different types of social economy. The basic structures, common to all countries, are the socialist, small-scale commodity and capitalist economic structures (see Structure, Economic). The leading role is played by the socialist structure, which results from the socialist socialisation of production on the basis of the revolutionary transformation of large private capitalist property into social property and the voluntary transition of small private producers to a collective economy. The small-scale commodity structure comprises individual peasant farms connected with the market and also the artisan economies. The capitalist structure is represented by private capitalist enterprises in industry, trade and agriculture (kulak farms). There can also be other forms, such as the patriarchal economy and state capitalism. In the early 1920s, the socialist structure in the USSR accounted for 38.5 per cent of the gross national product, the small-scale commodity structure for 51 per cent, and the private capitalist structure for 8.9 per cent. An additional 0.6 per cent was produced by the patriarchal economy and roughly one per cent by state-capitalist enterprises. The principal social forces of the transition period are the working class, the poor and middle peasants and the bourgeoisie. The working class, which was formerly oppressed and exploited, becomes the leading force of society, the dominant class. It leads the working people’s struggle against the overthrown bourgeoisie. The working peasantry is a loyal ally of the working class, and is actively involved in the socialist transformation of the countryside. The position of the bourgeoisie also changes radically. It is divested of political power and 268 most of the means of production, and loses its dominant role in society. The multistructural character of the economy and existence of social classes with different economic and political interests produce contradictions and an acute class struggle on the principle "who will win whom”. The basic contradiction of the transition period is that between overthrown and moribund capitalism and nascent socialism which consolidates its positions and emerges victorious in this confrontation. The transition period witnesses the end of the operation of the economic laws of capitalism and the steady expansion of the sphere of action of the objective economic laws of socialism. The scientifically-grounded plan for building socialism in the USSR entailed the creation of the material and technical base of the new society via the country’s industrialisation: conversion of individual, fragmented, small peasant farms into a large-scale socialised socialist economy through the organisation of cooperatives; cultural revolution; restructuring of nationalities relations; establishment of a mechanism for managing the social economy; and transformation, on socialist principles, of all social spheres. The concrete historical conditions attending the transition to socialism differ in different countries; however, as the experience of the USSR and other socialist countries has shown, the revolutionary transition from capitalism to socialism is based on certain general laws that are valid for all countries choosing the road of socialism. The Declaration of the Meeting of the Representatives of Communist and Workers’ Parties of the Socialist Countries (November 1957) summed up the experience of the practical implementation of the tasks of the proletarian revolution in different countries, and on this basis formulated the following general laws: leadership of the working people by the working class, whose nucleus is the Marxist-Leninist party, in carrying out a proletarian revolution and establishing a dictatorship of the proletariat; an alliance of the working class with most of the peasantry and other sectors of the working people; the abolition of capitalist ownership and the establishment of social ownership of the basic means of production; the gradual socialist transformation of agriculture; planned economic development aimed at building socialism and communism, and at raising the working people’s living standards; a socialist revolution in ideology and culture, and the training of many intellectuals loyal to the working class, to all the working people, and to socialism; abolition of national oppression and the establishment of equality and fraternal friendship among the peoples of the country; defence of the gains of socialism from internal and external enemies; solidarity of the working class of the given country with the working class of other countries—proletarian internationalism. The Marxist-Leninist theory of the transition period provides scientificallygrounded and time-tested guidelines which help the socialist-oriented countries correctly deal with the problems of rebuilding their societies.