EURODOS - Peace in Europe



PROGRAM OF THE COMMUNIST PARTY
OF
THE SOVIET UNION

A New Edition
1986



INTRODUCTION


Born of the Great October Socialist Revolution, the Soviet land has traversed a long and glorious road. Victories of worldwide historic importance have been scored under the leadership of the Communist Party. Consistently expressing the interests of the working class, of all working people, and armed with Marxist- Leninist teaching, with a wealth of experience in revolutionary struggle and the building of socialism, the CPSU is confidently leading the Soviet people along the course of communist creative endeavour and peace.

The Party emerged on the political scene as a worthy successor to the ideas of the socialist transformation of society proclaimed in the first program document of the Communists - the Communist Manifesto, to the unfading exploit of the heroes of the Paris Commune, and to the revolutionary traditions of the international working class and of the Russian revolutionary democratic movement.

Relying on the historical experience of the class struggle and the best that was achieved by human thought, Karl Marx and Frederick Engels, founders of scientific communism, discovered the objective laws of social development, theoretically proved the inevitability of the collapse of capitalism, and substantiated the world historic mission of the proletariat as the creator of the new, communist system. Their passionate call - "Workers of all Countries, Unite!" - remains to this day the fighting slogan of the working-class movement.

In new historical conditions Vladimir Ilyich Lenin, who brilliantly continued the cause of Marx and Engels, comprehensively developed their teaching, provided answers to vital questions of the times and armed the working-class movement with the theory of socialist revolution and the building of socialism, with a scientific system of views on problems of war and peace.

Marxism-Leninism is an integral revolutionary teaching. Created by the great Lenin, the Party has become the living embodiment of the fusion of scientific socialism with the working-class movement, of the unbreakable unity of theory and practice. It has been and will be a party of Marxism-Leninism, a Party of revolutionary action.

At each stage in history the CPSU accomplished the tasks that were scientifically formulated in its programs.

Having adopted its First Program at the 2nd Congress in 1903, the Bolshevik Party led the working class, the peasantry, all the working people of Russia in the struggle to overthrow the tsarist autocracy and then the capitalist system, and passed through the flames of three Russian revolutions. In October 1917 the working class took political power into its hands. A state of workers and peasants came into being for the first time in history. The creation of a new world began.

In the Second Program, adopted at the 8th Congress in 1919, the Party set the task of building socialism. Following untrodden paths, overcoming incredible difficulties, and displaying unprecedented heroism, the Soviet people under the leadership of the Communist Party implemented the plan for building socialism worked out by Lenin. Socialism in our country became a reality.

With the adoption of the Third Program at the 22nd Congress in 1961, the party undertook enormous work in all areas of the building of communism. The Soviet society achieved great successes in developing productive forces, economic and social relations, socialist democracy, and culture, and in moulding the new man. The country entered the stage of developed socialism. The role of the Soviet Union grew as a powerful factor in the struggle against the imperialist policy of oppression, aggression and war, for peace, democracy and social progress.

The time that has elapsed since the Third Program was adopted has confirmed the correctness of its main theoretical and political propositions. At the same time, accumulated experience and scientific understanding of the changes in the country's domestic life and in the world arena provide an opportunity to define more accurately and concretely the prospects for Soviet society's development, the ways and means of attaining the ultimate goal - communism, and the tasks of international policy in new historical conditions.

The Third Program of the CPSU in its present updated edition is a program for the planned and all-round perfection of socialism, for Soviet society's further advance to communism through the country's accelerated socio-economic development. It is a program of the struggle for peace and social progress.


CPSU PROGRAM: TABLE OF CONTENTS


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