Problems of Non-Capitalist Development

 With the growth of the world revolutionary process, national liberation revolutions increasingly merge with the fight for socialism and serve as a powerful catalyst of deep going social processes. Socialist revolution is the result of a relatively rapid development of the revolutionary process wherever the proletariat has formed before the national liberation revolution and where it is an organised, politically independent class force which recognises its historic mission and leads the revolutionary movement. This process develops according to laws that are common for all countries and is distinguished by a great variety of forms and methods of resolving national tasks.

In countries at the pre-bourgeois stage of development, or where capitalism is underdeveloped and where the internal conditions do not ensure the necessary requisites for a direct transitions to socialism (there may be no industry or working class), there is a possibility of conditions being 392 created that would obviate capitalism and open up a path of non-capitalist development.

The idea of non-capitalist development stems directly from the Marxist analysis of the problems of world socialist revolution. It has a long pre-history. Marx and Engels indicated socialist prospects for peoples who lagged in their development and had been plundered and doomed by imperialism to stagnation. In the works of Lenin, the idea of non-capitalist development received further theoretical substantiation. The October Revolution, by establishing proletarian dictatorship, was first to create the necessary conditions and vital need for the practical application of the theory of non-capitalist development. The historical experience of tackling the national question in the USSR and the transition to socialism of nationalities that had not passed through the capitalist stage was the first practical test and confirmation of the Marxist-Leninist approach to the nationalities issue.

Marx and Engels examined the prospects that lay before the peoples of the colonies and closely associated their fate with the historic tasks of the proletariat in the advanced states. For the first time, the idea of transition to socialism by-passing the capitalist stage of development was mentioned by Marx in analysing the national liberation movement in India. Marx and Engels later looked at this possibility in connection with the problems of revolution in Russia, in their correspondence with Russian politicians. Marx wrote: "If Russia continues to pursue the path she has followed since 1861, she will lose the finest chance ever offered by history to a people and undergo all the fatal vicissitudes of the capitalist regime." [392•1 The chance to avoid these "fatal vicissitudes" could present itself, in Marx’s view, if proletarian revolution in Europe would coincide with peasant revolution in Russia.

Engels paid particular attention to the prospects for noncapitalist development and stressed the force of example of the proletarian revolution for backward, pre-capitalist societies. He wrote: "Once Europe is reorganised, and North 393 America, that will furnish such colossal power and such an example that the semi-civilised countries will of themselves follow in their wake; economic needs, if anything, will see to that." [393•1 Marx and Engels saw in the non-capitalist path of development a real chance of the backward nations "considerably shortening their advance to socialist society". [393•2

They emphasised the importance of the impact of a victorious proletarian revolution on the peoples in the backward states by force of example and the need for concrete assistance to these peoples by the victorious socialist states. In referring, for example, to the possibility of the Russian peasants getting to socialism and by-passing capitalism, Engels pointed out that the working class of the socialist states should provide the peasants of the backward states with "the material conditions which he needs if only to carry through the revolution necessarily connected therewith of his whole agricultural system". [393•3

First, Lenin examined the problem of non-capitalist development in its internal “Russian” aspect, having in mind the extreme backwardness of the far-flung areas of the former tsarist empire for which the proletarian revolution and dictatorship had opened up the prospect of reaching socialism from pre-capitalist stages through a series of intermediate stages within the framework of socialist revolution. Second, he examined the problem of non-capitalist development in its international aspect, as a component of the world revolutionary process. He believed that victorious socialism, interacting with the revolutionary peoples of the backward countries, could and should support non-capitalist trends in the development of individual states and on a world-wide scale. In his report to the Second Comintern Congress, Lenin gave a negative answer to the question of whether he regarded the capitalist stage of development inevitable for the peoples of the backward countries carrying on a liberation struggle.

