Marx, Engels, Lenin, and Mao on the differences between Communism and Socialism

If you want to know more about the differences between Communism and Socialism, please read the following quotes from these four great thinkers of the past. <br><br>Marx and Engels stated the following in the Communist Manifesto: <br><br>> “Communism is for us not a state of affairs which is to be established, an ideal to which reality [will] have to adjust itself. We call communism the real movement which abolishes the present state of things. The conditions of this movement result from the premises now in existence.”<br><br>> “If the proletariat during its contest with the bourgeoisie is compelled, by the force of circumstances, to organize itself as a class, make itself the ruling class, and, as such, sweep away by force the old conditions of production, then it will, along with these conditions, sweep away the conditions for the existence of class antagonisms and of classes generally, and will thereby have abolished its own supremacy as a class. In place of the old bourgeois society, with its classes and class antagonisms, we shall have an association in which the free development of each is the condition for the free development of all.”<br><br>> “But if they are defeated, then they will be the slaves of the bourgeoisie, because they will not be the revolutionary leaders of history.”<br><br>> “The proletariat will use its political supremacy to wrest, by degrees, all capital from the bourgeoisie, to centralize all instruments of production in the hands of the state, i.e., of the proletariat organized as the ruling class, and to increase the total of productive forces as rapidly as possible.”<br><br>> “Of course, in the beginning, this cannot be effected except by means of despotic inroads on the rights of property and on the conditions of bourgeois production; by means of measures, therefore, which appear economically insufficient and untenable, but which, in the course of the movement, outstrip themselves, necessitate further inroads upon the old social order, and are unavoidable as a means of entirely revolutionising the mode of production.”<br><br>> “These measures will of course be different in different countries. Nevertheless in most advanced countries, the following will be pretty generally applicable.”<br><br><br>> “1. Abolition of property in land and application of all rents of land to public purposes.”<br><br>> “2. A heavy progressive or graduated income tax.”<br><br>> “3. Abolition of all right of inheritance.”<br><br>> “4. Confiscation of the property of all emigrants and rebels against the majority of the working class.”<br><br>> “5. Centralisation of credit in the hands of the state, by means of a national bank with State capital and an exclusive monopoly.”<br><br>> “6. Centralisation of the means of communication and transport in the hands of the state.”<br><br>> “7. Extension of factories and instruments of production owned by the State; the bringing into cultivation of waste-lands, and the improvement of the soil generally in accordance with a common plan.”<br><br>> “8. Equal liability of all to work. Establishment of industrial armies, especially for agriculture.”<br><br>> “9. Combination of agriculture with manufacturing industries; gradual abolition of all the distinction between town and country by a more equable distribution of the inhabitants over the country.”<br><br>> “10. Free education for all children in public schools. Abolition of factory work for children in its present form. Combination of education with industrial production, &c, &c.”<br><br>> “But Communism is not merely the realization of the necessities and possibilities of the present time: it is the definite abolition of the present impotent condition of things; and is the indispensable condition for a society to free itself from misery. This is the ultimate objective of the Communists.”<br><br><br>Lenin said the following: <br><br>> “The abolition of the State is not liberty, but the abolition of the slave’s hope for liberty when the master has grown too strong for him.”<br><br><br>> “To decide once every few years which member of the ruling class is to repress and crush the people through parliament – this is the real essence of bourgeois parliamentarism.”<br><br><br>> “The way out of this impasse for anyone who wishes to make use of science as a weapon in the fight for the interests of the people lies only in turning to mass revolutionary movements as the path to achieving true science.”<br><br><br>> “Bourgeois democracy, although a great historical advance in comparison with feudalism, and a form of the organization of the state, one of the forms of the superstructure, the political superstructure of capitalism – precisely its realization, its completion, because it is the freest, the most ideal form of the superstructure for capitalism – bourgeois democracy, I say, is always confined to the framework of capitalist exploitation, and consequently, together with the die-hard reactionaries, the Mensheviks and Socialist-Revolutionaries, it was bound to oppose the movement of the greater part of the population, the proletariat and the peasants, who in October came out against the exploiters, against the oppressors, against the bourgeoisie.”