p Progress should not be treated abstractly. Account should be taken of the specific features of the historical development of social systems. Accordingly, there are three types of social progress : development based on primitive communal relations; progress in societies with antagonistic classes; socialist (communist) progress.

p Progress is different in societies with different social formations in its class orientation and in depth, structure, and trends. In antagonistic societies, progress works in the interests of the exploiting classes at the expense of the exploited workers. It is characterised by unevenness, for, as a rule, progress in some countries is gained at the expense of other countries; social development is attained through class struggle and social revolu- 271 tions. Here, the spontaneous form of development is typical.

p All these peculiarities give expression to the essential feature of progress in exploiter formations-its antagonistically contradictory character. It reflects periods of rise and of decay, the dramatic eclipse of some cultures and states and the rise of others, periods of rapid advance and of stolid stagnation. From its inception, the progress of civilisation has been unfolding as a process of opposition-between intellectual and manual labour, town and countryside, and between classes; there was also a contradiction in the fact that the fruits of progress, a result of the labour of the masses, were appropriated by the exploiters. That was at the root of the striking contradictions in the history of societies, in the development of peoples. The progress of the productive forces is extremely uneven, as we see in particular from the worker to power (energy) ratio in various societies. Today, roughly 70 per cent of the world’s population live as their ancestors did hundreds, even thousands, of years ago-by hunting, fruit-gathering, or basically by agriculture. Only one-fourth of mankind lives in industrialised capitalist and socialist countries.

p The unevenness, one-sidedness, and contradictoriness of social development are most vividly manifested in the consequences of the scientific and technical revolution in capitalist societies, in 272 the aggravation of global problems, in the danger of an ecological crisis and, lastly, in the threat posed by imperialism to the very survival of life on earth.

p Today mankind faces a choice: to be or not to be, to reach new heights of culture or to perish in an atomic conflagration. This sums up the conflicting nature of progress. This conflicting nature does not derive from malicious intent on the part of politicians or scientists. Much less does it derive from socialism, which reactionaries accuse of all deadly sins. The ominous threat to mankind is posed by the system based on exploitation, by the forces of imperialism striving to halt the course of history, even at the risk of destroying all civilisation. Progressives throughout the world are sure that mankind can be saved. As history has already shown, the future of mankind is not degradation, nor is it restricted progress or zero growth. The future of mankind lies in socialism, in the constantly accelerating advance of all its aspects.

p Both theory and practice have shown that socialism is the most advanced system in history. It creates conditions for the steady and constantly accelerating growth of mankind’s material and intellectual forces. No other society or formation has so far provided for or reached the rates of growth of material and intellectual culture attained by socialist societies. The socialist system 273 does away with social oppression and the exploitation of man by man; it establishes relations of friendly co-operation and mutual assistance; it provides for the free creative activity of the popular masses. The socialist system creates the preconditions for the harmonious development of the personality. Socialist society is a society developing and functioning, to an ever greater degree, on a scientific foundation. Unlimited prospects of progress are open to it. The difficulties involved in the development of the socialist countries are difficulties of growth, not decline. They are mainly due to the initial weakness of the foundation of socialist construction, for in many countries the productive forces and culture had been of a very low level prior to the triumph of revolution. From the very outset, the revolutions in these countries had to deal with a large number of problems of backwardness, the consequence of imperialist and colonialist domination.

p Still, no other historical period is comparable to the present period of revolutionary change in the life of society. The course of history has shown that the 20th century is an age of mounting socialist progress. It is not only the pace of history that accelerates in the new society. Socialist progress is becoming a systematic process. The harmonious development of the various spheres of the life of society is becoming ever more appreciable.

The development of socialist society does not 274 rule out contradictions nor a certain element oi unevenness. The overcoming of objective contradictions, the struggle of the new with the old, is an objective law of history. It cannot be ruled out or dismissed. Still, the contradictions of socialist progress are qualitatively different from those seen in capitalist societies. The class foundation for social antagonisms or social conflicts is abolished. The emerging non-antagonistic contradictions are settled through the improvement of economic, social, and political structures and the further growth of society’s material and intellectual potential.