He pointed out that if revolutionaries conducted systematic socialist propaganda among the working people of these countries and victorious socialism gave them every 394 possible assistance, a situation could develop in which local revolutionary fighters, who had created parties and democratic institutions, like peasant councils and working people’s Soviets expressing the popular will yet adapted to the pre-capitalist conditions and local situation, would lead the working people along the path of non-capitalist development. He said: "The Communist International should advance the proposition, with the appropriate theoretical grounding, that with the aid of the proletariat of the advanced countries, backward countries can go over to the Soviet system and, through certain stages of development, to communism, without having to pass through the capitalist stage." [394•1 Here, the concepts of "Soviet system" and institutions of the Soviet type by no means signified an absolute standard of state structure; they express only the main feature of the social organisation of countries that take the non-capitalist path—the leadership by democratically elected bodies expressing the popular will.

The basic conditions for non-capitalist development form from the active interrelationship of the external and internal factors. This possibility only arises when the socialist states are strong and have extensive and growing ties with the countries beginning non-capitalist change. The steady upsurge in the revolutionary movement of broad popular masses in these countries is pivotal for non-capitalist development and presupposes the actual subordination of state and party policy to the tasks of progressive transformation of all social spheres along socialist lines.

The historical situation for peoples that have chosen a non-capitalist path today is developing in a situation of rivalry between two sets of forces. On the one hand is the steadily mounting influence of socialism on world development; on the other, imperialism is doing all it can to retain the world capitalist economic system and keep the newly liberated countries within its sphere by stimulating the development of capitalist tendencies. As a consequence, the action of factors favouring the creation of social, economic, political and cultural conditions for a transition to socialism occurs in the process of resolving a whole set 395 of contradictions: between the subordinate position of a country in the world capitalist economy and the objective need for economic independence; between the need for foreign capital and the lack of imperialist desire to provide capital in any form other than plunder; between the araimperialist interests of wide sections of the populatior including the peasants and the urban petty bourgeoisie and the interests of foreign and local capital united on a r /mrnon class basis; between the desire of the socialist statf , to help the working people of the newly liberated world co abolish exploitation and overcome backwardness and the absence of internal conditions for a direct transition to socialist revolution.

p The first historical experience of non-capitalist development was accumulated during the socialist revolution and socialist construction in the USSR in tackling problems in the outlying regions. The October Revolution brought freedom and national liberation to peoples whom tsarism had oppressed and kept in a state of pre-capitalist and even pre-feudal backwardness. The Soviet proletariat extended huge political, economic and military assistance to the population of Soviet Central Asia, Kazakhstan, the Far North and other outlying regions, in many of which, after the revolution, independent republics arose which later joined the USSR. Non-capitalist development of these peoples presupposed, following the abolition of national oppression, the elimination of the age-long economic inequality and cultural backwardness. In a resolution passed at the 10th Congress of the Russian Communist Party it was stated: "The proletarian revolution was bound to come up against all this at its eastern peripheries and its prime task is consistently to abolish all the remnants of national inequality in all areas of social and economic life and, above all, to develop industry in a planned way in the border territories." [395•1

The social, economic, political and cultural attainments of the Soviet peoples in Central Asia, Kazakhstan, the Far North and the Far East are sufficiently well known to need 396 but little comment here. The high level of industrial development, the complete elimination of illiteracy and the involvement of very wide sections of the population in active political life are all vivid proof of the advantages for the working people of non-capitalist development, implemented under the leadership of the Soviet Communist Party and with the full and final triumph of socialist relations.

Another practical confirmation of non-capitalist development in the new political situation outside the state framework of a large socialist power was the preparation for the building of socialism in Mongolia, which had successfully negotiated the transition from a popular to a socialist revolution in circumstances where the USSR was still surrounded by capitalists.

The First Secretary of the Mongolian People’s Revolutionary Party and Chairman of the Council of Ministers, Yumzhagiin Tsedenbal, paid tribute to the immense contribution of Lenin in elaborating the problems of noncapitalist development and the historic significance of the October Revolution for the fates of previously backward peoples; in April 1970 he wrote: "It was precisely Leninism and the Great October Socialist Revolution that set free the Mongolian people from poverty and ignorance, lawlessness and slavery, from the vice of need, deprivation and backwardness to which we had been doomed by feudalism and colonialism." [396•1 The victory of the Mongolian people’s revolution, whose moving force was the poor peasantry, became possible only by virtue of the international revolutionary alliance with the Soviet working class. Tsedenbal had said earlier: "It was the establishment of the close alliance between the Mongolian revolution and the first proletarian revolution and the homeland of the Russian Revolution—the great Soviet Union—which ensured the historic attainments which the working people of our country have had over the 50 years’ existence of our free land." [396•2 The comprehensive political, economic, cultural, military, diplomatic and other assistance by the Soviet Union has been a decisive guarantee of the historic 397 attainments of the Mongolian people along with their valiant labour and sound Party leadership.

