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V. Afanasyev
Towards Communist Distribution
 

The building of the material and technical basis of communism is accompanied by a gradual change from socialist to communist social relations. The formation of communist social relations is a many-faceted process embracing the most diverse aspects of the life of society. The basic aspects are the transition to communist distribution and the attainment thereby of complete economic equality, the erasure of social distinctions and the achievement of complete social equality, the evolution of the state into public self-administration and the impact of these processes on man himself.

Under communism the key principle is, “From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs”. The switch-over to this principle presupposes the creation of an abundance of material blessings as well as the transformation of labour into a vital requirement of all citizens.

Capability

Can a Person who has no technical sense become a designer? Can one become an artist if one does not possess a vision of colour and light, or a musician if one does not have a musical ear, and so on. Definitely not. A technical sense is an essential attribute of a designer, as a vision of colour and light is an essential attribute of an artist. These and 253other mental properties of man. which are a condition for the successful fulfilment of one kind of work or another, are what we call human capabilities.

From scientific research and practice we know that, as a rule, inborn capabilities do not exist. Nature has endowed man solely with so-called inclinations, i.e., with certain anatomical and physiological features, primarily the senses and the brain. These inclinations play an important role in the formation of capabilities, but by themselves they do not form these capabilities. “Man’s biologically inherited properties,” writes A. N. Lconlyev, the eminent Soviet psychologist, “do not determine his mental capabilities. ... The brain harbours not various specifically human capabilities but solely the ability to form these capabilities." The stamp of human activity is borne in man’s environment, for he is surrounded by a world of objects and phenomena created by countless generations of people in labour and struggle.

Some people may take exception to this because there have been many cases where the outstanding capabilities of great scientists, writers and artists manifested themselves in early childhood. Mozart, for instance, began composing at the age of five. At eight he wrote a symphony and at eleven an opera. Rembrandt was only twenty-two when he already had his own pupils. However, it should not be forgotten that this early manifestation of capabilities was due to certain conditions and that the scientists, writers and artists in question created their best work only after they had reached a mature age, having gone through a stern school of study, labour and life. Mozart composed his famous Requiem during the last year of his life, while Rembrandt painted his masterpiece, The Return of the Prodigal Son, when he was sixty-three.

Thus, the main thing is not in natural endowments (which all people possess in varying degree) but in the timely spotting of these endowments and developing them. “Without obviously persevering industriousness there can be neither talent nor genius,” wrote Dmitry Mendeleyev. 254Nature endows every person with certain gifts, but whether these gilts will serve as a condition, as the foundation for the development of capabilities, and whether the miraculous power of the builder and creator will awaken in a person in the long run depends on Hie conditions surrounding him and on the forms and methods of his upbringing. Every person is a potential builder and creator; what he needs is that he should be taught, that he should be given work he likes, that his interest should be awakened.

This is fostered primarily by work, which the person concerned finds attractive and interesting, for only through work can a person develop his capabilities and become skilled in his chosen field. Without driving a tractor a person cannot become a skilled tractor driver, and without playing on a violin he cannot become a good violinist.

From Each According to His Ability

Man’s capabilities and the form in which they develop are, in the final analysis, determined by social conditions—the social system, the level of development reached by industry, science, technology and culture. With the improvement and development of production and technology increasing demands are made of man and, at the same time, this affords more possibilities and gives rise to the need for promoting new capabilities. The socialist system provides particularly favourable conditions for developing people’s capabilities. In exposing slander by the opponents of socialism, who claimed that socialism humiliates man, limits his capabilities and deprives him of individuality, Lenin showed that socialism makes it possible “to draw the real majority of people into work where they can show themselves, give rein to their capabilities and display talents, of which there is an inexhaustible fountain in the people and which capitalism trampled, choked and strangled by the thousands and millions”. [254•*

The socialist system has drawn millions upon millions of people into active creative work and they have achieved impressive successes in the most diverse spheres of economic, political and cultural activity. Does this not provide striking proof that socialism creates the most favourable conditions for the development of human capabilities and talents?

Having created these conditions, socialism demands that people should place their capabilities in the service of society, and the satisfaction of each person’s requirements depends on the extent to which he fulfils this demand, on the measure of his labour contribution. Therein lies the essence of the socialist principle ”From each according to his ability, to each according to his work".

In the process of communist construction capabilities likewise change, becoming more diversified and pronounced.

