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p There are five successive socio-economic formations: the primitive-communal, slave-owning, feudal, capitalist, and communist. Marx also spoke of the Asian mode of production (and the 64 corresponding formation), having in mind the unique character of the emergence and development of the first class societies in several Oriental countries.

p The primitive-communal system was the first socioeconomic formation. Human history began with man separating himself from the animal kingdom and acquiring some specific human features. At that time implements were very simple and imperfect-a stick, stone axe, bows and arrows, etc. People learned to make fire, which was of exceptional importance for mankind’s evolution. The only kind of traction used at that stage was man’s muscular strength (later on came the domestication of animals). Labour skills, and man’s experience and knowledge of the world were very primitive.

p Relations between people corresponded to the extremely low level of the productive forces. They were based on communal ownership of the means of production and relations of co-operation and mutual assistance resulting from it. Because of the low development of the productive forces people could only oppose elemental forces by joint effort. Everything they procured was shared equally. They had just enough products to survive. There was no surplus product which some could take away from others. Hence there was no exploitation or economic inequality in primitive society.

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p People lived in communities formed on the principle of consanguinity. They were ruled by custom and tradition. Naive religious beliefs reigned among them.

p The primitive-communal formation changed and developed very slowly. It existed over tens of thousands of years and disintegrated because of the evolution of the productive forces of society. From stone and wooden tools people moved over to metal ones. They accumulated labour experience. The social division of labour took place; at first, stock-breeding separated from land-tilling, then handicrafts became an independent branch of production (making of labour implements, weapons, clothes, footwear, etc.). The exchange of products of labour developed. There was no longer any need for a joint economy, so clans broke down into families, each family becoming an independent economic unit. A surplus product appeared: now a worker could produce more than he needed to survive. This created the possibility of exploitation. Economic inequality appeared. Those who were impoverished and became economically dependent on their kinsmen or fellow tribesmen were turned into slaves. Prisoners of war became another source of increasing the number of slaves. The clan and tribal hierarchy military leaders, clan and tribe elders, priests, etc.-became the first slave-owners.

p The Slave-Owning Formation. Production rela- 66 tions in this system were based on the slaveowners’ private ownership not only of the means of production, but also of the labourer, the slave himself. This nature of production relations was determined by the level of development of the productive forces, which was high enough for the emergence of surplus product and exploitation, yet still so low that it was only possible to exploit labourers by reducing their consumption to the minimum.

p Instead of relations of co-operation and mutual assistance, typical of primitive society, relations of exploitation took root in the slave-owning formation, i. e. domination of one part of society over the other.

p The replacement of production relations caused a revolution in all other spheres of the life of society. Antagonistic classes the slaves and the slave-owners appeared (primitive-communal society had no classes).

p In order to keep the exploited masses (the majority of people) in obedience and protect private ownership and exploitation, the state and law were established with various organs of coercion : the army, courts of law, the administrative apparatus, etc.

p Substantial changes also took place in social consciousness. Contempt towards manual labour spread among exploiters who regarded it the fate of people of a lower sort; philosophers of the 67 epoch attempted theoretically to substantiate social inequality, etc.

p Production relations in slave-owning society to a certain extent served to promote the development of the productive forces. Application of the labour of vast armies of slaves made it possible to build large projects such as waterworks, huge buildings and roads. A new form of division of labour emerged with intellectual labour being separated from manual labour. At that time it was a progressive phenomenon, because the liberation of some people from participating directly in production created opportunities for the rapid development of science, the arts, etc. Later on, however, the possibilities provided by slave- owning production relations were exhausted and they began to impede the further development of the productive forces. The slave-owners, with the cheap labour of their slaves at their disposal, did not try to improve the instruments of production. The slaves had no interest in this either. Indeed, the slave himself, as the chief productive force of society, was degraded by inhuman exploitation.

p The further development of the productive forces required the replacement of slave-owning relations by new ones.

p Uprisings by slaves and the poorest sections of the population and raids by neighbouring tribes caused the downfall of the slave-owning system. A new formation- feudalism-emerged in its place.

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p The Feudal Formation. Under feudalism, production relations were based on the feudal lords’ ownership of the means of production (above all, land) and partial ownership of the labourer, the peasant serf. Feudal lords had the right to the peasant’s labour, and the peasants were obliged to fulfil various duties for their lords. At the same time, in feudal society peasants and craftsmen also owned personal property their individual farms or workshops. The peasants, after fulfilling their feudal duties, worked on their own plots of land and were interested in improving the implements and farming methods.

p Feudal production relations (above all the material interest of the direct producer in the results of his labour) created new opportunities for developing the productive forces. Agricultural production was being improved, and more was being done to improve soil fertility. Trade and crafts developed, towns expanded and became economic, political and cultural centres.

p The feudal mode of production determined the specific features of all other aspects of the life of society.