The victory of popular revolution and the building of socialism in Mongolia represent the triumph of MarxismLeninism in general and the triumph of Lenin’s forecast of the possible transition of backward states from pre– capitalism, through a series of intermediate stages, to socialism, bypassing capitalism. The conversion of socialism into a world system and the powerful upsurge of the anti-imperialist and national liberation movements have given the idea of noncapitalist development even greater attraction. Socialism has become the banner of liberation movements against colonialism and neocolonialism, for independence and social progress. The programmes of non-capitalist development have become increasingly popular over the most diverse areas of the world. Nowadays, socialism is recognised as the official doctrine of governments and political parties in many Afro-Asian states. The new phase in which the national democratic movement in Afro-Asian states entered at the end of the 1960’s is connected with the clear-cut appearance and growth of a rift between the progressive revolutionary and democratic forces in these countries and the reactionary, anti-democratic forces. As mentioned at the 24th Congress of the CPSU, the fight against reaction is in progress everywhere and "in some countries the progressive forces have already scored serious gains". [397•1

The fight against all kinds of exploitation and, in particular, anti-capitalist trends are developing everywhere in the newly liberated countries, take various forms and are at various stages of political maturity. They comprise in their sum total a vigorous potential for world socialist revolution. These trends are apparent in the spreading ideological views that have an anti-capitalist, anti-dictatorial and general democratic bias with the prospect of their evolution to scientific socialism. Anti-capitalist trends are manifest in the development of democratic institutions which help the wider involvement of the working people in government. Movements directed against nationalistic and separatist centrifugal forces are now acquiring increasingly progressive 398 importance. In the sphere of economic relations, non– capitalist trends find expression in measures for preparing and affirming social forms of ownership. In foreign policy, the manifestation of a non-capitalist policy is noticeable in the development of broad contacts with the socialist states and concerted anti-imperialist actions.

Where such trends grow to the scale of state policy, whose proclamation is accompanied by real actions in all major directions, one can safely say that these countries are taking the path of non-capitalist development. The consistent and phased implementation of the major principles of noncapitalist development may, in a relatively brief historical term, convert a backward dependent country into a modern state of a socialist type. This has been shown by the historical experience of Mongolia, North Vietnam and several other countries which began to build socialism amid widespread pre-capitalist forms and social structures.

More and more countries are now choosing the non– capitalist path. The 24th CPSU Congress noted that they have become "the advanced contingent of the present-day national liberation movement". [398•1 Their numbers are constantly growing. Similarly, the intensity of development of noncapitalist trends in various areas of the Third World is constantly increasing. This last factor depends, on the one hand, on the maturity and organisation of socialist and revolutionary democratic movements in the newly liberated countries and on the real possibilities of the socialist states to offer support to these movements. On the other hand, non-capitalist trends are constantly being blocked and meeting a frankly hostile reaction from imperialism and the antidemocratic forces on a local and international scale. The fight to take the newly liberated states out of the world capitalist system has only just begun. Sacrifices and losses are inevitable but victory ultimately is assured.

The ideological opponents of socialism identify the objective difficulties of development along a non-capitalist path and the subjective mistakes made by some leaders with the essence of the very concept of non-capitalist development. In this way, they try to prove its apparent lack of 399 vitality. Any revolutionary movement, espe* ,l\y in backward agrarian countries, inevitably bears die burden of historical legacy and temporary setbacks iiut the overall course of events is determined by the objes live requirements of the development of the productive ft rces in the newly liberated states, by the growth of the ideological influence and material possibilities of the socialist states, by the accelerated development of class consciousness among the working people in the newly liberated states and imperialism’s steady loss of positions in the ex-colonies.

