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Now, we've come to the centerpiece of the Marxist theory.
The theory which explains the development of society,
the state and the mankind and international relations as well, in general.
And this centerpiece is the teaching of the base and
superstructure which are present in every society.
According to Marxism, every single society consists of two major elements,
the economic base and the non-economic superstructure.
The base is formed by two things.
First, by the means of production, again,
labor, tools of production,
land, factories and capital.
And secondly, the relations of production,
the nature of relations between those who control the means of production,
the capitalists and the workers.
And the examples of this relations of production could be slavery,
serve them, freedom but economic dependency and so on and so forth.
Whereas, the second part of every society,
the superstructure, is a political part.
It is institutional and other non-economic systems
which are relevant to the base and they include media,
religion, culture, political system of the state,
family, education system, and ideology.
And as you can see from this picture,
there is a mutual impact between the base and superstructure.
The base, the state of the base,
the features of the base are
determined by their objective factors such as technological development.
They determine the political superstructure,
they determine the nature of superstructure.
The nature of superstructure depends on the base,
and the base in turn is dependent on
the technological development at this particular moment.
And the political superstructure maintains the base, controls the base.
It does so through repressive measures,
through propaganda, through religion,
and so on and so forth.
So, the base shapes the superstructure,
whereas the superstructure maintains the base,
makes the base such as it is mostly beneficial for the ruling class,
for capitalists or for slavers or for feudal lords.
It depends on the particular period of the development of mankind.
So, what is a State from the Marxist perspective?
Essentially, it is the organization of a superstructure.
What kind of superstructure we are dealing with,
and as I already said,
the superstructure in its own hand depends on the nature of the base.
And there can be,
and there were in human history,
several types of superstructures.
This is the chart,
which illustrates the development of mankind
from primitive communism to the era of empires,
to feudalism and capitalism and towards the communism,
towards the communist utopia.
In its major work which I already mentioned,
The Origin of the Family,
Private Property, and the State,
Friedrich Engels presented the evolution of mankind from primitive communism,
to slavery, to feudalism,
to capitalism, and finally, to industrial communism.
These evolution through class struggle started with the creation of State.
It is eternal and it will and only with
the emergence of communism according to Marxism theory.
So, material evolution of the base determines the course of
history because material revolution of
the base determines development of the superstructure.
And what is important is that at each of these stages,
as you can see from this picture,
there remains the inherent conflict between the exploited and those who exploit.
Unlike John Lock and other liberal thinkers of the enlightenment,
Marxism considers a state not as a result of social contract,
but an instrument of the ruling class to enforce its leadership,
to maintain inequality and exploitation.
A state appears when social inequality comes to a certain level,
which makes different social groups follow different political interests and aims,
and when inequality becomes such that those who possess
more wants to get some instruments to keep this possession,
to keep their wealth,
to protect their wealth from the poor,
from those who do not control these means of production.
So state, from the Marxist perspective and Vladimir Lenin makes
this case very explicit in his classic work which are also mentioned,
The State and Revolution,
State is the engine of class exploitation.
State is a repressive mechanism,
which allows the rich to accumulate and maximize wealth and exploit the poor.
And the only way to abolish this conflict,
this inherent internal conflict at
every stage of historic development is to eliminate its basic root,
the exploitation and uneven distribution of the means of production.
That is to establish communism through a socialist or communist revolution.
Communism according to Marxism is the end of history,
is the Marxist end of history,
and the end of state as such.
If you depict the state as Marxism depicts the state as the repressive mechanism, again,
which allows to preserve exploitation and inequality,
so Communism brings this state to an end.
In a communist system,
there are no capitalist class, capitalist class disappears.
Means of production belong to the workers themselves.
Thus, there is no class conflict.
Thus, the interests of the working members of society are
harmonious and Communism according to Marxism is inevitable.
Why? Because sooner or later,
this inherent contradiction between the exploiters and
those who are exploited will result in a revolution.
So, the idea of revolution is of extreme importance for Marxist theory.
Socialism and Communism is inevitable as I already said,
but to achieve them,
you need a revolution.
It is impossible to achieve Communism through evolution.
You need a revolution to achieve this.
Why? Very obvious, because the capitalists will
never get rid of their wealth voluntarily.
Because they will always try to preserve the unjust and unfair situation.
Because their interest in the prolongation,
in the continuation of the exploitation of the poor,
of the workers, they do not want to share their wealth with the workers,
with the peasants, with those who produce.
Thus, you need revolution in order to move from Capitalism
to Socialism according to the Marxist theory.
Timofei BordachevAssociate professor
Dmitrii SuslovSenior Lecturer
