What Is Marxism-Leninism?

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ABC of Social and Political Knowledge

Vladimir Buzuev Vladimir Gorodnov

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PROGRESS PUBLISHERS MOSCOW

Translated from the Russian by Sergei Chulaki

Editorial Board of the Series: F. M. Volkov (Chief Editor), Ye. F. Gubsky (Deputy Chief Editor), F. M. Burlatsky, V. V. Krapivin, Yu. N. Popov, V. V. Sobolev, F. N. Yurlov, V. D. Zotov

CONTENTS

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To the Reader

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Introduction .

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Chapter One. THE EMERGENCE OF MARXISM, AND STAGES IN ITS DEVELOPMENT

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Utopian Socialism· The Founders of Marxism Leninism- a New Phase in the Development of Marxism

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Chapter Two. PHILOSOPHICAL PRINCIPLES OF MARXISM-LENINISM

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I. DIALECTICAL MATERIALISM Matter, Its Properties and Its Forms of Existence . Materialist Dialectics Theory of Knowledge Hs,l.l,aTeAbCTBo «llporpecc», 1987 English translation

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Printed in the Union

if Soviet Socialist Republics

Progress Publishers ·1987

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II. HISTORICAL MATERIALISM Mode of Production of Material Wealth-the Principal Factor· in the Development of Society Classes, Class Struggle and the State . Social Consciousness and Ideology . The Role of the Popular Masses and of the Individual in History

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56 56 66 79 83

83 92 99

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Contents

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The Significance of Marxist-Leninist Philosophy

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Chapter Three. THE ECONOMIC FOUNDATIONS OF MARXISM-LENINISM

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Realms Political Economv Studies The Economic Doctrine of Karl Marx Imperialism the Highest and Final Stage of Capitalism Political Economy of Socialism Chapter Four. THE THEORY OF SCIENTIFIC COMMUNISM Emergence and Substance of Scientific Commumsm The World-Historic Mission of the Working Class . . . . . . . . . . . . . Theory of Socialist Revolution General Laws Governing the Transition of Different Countries to Socialism, and Different Forms of This Transition Chapter Five. MARXISM-LENINISM THE POWERFUL FORCE FOR THE REVOLUTIONARY RENOVATION OF THE WORLD Great October and Real Socialism The World System of Socialism the Decisive Force of the Revolutionary Transformation of the \.Yorld . International Communist and Working-Class Movement National Liberation Movement Marxism-Leninism on the Problems of War and Peace Glossary

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110 126 146

To the Reader

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the Highest Stage of Capitalism ( 1916), V. I. Lenin gave the first ever Marxist analysis of this phase of capitalist development. He disclosed the economic and political essence of imperialism, exposed its incurable social ills and vices, and showed the conditions for its unavoidable collapse. V. I. Lenin's essay on imperialism was a direct continuation of Karl Marx's Capital. V. I. Lenin enriched Marxism as a science, because his doctrine of imperialism and socialist revolution serves as a new stage in the development of the proletariat's political economy. V. I. Lenin's theory of imperialism was further advanced in the Party documents of the CPSU, in the materials of the fraternal Marxist-Leninist parties, of the international conferences of representatives of communist and workers' parties. V. I. Lenin proved that imperialism is not merely a new socio-economic formation. This is the same old capitalism, and it operates in accordance with the same economic laws and rests on the same foundation which is the capital-

THE ECONOMIC FOUNDATIONS OF MARXISM-LENINISM

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ist ownership of the means of production, capitalist production relations. In other words, capitalism has not changed its essence, because its basic law is still production of surplus value and its appropriation by capitalists through the exploitation of wage labour by capital. Therefore all the fundamental laws operating under capitalism, all of its main features remain unchanged in the epoch of imperialism. But there are certain features that are typical only of imperialism. These are: (I) the concentration of production and capital which is so high that it has produced monopolies which play the decisive role in the economy; (2) the merger of banking with industrial capital and the creation of finance capital and a fmancial oligarchy on this basis; (3) the export of capital, in contradistinction to export of goods, which acquires special significance ; (4) formation of international monopoly alliances of capitalists for the purpose of dividing the world;· ( 5) completion of the territorial division of the world among major capitalist nations. Concentration of Production and of Capitol

The second half of the 19th century saw the first substantial changes in the technology of pro-

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What Is Marxism-Leninism? ·----------·-----·----------

duction, changes that caused capitalis:z:n to_ enter a new stage in its development. The scientific and technological progress precipitated rapid ind~s­ trial growth. New steel-smelting methods were Invented and put into operation. Internal_ combustion engines, steam turbines, and electnc motors gained ascendancy, and new in? us tr~es (petroleum, chemical and electro-engineenng) carne into being, alongside the new means of transportation and communication. Major teclmical and structural shifts took place in industry, which stipulated the growing significance of major i?-d~s­ trial enterprises. Competition between capitalist enterprises continued, but its cond~tions _h-:ve changed, with large and giant en terpnses gaini~g over small and medium-sized ones. Economic crises of overproduction recurred more and more trequen tly, and the number ?f unernpl?~ed rapidly increased. The destructive coinpet1tlon inexorably intensified the process of concentration of production, i. e. aggregation of more and more means of production, work force, output of goods at large and giant enterprises which belonged to capitalist monopolies. Monopoly is a concentration of a considerable proportion of the production and sal