Africa today has the largest variety of attempts at noncapitalist development; capitalism had there manifested itself in its worst and rrost inhuman form—through its system of colonial enslavem nt and oppression. Many African territories are populated by people who have not experienced the developed capitalist or even feudal relations. The fight against colonial oppression very much coincides there with the overall protest against the capitalist system, and it is encouraging militant peoples to take the non-capitalist path. A further development of the national liberation and national democratic revolutions may weaken and then completely eliminate the influence of capitalist trends in a whole number of African states.

The countries of a non-capitalist orientation differ from those where capitalism is developing by their progressive policy which meets the interests of the working people: an anti-imperialist foreign policy, encouragement of collective forms of ownership of the means of production at the expense of large-scale and medium private property, the development of democratic institutions and parties, the campaign against illiteracy and the extension of ties with the socialist states.

Non-capitalist development, despite its great diversity, presupposes the compulsory resolution of several basic problems that are common for all countries that take this road. In the final analysis, the period of non-capitalist development, no matter how protracted and uneven it might be, is organically connected with the mounting role of a revolutionary party equipped with Marxist-Leninist theory and applying this theory to practice; it is connected with the growth of the political, cultural and economic activity of the working people, primarily the working class and the peasants. 400 The country can gradually overcome disproportions and its economy can adapt itself to a more rational use of natural and manpower resources, more fully realise the possibilities it has for increasing labour productivity, the national product and people’s welfare in this period through internal efforts and use of assistance from the socialist countries. Despite all the contradictions and complexity of the non-capitalist tendency, it reflects the most progressive historical changes and the real prospects of genuine independence that open up for the peoples of the newly liberated states. Only the non-capitalist road is capable of saving the peoples of these countries from a long and burdensome capitalist development which is aggravated by their subordinate status of backward countries within the world capitalist system. The CPSU Programme states that "the non-capitalist road of development is ensured by the struggle of the working class and the masses of the people, by the general democratic movement, and meets the interests of the absolute majority of the nation". [400•1

Lenin developed the idea of non-capitalist development and applied it to the backward areas of Russia; he stressed the inevitability of intermediate stages in this lengthy transitional period. In his article "The Tax in Kind" he wrote that "successfully to solve the problem of our immediate transition to socialism, we must understand what intermediary paths, methods, means and instruments are required for the transition from pre-capitalist relations to socialism”. [400•2 These stages in countries that have chosen the non-capitalist path are associated with the development of productive forces and the social evolution of a society in which the peasants and petty bourgeoisie first predominate; then there is an accelerated formation of the working class simultaneously with the accession of the peasants to co-operative forms of ownership.

Ultimately, during socialist change, the working class becomes the decisive force of society which, in alliance with the poor peasants and progressive intellectuals, overcomes the resistance of exploiting elements and guarantees the 401 development of socialist construction. National technical personnel and skilled workers are trained in a liberated state, which uses the influence and assistance of the world socialist system for its state and mixed enterprises. These skilled workers also appear at the factories owned by foreign or local capitalists, who are restricted by state regulations and the active influence of the workers themselves.

In most African states, the proletariat is still small, especially in industry, and is only just beginning to organise itself. It is an important task, in creating the conditions for socialist revolution, to strengthen the part played by the working class even at the very earliest stages of industrialisation. The main characteristic of the transfer of the leading role to the proletariat in the circumstances of non-capitalist development is that this revolutionary process is gradual and takes a long time by contrast with the situation in the advanced capitalist states. Here is an obvious difference in the conditions and, consequently, the modes of establishing proletarian dictatorship in advanced capitalist and newly liberated states; here lies the danger of the newly liberated states being diverted from the non-capitalist path to capitalism. The considered policy of a gradual but undeviating extension of political rights and leading role of the workers in social affairs constitutes the principal guarantee of success, the basis of alliances with other democratic forces; it determines the process of non-capitalist development not as evolution but as a revolutionary process protracted in time.

The use of the expression "socialist revolution" by many revolutionary democrats certainly does not mean that their notions of it fully coincide with that of Marxism-Leninism. In their substance, revolutionary measures carried out in countries with a socialist orientation today have basically an anti-imperialist, anti-feudal and general democratic character. But, even today, they are carrying out such important anti-capitalist changes as restricting and doing away with the property of the local bourgeoisie.

