Way of Life, the mode of vital activity (existence) in human society, social groups and communities (family, nation, nationality, etc.), strata and classes, corresponding to a definite social system. The category "way of life" concretises generalising concepts reflecting vital activity of society as a whole (for instance, socio-economic formation, mode of production, superstructure, etc.), and also the laws and categories characterising certain of its aspects, such as laws of distribution, consumption, exchange, reproduction, several sociological laws. The study of social relations makes it possible, in connection with the way of life, to take into account their socio-class structure, and to deeply and fully reveal essential 389 characteristics of the vital activity of a part of society. This brings to light the methods and forms in which general laws and essential concrete historical features of the economic, political and cultural life of society are interpreted in the way of life of the people, their collectives, social groups, communities, strata and classes. The objective foundation of the formation of and change in the way of life of a certain social group is rooted in its economic position, determined by the socio-economic system and mode of production. Marx, Engels and Lenin, evolving the category of the way of life, proceeded, above all, from the position of certain classes or social groups. The economic position is the totality of the objective conditions, which includes social and production conditions, the standard of living, the degree of the development of everyday services, education, public health, etc. The economic position predetermines the objective forms of life, work and everyday life of the people, social groups and classes typical of the given concrete historical conditions. The character of involvement in production activity is the determining factor for the entire way of life. Being a decisive component of the economic position, it actively influences the formation of the entire way of life, the type of behaviour, specifics of communion, the direction of thoughts, aspirations, motifs and actions of people in a society. Marxism-Leninism considers it groundless to seek for a single way of life for all members of society if in that society there are opposing classes and considerable differences in the socioeconomic position of the people, groups and classes. On the contrary, bourgeois sociology tries to ignore the class approach to the way of life, and to replace it by supra-class and apolitical treatments. The popularisation of the so-called American way of life is a vivid example. There are also distinctions in the way of life within classes. Lenin noted: "Every social stratum has its own way of life, its own habits and inclinations" (V. I. Lenin, Collected Works, Vol. 20, p. 476). However, interclass differences are not as deep as those characteristic of the way of life of antagonistic classes. As regards certain inessential forms of vital activity, they may be widespread in all or many groups and classes of society, creating the style of life. Bourgeois ideologists are especially zealous in passing similar features in the life style of different classes, strata and groups for the similarity in the vital aspect, for a single way of life. The socialist revolution, by abolishing private ownership of the means of production, thus laid the foundations for forming a new way of life, radically differing from that in capitalist society. With all the differences in socioeconomic position and modes of vital activity of the classes, strata and groups in socialist society, there is a unity, a community of principle, i. e., the presence of basic similar features in their vital activity. This allows us to speak about the socialist way of life, characteristic of the way of life of a worker, a member of an agricultural cooperative (collective farmer) and an intellectual. The socialist system is the objective basis of the socialist way of life. The public ownership of the means of production, the absence of exploitation of man by man, planned economic development, universal and compulsory labour, socialist democracy, communist ideology and internationalism are just some of the vital features of socialism which presuppose the way of people’s thoughts, feelings and conduct. The most essential aspects of the way of life in socialist society are: attitude to public property from the positions of joint owners of production, the desire to strengthen and multiply it; unbreakable bond between the people’s vital activity and their active participation in socially useful labour; the increasing merging of the basic features and forms of vital activity of different social groups; comradely mutual assistance and cooperation, socialist emulation, collectivism in relations between people; the maximum satisfaction of the material and cultural requirements of the members of society; the feeling that society needs you, the optimistic attitude to one’s future, an inner conviction that one’s own destiny is fused with that of one’s socialist land; profound and effective humanism; an eventful inner life, an active 390 creativeness, which includes knowledge and understanding of all the genuine achievements of world civilisation; lofty moral ideals and the ideological and political unity of society, ensuing from the vital unity of the interests and aims of classes, and other strata and social groups of socialist society. The socialist way of life develops and is being improved in a planned way as a component of the implementation of the social policy of communist and workers’ parties and the state.