SOCIALISM, FIRST PHASE OF COMMUNIST SOCIETY - From Socialism to Communism
From socialism society moves towards communism, which has a number of basic features.
The first of these is that as distinct from socialism, which emerges on the basis of capitalism and bears some of capitalism’s birthmarks, communism rises on its own foundation, on the foundation of consolidated and developing socialism. As a result, the ways and means of establishing socialism and communism differ fundamentally. Socialism is established as a result of the socialist revolution, of a radical breaking down of the economic, political and spiritual foundations of capitalism. A revolution is not needed to establish communism, which grows directly out of socialism through the development and improvement of socialist economy, social relations and spiritual culture.
The material and technical basis of communism is built through the planned development and improvement of socialist production. The single communist ownership results from the development and gradual merging of the two forms of socialist ownership—state and co-operative. The seed of communist self-administration lies in the socialist people’s government, and so on.
Insofar as there are appreciable qualitative differences between socialism and communism, some of the features of socialist society will, naturally, wither away in the process of communist construction, becoming replaced by new, communist features. However, the superseding of socialist by communist features takes place only through the strengthening and comprehensive application of socialist principles, through the all-sided utilisation of all the potentialities of these principles. For example, society can go over to the communist principle of distribution according to needs only through the utmost development and application of the socialist principle of distribution according to work, only when the potentialities of the latter principle are completely exhausted and it outwears itself.
Many tangible, unmistakable features of communism exist in socialist society. These include communist forms of organising labour and production and social forms of satisfying people’s material and spiritual requirements. These features of the new become more prominent in proportion to the advance towards communism and they oust everything that hinders society’s onward movement.
The second basic feature of communist construction is that the transition to the second phase of the new society is accomplished gradually, step by step. Socialism grows into communism slowly, by stages: elements of socialism gradually wither away and their place is taken by elements of communist society—the communist principle of distribution according to needs, public self-administration, the transition to a classless society, and so forth. The transition to communism rules out haste in the introduction of communist principles. In other words, the new economy, social system and way of life are established by plan with the maturing of the material and spiritual prerequisites.
This gradual transition is due to the very nature of the socialist system, which is devoid of classes opposed to the movement towards communism. It enables the Party and the government to bring to light and opportunely settle any contradictions that may arise in the course of this onward movement, thereby precluding social clashes, sudden twists and turns in the life of society, and the interruptions and recessions that are so typical of capitalism.
However, the fact that the transition is effected gradually does not imply that development proceeds slowly. On the contrary, the transition to communism presupposes swift economic and cultural development which is linked up with successes in communist construction and with the participation of more and more people in this construction.
Three fundamental tasks have to be carried out in the building of communism: first, the creation of the material and technical basis of communism; second, the formation of communist social relations; and third, the moulding of the politically conscious builder and citizen of communist society. These three tasks are closely interrelated and mirror different aspects of the single process of transforming socialism into communism.
Before we deal with these tasks and the ways of carrying them out, we must analyse the scientific principles underlying the direction of communist construction and of social processes.
SCIENTIFIC DIRECTION OF COMMUNIST CONSTRUCTION
Every pre-socialist, class-antagonistic society emerged spontaneously, i.e., without involving the will and consciousness of people, from the society preceding it. Capitalism stemmed from feudalism, first in the shape of simple capitalist co-operation and manufacture and then large-scale machine production. The task of the bourgeois revolution was, therefore, to bring the political power into line with the new capitalist economy, i.e., to transfer power from the feudal lords to the bourgeoisie. The spontaneous formation of a new society within the framework of the old was possible because every society with antagonistic classes is founded on private ownership of the means of production and on exploitation of man by man. The forms of private ownership and of exploitation changed as history moved forward, but in themselves they remained inviolable.
Socialism makes a clean break with private ownership and exploitation. It establishes public ownership and, on its basis, relations of fraternal co-operation and mutual assistance. Public ownership cannot of itself appear from private ownership in the same way as socialist society as a whole cannot grow out of capitalism. Socialism and communism are built through the conscious and purposeful activity of the masses led by the Marxist party and the socialist state, through the conscious direction of social processes.
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