The National Action Charter of the Arab Republic of Egypt advances the demand for all the main means of production to be transferred to the people, for the workers and peasants to have half the seats in all elected bodies, for the union of feudal and capitalist elements to be destroyed and 402 for the equality of all citizens to be guaranteed. Private capital, the Charter states, can operate only under state control. The ruling Arab Socialist Union Party proposes implementing a programme of further extension of the rights of the working people, especially the industrial workers, so as to give real political substance to the proclaimed policy of aiming for socialism.

The Tripoli Programme of the Algerian National Liberation Front has also proclaimed a policy of creating a society on socialist principles, satisfying the material needs of the people, nationalising the principal means of production and creating all the necessary political, social, technical and cultural conditions for national progress.

The creation of a democratic and socialist state, the development of a planned economy, the strengthening of national unity, the formation of new class and mass organisations, the implementation of an independent foreign policy and the strengthening of the leading role of the Party were all regarded as prime tasks at the First Congress of the Burmese Socialist Programme Party in 1971.

The proclaiming of similar programmes by national democrats is being accompanied by the carrying out of important anti-imperialist, democratic and anti-capitalist reforms.

The progressive changes of a non-capitalist type are typically beginning with the superstructure. The guarantees of their successful revolutionary development are likewise connected with the political superstructure. The gap between political institutions, ideology and the social and economic basis at the start of the non-capitalist road is quite great. They are gradually coming closer together, but it is an extremely complex and contradictory process.

The question of power is the main political issue of noncapitalist development. Lenin indicated in a discussion with a delegation of the Mongolian People’s Revolutionary Party the possibility of and the need for Mongolia to undertake non-capitalist development; he drew attention to the "hard work on the part of the People’s Revolutionary Party and the Government, so that this work and the increased influence of the Party and the authorities would result in a growth of the number of co-operatives, in the 403 introduction of new forms of economic activity and national culture". [403•1

State power in countries that have begun non-capitalist development is essentially the revolutionary democratic dictatorship by the working people. The progressive intellectuals play a relatively large part here, greater than in the advanced capitalist states, especially in the initial period. Above all, they produce many revolutionary democrats whose ideas can develop, and often do develop, in the direction of scientific socialism. Their activity, initially subordinated to resolving purely national tasks, serves to create the real conditions for socialism. As the alignment of forces develops within the revolutionary democratic front, it changes in favour of the working class, which increases numerically and strengthens continually its political and economic positions and unites around it all the working sections of the people.

A democratic solution to the national problems is a vital issue of non-capitalist development. When the colonies achieve their political independence, they alter their international legal status, but they do not resolve many national and ethnic issues. The non-capitalist path makes it possible to resolve the nationalities issue in a democratic way. Lenin, in advocating the union of the proletariat and the working people of all nations, noted that "this union alone will guarantee victory over capitalism, without which the abolition of national oppression and inequality is impossible". [403•2

Capitalism is demonstrating its complete inability to overcome the backwardness of the newly liberated peoples. The parasitical nature of the bourgeoisie in the young states, its inclination to invest its capital in non-productive spheres, in areas other than those that would ensure the country’s economic development, forces progressive national leaders to seek fresh methods of tackling social and economic problems.

Non-capitalist development presupposes in the economic sphere, on the one hand, accelerated development of the productive forces and, on the other, the establishment of state 404 and co-operative forms of property, which gradually become predominant in key areas of the national economy. The only way to overcome backwardness is through rapid industrialisation taking account of and exploiting the latest scientific and technological attainments. The discussions going on in all the newly liberated countries on how industrialisation may be carried out testify, in particular, to the great differences in their starting levels, in their position in world markets and the aims of the embattled social forces. One thing is clear: the non-capitalist path of development certainly does not presuppose the creation within a country, immediately and at any cost, of heavy industry and a developed economic complex that would ensure economic independence. One of the obvious advantages of non-capitalist development is precisely the fact that the world socialist market and the advantageous economic ties with socialist states enable the developing countries to ensure a progressive development of an independent economy in a manner least painful for the working people.

