Short Handbook of Communist Ideology

We have once again decided to publish in our series a source-text for the study of Communist ideology. This synopsis of Principles of Marxism Leninism 1 (published at the end of 1959 and widely distributed in the Soviet Union) appears as a sequel to that of the Principles of Marxist Philosphy which I published in 1959 as The Dogmatic Principles of Soviet Philosphy. This book is a corporate work, done by some forty Soviet philosophers, sociologists, economists, Party-theoreticians and propa gandists, under the direction ofO. V. Kuusinen (member of the Praesidium of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union). Except for a few clarifications, we have restricted ourselves to pre senting the most important parts of the original text in an original translation which provides the material, in an authentic and handy 2 form, for our Institute's courses in Sovietology. In comparison to the other parts, the philosophical portions (Sections 1 and 2) have been held to a minimum since they repeat, for the most part, material which is already available in the synopsis of the Principles of Marxist Philosophy. I wish to thank the Rockefeller Foundation for their support which has made possible the research of our Institute as well as the preparation of the present work. J. M. BOCHENSKI 1 The original Russian title is: Osnovy marksizma-leninizma. Ueebnoe posobie (Text book), Gosudarstvennoe izdatel'stvo politieeskoj literatury (State Publishing House for Political Literature), Moskva, 1959,774 pages, 300 000 copies.

Inhalt
First Section The Philosophic Principles of the Marxist-Leninist World-View.- 1 Philosophic Materialism.- 2 The Materialist Dialectic.- 3 Epistemology.- Second Section The Materialist Conception of History.- 4 The Essence of Historical Materialism.- 5 Classes, Class-War and the State.- 6 The Role of the Popular Masses and of the Individual in History.- 7 Social Progress.- Third Section The Political Economy of Capitalism.- 8 Pre-Monopolistic Capitalism.- 9 Imperialism as the Highest and last Stage of Capitalism.- 10 Imperialism Today.- Fourth Section Theory and Tactics of the International Communist Movement.- 11 The World-Wide, Historical Mission of the Working Class.- 13 The Marxist-Leninist Party and its Role in the Class-War of the Worker.- 14 The Policy of the Unity of Action of the Working Class with all Democratic Forces among the People.- 15 The Coalition of the Working Class and the Peasantry under Capitalism.- 16 The Movement of the Peoples for National Liberation from Colonialism.- 17 The Fight of the Peoples of Capitalist Lands for the Conservation of their Sovereignty.- 18 The Fight for the Defence of Democracy in Bourgeois Lands.- 19 The Danger of War and the Peoples' Fight for Peace.- 20 On the Different Forms of the Transition to Socialist Revolution.- Fifth Section Doctrine on Socialism and Communism.- 21 The Dictatorship of the Proletariat and Proletarian Democracy.- 22 The Main Economic Tasks during the Period of Transition from Capitalism to Socialism.- 23 The Basic Traits of the Socialist Mode of Production.- 24 The Social-Political and Cultural Phaenotype of Socialist Society.- 25 The Socialist World-System.- 26 The Period of Transition from Socialism to Communism.- 27 On Communist Society.- Subject-Index.