As yet socialism is unable to provide all people with equal conditions for development, training and the application of their talents; it has brought people political equality and is working its way towards economic and social equality. A person who is secure materially has more opportunities to devote himself to his development ( particularly cultural) than a person whose material position is not as good. A person living in a town is likewise at an advantage in this respect over a rural inhabitant due to the distinction between work and cultural services in towns and in the countryside. Women who spend a great deal of time housekeeping and looking after children have much fewer opportunities for forming and developing their capabilities than men. Far from all citizens of socialist society have the possibility of working in science or art.

Thus, on account of society’s inadequate economic and social maturity and due to the lack of complete economic and social equality, socialism is as yet unable to provide all people with equal opportunities and conditions for fully developing their capabilities and applying these capabilities to their utmost for the benefit of society. Only communism gives all people not only equal opportunities for the formation of their capabilities but also conditions for the most effective utilisation of these capabilities in both production and in the different spheres of creative activity.

Under communism all citizens will be active in administering the country. It cannot be otherwise because with the advent of communism, as we shall see below, the state will wither away and its place will be taken by public self administration.

The content of this communist principle thus consists of highly productive labour (as the prime requirement of life), persevering study, a steady rise of the level of special, general and cultural education, the participation of all citizens in the administration of social affairs, and the voluntary observance of the standards of communist morality. Labour is the great magician, who, having created the communist cup of abundance, will constantly keep that cup filled to the brim and enable all citizens to draw material and spiritual benefits from it according to their needs.

* * *
Needs

Needs are a condition requiring satisfaction. They are felt by the individual (individual needs), a group of people (as in a factory), a family, and so on (collective needs), and also society (social, historic needs).257

Individual needs, with which we shall deal here, are, in their turn, subdivided into material (food, clothes, housing) and spiritual needs (education, entertainment, art, and so forth). Moreover, man experiences the need for sleep, rest, amusement, movement, exercise, companionship, and so on. It should be noted that the satisfaction of material needs is the prerequisite for the satisfaction of spiritual needs.

Needs spring from the sum total of the social conditions of the development of a given society—from the level of development of the productive forces, the predominant relations of production, the stale of science, technology and culture, family relations, relations at the place of work, and so forth. Apart from objective conditions, the needs of each individual are dependent, in some measure, on his subjective qualities—the anatomic-physiological gifts and mental features that he has inherited from his ancestors, and on his capabilities, age, and level of physical and intellectual development. However, material production is the decisive factor determining needs. “The reason production creates consumption,” Marx wrote, “is that 1) it produces material for it, 2) determines the mode of consumption and 3) stimulates in the consumer the need for the object produced by it.” This, it goes without saying, concerns chiefly material needs, which are determined by production more or less directly. As regards spiritual needs, they are determined by production indirectly through an intricate system of social relations, mainly relations of production.

While being determined by production, needs, in their turn, actively influence the development of production, and the course of the social process as a whole. This is logical because, essentially, production is furthered not for its own sake but in order to satisfy requirements. In this sense “without requirements”, Marx wrote, “there will not be production".

Needs are an important factor not only in the development of production but also in the formation and development of social relations, and in the formation and development of man himself. They form a link between people, facilitate intercourse between them and unite them, because in order to satisfy his own needs every person 258requires the assistance of other people, who produce or possess the means for satisfying these needs. With the growth and development of production and needs, man develops both physically and mentally. Man’s life and advancement are inconceivable without the satisfaction of his needs. The greater the range and diversity of these needs and the more they are satisfied the more perfect does man and society to which he belongs become.

People’s needs are inseparably bound up with their abilities, for in order to satisfy needs it is necessary to create the corresponding material and cultural values, and that is where man must display and apply his abilities, primarily his ability to work creatively. It is not fortuitous, therefore, that the basic principle of communism regards the realisation of abilities as an indispensable prerequisite for the satisfaction of needs.

Needs are not stagnant. They develop side by side with human progress, with the development of material production, with the improvement of social (particularly, production) relations. Primitive man, for example, required very little—coarse food, an animal’s skin for clothing, a roof over his head and a fire. Today man’s needs are extremely diversified. The law of “increasing requirements,” Lenin wrote, operates in society. [258•* A revolution in social relations is accompanied by far-reaching changes in requirements, in the extent to which they are satisfied, in the mode by which they are satisfied and in their nature and pattern.