The 24th CPSU Congress noted a new phenomenon in world development connected with the further expansion of firmly based mutually advantageous economic relations between the USSR and many developing states in Asia, Africa and Latin America: "Our co-operation with them, based on principles of equality and respect for mutual interests, is acquiring the nature of a stable division of labour, as opposed in the sphere of international economic relations to the system of imperialist exploitation." [404•1

The main factor in economic non-capitalist development is gradually to establish collective forms of property which, on the one hand, accumulate the means necessary for economic growth and, on the other, stimulate material and moral interest of all members of society in a rapid extended reproduction.

The lack of ability and desire by private capital to resolve problems of industrialisation and rapid agricultural development in the interests of the whole of society advances the state sector to a leading place in the economy. The central role of this sector, which is used not for encouraging and 405 supporting private capital but for establishing optimum economic proportions, distinguishes the countries of a socialist orientation from other newly liberated states. The state sector constitutes essentially the economic basis of revolutionary democratic government. In Egypt, it accounts for 85 per cent of industrial output today; in Burma it controls over 80 per cent of the extractive and some 60 per cent of the manufacturing industries. Many foreign firms, banks and commercial firms have been taken over by the state in Algeria, Guinea and Tanzania. Nationalisation of foreign and national private capital is, along with the abolition of the property of the colonial administration, a key element in the formation of the state sector in the socialist-oriented states.

Algeria, for example, nationalised a large number of “abandoned” properties left by the colonialists; they included land holdings, private firms, buildings and shops. Then nationalisation spread to factories in light industry and transport that had belonged to the local bourgeoisie. Although private capital in Algeria is far from being abolished, new forms of social and economic significance are developing under state leadership, such as autonomous enterprises that combine the interests of individual groups of workers with those of the state.

Nationalisation in Egypt has played no less important a role. It was accelerated by the combined British, French and Israeli aggression in 1956, which affected a key position in the country’s economy—the Suez Canal. The expulsion of the large-scale national bourgeoisie began in 1960 with the nationalisation of the National Bank of Egypt and the commercial Bank Misr, private banks, insurance companies and some large and medium industrial firms. The state also established control over the cotton trade.

The action of the Supreme Revolutionary Council of the Democratic Republic of Somalia to nationalise foreign banks, establish control over the Somali Electricity Company and an agrarian-industrial company and plans to create other national enterprises and institutions all testify to the government’s intention to shore up the state sector in the economy.

In many states of non-capitalist development, the small producers of town and country make up the overwhelming 406 majority of the population and, at the same time, are the section of the population which is determining the country’s political orientation. For that reason, Lenin stressed the particular importance of first resolving the peasant issue in these backward states. Agrarian reform is one of the vital problems of social life and of the economy of virtually all the Afro-Asian states. The successful tackling of the food problem, whose acuteness is illustrated by the fact that millions of people on these two continents are today dying of chronic starvation and undernourishment, depends on the state of agriculture. Agricultural development is tied up with expanding the internal market and accumulating capital, developing the manufacturing industry and receiving foreign currency. The basic social tasks of non-capitalist development in the countryside are to stop small peasant farmers from going bankrupt, evoking in them a desire for economic selforganisation in various forms of co-operatives and establishing control over the development of private capitalism. At the same time, measures connected with the agrarian technological revolution are extremely important; they include the cultivation of new land and the construction of irrigation schemes, the introduction of new farming technology, the organisation of equipment-hiring stations and centralised seed-growing, the supply of fertiliser to the peasants, etc.

The difficult set of problems associated with tackling the agrarian issue in the socialist-oriented countries does not enable them to limit themselves in their programmes only to a just redistribution of land in favour of the peasants. In order to move to a large-scale, economically profitable agriculture, they have to consider the prospect of a gradual co-operation of the countryside on a non-capitalist basis. A Leninist path of stage-by-stage co-operation of small peasants during the agrarian revolution is the long-term aim which today confronts the progressive forces in many newly liberated countries.

In African states that had taken the non-capitalist path of development, the agrarian reforms were initially directed against the European colonialists and the large landowners who were, in the early period, only restricted.