p In the feudal formation, the main classes were the feudal lords and the peasants. Relations between them were antagonistic since they were based on irreconcilable class interests.

p The state defended the interests of the feudal lords and tried to preserve and strengthen feudal 69 private ownership. The state apparatus grew markedly as well as the army. The church and religion dominated intellectual life in feudal society.

p As time went by, the development of the productive forces came into conflict with feudal production relations and their superstructure. The growth of industrial production in towns required a free labour market, i. e. workers free both of feudal bondage and of means of production. For the productive forces to develop in agriculture, a direct material interest as a major economic stimulus was indispensable. But under feudalism the peasant spent most of his time working for his lord, and was therefore not very much interested in the results of his labour. Within the framework of feudal society, the capitalist mode of production gradually began to take shape. Its further development, however, was hampered by the dominance of the feudal system. Numerous bourgeois revolutions ensued, which resulted in the replacement of feudalism by a new formation, the capitalist one.

p The Capitalist Formation. As capitalism strengthened its positions, the productive forces began to grow rapidly. Mechanised industry emerged. Powerful natural forces, such as steam and then electricity, began to be used as energy sources. Large factories, collieries and mines were being built. Marx and Fngels pointed out in the Mani. 70 festo oj the Communist Party that in a short period at the dawn of its existence capitalism did more for the development of the productive forces than had been done during all preceding epochs of human history.

p This rapid growth of the productive forces was caused by new, capitalist production relations. These are based on private ownership by the bourgeois class of the means of production and on the exploitation of the labour of hired workers who are deprived of the means of production, and are thus compelled to sell their labour power. The surplus value (i. e. the value created by the labour of the hired worker above the value of his labour power) is appropriated gratuitously by the capitalist.

p Thus, relations between classes in capitalist society are antagonistic since they are based on exploitation, on the oppression of the propertyless by the propertied.

p Marx made a comprehensive analysis of the capitalist mode of production in Capita., his greatest work. He revealed the fundamental law of the dynamics of capitalist society, and the essence of capitalist exploitation. He showed that the capitalist’s drive for surplus value determines the entire dynamics of the capitalist mode of production, including the expansion of production, the improvement of machinery, the intensification of the exploitation of workers, the anarchy of pro- 71 duction, the heightening of competition among capitalists, the deepening of capitalist contradictions, and a monstrous waste of social wealth.

p Capitalist production relations (the economic basis of society) required a corresponding superstructure. Methods of political domination used by the exploiter class underwent a change. The right to vote was introduced, and the political freedoms of citizens and their equality before the law were proclaimed. At the same time, the mounting working-class struggle and the reactionary domestic and foreign policies pursued by the bourgeoisie led to an immense increase in the size of the state apparatus, in particular of the armed forces and other means of coercion.

p Bourgeois ideas and institutions, used to defend bourgeois class rule and keep in obedience the exploited masses, comprise the dominant part of the superstructure in capitalist society. Alongside and in strong opposition to bourgeois ideas arises the ideology of the working class, and its trade unions and political parties take shape and develop.

p Capitalism is the last exploitative system. As it advances, production becomes increasingly social in character. Yet capitalist production remains under the control of private owners, preserving the private capitalist form of appropriation. This is the fundamental contradiction inherent in 72 capitalism and manifested in other contradictions: between labour and capital; between well organised production at individual enterprises and the anarchy of production throughout society; between the tendency of production to grow indefinitely and the limited nature of solvent demand. The basic contradiction of capitalism is also apparent in periodical crises of overproduction.

p Capitalism’s antagonistic contradictions give rise to a fierce class struggle between the working class and the bourgeoisie. As it fights the bourgeoisie, the working class allies itself with the peasantry, and with all oppressed and exploited strata. Having rallied the working people around itself, the working class accomplishes a socialist revolution. It overthrows the rule of capital and gives birth to a new, communist, formation.

p The Communist Socio-Economic Formation. The communist socio-economic formation is a natural successor of capitalist society. It is based on public ownership of the basic means of production and envisages the highest level of material production and intellectual development. The final aim of society’s transformation along communist lines is to create conditions for the free and all-round development of each person and society as a whole.

p There are two successive stages in the evolution 73 of the communist formation: socialism and communism proper.

p Historical experience has proved the necessity of a period of transition from capitalism to socialism. The latter cannot emerge directly from capitalism, for the difference between them is too great. The transition from capitalism to socialism requires radical qualitative changes in all spheres of the life of society: ownership, distribution of material and cultural benefits, etc. A whole historical period is needed to effect these changes which begins when the proletariat assumes political power and ends when socialism has been built.

p Socialism is the first stage of the communist socio-economic formation. It is characterised by public ownership of the means of production, a planned economy, and the absence of exploitation of man by man. Production is aimed at the maximum satisfaction of the material and cultural requirements of all members of society, taking into account the existing level of the productive forces.