By abolishing private ownership and exploitation, socialism precludes all possibility of satisfying the requirements of some people at the expense of the labour of others. It opens the possibility of satisfying the needs of every citizen in accordance with the quantity and quality of his work.
* * *

To Each According to His Needs

Seeking to discredit the principle of “From each according to his ability to each according to his needs”, the adversaries of scientific communism argue that this principle is incompatible with the all–sidedly and harmoniously developed individual, that it is at variance with the full satisfaction of his material and cultural requirements. They persist in speaking of some ascetic socialism in which, they allege, the person is divested of individuality and the main concern is not for man but for production and machines. Moreover, they hold that the rising standard of living leads to individualism and is therefore incompatible with communism. The fact of the matter is that a high and ever growing standard of living does not run counter to communist construction, let alone the interests of the individual. On the contrary, distribution according to needs, Engels wrote, “allows all members of society to develop to the utmost and sustain and display their talents”. Communist society will be rich enough not only to give people an abundance of food, clothes and housing but also to enable them to live a full-blooded life worthy of human beings. Man will be delivered from considerations of income and personal material benefit. His mind will thus be unburdened of worry and anxiety and he will be able to devote himself to serving the interests of society, of the whole of working mankind. As regards crude, levelling communism, founded on egalitarian consumption, on the concept of some minimum consumption, Marx wrote that it strips man of his individuality. This communism is based on “the abstract negation of the entire world of culture and civilisation, the regression to the unnatural simplicity of the poor and undemanding man" and therefore cannot be accepted by the working class.

Communism has nothing to do with asceticism, with the levelling of people’s requirements and vital interests. It brings not equality of requirements but equality in the possibility and conditions of satisfying requirements. This means that in accordance with their tastes, and physiological and mental peculiarities all citizens will fully satisfy their growing material requirements, which cannot be identical because tastes and peculiarities differ.

All citizens will have equal opportunities to study, to master science and culture and to pursue creative activities, i.e., to satisfy their spiritual needs as well. Inasmuch as the capabilities, interests and aspirations of people differ, their spiritual needs will likewise be dissimilar; nobody will deny that every capability develops and manifests 260itself in specific needs. If to this we add that these will be people of different professions, age and sex, that they will live in different climates, il will become plain that their needs cannot be identical.

Communist equality is thus not an equality among people lacking individuality but an equality among active and different people. Each person will have his own personality, capabilities, level of knowledge, needs, interests, tastes and passions.

This equality is achieved gradually, step by step, in proportion to the creation and development of the material and technical basis of communism, the formation of communist social relations and the moulding of the new man.

A far cry from petty-bourgeois notions of communism, of crude egalitarianism, scientific communism at the same time rejects the other extreme—the idea that the future society is one of idleness and leisure, an Aladdin’s lamp that brings man anything his heart desires.

The communist principle “to each according to his needs" does not mean that without doing anything a person will receive anything he wants.

In The State and Revolution Lenin ridiculed the notion that in communist society people would “receive from society, without any control over the labour of the individual citizen, any quantity of truffles, cars, pianos, etc.” [260•* Along with a high level of labour productivity, communist society presupposes a new type of man unlike the “ordinary run of people who, like the seminary students in Pomyalovsky’s stories, are capable of damaging the stocks of public wealth ’just for fun’, and of demanding the impossible”. [260•** In the process of building communism it is necessary to cultivate people’s tastes, to teach them to be economical, to look after the national wealth and use it for the benefit of society. “Until the ‘higher’ phase of communism arrives,” Lenin wrote, “the socialists demand the strictest control by society and by the state over the measure of labour and the measure of consumption.” [260•***

Idleness and extravagance are features of the exploiting 261classes, who amass fabulous wealth from the labour of millions of ordinary people. Perverted needs and tastes do not dovetail with the interests of the people who know the cost of labour and of the means of subsistence won by labour, value and treasure material blessings and expend them intelligently and with the greatest benefit. Healthy thrift and the intelligent use of social wealth will be features of the citizens of communist society.

In the building of communism, people’s requirements will, naturally, change. They will become broader and more diversified. If we closely study the development of needs in the Soviet Union in the past two or three decades we shall see that they have grown in breadth. It will be naive to try and guess what exactly will be the material and spiritual requirements of the man of the future.