Agricultural co-operation in the socialist-oriented states is an extremely diverse process. Small-commodity 407 production is normally encouraged during the co-operation of primitive, pre-capitalist economies, because it teaches the members of the former communities to conduct their farming in an organised way, it stimulates personal interest and the search for profitable and rational methods of cultivation and husbandry. Subsequently, however, as a result of the centralised economic policy, the small-commodity producers find themselves in less favourable conditions by comparison with the public and collective enterprises which are destined in future to determine the face of socialist society. The problem of managing the processes of developing a small-commodity market production which has the tendency to a spontaneous growth of capitalist elements is a central social and economic problem that has to be overcome in non-capitalist development.

If the road of non-capitalist development is strictly adhered to, the gradual creation of prerequisites and elements of socialist society will be predominantly peaceful. Social reforms and changes bear a revolutionary character to the extent that they are directed at preparing the way for socialism. This, naturally, does not preclude situations in which defence of progressive gains in the socialist-oriented states may demand the use of military force. Difficulties that have arisen and sometimes retrogressive steps in various countries with progressive regimes caused by imperialist intrigues and internal reaction have demonstrated the immense importance of defending progress and the need for immense ideological work within the armies of these states. Being a relatively independent social institution, the army can be used by pro-capitalist and pro-imperialist elements to turn events towards capitalist development. For the purposes of exporting counter-revolution, the world bourgeoisie uses officers, many of whom had received their basic training (and were subject to brainwashing) in the capitalist states.

The difficulties and problems that arise during noncapitalist development have both an objective and a subjective character. The absence of resources, immaturity of the economy, low cultural level of the population and dependence on the world capitalist market are all phenomena that have formed as a result of colonial domination.

408 Subjective factors, too, have to be reckoned with: the lack of experience, external and internal sabotage by reactionary forces, manifestations of bureaucracy and corruption, the influence of divisive policies by Right- and “Left”-wing revisionists within the world communist and labour movement.

The non-capitalist path of development in the present situation of the rivalry between the two world social systems, in the circumstances of the refined expansion of neocolonialism in the newly liberated states does not mean that the population of the numerous ex-colonies, which makes just demands on “their” metropolitan countries, will arrive at socialism exclusively through the influence of the efforts of the socialist states. The non-capitalist path is an opportunity which opens up only with the victory of socialism, an opportunity for the rapid development of one’s own national economy and culture, that is less painful for the working people of the backward countries and more favourable for ensuring their improved welfare, genuine democracy and a just social system. It is precisely because these parties and peoples, despite the inevitable difficulties, are endeavouring to realise these opportunities that the Communists of all countries try to give them maximum assistance.

Muhammed Jaber Bajbuj, member of the Baath Party of Syria, said at the 24th CPSU Congress: "The Soviet Union, by giving our Arab country—Syria—help in creating the material and economic basis of a new society, is helping us to go forward along the path of socialist change within the country and also confidently to withstand aggression from without." [408•1 The USSR has helped the Syrians to start oil extraction; with Soviet aid, a great dam is being built on the Euphrates which is to play a great part in speeding up economic development and improving the living standards of the Syrian people.

The Treaty on Friendship and Co-operation between the Soviet Union and Egypt, signed in 1971, was an important stage in strengthening friendly relations. This historic document is aimed at supporting the just national liberation struggle of the Egyptian people in their firm resolve to 409 eliminate the consequences of Israeli aggression and to establish a just peace in the Middle East. The signing of this treaty was the crowning of several years of equal and honourable relations between the Soviet and Egyptian peoples, fighting against imperialism and in support of the national liberation movements throughout the world.

The extension of economic ties with the socialist states— the building of industrial enterprises, mutually advantageous trade, technical assistance and credit, training of national personnel—all help to accelerate the development of productive forces and strengthen the political autonomy and attain economic independence of many newly liberated peoples.