p Socialism emerges as a result of the revolutionary overthrow of capitalism. Therefore, the level of development of technology and of production skills workers attained under capitalism is the starting point for building a socialist society. Socialism inherits what has been created in this sphere by capitalism, and production develops 74 further. Yet this level of production is insufficient for creating an abundance of consumer goods and fully meeting the requirements of all members of society.

p One characteristic feature of socialism is distribution according to work done. There is no social group of people under socialism who live at the expense of others and do not work themselves. Everybody works, and relations among people in production are marked by friendly cooperation and mutual assistance.

p The principle of socialism states: "From each according to his abilities, to each according to his work”. This means that socialist society obliges each of its able-bodied members to work conscientiously for the benefit of society to the best of his ability. Society remunerates him for his work in accordance with his qualifications and the amount and quality of the work done. Pay is higher for skilled work than for unskilled. One who produces more, receives more. But if an ablebodied person does not work he has no right to receive anything from society: "He who does not work, neither shall he eat."

p There are two friendly classes under socialism - the working class and the peasantry -which create material values in industry and agriculture respectively. The intelligentsia, the social stratum engaged in skilled mental work, such as scientific research, engineering and the arts, is constantly 75 growing in numbers. The political life of society under socialism is marked by the leading role of the working class and its revolutionary party, the extensive development of democracy, and the involvement of the masses in social and state administration.

p As the first stage of communism, socialist society is not absolutely .free from vestiges of the past. The old form of division of labour is not yet overcome, and distinctions still persist between people engaged in intellectual and manual labour and between town and countryside. Survivals of the past are felt for a long time in all spheres of the life of society. Under socialism, a fundamental revolution takes place in people’s views, mores and customs, and new traits develop, such as a new attitude towards work. However, there are still people in socialist society who retain the old ways and customs, who place personal interests above those of society, and who are not free from old prejudices. Rebuilding the people’s consciousness on new, socialist foundations is one of the most complicated tasks to be carried out in the course of socialist construction.

p The development of the socialist stage takes much longer than could have been predicted.

p Socialism is a developing, improving society. It goes through several qualitatively different stages in its evolution, such as the building of the groundwork of socialism, the building of socialism 76 in the main, the complete and final triumph of socialist society, and the achievement of" developed socialist society. Developed socialist society was built for the first time in the USSR. The people of Russia were the first people in the world to accomplish a socialist revolution and successively pass all the landmarks of building a new society. In the 1960s and early 1970s, Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, the GDR, Hungary, and Rumania also embarked on building developed socialism.

p Developed socialism is not a special stage of the communist formation, but a definite period of the socialist stage. It is a society where an economic base, a social structure, and a political system running on socialist lines have been fully established and where socialism continues to develop relying on its own foundation.

p Society achieves developed socialism by overcoming the low development level of production and effecting a marked rise in it. There can be no talk of developed socialism until private ownership of the means of production and class antagonisms disappear. When antagonistic classes cease to exist the dictatorship of the proletariat is no longer necessary, and it develops into the power of the whole people, with the working class at the head. Marxism-Leninism triumphs over all ideological and political trends hostile to socialism, and society becomes united, bound together by common goals and interests.

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p It would be wrong to imagine that developed socialism is a society perfect in all respects. The concepts ”developed" and “mature” socialism show that the new system has matured in comparison with its initial period. In developed socialist society there remain difficulties, problems and tasks still to be carried out. Developed socialism is a prolonged historical period; the Soviet Union is at the beginning of this period. Only practice will show how long it will continue, what specific forms it will assume, and what stages it will pass through.

p Further improvement of developed socialism also means advancement towards communism, while achieving communism is the final goal of the radical revolutionary transformation of society.

p Communism differs from socialism, its lower stage, first of all by the gigantic development of the productive forces, which become capable of creating an abundance of consumer goods and so implement the fundamental principle of communism : "From each according to his abilities, to each according to his needs."

p Under socialism, social ownership of the means of production has two main forms- state and cooperative; under communism, there will be single ownership of the whole people. Labour will cease to be only a means of subsistence and will become a primary need, in the same way as the need for 78 food, air and communication with other people.

p There will be no classes under communism and the essential distinctions between town and countryside, and between people engaged in manual and intellectual labour will disappear. There will be no peasantry or working class, but onlyworkers of communist society.

p The state will be replaced by communist social self-government. Such social phenomena as politics, law and religion will no longer exist.

p Freed from material concerns, people will develop all their abilities and talents. A short working-day will leave them much time to engage in the arts, sport and science. Man will develop under communism comprehensively and harmoniously. Intellectual wealth, moral integrity, and physical fitness will be blended in him.

Everything in the world is developing and communist society will not be static either. It will develop, improve, and advance further.