We can speak more or less definitely of the satisfaction of material requirements, particularly food requirements which know bounds. Although the food norms will not change markedly in the future, it may be asserted that the quality and choice of food will not remain unchanged.

With all its diversity and breadth, consumption in communist society will be free of excesses and whims. “For all their diversity,” declares the Programme of the C.P.S.U., “the requirements of people will express the sound, reasonable requirements of the fully developed person.”

Reasonable requirements will be those that conform with the achieved level of production and whose satisfaction will facilitate the development of the individual and the improvement of his physical and intellectual qualities. This includes the requirement for food, clothes and footwear, for articles of cultural and household use, for education and medical service, and so on.

The adversaries of communism maintain that no strict line of demarcation can be drawn between reasonable and unreasonable requirements. It is useless to argue about what are reasonable requirements, and that, it is said, is one of the reasons that distribution according to needs cannot be introduced. This theory is expounded, for example, by the bourgeois sociologist Peter Wiles in a paper entitled Economy of Abundance and Complete Communism. Man, he says, naturally has unlimited capacities with regard to requirements. At first he wants to have an 262ICBM in his garden, then he will want to take a trip to the Moon and various planets of the solar system and, finally, having reached the Moon he will demand that the state opera should perform for him there. Hence, Wiles concludes, regardless of the relations of ownership or the system of economic control the real satisfaction of reasonable consumer requirements will always be a Utopia.

Indeed, man’s requirements constantly grow but it should not be forgotten that the means of satisfying them likewise grow and improve. Communist society, Engels wrote, “will bring to life new requirements and, at the same time, create the means for satisfying them”. Besides, communism presupposes not only the satisfaction of each person’s requirements but also those of the qualitatively new consumer who will also be the maker of material and cultural values, a consumer who has learned to conform his requirements to the existing social wealth, to society’s potentialities, to the level of its material and cultural development. This new consumer is formed in the process of socialist and communist construction, under conditions where the principle of distribution according to work and of control over the measure of labour and the measure of consumption are implemented. His reasonable and healthy requirements do not take shape by themselves but are brought into life, into his consciousness, by socialist reality, by labour and study, by his family, friends and fellow workers.
* * *

The Road To Economic Equality

The socialist principle of distribution according to work will operate throughout the period of communist construction. Payment according to work, states the Programme of the C.P.S.U., “will remain the principal source for satisfying the material and cultural needs of the working people”. From this it follows that the principal way to secure a high standard of living and economic equality is to increase individual payment according to the quantity and quality of work, reduce retail prices and abolish income taxes.

Side by side with distribution according to work, more and more of the people’s requirements are being satisfied at the expense of the social consumption funds. These funds are set up to meet people’s requirements free of charge regardless of the quantity and quality of work. Distribution from these funds leads directly to communist distribution, to economic equality.

The growth of the social funds tends to level out the incomes of the people and help to achieve economic equality because large families and lower paid workers receive considerably larger incomes from these funds than higher paid people.

The satisfaction of requirements through social funds is in line with the collectivist nature of the Soviet system, makes it possible rationally to organise public education, the medical services, social insurance and other important social spheres, helps to free women from exhausting household chores, instils people with lofty morals, and gradually delivers people from anxiety linked up with personal ownership and attachment to items of prolonged use. Under communism it is hardly possible that anyone would think, for example, of having a country house (dacha) or car of his own, because facilities for rest in suburban areas and means of transport will be provided by society.

The growth of social funds does not clash with the interests of the individual and does not reduce consumption. On the contrary, requirements are met more fully and, moreover, inasmuch as the concern for satisfying requirements is shifting more and more to the shoulders of society, people will get additional time for study, entertainment and rest.

A steady improvement of the socialist principle of distribution according to work combined with the continued growth of social funds and the gradual closing of the gap between the income levels of different categories of working people are thus the concrete way to recast the socialist into the communist principle of distribution, attain economic equality and thereby create identical economic conditions for the advancement of all citizens. The faster the productive forces and labour productivity grow the sooner will this equality be achieved.
Notes

[260•*] Lenin, Collected Works, Vol. 25, p. 469.

[260•**] Ibid., pp. 469–70.

[260•***] Ibid., p. 470.

[258•*] Lenin, Collected Works, Vol. 1, p. 100.

[254•*] Lenin, Collected Works, Vol. 26, p. 404.

Towards Social Equality