Lenin described the social type of national liberation movement of backward peoples back in 1920 when he wrote: "It is beyond doubt that any national movement can only be a bourgeois-democratic movement, since the overwhelming mass of the population in the backward countries consist of peasants who represent bourgeois-capitalist relationships." [409•1 Even then, however, Lenin demanded a precise distinction between the bourgeois-reformist and revolutionary movements. In advancing the task of support for the peasant movement in the backward countries and organising the fight for new forms of popular power, he said that "we, as Communists, should and will support bourgeois liberation movements in the colonies only when they are genuinely revolutionary, and when their exponents do not hinder our work of educating and organising in a revolutionary spirit the peasantry and the masses of the exploited". [409•2

Non-capitalist development is taking place in a situation of acute ideological, political, economic and, sometimes, armed struggle. Its external and internal opponents try to exploit any objective difficulties and subjective mistakes of the young independent states so as to blame all the hardships and problems, all the inevitable consequences of the burdensome legacy of the colonial era, precisely on the noncapitalist character of the changes being implemented.

As mentioned at the 1969 Meeting, imperialism "supports 410 reactionary circles, retards the abolition of the most backward social structures and tries to obstruct progress along the road to socialism or along the road of progressive noncapitalist development, which can open the way to socialism". [410•1 The imperialists widely exploit the dependent position of the young national states on the world capitalist market. The long list of methods they use to make things difficult for the socialist-oriented states includes economic boycott, price cuts on raw materials and agricultural produce and disadvantageous credit terms. The “free” capitalist world sends to these countries spies and trouble-makers and plots attempts on the lives of progressive leaders. All the means of misinformation and bourgeois propaganda are used to discredit the ideas of socialism and to misrepresent progressive policies. The proponents of anti-communism try to prevent developing close contacts between the young countries and the socialist world and the establishment of concerted action by these countries, which is necessary for a more rapid resolution of the urgent tasks in the economy and politics.

In an address to the Second All-Russia Congress of Communist Organisations of the Peoples of the East, Lenin spoke of the peculiar forms of the alliance between advanced proletarians throughout the world and working people who sometimes lived in medieval conditions. He noted the vast international importance of the experience of non-capitalist development of some peoples in Soviet Russia. He said: "We have accomplished on a small scale in our country what you will do on a big scale and in big countries." [410•2 The time has come when this idea has begun to be implemented on an international scale.

An increasing number of countries liberated from national oppression were attempting far-reaching changes in all social spheres and proclaiming socialism as their goal. L. I. Brezhnev has said: "This is, of course, not easy for the young states, whose development had been held up for centuries by the colonialists. For this it is necessary to raise the 411 productive forces to the level required by socialism, establish totally new relations of production, change the psychology of the people and set up a new administrative apparatus relying on the support of the masses." [411•1

The non-capitalist path of development requires from the workers, peasants and every working man in the newly liberated states a high level of revolutionary enthusiasm, persistent hard work, the maintenance and strengthening of unity of the progressive and democratic forces and the utilisation of support from their sincere friends all over the world.

* * *

Notes

[392•1] K. Marx and F. Engels, Selected Correspondence, Moscow, 1965, p. 312.

[393•1] Ibid., p. 351.

[393•2] K. Marx and F. Engels, Selected Works, Vol. 2, p. 403.

[393•3] Ibid., p. 395.

[394•1] V. I. Lenin, Collected Works, Vol. 31, p. 244.

[395•1] KPSS v rezolyutsiyakh i resheniyakh s’yezdov, konferentsiy i plenumov TsK, Vol. 2, p. 253 (in Russian).

[396•1] Pravda, April 20, 1970.

[396•2] Ibid., April 3, 1971.

[397•1] 24th Congress of the CPSU, p. 24.

[398•1] 24th Congress of the CPSU, p. 215.

[400•1] The Road to Communism, Moscow, 1961, p. 495.

[400•2] V. I. Lenin, Collected Works, Vol. 32, p. 349.

[403•1] V. I. Lenin, Collected Works, Vol. 42, p. 361.

[403•2] Ibid., Vol. 31, p. 146.

[404•1] 24th Congress of the CPSU, p. 200.

[408•1] 24th Congress of the CPSU, p. 95.

[409•1] V. I. Lenin, Collected Works, Vol. 31, p. 241.

[409•2] Ibid., p. 242.

[410•1] International Meeting of Communist and Workers’ Parties, Moscow 1969, p. 12.

[410•2] V. I. Lenin, Collected Works, Vol. 30, p. 161.

[411•1] L. I. Brezhnev, Following Lenin’s Course, p. 301.