<br><br><br>> “Democracy for the vast majority of the people, and the suppression by force, i.e., exclusion from democracy, of the exploiters and oppressors of the people – this is the change democracy undergoes during the transition from capitalism to communism. Only in the last form is democracy consistent in the sense that the exploitation of the masses disappears, but the need for suppression also disappears. Man will become immeasurably stronger, his body will become more perfect, his intelligence will rise to unprecedented heights, and the wretched conditions of existence of present-day humanity will have receded into the distant past – in this situation there will emerge an extraordinary expansion of humanity’s needs, a blossoming of its capacities, an unprecedented development of its capabilities and talents. We shall see the emergence of entirely new reward and motivation for man.”<br><br><br>> “But for the time being we must concern ourselves with winning the fight for socialism under the most difficult conditions. The imperialists are still far stronger than we are, and are ready to use the most unprecedented methods to crush the Soviet power, put an end to the existence of the Soviet Republic, to wipe out all the gains of the great October revolution, to destroy all the hopes we’ve placed in the world revolution, to resurrect the hideous system of wage slavery, and to restore the cuts from theandes of the Russian people and its revolutionary vanguard, the great Russian working class.”<br><br><br>> “Social-Democracy does not tie its hands, does not restrict itself to forms of struggle. It recognizes the most varied forms of struggle, and it guides itself in its choice by the interests of the movement, the nature of the given situation, the demands of agitation and of the party’s work, and expediency.”<br><br><br>> “The only acceptable form is the union of all efforts, the general effort, and the unity of action of all forces.”<br><br><br>> “Social-Democracy’s ideal should not be the reformist “secretary’s” ideal of the trade union secretary, who sees diagnostics and the state of health as the be all and end all, but the ideal of the tribune of the people, who sees that the ultimate goal is the abolition of all classes and who for its sake is prepared to rouse the people to the revolutionary insurrection against the existing state and existing class rule.”<br><br><br>> “And this, of course, can in no way стоси the reformists who see reform as an end in itself. From the point of view of the social-Democrat, the political ideal is nothing – and even less than nothing – unless every step towards it is simultaneously a step towards the complete social liberation of the proletariat, of the working class people.”<br><br><br>> “Democracy is a form of the State, it represents the State: the proletarian democracy in the epoch of the proletarian dictatorship with the iron dictatorship of the State for the purpose of crushing the resistance of the exploiters; and later, without a State, when the State disappears, when the democracy regarding the economic questions disappears because there will be no class differences, no contradictions, and no necessity for democracy; but democracy regarding administration will exist. We are advancing towards such a State.”<br><br><br>Mao said this: <br><br>> “The people, and the people alone, are the motive force in the making of world history.”<br><br><br>> “Communism is not love. Communism is a certain stage of the historical development, its emergence, maturation and realization do not have anything to do with love.”<br><br><br>> “The rivalry between the Soviet Union and the United States is the contradictions between two types of classes, capitalism and socialism.”<br><br><br>> “Democracy is the differences between the systems of classes and the classes’ systems themselves. Democracy is a certain type of state and means of ruling class, and for the exploiters it means oppress the oppressed; for the working class it means to oppress the exploiters and to crush the resistance of the counter-revolutionaries, to command the people to build a socialist state, and to achieve socialism.”<br><br><br>> “The people only have one requirement towards us, namely to solve all the problems regarding the interests of the broad masses, to do things beneficial to the broad masses, and to persuade the people in all ways that we have the wholehearted desire to serve the people with all our hearts and minds, proceed with all the good intentions in the world and are free from all bad ideas. The people’s criteria for judging whether one is a revolutionary or phony are as follows: does he show concern for my well-being? Does he do anything beneficial to me? Does he work for my interests? And does he represent my interests and give expression to them? From the standpoint of the masses, the criteria for judging whether one is a revolutionary or phony are political standards which are easily applicable everywhere and make no allowance for exception at any time or under any circumstances.”<br><br><br>> “Socialist society covers a fairly long historical stage. In